WHERE IS HOME

Where is home?  There are those who would reply: “Home is where the heart is.”  That phrase was, popularized, perhaps even immortalized, both in song by Elvis Presley, “Blue Hawaii” 1961 -

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TofEkPSlbRI], and movie by the same name from 1987.  For the Jew home is a spot of land in the Middle East, a land which includes Judea and Samaria.

For the Jewish people, their heart has been focused on a piece of land given to their ancestors, dating back some 4,000 years, through Abraham (the Hebrew patriarch) (Gen. 12:7, 13:15, 15:18 and 17:8).  The land currently being “shared” by Palestinian occupiers in what the west calls the “West Bank” and Jews, includes the lands of Judea and Samaria.  In fact the very place of Abraham’s burial is Hebron, which is located in the southern tip of the “West Bank”.

Figure 1 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1244562.stm

Many parts of Israel are seemingly, if not virtually, indefensible with some parts of Israel’s land mass being just 9 miles from the Mediterranean Sea to a hostile “West Bank” border.  Other parts, near Jerusalem (the REAL Capital of Israel) are surrounded on three sides by hostiles, with a very narrow five mile gap.

Figure 2 - http://www.jafi.org.il/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Eye+on+Israel/Maps/21.+judea+and+samaria.htm

The lands known as Judea and Samaria encompass most of what the west calls the “West Bank” and as Hebron is in Southern Judea (Hebron being the place of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham’s burial), they BOTH belong to Israel!

Figure 3 - http://www.jewishjournal.com/you_tai_ren/item/judea_and_samaria_20101002

Of interest to this writer, are the observations of Mark Twain during the late 19^th century, as chronicled in his book Innocents Abroad (1869).  The Holy Land is “…miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds -- a silent, mournful expanse…” “…with not a tree or a shrub to interrupt the view…” and “A fast walker could go outside the walls of Jerusalem and walk entirely around the city in an hour. I do not know how else to make one understand how small it is.”  The image Twain paints of the Holy Land in the latter part of the 19^th century is one of desolation, waste and abandonment.  After nearly two-thousand years of neglect by her Arab occupiers, the Land of Israel was utterly undesirable to anyone, except for the Jew.  Well that is until the Jews began to return to where their Hearts belong, and slowly transformed the barren wasteland into a flourishing land of “milk and honey”.

The fact is folk; the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews.  It’s theirs!  In fact if it wasn’t for the Jews returning HOME to Israel, over the last 100 or so years, the land west of the Jordan River would still be barren, desolate and very very undesirable.  Here is a really cool video -


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEuxPHJ8YSU&feature=youtu.be.  

“May our eyes behold the return (of the Jew) to Zion…

We (the Jews) didn't come as settlers, we (the Jews) returned... as the legal owners of a Jewish state!” (Emphasis in round brackets mine)

“ותחזינה עיננו את התשואה (של היהודי) ציון
אנחנו (היהודים) לא בא כמו המתנחלים, אנחנו (היהודים) חזר ... בתור הבעלים החוקיים של מדינה יהודית!”

“ها قد أعيننا عودة (اليهودي) إلى صهيون
عدنا (اليهود) ونحن (اليهود) لم يأت من المستوطنين،... وأصحاب القانوني للدولة اليهودية!”

And for more terrific information on the Land of Israel please also check out this website - http://www.eretzyisroel.org.

Well that’s it, that’s Da Bauz’s take, on the rightful homeland of the Jews, the Land of Israel this 30^th day of October 2011.