Just as Calev prayed, so did hundreds that terrible Friday night two weeks ago. The terrorists planned to attack worshipers returning from the Me’arat HaMachpela after Sabbath eve prayers and then enter Kiryat Arba to continue their murderous spree. But as soon as the first shots were fired, our soldiers and civilian security personnel came. The fighting lasted over two hours, and when it was over, nine soldiers and three civilians had been killed and 14 others injured.
Along with the infamous 1929 Arab massacre of 69 Jews in Hebron, the Shabbat Massacre of 2002 will be remembered forever.
The livaya continued. It passed Alex Tzvitman’s home, Building 23. It then continued on (making a giant circle), and returned to where it had started, next to the Moetza building. Buses were waiting so that people could go to the cemetery in Jerusalem. The buses and the army trucks carrying the caskets left the Hebron neighborhood of Kiryat Arba and continued to the neighborhood of Givat Harsina (also known as Ramat Mamre), past Alex Duchan’s home, then out toward the main road that goes to Jerusalem.
As I walked, I thought to myself that Jewish Hebron is not the small enclave portrayed by the media. The figure of 450 settlers living among 100,000 Arabs is not accurate.
First, that figure of 100,000 Arabs is for all of Greater Metropolitan Hebron. And the roughly 600 Jews (a truer figure) of the Old City of Hebron, who live near the Me’arat HaMachpela, Kever Avner and Ruth and Yishai’s Tomb, are only one part of the picture.
Those Jews of the Old City — living in Beit Ramano, Beit Shneerson, Avraham Avinu, Beit Hadassah, Adumat Yishai, and elsewhere — and the more than 6,000 Jews who live in all the other neighborhoods of Hebron — Kiryat Arba, Ramat Mamre-Givat Charsina, Ashmoret Yitzhak, and Givat HaAvot — bring the total Jewish population of Greater Metropolitan Hebron to nearly 7,000. Not 450. Seven thousand. I suppose, though, it serves the media’s interest to misrepresent the facts.
Yitzhak Bo’anish (originally from France) had dedicated his life to the security of Hebron-Kiryat Arba as chief security officer. He was like the Patriarchal Isaac (buried in the Machpela cave), who stubbornly refused to let the Philistines gain a victory over him. Isaac opened up wells that his father Avraham (also buried in the Machpela cave) had dug, but the Philistines came and filled them up. Isaac kept digging new wells, to provide water and life itself to people. But the Philistines kept blocking them up (Genesis ch. 26). Their “love” for the land evidently didn’t extend to its water supply or its people. But Isaac just kept at it — as did Yitzhak Bonish, right up to the very end, responding to an emergency call and giving his life to save others. That was his greatness and he will always leave his impression on us.
Alex is short for Alexander, a name that Jewish tradition tells us the Jewish People adopted in the era of the Second Temple because of Alexander the Great’s benevolent rule over the Land of Israel and respectful behavior toward Judaism. Alexander the Great was a leader, a warrior, and so too were both Alex Duchan (from France) and Alex Tzvitman (from the former Soviet Union), both members of the Emergency Response Team.
Alex Duchan was described by all as a quiet man. He worked in computers, and studied Torah on his own. His intellect and quiet demeanor hid the courageous warrior within, but when the time came, he was ready to serve the Jewish people, even with his life. That was his greatness and he will always leave his impression on us.
