Rocking out in the ancient city of Susya

March 18th was a warm summer-like day in the Southern Hevron Hills. When Pastor Roger Diaz of Fellowship Church in Winter Springs, Fla., called me telling me the group had just left Kiryat Arba, I got myself into gear and packed up my water and gun. My son drove me to the Ancient City of Susya, which is a mere five-minute drive from modern Susya, my home. 

I arrived just in time. The bus was beginning to unload passengers and I recognized Roger Diaz and a few other congregants, too. 

For the past six years I have been the official English spokesperson for Rescuers Without Borders, which in Israel are known as Hatzalah Yehuda and Shomron. These men and women are the first response medics in the Heartland of Israel - Judea and Samaria. This area consists of 600,000 Jews and 2,000,000 Arabs. It is where the stories of the Old Testament occurred, where all the action was. And it is still active today.

My organization, Hatzalah Yehuda & Shomron, dedicates itself to collecting data on all terror attacks that occur in the country, focusing closely on the attacks in Yehuda and Shomron. For this year the numbers show a heightened amount of terror. And to be clear, this is terror by Arabs against Jews.

In 2024, Arab terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times.  

Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded.

These figures, which are cross-checked against official data from Israel's security services, included 3,668 attacks of rock throwing, 843 attacks with fire bombs, 671 attempts to blind drivers with laser pointers, 526 attacks involving explosive charges, 364 cases of arson and 179 shootings.

But wait...there's more. We recorded 37 attempted or successful stabbings, 36 bottles of paint bottles being thrown at vehicles and 19 car-ramming attacks.  

These violent attacks are not simply words on a page. They are not stories someone is making up. Can you imagine being in one of the cars when rocks are thrown at you? Put yourself in the place of the driver. Put yourself in the place of a child in the backseat. It is terrifying.

Despite the violent attacks, groups of visitors continue to come, and yesterday's group was full of energy and vigor. The Fellowship group had children with them, and they wasted no time ducking into some of the 170 caves, dipping their legs into the cold water of the mikvas of which there are 40, and crawling through the long escape tunnel. I guided them into the giant ancient synagogue and showed off the preserved mosaic floor. That didn't hold their interest too long because they rushed ahead of me into the cave which houses an ancient olive oil press.

However, the biggest thrill was the music cave, which is fairly new to the ancient site. About 50 drums are in the cave, and along with a recorded guide, the participants drum along with the ancient Levites, repeating the rhythms. The group broke out into Queen's "We Will Rock You" before breaking into their own "Hallelujah" song, only voices, no drums. Some of the group had not climbed down into the cave, and it was so beautiful to see and hear this I couldn't allow them to miss it, so I rushed up out of one of the entrances, hoping to see those missing participants on the main path above ground. Note, the Ancient City of Susya is quite expansive covering 100 dunams. (A dunam is 1,000 square meters, or 10,764 feet). I quickly found the 5 or 6 adults who had not wanted to come into the cave, and I called out for them to come. But I didn't need to ... the voices of the singing had risen above the cave and were echoing all around. It was magical.

As the sun started to set, we drove quickly to Susya where we climbed up the Ruj'um fortress on the edge of the community. We looked and saw the ancient synagogue where we had just been and noted the Arab families living in the hills and crevices close by. We could hear their goats, their dogs, and realized how close we all live to each other. It seems peaceful. And here, in the yishuvim, it is.

Contrast that peaceful life with the terror report. Those incidents are mostly on the road. The leaders of the Arab citizens are pushing them to throw rocks at our cars and terrorize us that way, to drive us away. Yet, the peaceful Arab families living near me seem to be harmless and uninterested in terror.

Such a complicated region.