opinion
The Belated Birth of a Jew
BY JEROLD S. AUERBACH
I had little appeal. But Jerusalem, especially the
ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Mea Shearim
and Sha’arei Hesed, were another story. I was fas-
cinated by the Jews who were least like me. They
lived in self-enclosed communities, seemingly
oblivious to the world beyond their borders.

In the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, I was
immediately drawn to the Western Wall. Whether
outside on the plaza or inside the chamber, I
watched and listened as Jews prayed at the
site of the ancient Jewish Temples, as they had
millennia before the appearance of conquering
Muslims who replaced the Temples with the Dome
of the Rock. Although I occasionally followed the
practice of wedging a note between the stones, I
remained an observer, not a participant.

Inside the high-ceilinged chamber, the echoing
sound of prayer was inspirational and soothing. I
was intrigued by elderly bearded men who leaned Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of twelve books
against the Wall as they prayed silently and by including “Hebron Jews: Memory and Confl ict in
young Orthodox boys whose teachers led them in the Land of Israel.”
Subodh / AdoberStock
f I was planning my farewell visit to Israel, where
would I go and why? Since 1972, many visits
and two year-long stays have provided ample
opportunities to select my favorite places. My
choices, I realized, were determined by the Jew I
was not.

I grew up, as did everyone I knew, with grand-
parents who were immigrants from Eastern Europe
and parents who were assimilated Jews with
little expression of their Jewish identity. Baseball
games were far more alluring to me than Shabbat
candlelighting or synagogue services, which were
never part of my boyhood. Only Chanukah pen-
etrated my Jewish indiff erence, largely because
I enjoyed the nightly fl ickering candle-lights and
the gifts I received from my parents. I intuited that
my bar mitzvah would mark my exit from Judaism.

So it did.

Nothing changed until I was in my mid-30s, when
I crossed paths with a former colleague who had
just returned from a trip to Israel for disaff ected
Jewish academics. I instantly knew that I qualifi ed
for such a trip, and I made my fi rst visit to Israel in
1973. Unexpectedly fascinated, and eager for more
time for exploration and discovery, I applied for
and received a Fulbright professorship at Tel Aviv
University. I commuted weekly from Jerusalem, my
newly chosen home away from home.

During the decades that followed, many visits
to Israel and another year in Jerusalem trans-
formed my life. My years as an assimilated Jew
faded away as my time in Israel increased. But not
everywhere in Israel. The noisy bustle of Tel Aviv
My years of indiff erence
toward and distance from
Judaism and the Jewish
state were fi nally erased
by my time in the ancient
holy cities of Jerusalem
and Hebron.

circles of joyful song. So had religious observance
passed from generation to generation.

Long before Jerusalem became a Jewish holy
site and capital city, Hebron — less than 20
miles south — was embedded in Jewish his-
tory. There, according to the biblical narrative,
Abraham purchased a burial cave, the fi rst Jewish-
owned site in the Promised Land, for Sarah. The
Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs who followed
were entombed there and King David ruled from
Hebron before relocating his throne to Jerusalem.

I caught a glimpse of Hebron during my fi rst visit
to Israel. As we passed the towering Machpelah
burial site, my interest was sparked. I was eager to
return and learn more about the place of Hebron
in Jewish history and the Israelis who had been
determined to restore the Jewish community that
was decimated during Arab riots in 1929.

Over time, as my fascination with Hebron deep-
ened, I met with the leaders of the return of Jews
following the Six-Day War. They taught me about
Hebron history and the obstacles they confronted:
Hostile, at times murderous Arabs; an Israeli gov-
ernment that had little interest in supporting their
eff ort; and Israelis on the left who yearned for
“peace now” and blamed settlers for obstructing
it. As a historian and a Jew, I was captivated.

So it was that my years of indiff erence toward
and distance from Judaism and the Jewish state
were fi nally erased by my time in the ancient holy
cities of Jerusalem and Hebron. There, I fi nally
discovered my Jewish self. JE
14 OCTOBER 6, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



opinion
It Is Always About Iran
BY SHOSHANA BRYEN
ohaiyoo / AdoberStock
I srael Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi
has approved Israeli drone strikes in the West
Bank. Lest you think Israel is waging war on the
Palestinian people or the Palestinian Authority
— the nominal government of the West Bank terri-
tory — it is not. The P.A. is under siege by Iranian-
supported Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas,
and P.A. strongman Mahmoud Abbas is thor-
oughly incapable of defending the government or
the people. He is looking to Israel to save him and
his regime. And Israel, to the extent it can, will try.

To call the relationship complicated is a severe
understatement, but it always, always goes back
to Iran.

On the one hand, the P.A. is corrupt to its eye-
balls, and increasingly, its own people have been
protesting the regime’s failures; it is hugely repres-
sive — it jailed people for their Facebook posts
and killed regime critic and journalist Nizar Banat;
and it incites violence against Israel and Jews as a
way to maintain its revolutionary credentials.

At the U.N. General Assembly, Abbas lauded
“the righteous martyrs of the Palestinian people
who enlightened the path of freedom and inde-
pendence with their pure blood.” The Fatah web-
site has been calling for violence against Israelis,
and more than once Abbas has announced he is
abrogating all the P.A. agreements with Israel —
including those regarding security cooperation.

But that’s only until he needs security cooperation
with the IDF to survive.

Which is the other hand for him and for Israel.

In the midst of rumbling unrest among West
Bank Palestinians, Abbas is facing the latest round
of the Hamas-Fatah civil war that began after
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and ended with
the expulsion of the P.A. from Gaza in 2007. With
no Israel and no Fatah inside Gaza, Hamas won
security control of the area — which should be a
warning against a precipitous Israeli withdrawal
from the West Bank. With Iran as a patron, Hamas
has since determined the level of aggression that
would be used against Israel — and against Fatah.

Hamas presents itself to Palestinians as younger,
stronger and purer than the P.A., and the better
guardian of Palestinian interests and holy places.

Its claims are well-received by many, and Abbas
plays “catch up,” diverting from his troubles by
inciting his people to violence against Israelis,
continuing to pay “salaries” to terrorists, and rely-
ing on the IDF at the end.

That may not be enough now.

The May 2021 Hamas rocket war against Israel
ended in a ceasefire after Israel exacted a serious
price. Following the ceasefire announcement,
The Associated Press reported that thousands of
Hamas supporters demonstrated against Abbas in
the West Bank, chanting, “Dogs of the Palestinian
Authority, out, out.” Hamas members were also
seen victory dancing in Gaza. This April, Hamas
flags flew above the Al-Aqsa Mosque during
Ramadan. For months, Israeli intelligence sources have
been watching and reporting on Palestinian vio-
lence both in the West Bank and in Israel as a
result of civilian frustration with the repressive
and corrupt P.A., stoked by Hamas. And Iran.

According to the authoritative Long War Journal,
Hezbollah — Iran’s proxy in Lebanon — has been
smuggling weapons into the West Bank. Those
weapons benefit Hamas and can also be smug-
gled into the hands of disaffected Israeli Arab
citizens. (Side note: Almost 20 years ago, I traveled in
Jordan with a group of retired American military
officers. In Amman, Jordanian security forces
took pains to explain to us that Jordan’s weapons
“point inward.” To our blank looks, he added, “Our
job is to interdict Hezbollah weapons coming
through Syria, into Jordan, and then into the West
Bank. We have to stop them. We don’t want Iran
on the West Bank any more than Israel does.” The
principle remains the same today — Iran threatens
Jordan — but the interdiction capability appears
to have eroded.)
Israel has only a few choices. It can try to
save the corrupt, repressive, but non-Iranian-sup-
ported P.A., with the downside of abandoning
the Palestinian people who have been protesting
their rotten government, but with the upside of
protecting Jordan. It can let the war on the West
Bank continue and see where it goes, which
could result in Iranian proxies to Israel’s north (in
Lebanon and Syria), south (in Gaza) and east (in
the West Bank), and the collapse of the Jordanian
kingdom. That would be the result of Israel’s dis-
association from the West Bank territories — the
so-called “two state solution.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid did, in fact, call
for “two states for two people” at the U.N., but the
two people did not include Hamas, Islamic Jihad
or Iran. Any agreement, Lapid said, would be
conditioned on a “peaceful Palestinian state that
would not threaten Israel.”
That strongly suggests that Israel will remain
unhappily between Hamas/Islamic Jihad and
Fatah; between Fatah and Iran; between Jordan
and Iran. Between a rock and a hard place, where
Iran is both the rock and the hard place. JE
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of the Jewish
Policy Center and editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 15