Sunday, November 01, 2009
11/01/2009 11:21:00 PM | 
Posted by
JoeSettler
If you haven't had a chance to drive south on 60 you're missing an interesting learning experience.
After you pass Kiryat Arba/Hebron you drive between what are now 2 large Arab villages (where interestingly enough some/many residents actually claim Jewish descent).
But then things start to thin out and you see a sporadic house here, a Bedouin tent there, and some Jewish towns out on some hills and along the road.
As humanity mostly begins to fade away you suddenly see a serious fence to your left, behind it a forest (Yatir forest). At first glance you wonder what it is, perhaps a secret air force base, and you keep driving for a while until you hit the Machsom and realize that this is only the separation fence, a rather serious section of it at that.
Immediately after the Machsom and fence humanity resumes again. Towns. Gas stations (we learned there is apparently no gas station between the Machsom and Kiryat Arba). Eventually you reach Be'er Sheva, and the rest of the South is open to you.
What is so striking is is that along 60 you realize the obvious mistake we Jews are making.
As you pass by the Jewish Yishuvim you see along the road, or a few hills over, you see fenced-in communities huddled together for protection or habit. While at the same time you see new Arab homes, standing alone, stuck in the middle of nowhere, always followed by a claim of land ownership between one house and the next.
There are incredibly open, large barren areas down South, yet instead of taking the hilltops and planting farms, we have chosen to lock ourselves in walled ghettos, abandoning these empty, ownerless lands to those more brazen than us.
We should be building homesteads across all the hilltops and valleys, instead we concentrate on straddling everyone onto a single hilltop, while abandoning everything else around it.
Is it too late to change strategies? Is it possible?
Expansion needs to be done differently.
Click here for an interactive map (Hebrew)
After you pass Kiryat Arba/Hebron you drive between what are now 2 large Arab villages (where interestingly enough some/many residents actually claim Jewish descent).
But then things start to thin out and you see a sporadic house here, a Bedouin tent there, and some Jewish towns out on some hills and along the road.
As humanity mostly begins to fade away you suddenly see a serious fence to your left, behind it a forest (Yatir forest). At first glance you wonder what it is, perhaps a secret air force base, and you keep driving for a while until you hit the Machsom and realize that this is only the separation fence, a rather serious section of it at that.
Immediately after the Machsom and fence humanity resumes again. Towns. Gas stations (we learned there is apparently no gas station between the Machsom and Kiryat Arba). Eventually you reach Be'er Sheva, and the rest of the South is open to you.
What is so striking is is that along 60 you realize the obvious mistake we Jews are making.
As you pass by the Jewish Yishuvim you see along the road, or a few hills over, you see fenced-in communities huddled together for protection or habit. While at the same time you see new Arab homes, standing alone, stuck in the middle of nowhere, always followed by a claim of land ownership between one house and the next.
There are incredibly open, large barren areas down South, yet instead of taking the hilltops and planting farms, we have chosen to lock ourselves in walled ghettos, abandoning these empty, ownerless lands to those more brazen than us.
We should be building homesteads across all the hilltops and valleys, instead we concentrate on straddling everyone onto a single hilltop, while abandoning everything else around it.
Is it too late to change strategies? Is it possible?
Expansion needs to be done differently.
Click here for an interactive map (Hebrew)
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4 comments:
The argument could be made that these Yishuvim are protecting the main roads from being lost. Though not negating the fact that it is a trade-off in terms of the hilltops.
I drove through (60)this area in 2005 and had the privilege of seeing this area for what it is ... fantastic to say the least. Last year I visited friends in Shiloh and stayed for the Shabbat. My point is there should be more promotion of this area to the world as an necessary entity in Israel. With Odingdong in office it doesn't look too good but Hashem has the last word ... Chazak my friend.
-Dutch FM tells Israel to halt West Bank building
-Brown, King Abdullah urge Israeli settlement halt
-Clinton Calls Israeli Settlement Activity Illegitimate
How nice for them.
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