The Emirate of Hebron . The Genius of Eli Beer . Gaza Deal? . The Emerald, Antisemitic Isle
The Emirate of Hebron
There was an interesting development out of Hebron. Whether it portends something larger or will remain only interesting, I don’t know. It is interesting not just for the new direction it may signal, but also for what has given rise to it.
Hebron is one of the most ancient and religiously significant cities in the world. It is the site of the Cave of Machpelah, where the matriarchs and patriarchs of the Jewish people, Abraham and Sarah, and their issue, are buried. While this has an obvious deep meaning to religious Jews, Abraham’s tomb (Ibrahim) is also considered a sacred site by Muslims, as he is revered as one of the great prophets. The relationship between the religious Jewish community in Hebron and their Arab neighbors is emotionally and religiously charged and has a traumatic history of violence.
Hebron seems not to be an obvious starting point for Jewish and Palestinian reconciliation, and yet it might be. Emphasis on “might.” As this long and thorough Wall Street Journal report/editorial by Elliot Kaufman reports (thank you Chef Zack Sklar), a consortium of local sheiks, or tribal leaders, representing 700,000 residents and led by Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari, the head of the largest clan, “wants cooperations with Israel” and to that end sent a letter to Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat and former Jerusalem mayor proposing recognition of “the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” in exchange for Israeli recognition of “the Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.”
Al-Jaabari recognizes that “There will be no Palestinian state—not even in 1,000 years. After Oct. 7, Israel will not give it.” Another major Hebron sheik asserts, “To think only about making a Palestinian state will bring us all to disaster.” The sheiks wanted to ultimately join the Abraham Accords and, per them, “a fair and decent arrangement that would replace the Oslo Accords, which only brought damage, death, economic disaster, and destruction.” In addition to its political impetus, the proposal recognizes the economic benefits of coexistence. Its authors envision Israeli admission of 1,000 workers from Hebron for a trial period, followed by an additional 5,000, a number they hope will ultimately grow to 50,000.
The acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state is of paramount significance and is something the Palestinian Authority has consistently rejected. So too may be the reference to “Arab residents” instead of Palestinians. There is an explicit and deep rejection of the Palestinian Authority as an illegitimate, destructively rejectionist, corrupt, and incompetent representative of the residents of the West Bank. Sheik al-Jaabari states, “I plan to cut off the PA, it doesn’t represent the Palestinians”, as the clans governed their localities for hundreds of years and then, per the Oslo Accords, “the Israeli state decided for us. It brought the PLO and told the Palestinians: Take this.”
In addition to these long-standing, well-known grievances lies a deeper grievance. The emirate solution is the brainchild of Mordechai Kedar, a scholar of Arab culture. He contends the idea of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority was to supplant traditional clan and religious loyalties with a national Palestinian identity, and “It failed. Organizations like the PLO and Hamas try to construct their legitimacy on Jew-hatred and hatred of Israel. But the clans are legitimate by definition.”
This all may boil down to an ultimate irony for those who, despite Jewish indigeneity, condemn Israel as a colonial entity born of original sin. What if the inorganic, external source of oppressive domination of the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza is the rejectionist nationalism of the PLO, which returned from Tunisia to assert control through a corrupt and oppressive Palestinian Authority? Call it the ideological colonialism of an incompetent kleptocracy. Fun, right?
I don’t know the extent to which Palestinians feel co-opted by the ideology of the PLO, though the anger at PA corruption and oppression is inarguable. Ha’aretz reported on a very negative Palestinian reaction (Chef Sklar, again) to the sheiks’ proposal, including from members of the extended al-Jaabari family. Is this a true reflection of the majority sentiment or an effort to avoid blowback from the Palestinian Authority, which the sheiks seek to usurp? Again, I don’t know.
Anyhow, read the Kaufman piece on it all, and while you’re at it, read the ever insightful Israeli journalist, Amit Segal’s, shorter, higher-level take on its potential significance.
The Genius of Eli Beer
My wife, Kelly, sent me a 17-minute interview on Larry Bernstein’s What Happens Next podcast with Eli Beer, the creator of the life-changing concept of networked first responders and the organization that made it real, United Hatzalah. Do yourself a favor and listen to it. The number of lives saved, let alone those that will be saved by international adoption of the United Hatzalah modus operandi, is breathtaking. The story of how Eli Beer created it is fascinating and deeply moving. And its potential for integrating diverse cultures and peoples living in the same space is cause for hope. Just listen to it.
Gaza Deal?
It feels like a number of factors are conspiring to bring a hostage-ceasefire deal closer. As journalists Nadav Eyal and Amit Segal describe in the latest episode of Dan Senor’s Call Me Back, on the Israeli side of the equation, there’s domestic political pressure from a war-weary society with a soul-wrenching need to free its citizens from the dungeons of Hamas, mounting IDF casualties, and an increasingly impatient American president.
As for the terrorists who started this war, while they care not at all for the abject misery and horrors they have brought upon their population, they and their infrastructure have now been almost completely devastated by the IDF’s aggressive offensive since the last ceasefire. And Israel’s decimation of their benefactors in Tehran and elsewhere has isolated that which remains. A senior Hamas commander, in a series of voice mails he sent to a British news outlet, put it bluntly,
“Let’s be realistic here — there’s barely anything left of the security structure. Most of the leadership, about 95%, are now dead… The active figures have all been killed,”
“the security situation is zero. Hamas’s control is zero…There’s no leadership, no command, no communication. Salaries are delayed, and when they do arrive, they’re barely usable. Some die just trying to collect them. It’s total collapse.”
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu seem to be in agreement on the deal’s terms and, per some reports, the negotiators in Doha have come to an agreement with Hamas on most of them, but not all. But in addition to the difficulty of negotiating against the barbaric obstinacy of genocidal terrorists, Israel’s efficacy in drastically thinning their ranks has added another hurdle. As Amit Segal put it in his recent newsletter,
“During the first ceasefire, Hamas had Yahya Sinwar at the helm. During the second ceasefire, his brother was leading the group. But with both of them gone, along with much of Hamas’ senior leadership in the strip, it’s not clear who has the final say—and that complicates attempts to strike a final agreement, to say the least.”
It does seem like we are getting somewhere, but we have been here before.
The Emerald, Antisemitic Isle
Ireland, the Emerald Isle, can add a second adjective, antisemitic, to its nickname, according to Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID). While in tight competition with the Spanish socialist government, Ireland has been the most scathing and vocal Western European critic of Israel over the last 20 months, and for some time before that. The American Jewish Committee has called Ireland “one of the most problematic countries in Europe” when it comes to antisemitism and demonization of Israel, and said the situation for Jews in the country has significantly worsened since the Oct. 7 attacks, “posing serious risks.”
In a 4th of July speech at the American embassy in Dublin, Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Harris, who has in the past accused Israel of genocide, hectored his official American audience to “end the violence once and for all,” while reminding them of his country’s elevated humanitarian status:
Ireland was “the first country in Europe to bring forward legislation to ban trade with the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Ireland is speaking up and speaking out against the genocidal activity in Gaza. Every country must pull every lever at its disposal.”
Senator Risch, who had earlier warned Ireland on X that it is “on a hateful, antisemitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering,” reacted to Harris’ admonition with a blunt warning, “if this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties. We will always stand up to blatant antisemitism.” Sometimes our politicians do us proud.