The brave Israelis who live near Shechem

• Published date: 02 March 2023
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

In Samaria, the more you go to live in the eastern part, the more you demonstrate your steadfastness. These are the hundred thousand Israelis who live outside the thousand kilometers of barriers, walls and fences that seal the pre-1967 'borders' of the Jewish State

The geography of fear has been generous to Israel: from the border with Lebanon to the farthest south, the life of Israelis every day is linked to the ghost of insecurity. In Judea and Samaria, it is even more so. Here attacks are frequent, you are never far from the frontier that creeps into the houses, cars, dreams and nightmares of those who live there.

The Jews living near Shechem are now despised and demonized by the media and leftists.. I have been there many times and they are the most brave Israelis.

From Rechelim, a small and isolated community, named after two Israeli women killed by terrorists, where the Tura winery is owned by the family of Vered Ben Saadan, you take route 60. It goes from Beersheba in the south to Nazareth in the north.

90 percent of the Bible took place here. I entered Hawara, a Palestinian Arab village now at center of headlines. The Israelis are afraid but have to pass through here and they are right. On the right side is Itamar, which evokes terrible facts. In June 2002, a terrorist entered the Shabo family home and killed a mother and three children. Then there was, in 2011, the massacre of the Fogels: father, mother and four children had their throats cut, slaughtered in the middle of the night.

There I met Avri Ran, the founder of Itamar. He wants to connect Itamar with the Jordan Valley. Five soldiers are stationed here defending the families of the "Hill of Arnon". "We are here to keep the Jordan Valley and the road to Netanya in our hands", a Jew told me. "Ariel Sharon asked us to come up here to protect the road from Jordan to the coast. Peace with Amman is splendid, but what if King Hussein falls or others take over? In that case we are here, together with the army. If we're not here, Hamas would be here in a...