The Birthplace Of King David Was Once A Jewish Town.
Bethlehem was once a Jewish town where King David was born and where he later was anointed as the monarch of the Kingdom of Israel. The first moslems to appropriate Bethlehem was in the year 637ce. After that, it was conquered by the European Crusaders. Then came the Mamluk Sultanate in the mid-13th century, followed by the Ottomans in the 16th century, losing it to the British during the First World War in 1917. As they say, the rest is history.
Today, Bethlehem is an Arab town in the Jewish State where Jews venture at risk to their lives.
How did this happen? An accident of history? No, the reason lies with the Jewish people and their indifference to the importance of all Eretz Israel in the Jewish destiny and mission.
Tragically, we see the same indifference in a thousand cities, towns and villages throughout Israel today. One such town is the capital of the Golan Katzrin, quietly nestled at the foot of the Golan Heights. As if declaring we, the Jewish people, are here and here to stay!
Unfortunately, cracks have started to appear in that Jewish bastion of the north as Arab families seek to stake their claim to a piece of Jewish Katzrin. Today, it’s a small piece. Tomorrow, it could become another Bethlehem where Jews fear to tread.
Once again, indifference to this Arab time bomb disguises itself under the sentimental banner of coexistence and cousinly affection for a multi-ethnic Israel, no longer a Jewish State but rather an Israel-Palestine abomination. This scenario starts in peaceful places like Katzrin, oblivious to its vulnerability. Should Jews fail to ‘Keep Katzrin Jewish’, then the words of (Bamidbar-Numbers 33:52-55) will torment us and our children for years to come.
