Rav Binyamin Kahane's last letter

In memory of Rav Binyamin Ze'ev and his wife Taliya Kahane, HY"D
whose 9th yahrzeit was this week

Take Your Own Destiny In Your Own Hands...

Binyamin Kahane's parting message was for the settlers to take matters into their own hands. The daily murder of Jews coupled with the futility of the IDF caused Binyamin to come to the conclusion that the settlers will inevitably have to fend for themselves - and that's a good thing.

Binyamin had already met with key people in the Samarian area ("Gav HaHar" - which includes the settlements Tapuach, Yizhar, Ittemar, Har HaBracha, Elon More) to help implement his plan - he felt that these settlements were more apt to agree with his approach, more willing to cut the IDF umbilical cord. He had just begun a "speaking tour" at various settlements to bring this idea over. The fact that he started going "public" after so many years of spreading ideas "quietly" is proof of how much he believed in this idea. In his last "shiurim", in his parasha sheets and during his speaking tour in the States, he also emphasized this message, tying it in with Hanukah: "The miracle of Hanukah was that Jews were ready to fight".

Below is the letter he planned to circulate among the settlers. It was read at his funeral by Rabbi Yehuda Richter:

"To my dear brothers and friends living in the mountains of Judaea and Samaria:

The situation currently facing us demands that we courageously re-assess all that we have believed until now. The issue before us is no longer just the fundamental problem of Chillul HaShem and Jewish humiliation; more, it is now a simple issue of straightforward security that involves each and every one of us.

Living in the mountains of Judea and Samaria, we are truly fortunate in that we comprise a community that, for the overwhelming majority, fears its God, loves its nation unstintingly, and is prepared for self-sacrifice. At this time of unrelenting strife, violence and an all but declared war, this faith grants us an insuperable advantage over those who live in ostensibly safer areas.

The capitulation of Joseph's Tomb - on Shabbat T'shuva, the Sabbath of Penitence (!) - shocked us all to the very depths of our souls. But, truth to tell, few if any of us were really surprised, particularly after the IDF gave the broadest possible hints of their intentions just a few days earlier.

The situation today is difficult and complex. On the one hand, we are fully prepared - physically, emotionally, and spiritually - to retain Jewish control over the Jewish homeland, maybe more prepared than any other sector in Israeli society. On the other hand, the IDF is being exposed - with all the good-will - as a confused body, lacking direction and ideology and, above all, with no faith in God.

Additionally, we daily witness Jews throughout the land rising spontaneously, the plain meaning of which is that they are sick of the current government and the situation that it has wrought, and that they yearn for a determined leader who will steer the state along a truly Jewish path. Together with this, simple actions of individual Jews from all the settlements (such as blocking roads to Arab vehicles) are more successful in casting fear over the Arabs than the IDF with all its APC's, jeeps, bullet-proof vests, inconsequential patrols, and bewildered commanders. And in the light of all these facts and their implications, we the inhabitants are determined to remain; we refuse to surrender our hold over our land, even as we refuse to acquiesce in the continuing humiliation of the Nation of Israel and the desecration of the Name of God.

My suggestion is as follows: Based upon the facts that I have outlined above, all the settlements on the mountain-ridge running north-south along the length of Judea and Samaria must conjoin with each other, forming a united leadership. This will immediately broadcast an unequivocal message to the IDF: "Just as you abandoned the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem - so, too, please abandon us. Abandon the entire mountain range whereon we live". This must be stated politely, calmly and rationally. "Clearly, you do not want to be here. You obviously do not understand what you are doing here. You have no overall aims whatsoever, beyond the idiotic aim of 'enforcing order'. There is no purpose at all, under these circumstances, in forcing you to remain here. We who live here are ready and willing to take full responsibility for this area upon ourselves. Just allow us this responsibility. As we all know, the government fully intended in any event to abandon virtually all this region to the Arabs, if only Arafat would have deigned to agree to their designs. So please, hand over this land to us. By the grace of God, here in these mountains we have wonderful youth and highly-trained military personnel whose morale is high; they will gladly accept this responsibility upon themselves. Ultimately they will take to their duties enthusiastically and, what is more important, with the faith in the God Who gave us this land. Just leave us the arms (and even if not, we will nevertheless succeed...), and HaShem will be our strength".

Without the slightest doubt, the Arab denizens will be terrified merely at hearing this news: authority here will no longer rest with the shackled Army which has for so long been the punching-bag of Arab hooligans. Rather, those "monstrous settlers" (and, thank God, the Arab media portray us as the devil incarnate, if not worse) will now take charge.

Without the slightest shadow of doubt, such a step would clear the air here. There will be a complete about-face: this news will, for the first time in too many years, attract youths in their hundreds - at least! - who would come here to help. At long last there will be genuine yishuv ha-aretz (settling of the Land of Israel) and the beginning of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel. This will put an end to the confused stammering and steadfast search for ways of handing over the land to the enemies of God, which have been the greatest obstacles to the Mitzvah which we are fulfilling here with our very being. Can we even begin to imagine the inspiration that this earth-shaking news would give to so many Jews, both 'secular' and 'religious', in Israel and abroad? It has been far too long since we experienced that deep and stirring feeling of Jewish national pride.

This is truly revolutionary! But it is far less revolutionary than the changes that have been wrought in the reality of Israel in the past few weeks, and we have nothing to lose. Even if the IDF does not accept this proposal - as can be expected, at least in the initial stage - then, at the very least, the military command and the government will realize that there is an additional and serious force on the ground, a force which they ignore at their peril.

Furthermore, for reasons of its own security, the IDF will want to prove that it can protect civilians; consequently, it will act more determinedly - at least, so far as it is capable within the limitations imposed by fear of the gentiles and of the Left which shackles it.

None of this entails separating ourselves from society. To the contrary, we will remain part of Israeli society, willing at a moment's notice to re-join, by agreement, that state which has, until now, refused for 33 years to annex us. We speak here not of separation, but of additional Jewish sovereignty over a part of the Land of Israel which has been too long abandoned. We act for the good of the Nation of Israel, for the good of the State of Israel, for the sake of our families' safety. Above all, we act for the sake of Kiddush HaShem, the sanctification of the Name of God, and eradicating its desecration until the hour of Final Redemption comes."

With grave concern and Ahavat Yisrael,

Binyamin Kahane