The New Guardians of Israel

Carolyn Glick writes:

Moshav Tzipori, in the Lower Galilee, is a microcosm of the history of the Land of Israel. A regional capital under King Herod, Tzipori was the seat of Jewish learning and the preservation of the Torah through some of the most tumultuous periods of Jewish history.

After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, refugees from Jerusalem fled to the Galilean town. Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who presided over the writing of the Mishna, or oral law, moved to Tzipori from Beit Shearim, and it was there that he codified the six books of the Mishna and died.

The Jews of Tzipori revolted against the Roman Emperor Constantine, refusing to accept Christianity and the city was destroyed. The Jews later returned during the Islamic period. On and off, for the next millennia, Jews settled, were forcibly removed and resettled the city several times under various conquerors of Israel.

During the 1948 War of Independence, the ancient city was the site of a major battle between the new Israel Defense Force and the neighboring Arab villages assisted by invading forces from Syria and Lebanon. The Arabs were routed. In 1949, Moshav Tzipori was founded.

LAST FRIDAY afternoon, the struggle for Jewish control of Tzipori, the Galilee and the Land of Israel as a whole continued on the ancient ground. On that quiet afternoon of Purim, under the blistering sun, three horses stood happily grazing in a field of shrubs and grasses. The only problem with the otherwise pastoral scene was that the horses belong to Arab squatters from the Kablawi clan. In recent years, the Kablawis have built themselves an illegal village of some 20 houses masquerading as storage containers on stolen Jewish National Fund land adjacent to Tzipori's fields. The horses, who entered through a hole cut into the field's fence, pranced about and ate, destroying the field that was painstakingly cultivated for the moshav's cattle herds.

The farmers and ranchers of the Galilee, like their counterparts in the Negev are at wits' end. Fearing Arab riots or political condemnation by the Israeli Left, Arab leaders, the Islamic Movement and their allies abroad, the police and the state prosecutors have simply stopped enforcing the laws against the Galilee and Negev Arabs. Surrounded by increasingly hostile and lawless Arab and Beduin villages, local Jews' livestock and crops are continuously plundered.

They are faced with three equally unacceptable options for contending with this state of affairs. They can do nothing and let their livelihood and lives' work be destroyed. They can pay protection money to Arab criminal gangs, who in exchange agree not to rob them. Or they can try to sell off their lands and abandon agriculture altogether.

The obvious recourse - filing a complaint with the police - is an exercise in futility. Thousands of complaints are filed each year. Almost none of them end in indictments or trials. Most of the files are closed by the police due to "lack of public interest."

ON FRIDAY, the field in question belonged to a cattle rancher named Haim Z. Over the past few years, Haim has filed more than 250 complaints against local Arabs from the Kablawi family and from neighboring Arab villages like the Islamist stronghold Mashad with the police. None have ever gone anywhere. Last year, a helpful police officer recommended that Haim simply start paying protection money.

Last year Haim told his son that he had had it. The son of the moshav's founding generation, Haim said that he just couldn't go on anymore. The state's refusal to protect Jewish property rights had forced him to devote all of his energies to playing cat and mouse games with Arab poachers. He couldn't invest in his herd. He couldn't develop his land. All he could do was sit by and watch as year in and year out, his lands were plundered, his cattle stolen and the work of his life and his father's life was destroyed.

HIS SON, a 23 year old soldier in one of the IDF's elite commando units decided that it was up to him not only to save his father's farm, but to stem the tide of Arab infringement on Jewish land and property rights. Due to his position in the IDF, his name is classified. We'll call him J - for Jew.

In response to his father's desperation, J. took a storage container to a hilltop that overlooks Tzipori's fields, the surrounding Arab villages and the access routes to the moshav's fields. He placed a sofa, a bookshelf full of Jewish history books, religious texts and philosophy classics, and canned food inside and moved in during his furloughs from the army. Rather than hang out with his friends, he began standing guard. He confronted every Arab he caught infiltrating the moshav's fields, and both filed complaints with the police and chased them away.

Given his impossible schedule, J. enlisted his friends to help out.

The sons of other desperate farmers, who also serve in combat units, they joined him enthusiastically. Within months, J. had set up an organization of more than a hundred young volunteers - soldiers, college students, and high school students from his moshav, other moshavim in the lower Galilee and surrounding non-agricultural communities.

He called the organization, Hashomer Hayisraeli Hahadash - or the New Israeli Guardsmen. The original Hashomer, or Guardsmen was established in the Galilee in 1909 for the same purpose - protecting Jewish farming communities from Arab marauders who demanded protection money from the farmers. It was the progenitor of the Haganah, which in turn, became the Israel Defense Force.

As J. puts it, "We're not simply a security service. We see ourselves as a new movement. Our activities rest on three foundations: securing the land, expanding our operations throughout the Galilee and the Negev, and teaching Zionist and Jewish values to our members, our communities and the general public."

TZIPORI, ONE of the stops of the Cross Israel Hiking Trail, is a popular destination for school groups, youth groups and just regular hikers. J. has organized visits to his guard post for thousands of hikers over the past year. During their visits the hikers listen to lectures about the New Guardsmen, about the Jewish history of the Galilee and the development of agriculture in the area, and topics of general interest provided by local residents, politicians and professors.
Friday afternoon, after noticing another encroachment on his father's field, J. called the police at the Nazareth police station. Joined by two of his fellow guardsmen, who are also sons of farmers and soldiers in commando units, they waited in the sun for over an hour for the police to arrive and planned their moves. They approached the horses with reins and bits.

"We will seize the horses and bring them back to our stable. If the Kablawis pay the damages, then I'll give them back, if not, I'll sell them," J. explained.

As the young men approached the horses, Yasser Kablawi, the head of the clan appeared. According to Haim, over the past year, the Kablawis have trampled his fields with their animals on more than 20 occasions.

Haim, who arrived at the scene some 10 minutes before the police made their grand appearance turned toward Kablawi and said, "Why are you doing this?"

"This land belongs to the JNF, not to you," Kablawi said.

"Why are you lying? I sat in your home with the JNF inspector months ago, and he told you straight that this is my land. You know you are stealing from me, and you're doing it while you're illegally squatting on JNF land. You've caused me tens of thousands of shekels in damages by trampling my fields today alone, and you know it."

By the time the police arrived, J. and his friends had roped one of the horses. Kablawi was joined by three grandsons and four sons. J. was joined by another seven Guardsmen. It was a standoff.
THE POLICE, who were informed of the presence of a journalist at the scene, acted with some resolution. After speaking with the JNF inspector, they explained to Kablawi that he could either sign a statement acknowledging that the land belongs to Haim and that he would be arrested if he trespassed again, or they would allow Haim to seize his horses. Kablawi signed.

J.'s activism is not just a personal quest to save his father from economic ruin. "If it were just about me and my family, my brother and I could take care of the thieves. They'd leave us alone. But then they'd just move on to our neighbors. It isn't about one family. This is a question of control over the land of Israel. The state is weak. We need to be strong if we want to remain here."

Last month, J. registered the Guardsman as a non-profit organization. He has a grand vision for the future.

"In the space of just a few months, I have brought in thousands of people, exposed them to our mission. I have more than a 100 volunteer guards. We have reduced theft by 80 percent.
"I want to raise money to buy night vision goggles and some all terrain vehicles to do proper patrols. I'd like to be able to give students scholarships so that they can guard and study at the same time. I've been in touch with farmers and ranchers in the Negev and they are anxious for us to expand to the south. I believe that within five years, the Guardsmen can end the protection rackets."

BACK IN June 2005, then vice premier Ehud Olmert gave an American audience his opinion of the Israeli people. "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies," he whined.

Young people like J. and his colleagues, secular, yet deeply rooted Jewish sons and daughters of Galilee and Negev farmers, like their religious friends prove everyday that Olmert was not speaking for his countrymen. Whatever messes Olmert and his colleagues in the government still manage to make before they are finally thrown from office, it is absolutely clear that these young people and millions like them are willing and able to clean them up for themselves, their countrymen, and for the next generation of Jews in the land of Israel.

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The best way to contribute to any of the many deserving and needy groups who are trying to defend themselves and other Jews who are being persecuted or attacked in Israel is to send a 501-C3 tax-deductible contribution to:

THE CENTRAL FUND FOR ISRAEL,
attn: Hadassah Marcus,
980 6th Avenue 3rd Floor,
New York, NY. 10018.

BE SURE TO MARK IN THE MEMO the name of the organization. All monies - every penny - is sent quickly & efficiently to those in need.

For the issue in this article memo to : "Hashomer Hayisraeli Hahadash" - or the "New Israeli Guardsmen".

Comments

[Ymarsakar]

BACK IN June 2005, then vice premier Ehud Olmert gave an American audience his opinion of the Israeli people. "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies," he whined.

That's why you won't ever equal or even approach America's ability to destroy and defeat our enemies. We didn't need a thousand years or even a hundred years to conclusively and decisively defeat Britain, Spain, Mexico, the Barbary Pirates, Nazism, or Communism.

People that take thousands of years fighting their wars over the same piece of land are obviously going to be "tired". That's cause they're not using enough violence and death. That's why you're tired.

"In the space of just a few months, I have brought in thousands of people, exposed them to our mission. I have more than a 100 volunteer guards. We have reduced theft by 80 percent.

The Jews need what the Iraqis got from America. Proven counter-insurgency training, aid, equipment, and principles.

The Israeli government or military won't accept American help on that scale, of course. I suppose fighting a losing war is preferable to letting America occupy your lands.

[Ymarsakar]

BACK IN June 2005, then vice premier Ehud Olmert gave an American audience his opinion of the Israeli people. "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies," he whined.

Olmert hasn't fought anybody except his political opponents, he hasn't the courage to stand firm even when he has others doing the fighting for him, he isn't tired of winning cause he has never won except in politics, and he sure as hell can't be tired of defeating his enemies cause the only people he ever treated as enemies were his own people.

Olmert is tired of losing, because it was only the people he sent as cannon fodder that did any of the fighting or winning.

[Gail]

Israel is under the control of leftist leadership at present. If someone like Netanyahu were in charge, things might look very different.

Israel has a strong, organized and well-equipt military. I think they could turn their enemies to rubble if they so chose without any help at all from the US.

That they haven't is from choice, not from inability.

I personally think they ought to take as strong and hard a line as possible. As long as the Pals thing there's any chance of winning, they will not give up.

I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that when one is facing an intransigent, ruthless and bloodthrsty enemy, crushing them is the only recourse. Talk, pleas, bargains and making nice just doesn't cut it with people who are out to kill you.

[Ymarsakar]

Historically the only way deep and fundamental disagreements were ever resolved was through violence, conflict, and warfare. That, however, is not the same as the Eternal Cycle of Slavery and Violence that people have crafted in Palestine and other parts of the world for their own self-aggrandizement and amusement. War, like any tool, can be used to perpetuate slavery and injustice or it can be used to right wrongs and pull down unjust systems.

Israel has a strong, organized and well-equipt military. I think they could turn their enemies to rubble if they so chose without any help at all from the US.

The concern is that those types of conventional force applications are on a deadline. Wait too long and they will no longer be effective, just as waiting to launch your nukes when you see the Russian ones incoming will only be effective up to a point. The point where they take out your launch capability all together. That was solved or maybe the word is "guaranteed" by strategic nuclear ballistic submarines that could cruise the Atlantic and Pacific without ever needing to refuel. That way the perception was created that the submarines would launch their nukes and you could never counter them or get them all. This created enough uncertainty or belief in one's own defeat that limited Soviet actions and prompted them to engage in psychological warfare and internal subversion of the United States as the path to victory. People, even the Islamic muj, will tend to do what they think will give them victory and avoid doing what they think will make them lose.

These two notable subjects, military force kept in check by political instability or uncertainty and war as a method of resolving innate human conflicts, are two of the artifacts of Western culture and history.

The Greeks had the military power to defeat any army from Persia. Yet their focus on individualism and liberty, the same things that made them such a military force to be contended with, also kept them in a constant state of bickering. Unlike the Persian Empire which was united under one system, the Greeks were a bunch of fractious city-states.

America's power thus derives as much from synthesizing a new system of political protections and stability as it does from utilizing many of the benefits of imperial and central government systems.

Yet we see the same problems now as Athenians and Spartans did in the 5th century BC. Political infighting, traitors, people who fought the good fight only to be stabbed in the back by their own people, etc. Themistocles, Leonidas, Pericles, Thucydides, and all the others tell a tale of human nature that is all too common.

I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that when one is facing an intransigent, ruthless and bloodthrsty enemy, crushing them is the only recourse. Talk, pleas, bargains and making nice just doesn't cut it with people who are out to kill you.

The only way to convince people that think they will win by killing you is to demonstrate that you can kill them faster and with much less expenditure of effort. After awhile, the side with the stronger morale, what Xenophon called God's gift, will triumph because the other side just gives up the idea of winning at all.

The thing is, I don't think many Westerners think their way of life deserves defending. Or if they do, they think the threat they need to fight is Bush or tax cuts.

Victor Davis Hanson has noted these straits of Western culture as well. The study of ancient and classical history at least makes today's world make much more sense.

[Ymarsakar]

Did my reply to you here get lost?

[Gail]

Not sure what happened - I didn't receive any email notice that you'd replied. That happens on occasion - very sorry. Was away all weekend - just got home - will respond tomorrow!

[Gail]

From what I have read and seen, I don't think much of Muslim capability in terms of organized military offensives. They are very good at terror and they can hurt both us and Israel pretty badly through its use, but we could stop it if we really wanted to.

Yes, I agree - the major question is, "Are we willing to fight for ourselves and our culture?"

The results of the US presidential election will communicate what Americans are really thinking and feeling. If they elect McCain, it means they believe in themselves and are ready to fight, if necessary, If they elect Obama, it means they prefer to surrender.