This morning, two Arab terrorists ambushed a family car on the road north of Jerusalem between Beit El and Ofra. Eight gunshots struck the vehicle, and the driver was instantly killed. The vehicle careened out of control and flipped over into a deep ditch at the side of the road. The driver's wife died of her injuries on the way to hospital. This couple had six children under the age of 12. The oldest son was not in the car, having been dropped off at school moments before the attack. The other five children, one a baby barely two months old, sustained injuries in the attack and are all hospitalized.
For some reason, the murders of Binyamin and Talya Kahane this morning has hurt me to the core. Binyamin is a well-known Jewish figure, representing nationalist ideals, and holding positions more to the Jewish right than even most right-wing Jews are prepared to adopt. While I myself do not necessarily adhere to Kahane's ideology, none of this matters today.
What matters today is that two young Jewish parents lie dead and that six small children will never again feel their mother's caress, or hear their father's songs on a Shabbat evening. What matters is that a two-month-old girl will never know her parents, never again suckle at her mother's breast, never gladden the hearts of her parents with her smile, gurgle, first word, first step, or anything else.
There is tremendous anger tonight among the Zionist community in Israel. A pioneering couple, residents of a village outpost in Samaria and frontline defenders of the Jewish Right to the Jewish Homeland, has been murdered in cold blood. As I write these words, the ideals that powered the lives of Binyamin and Talia, and that stand even in their deaths, are under severe attack from people who call themselves Jewish leaders.
And finally, the Zionist community in Israel awakens. The Yesha Council stated today that they hold Ehud Barak and Shlomo Ben-Ami personally responsible for this morning's murders. Supporters of the ideological movement founded by Binaymin's late father refused to talk to reporters this afternoon, stating that their response would be heard and felt soon enough.
It is wonderful to see that the real Jewish defenders of Israel are finally arousing from their long hibernation. What bothers me first is that it took so long. Israel's caretaker prime minister has agreed to relinquish Jewish sovereignty over the holiest site in the world to a band of murderers for a meaningless piece of paper. The city of Jerusalem, yearned for by Jews over thousands of years, will be divided and given to the biggest anti-Semite in the last 50 years if this "leader" has his way. Almost one third of the entire Land of Israel will be handed over to this arch-enemy of humanity at the behest of an ego-driven US President as an act of fond farewell.
None of this was enough to spur the defenders of Israel to action. It took the criminal murder of an ideological figurehead to spur this action. That is one thing that bothers me.
The other thing that bothers me is that even now, even with the threat of some action finally being taken against the national suicide and grand treason being committed by Ehud Barak and his band of masochists, the reason for this action is the murder of Binyamin Kahane.
As is usual in Jewish tragedies, who the victims are is not as important as what they left behind. For whatever contributions Binyamin and Talia Kahane might have made in their all-too-short lifetimes, their biggest and most lasting contributions are lying in five hospital beds in Jerusalem, and one bedroom cot in Beit El, crying uncontrollably at the unimaginable loss they have suffered today.
I arrived home this evening to a warm, excited welcome from my two-year-old son. I accepted his welcome with newfound appreciation for the gifts I have. I then walked over to my very own two-month-old daughter and simply watched her smile and listened to her gurgle contentedly. My mind drifted to a hospital bed in Jerusalem, and to its two-month-old occupant who would never again be able to bring such joy to her own parents. I shed a tear for the parents as well, who will never again be able to enjoy the gifts with which they were bestowed.
The anger of the Zionist community must be allowed its full expression now. But it will be the measure of the true Jewish spirit whether that anger is due to the murder of an ideological figurehead, or to the loss beyond all comprehension that is represented in those hospital beds. For only by understanding that loss, only by putting oneself in the shoes of those children, or of those parents, for a few minutes, can one really understand the enormity of the failure that has been the policy of Ehud Barak.
Copyright 2000. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
