According to the Oslo agreements, Bethlehem is a town in Palestine.

More than two thousand years later, we again face the prospect of war with Iran and Iraq.

Muslims consider the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron to be their holy site. Until 1967, Jews were banned from the building, and could only ascend the first seven steps toward it. In 1967, Moshe Dayan gave the keys back to the Arabs.

There is no room for compromise for the Jews either: Orthodox Jews believe in the site’s sanctity, and secular nationalists object to being humiliated by Arabs.

In matters of national pride, there is no room for holy sites to be treated like condominiums.

The Palestinians supported US diplomacy by hurling stones at Israeli police in Hebron. The PA has declared that Abbas won’t conduct peace talks with Netanyahu, who steals “Palestinian sacramentals.” The Jewish patriarchs would be surprised to know that they have become holy to Palestinian Arabs. Netanyahu, nevertheless, continues to prop up the PA with IDF operations and tax transfers.

Israel’s president has embarked on a damage-control operation by meeting the UN coordinator, a lowly figure who should not be able to get near the president of any self-respecting state.

It remains to be seen whether the list is a polite nod to the right-wingers or a first step toward Israel retaking significant areas.

For our purposes, it does not matter whether Rachel is indeed buried at the site. It is enough that the government is acting on purported Jewish values.

Though Jordan occupied East jerusalem illegally from 1948 to 1967, and thus has no legitimate claim to the scrolls, a Palestinian claim for them would be very strong. If East Jerusalem falls to a Palestinian state, Israel will have to transfer the scrolls to our Arab enemies.

In the mayhem of peace negotiations everyone would likely forget to obtain a Palestinian agreement to transfer the scrolls to Israel.

The text is nothing short of astonishing:

You shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
Judge the slave and the widow, Judge the orphan
[and] the stranger. Plead for the infant, plead for the poor [and]
the widow. Rehabilitate … at the hands of the king.
Protect the poor [and] the slave, support the stranger.

Religion, thus, seems to have been a major issue for Jews already three thousand years ago. Slaves had full access to courts—a thing unheard of even 29 centuries later—and there is no indication in the text that they were only Jewish slaves. Justice, as the Torah enjoins us, has indeed always been a major value among Jews.

Jews had full sovereignty on this Land around 1,000 BCE—so much that they recognized and accorded benevolent treatment to strangers. At that time, Jews were ruled by monarchs, contrary to the claims by biblical minimalists of the fictitious nature of the Chronicles.

Shall we give this land to the Palestinians?

Britain and France hold in their museums immense treasures from their former colonies, but Israel must abide by the imagined international law.

And, indeed, she has abided: after Peres signed a peace treaty with Jordan, Israel returned to Jordan some extremely important Jewish artifacts, including manuscripts.