UBIN MARGULES insisted we should stop
calling Judea and Samaria "occupied territories." "We occupy no
one’s land but have returned to the land God promised us."
Margules, a longtime Zionist activist, was
one of the honorees at the 29th annual dinner of the
American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva Center in December at the
Marriott Marquis in New York. Bet El, called the place where Jewish
history began, is situated in the hills a heartbeat north of
Jerusalem, a stone’s throw east of Ramallah. More than 7,000 people
reside there.
"We should stop expelling Jews from this
land," said Margules, who serves as head of the Brooklyn region of
the Zionist Organization of America. "We expelled Jews from Gaza and
we have seen the calamitous results."
Eugen Gluck, honorary chairman of the
American Friends and a pioneer builder of Bet El, said he hopes the
Israeli government "has learned from past mistakes" when it
evacuated Jewish settlers from the Gaza and then saw Hamas turn the
strip into a launching pad for rockets aimed at Israeli towns.
Emcee Avinoam Bitton presented
awards to Rabbi Etan and Esther Tokayer of Kingsway
Jewish Center, Raizy and Moshe Zicherman, and
Mushkee and Dovid Efune of the Algemeiner
newspaper, and Rubin Margules.
Knesset member Danny Ayalon,
Israel’s deputy foreign minister and former ambassador to the U.S.,
recalled an old Henry Kissinger gag to make a point. On an
alleged visit to the biblical zoo in Jerusalem, the secretary of
state was amazed to see the lion lying next to the lamb. How can
this be? The zookeeper explained: "We bring him a fresh lamb every
morning."
"Throughout history," Ayalon said, "we
were the sacrificial lamb. Israel will no longer be kicked around.
The Jews of Judea and Samaria are called colonizers when in truth
they are the heroes of the Jewish people."
He added: "One thing we will never ask of
America is to go in harm’s way for us. We are quite capable of
defending ourselves."
