By Jerry Klinger
GUSH ETZION, Israel — Jews have lived in the Judaean hills of the Gush for over 3,000 years. Jews live there today. Yet, many in the International Community and certainly the Palestinian community are striving to bar only Jews from living there.
When the idea of placing giant 9-foot lions was evolving, we were unsure what to call the effort. Should it be Border Lions, implying these are the borders of Israel?
Should it be something else?
We eventually settled on the Lion’s Trail. Wherever the Lions of Judah have traveled in biblical and modern Israel was and is the Lion’s Trail. Wherever a Lion is, and ten of them have been placed from the Golan Heights to Dimona in the Judaean Negev, the Lions are statements of biblical, historical, and contemporary ties of Jews to the land.
The Gush Etzion Lion is located atop one of the highest points in Israel, Mitzpor Haelef. Mitzpor Haelef means the 1000-meter-high Vista Lookout Point.
The viewing platform and site were projects of the Jewish National Fund, the Gush Etzion Regional Council, and Neve Daniel.
A simple dedication plate is attached to the Lion’s base.
“The Lion’s Trail – Gush Etzion “For all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.” (Genesis 13:15)
The Jewish people have lived here for over 3,000 years.
Donated by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation in cooperation with the Gush Etzion Community.” Sculptor Sam Philipe May 2023
Looking to the east, from the viewing platform, are the Mountains of Moab; present day Jordan. Moses stood atop one of the Moab Mountains, Mount Nebo, his heart breaking. God permitted Moses to see the “Promised Land” only from afar. Moses was not permitted to enter the “Land” because of the sin he committed, doubting God, in front of the Jewish people.
“Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.” Deuteronomy 32:52.
Moses died shortly afterwards and was buried in an unknown location. The leadership of the Jewish people transferred to Joshua, a warrior.
The modern Israeli city of Efrat is seen in the foreground from the Mitzpor.
Beyond Efrat, in a northern direction, is Jerusalem, 12 kilometers distant. A conical hill with a flattened top is visible. It is Herodian. Herodian was a fortress-palace of Herod, “King of the Jews,” built over 2,000 years ago. His grandson, Herod Antipas, ruled in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, answering to the Romans, conquerors of Judaea.
Below the Mitzpor is an ancient path called Derech HaAvot, the Path of the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob traveled the path 3500-4000 years ago. The path was the main access between Hebron and Jerusalem. A 2,000-year-old Mikveh, a Jewish ritual bath, is nearby.
Abraham had led Isaac, when he was but a boy, along the path up to Jerusalem. Abraham planned to sacrifice his beloved Isaac to God on Jerusalem’s Mount Moriah. God sent an angel to stop Abraham’s “test”.
King Solomon built the “Holy Temple” atop Mount Moriah 3,000 years ago. The second “Holy Temple,” built on the same spot by Herod the Great, was destroyed by the Romans when the Jews revolted in 70 A.D. Masada, the last Jewish fortress, fell to the Romans two years later, 72 A.D.
Jews became a minority in their land until 1948. Before then, waves of invaders and conquerors bloodily washed over each other, dispensing “special” attention to any Jews they encountered.
Six hundred years after the destruction of the Temple, the Muslims had conquered the Christians of Palestine. They built the Dome of the Rock above the very stone that Abraham had tied Isaac to as a sacrifice on the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock was built as a shrine for pilgrims, not a Mosque. It became a Mosque later. The Temple Mount, the entire “Holy Land,” has been a flashpoint between Muslims, Christians, and Jews ever since.
Looking to the West from the Mitzpor, past the plains, the vista spreads along the Mediterranean coast from Gaza to Tel Aviv.
Gush Etzion is a collection of small communities linked collectively in a Gush of mutual security and support. The Gush is considered illegal by much of the anti-Israel world because it is built over the Green Line. The 1948 Armistice line separating the Jewish from the Arab areas when fighting ceased between Israel and the seven armies trying to destroy the Jews is demarcated by a green line on a map. The Green Line was never a peace treaty with agreed-upon borders. Jews living over the Green Line are derisively called settlers, invaders, thieves, and worse by Israel haters.
Before 1948, there was no Green Line. Great Britain controlled all of Palestine, “From the River to the Sea,” under a mandate from the League of Nations and later the United Nations. In 1922, Britain, under Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill, voluntarily transferred 75% of its original Palestinian Mandate to Hashemite Bedouins from Saudi Arabia. The huge land transfer East of the Jordan River was to create an Arab, not a Palestinian, State. Jews were barred. Today, that land is called Jordan.
A small group of Yemenite Jews purchased land in 1928, establishing a community called Migdal Eder in the Gush. It was named after a local site mentioned in the Torah, Genesis 35:21. The community was destroyed in the Arab Riots of 1929.
One year later, in 1930, the site of Migdal Eder was again purchased, and a new farming settlement was established. It, too, was destroyed in the Arab Riots of 1936. Jews settled the area again between 1943 and 1947, establishing four small kibbutzim, one named Kfar Etzion.
During the 1948 war, the Kibbutzim hindered the Jordan Legion’s effort to attack Jerusalem. In May 1948, the isolated and heavily assaulted kibbutzim of Gush Etzion surrendered. More than 240 unarmed men, women, and children were massacred. It was the greatest genocidal slaughter of innocent Jews since the Holocaust and before the October 7 Hamas Jewish genocide. The Armistice placed the Gush behind the Green Line on the Arab side.
1967, yet another Arab war to exterminate the Jews, became a massive Arab defeat. The Gush was recaptured. Jews returned. Today, vibrant Jewish communities of over 100,000 live there.
The Lion of the Lion’s Trail—Gush Etzion is located on the former Cohen Farmland purchased in the 1920s.
The Lion and the Gush Etzion communities have no plans to move.
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Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation. www.Jashp.org
I live in Neve Daniel and to say the statue of the lion was an eyesore would be insulting eyesores. The idea that someone who lives in the US would spend money on such nonesense is ridiculous. We who actually live in Israel have real needs. Yet these American Jews would rather build monuments to their egos. Ozymandeus would be proud indeed.
Send Jews to live in Israel, not senseless and expensive tokens.