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Netanyahu could have invested millions to fund the dwindling study of history in the school system and universities. However, piles of stones have always been more useful for manufacturing and reproducing rigid, impervious national memory.

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In 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu announced the opening of the Western Wall Tunnel in the Moslem Quarter of the Old City, explaining that Israelis visiting the site would bring us closer in touch with the “essence of our existence”.

In the wake of the riots that erupted from this foolhardy political move, more than 70 Palestinians and 17 IDF soldiers were killed. They were forgettable victims who were simply sacrificed, and not for the first time, upon the altar of a mythological fuzzy past. Herod the Edomite Jew, who initiated the building of the Western Wall at a cruel and bloody price, would most likely be amused at the long-term consequences of his historical undertaking.

Jump forward to the year 2010, when Israel’s Prime Minister has decided to include the Patriarchs Tomb and Rachel’s Tomb in the list of National Heritage sites, to be preserved lest we forget the nation’s history. Unfortunately, Netanyahu did not read the latest archeological studies claiming that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, those famous camel riders who “lived and roamed” according to the finest Biblical fantasies, during a period where camels were still undomesticated.

In addition, one must bear in mind that our Prime Minister is the son of a historian, who was unfairly turned away from academia in Israel and forced to wander foreign lands, together with his family. Therefore it is not surprising that Netanyahu has suddenly decided to budget NIS 500,000,000 for the preservation of heritage sites that belong to the past. True, he could have handed over the funds instead to the state educational system or to the universities and fund the dwindling study of history. However, piles of stones have always been more useful for manufacturing and reproducing rigid, impervious national memory.

Only sound and light shows projected on to the silent stone walls can withstand the outburst of cultural globalization and the deluge of internet sites flooding young minds, making them more and more cosmopolitan.

Beyond the ideological aspect, there is also a political problem regarding the heritage sites that have been added to Netanyahu’s list. The Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb are not with the jurisdiction of the State of Israel, but rather that of the Palestinian Authority. After all, the government of Israel continues to ladle out money to Israeli settlers who have abandoned their own state in order to settle in an area that Israel stubbornly refuses to take under its sovereignty. So why not also fund memorial sites that are not part of its territory?

No need to worry, the son of the national historian winks at us from the pinnacle of his historian heights. Some still have not grasped that all the peace prattle and talk of recognition of a Palestinian State were meant simply to please the ear of some naive American president. The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, and for that matter also, Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, will all remain sites under the control of a strong Israel. It is true that they interfere a bit with Israel trying to set up the formation of a second Indian-like Reservation, in addition to the one in Gaza.

However, an enormous reshuffling perhaps in the shape of an all-out war with Iran might open up alternative demographic options, making way for the annexation of the precious memorial heritage sites that preserve the eternal nation.

In the framework of the governmental declarations it has also been stated that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the “Fathers of the Nation.” And here I thought that they were really Theodore Herzl, Max Nordau or Vladimir Jabotinsky. Thank Heavens that I was mistaken; otherwise Netanyahu would declare the casino house where the first Zionist Congress took place in Basel as a heritage site and would propose investing additional millions for its preservation. For it was there that Herzl gambled, and later claimed the Jewish State was founded. It seems more and more that it was indeed a fateful gamble.