The rocks and the violence and the accusations continue to dominate the headlines here in Israel. Ingenious, and very deadly. The fact is that we don't always treat our own fellow Jews with dignity either. Just read the Letters to the Editor column in any of the Israeli papers.
Power is also the power to heal.
The truth is that 'occupation' is just another way of saying that for the last twenty years no Palestinian with authority to negotiate a peace with us would recognize our existence. Their charter vows our destruction. Today they speak about Judea and Samaria, but it is no secret that many dream of Acre and Nazareth and Lod, and perhaps that little suburb north of Jaffa. The land on which Efrat sits were uninhabited hills before we arrived. The 35 Jews who were massacred in 1948 on their way to bring supplies to the kibbutzim in the Gush Etzion region have made this range of hills very much part of our history, contemporary as well as ancient.