SHLOMO RISKIN
SHLOMO RISKIN It would have been far better to have conducted free elections and to have signed the agreement with elected Palestinian representatives from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Iwrite these...
...much the opposite, he is now speaking of the return of close to a million refugees, even those who fled from Israel as a result of the War of Independence...
...I believe that the solution lies in providing Palestinian autonomy, but either through the establishment of a number of Palestinian cantons in Judea, Samaria and Gaza without territorial contiguity, which will join in federation with Jordan as Jordan-Palestine, or by establishing an Israeli-Palestinian federation ruling jointly over all of Judea-Samaria-Gaza...
...Yitzhak Rabin is a leader who, until now, has enjoyed (he confidence and support of a majority of Israelis, many of whom can appreciate the fact that sometimes an opportunity for peace must be grasped quickly, even before the details are hammered out, or else the possibility may be forever lost...
...Daily life in the territories may become so impossible (and is it really logical to believe that the PLO autonomy will protect us from Hamas-Hezbollah...
...Israeli settlements are self-contained entities, each independent of the other, in such a way that, according to the agreement, the territory between settlements will be under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian autonomy...
...We are staunchly opposed to the transfer of Arabs...
...It is illogical to believe that the agreement as presently constituted will not lead to a Palestinian state, an eventuality feared and protected against by the last 25 years of Israeli governments...
...And the agreement is fraught with agonizing questions, which can potentially prove destructive to the State of Israel...
...A group of friends from the Hebrew University invited me to a party of celebration...
...In this instance, Rabin and Arafat are involved in a peace agreement with 80 percent of its details (according to Rabin) still unknown...
...In other words, we have already given up all of Judea, Samaria and Ga/.a—areas that provide strategic land and critical water supply...
...The major problem with Arafat is not only his terrorist history...
...And would it not have been far better to have conducted free elections (monitored perhaps by a third party...
...And in light of such a momentous responsibility, I am haunted by the following image: a man and woman in the flush of young love standing under the nuptial canopy at a time when they can hardly believe they will ever have a quarrel, much less divorce...
...I've had a recurring dream since I made aliyah 10 years ago: my two sons, Hilly and Yoni (now 20 and 18, respectively) are dressed in army uniform, but they look no older than they were when we first arrived in Efrat...
...This year, more than any other since I have made aliyah, requires the fervent prayers of all Israel for a year of true peace and well-being...
...Not far from my home in Efrat, a group of Arabs have stopped traffic, singing and dancing on the first day of their ultimate liberation...
...And if indeed the risks prove to be great, and the State of Israel is asked to undergo the radical changes I have outlined, the inherent dangers demand that a referendum based on full disclosure of information must allow the people of Israel to decide the wisdom of such an agreement...
...and to have signed the agreement with those elected representatives of the Arab areas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza...
...During the 1930s, when an early and quite paltry partition suggestion was made to David Ben-Gurion, who headed a "provisional government," the "old man" turned to one of his trusted colleagues, Yitzhak Tabenkin, and asked for his opinion...
...we must be at least equally opposed to the transfer of Jews...
...And 1 wake up...
...Our sages insist that they commit themselves to obey a ketubah, which details their mutual legal responsibilities and specifies the obligations of the groom in the event of death or divorce...
...Another group invited me to a minyan comprised of those who declared this day as a fast day, the end of Zionism as we know it and the beginning of the destruction of the State of Israel...
...My desire for hopefulness is not difficult to understand...
...I turn to my wife, tears coursing down my cheeks, and plead: "But I was sure that by the time they were old enough to fight, we would be at peace with the Arabs...
...The latter said he had to seek counsel with two individuals...
...But I am uneasy, and my natural optimism is mixed widi deep foreboding...
...Although all publicity speaks of "Gaza and Jericho First," the appendix to the agreement reads: "The jurisdiction of the Palestinian Council will extend over the entire territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the exclusions of those matters which will be negotiated for the permanent settlement: Jerusalem, and Jewish settlements"—and the status of those places will be decided in three years...
...Iwrite these lines at the very moment that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat are signing the peace agreement at the White House...
...We will be returning to the boundaries of pre-'67—which Abba Eban called "Auschwitz borders"—but in a worse position than pre-'67 because we will have an armed Palestinian stale poised at our throat...
...Arafat still demands the Palestinian right of return—that is, the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees now residing in Jordan, Gaza and Lebanon into Judea, Samaria and, eventually, Tiberias, Nazareth, Jaffa, Acco, Ramie and Jerusalem...
...Such is the awesome responsibility of leadership in Israel, responsibility to past generations who nurtured and died for the dream of a Jewish state, and responsibility to the future generations who will lead us to redemption...
...The agreement calls for elections, but what guarantee do we have that those Palestinian Arabs who live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza-—some of whom were brutally killed by the PLO when merely suspected of collaboration with Israel—will now be respected by Arafat and will be allowed to vote against him...
...I am blessing them as they leave for war...
...According to all reports, Arafat has not given up on his platform of the right of return...
...This would mean the end of the Jewish state...
...Do we have no obligation to those who have been moderate and may even have helped us in the past...
...In either instance, we would be taking constructive steps in preventing the creation of a Palestinian state in an area so small (40 by 10 miles) that it would be forced to seek lebensraum at the expense of the State of Israel...
...And what if Hamas gains the leadership...
...Tabenkin responded: "I asked my grandfather and I asked my grandson...
...When Tabenkin returned the next day with a negative vote, Ben-Gurion inquired as to the identity of his advisers...
...we'll drink Tchaim" together, they said...
...I am sitting on my porch overlooking Jerusalem—neither in euphoria nor in despair, wanting to be hopeful but filled with a gnawing sense of unease...
...that the settlers will of necessity leave without even ha\ing to be evacuated by the Israeli government...
...The most problematic aspect of the agreement is the expectations it engenders—and what happens when these expectations are not fulfilled...
...She responds: "Did you think we would not have to pay a price for what we've achieved...
...Is there no other possibility for those who do not wish to subjugate and/or create a Jewish state together with 1.5 million Arabs...
...But now that the signing has taken place, the substance of the agreement must be qualified...
...A few minutes in another direction, refugee-camp Arabs are throwing stones—four Israelis were already killed yesterday—as a protest by Hamas against PLO collaboration with the Zionist entity...
...And so 1 pray for peace—especially now that we have four grandsons in addition to two sons...
...He was the first rabbi of the Lincoln Square Synagogue in N. Y. and is the founder and dean of Ohr Torah institutions in Efral and Jerusalem...
...We have taken many risks^for war, and I certainly can understand the necessity—and even the wisdom—of taking risks for peace...
...And I understand that peace must be made with one's enemies, even with cruel, murderous terrorist enemies, and that whereas we can never give up our claim to any part of Erelz Yisrael (vitur), we may very well have to compromise territory (p'shara) in the interest of peace and saving human lives...
...I asked my grandfather who died 10 years ago, and I asked my grandson who has not yet been born...
...Rabbi Shlomo Rishin is tlie chief rabbi and founder of the city of lifrat...
Vol. 18 • December 1993 • No. 6
