TRADITION
I
'est Bank' vs.
'Judea And Samaria'
What's behind the names in discussing
Israel's occupied territories?
JOSEPH TELUSHKIN
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he largest block of
land that Israel cap-
tured during the Six-
Day War was the Sinai Des-
ert, which alone was almost
triple the size of Israel.
Emotionally speaking,
however, the area that mat-
tered far more to most Jews
was the much smaller West
Bank of the Jordan River,
captured from Jordan. From
the time of the Bible to 1948,
the West Bank, which in-
cludes the Old City of Jeru-
salem (containing the West-
ern Wall) and Hebron (where
the Biblical Patriarchs and
Matriarchs are buried), had
always been part of the land
of Israel. While the media
refer to this area as the
"West Bank," many Israe-
lis, particularly those on the
political right, call these ter-
ritories by their Biblical
names, Judea (see Ezra 5:1),
and Samaria (Shomron — see
I Kings 16:29).
An Israeli who refers to
these lands as the "West
Bank" usually implies that
he would accept their being
returned to the Arabs as
part of a peace settlement.
An Israeli who calls them
"Judea and Samaria" is
generally making the oppo-
site statement: He or she
views them as an inex-
tricable part of Israel.
The status of Judea and
Samaria call to mind the old
Jewish joke about the Plot-
nick diamond. A very beau-
tiful young woman sits
down at a wedding reception
with her much older hus-
band. The woman sitting
next to her stares at the
gorgeous diamond ring the
young woman is wearing.
"Why that is the most beau-
tiful diamond I have ever
seen," she says.
"This is a famous dia-
mond," the young woman
responds. "It's known as the
Plotnick diamond. There's
even a curse associated with
it."
"How romantic," the oth-
er woman comments. "What
is the curse?"
"Mr. Plotnick."
Judea and Samaria are in-
Joseph Telushkin is a rabbi
and author of Jewish Literacy,
copyright 1991 by Morrow,
from which this article is
printed with permission.
deed a jewel. But they come
with almost a million Pales-
tinian Arabs who have no
desire to live under Jewish
rule. What to do with Judea
and Samaria clearly is the
most nettlesome problem
facing Israel. Were Israel to
annex the West Bank, her
population immediately
would become 40 percent
Arab. Because the Arabs
have a much higher birth-
rate than the Jews, within
fifty years the Arabs would
comprise a majority of Isra-
el's population and Israel
would no longer be a Jewish
state - that is, unless Israel
annexes Judea and Samaria
but does not give the Arab
inhabitants political rights.
In that case, the Jewish
state would survive, but not
as a democracy. In short, by
annexing Judea and Samar-
ia, Israel will either remain a
Jewish state but not a de-
mocracy, or remain a democ-
racy but not a Jewish state.
One Israeli group that
profoundly disagrees with
this analysis is the Gush
Em u nim (Bloc of Believers),
founded in February 1974 in
the aftermath of the deeply
demoralizing Yom Kippur
War. A religious group - as
its name implies -- Gush
Emunim deems it a religious
obligation for Israel to in-
corporate Judea and Samar-
ia permanently into her bor-
ders. Many Gush members
have settled in small Jewish
enclaves on the West Bank:
They are convinced that this
is a massive guarantee
against these lands being
returned to the Arabs.
It was from Gush
Emunim's ranks that a Jew-
ish terrorist underground
was formed in the early
1980s to avenge Arab at-
tacks against Jews. Unfor-
tunately, the underground's
activities were not limited to
Arabs who actually attack-
ed Jews. In one infamous in-
stance, the terrorists were
stopped at the last minute
from planting bombs on
buses operating in Arab
neighborhoods. After the
Jewish underground mem-
bers were arrested, Gush
Emunim's leaders decried
their terrorist deeds.
Gush Emunim's spiritual
godfather is the late Rabbi
Zvi Yehuda Kook, the son of
Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac
Kook. Zvi Yehuda Kook re-
garded the building up of Is-