BS”D
Leah’s Blog – Parashat Chukat 2023
Chukat – June 2023
Old things are stored in the boidem; not stuff you throw away or give away but stuff you keep close to you but far from the eye to see. Walking downstairs, I see Moshe’s back bent deep in the boidem, in search of something in the last possible cranny of space. Shrugging perplexed at first I kind of knew what he would be taking out.
Backing out of there he held his old helmet and army vest. Going back in time I heard myself saying “This is the land of Efrayim. We’re here and we feel alone.”
To the day – the Shabo massacre yartzeit HYD that had Moshe in this vest, fighting for his life as shots went to and from the home where Yosef Twito HYD and Rachel Shabo and her three children were murdered as she prepared challah bread for Shabbat.
Surreal, in the backdrop I can hear the first pieces of news coming in today, twenty one years later about a shooting nearby that left four people dead and many injured. Life literally had us in a crawl space during the time of the Shabo atrocity.
In the heat of that summer we lost more friends than I can count on two hands to terror. June is a month riddled with memorials. And now… now the past stares us in the face, awakening.
In the Oslo days there was a selective narrative that went like this- “Sacrifices for Peace”, yes that is what they called terror victims then. The forerunners of the “Peace plan” had us walking the plank; they made it seem that WE were the obstacles to peace.
If those settlers just didn’t live there it would be a new Middle East. We would wipe humous on pita in Damascus and go sail boating in Lebanon. It was never about the monster created, the Palestinian Authority, that from its inception to this very day paid for the slaying of innocent men women and children and handed out candy wherever it happened, about the blatant Jew hatred and call for violence in its Educational curriculum.
Before we developed the street sense to know better; in those days there was no platform for conservative media in this country either.
They thought that if you give them guns and territory it would bring peace, satisfy the savages. Walking down memory lane has me understanding Parshat Chukat on a deeper and higher level.
The foregoing “Peace Process” Israel was pushed into was no less than a means to weaken Israel and make her grovel to world powers as they did not and do not accept the fruition of prophecy unraveling. Condemning Jewish building in the heart of its country is pure antisemitism clearly. Building up choke points where terror is carried out and achieves results on a daily basis is all pre-meditated and dictated to us.
We are not asking “what do we drink!”, “what do we eat!”. We are not wandering in the wilderness anymore- we are home in our Land- against the odds, against the ideology of replacement theology. We do not grumble.
But we are being bitten by the venomous snake, the serpent of Eden. The fiery snake comes to bite us and we stare at it as a solvent. Hashem’s protection is surely felt here as we live in a miracle yet he wants us to learn from our mistakes.
Staring at Moshe’s helmet has me thinking that we ALL must re- evaluate. Israel has no choice. ! עם לבדד ישכון- Israel must face her demons in order to be cured of them. Israel inevitably will have to go it alone. No one is calling victims of terror peace sacrifices any more. The past comes to put us in the perspective of what has happened and what needs to be fixed NOW. It is staring us in the face.
Friends, empower us. We need that now. You know what is right! Kingship is rising! As old ideas crumble and the evil force tries to overcome, Israel illuminates. Her light must shine out this darkness.
Shabbat shalom! Leah
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Blog footnote:
TAMMUZ HAS A HISTORY OF DEATH
The Itamar attack, also called the Itamar massacre, was a terrorist attack on an Israelis... "Rachel, Avishai, Zvika and Neria Shabo”.
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
The Itamar attack, was an attack that took place on Thursday night of 20 June 2002 around 21:00 in which two Palestinian terrorists broke into a civilian house in the Israeli settlement of Itamar in the West Bank, killing the Shabo family, murdering a mother and her three sons, while injuring two children. Later on the militants also killed the commander of the rescue squad during his attempt to free civilians trapped in the house. The two gunmen were killed and eight Israelis were wounded when soldiers stormed the house. This was the second attack on Itamar in less than a month. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack […]
The terrorists arrived at Itamar shortly after 21:00 and started shooting in all directions. They then broke into a civilian home, and murdered a mother Rachel Shabo (age 40) and her three children: Neria Shabo (age 15), Zvika Shabo (age 12) and Avishai Shabo (age 5). One of the militants shot and seriously injured Asahel (age 10) and Avia (age 13).
The settlements' security unit was alerted to the site as soon as they heard the gunfire. The security unit was the first team to exchange fire with the militants and the first team that attempted to rescue the civilians trapped in the house. Yosef Twito (age 31), father of five, whom commanded the security squad, was killed attempting to rescue civilians trapped in the house by the Palestinian terrorists whom barricaded themselves in the house.
Later on, many IDF and Border Police forces surrounded the house and exchanged fire with the militants. Yamas forces arrived at the site as well, and began preparing to break into the house. An hour later the soldiers broke into the house. During a firefight one of the terrorists was killed. The second terrorist attempted to flee the house through a window but was killed after a brief battle in a nearby house.[2]
During the takeover, eight Israelis were injured and the house burst into flames.[1][4] Ambulances carrying the wounded were delayed by roadblocks and pelted with stones.[5]
The father of the family, Boaz, was not injured in the attack, nor were two of the children, Yariv and Ataya. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.
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