The Hebrew word niftar, meaning “relieved from duty,” is used by
scholarly Jews as a euphemism for reporting someone’s death (much
as the nurse in the Virginia hospital told me that my grandma had
“expired”). Less knowledgeable Jews often don’t recognize the term.
This gives rise to an old joke where Sam asks the Rabbi how Abe is
doing and the Rabbi answers that Abe was niftar. “Niftar piftar,”
Sam responds. “Abi gezunt” — as long as he’s healthy.
This story came back to me when I read that President Bush had
admonished Prime Minister Sharon for a plan to add homes to
Israel’s largest West Bank settlement. The first AP article did not
name the place, so I Googled around until I found a news outlet
with that detail: it was Ma’ale Adumim, which might be rendered in
English as Redmount. My eyes bugged out so far that my wingtips
looked like incoming missiles. MA’ALE ADUMIM? Settlement
shmettlement, as long as the rain doesn’t come into the tents at
night.
Ma’ale Adumim a settlement? Well, it was. Before it became a
village. And it was a village. Before it became a town. And it was
a town. Before it became a city. Ma’ale is a thriving city of
30,000 people, and not a brand-new one either. The 1997 demographic
guide already lists its population at 23,000. I can recall back in
1992 driving around in circles there, getting lost in gigantic,
complex neighborhoods of luxurious houses.
Calling Ma’ale a settlement is like calling Lauren Bacall an
ingenue. I use her name advisedly, since her pre-Hollywood name is
Persky, same as the pre-Zionist name of her cousin, Shimon Peres.
Even Peres, who has been a snake-in-the-grass so long that new
illustrated Bibles can use his features in the Garden-of-Eden
frontispiece, would never consider dismantling Ma’ale Adumim and
giving it away. If there is actually some geek in the State
Department with a pocket protector who thinks that Ma’ale Adumim is
in play in a future negotiated deal, it makes me nostalgic for the
day when we at least wasted our tax dollars on such utilitarian
items as toilet seats. He may be working in Foggy Bottom but he’s
living in Foggy Top.
Ma’ale has more than just bigness on its side. It is critically
positioned as a buffer between Jerusalem and the West Bank; it is
absurd to imagine that there could be peace with that flank of
Jerusalem exposed to predation and depredation. Additionally, it is
a beautifully maintained municipality with Modern Orthodox,
traditional and secular Jews (but no Hasidim) living in tranquil
harmony, very cordial to Arab villagers of neighboring areas. There
is a local Yeshiva of the hesder variety, which means that its
students divide their time between studies and the Army.
Prime Minister Sharon was none too happy to hear President Bush
make this reference; he managed to look sourer than usual. He
danced around the slap by saying that Israel would fully comply
with removal of “unauthorized outposts.” That’s kind of funny, of
course, the equivalent of “It depends what the meaning of Israel
is.” But I’m with him. May he equivocate with equilibrium. If we
are trying to show Egypt that we can put Sharon on the spot, too,
there are plenty of sensible matters that can be placed on the
agenda. Buying into the language that Ma’ale Adumim is a settlement
that needs to be reined in inspires a dangerous fantasy in Arabs
and a no less dangerous paranoia in Israelis.
Let us be clear. America needs a safe Israel. That can happen
only if Jerusalem is protected. Without Ma’ale Adumim (and Ramot
and Neve Yaakov, also technically in the West Bank but now
incorporated as neighborhoods of Jerusalem), that is simply not
feasible. Bush needs Ma’ale just as much as Sharon does, and he
should not be persuaded otherwise by bureaucrats. If he travels to
Israel again, look for the Israelis to try desperately to get him
to visit or fly over that spot.
When Menachem Begin stood up in the Knesset to announce the Camp
David treaty with Egypt, he had a prepared speech which included a
promise that Jerusalem would never be the subject of negotiations.
The text had been submitted to the White House and at the last
moment an urgent call arrived in Begin’s office to convey Jimmy
Carter’s demand that this wording be excised. An aide raced to the
Knesset and handed Begin a note just as he was about to speak. He
looked down, read the President’s message, then murmured in
Yiddish: “Hutt her gezaagt…” (So what if he said so.)
