‘Go, Post a Lookout’

Stand for Israel | May 12, 2020

Farmer planting on Kibbutz Gevulot, 1943

Today’s Israeli history lesson is about the first lookout, Kibbutz Gevulot, posted along Israel’s southern border. The Negev Desert kibbutz (collective Israeli farming community) still exists today. And its story reminds us of this verse from the prophet Isaiah:

“This is what the Lord says to me:
‘Go, post a lookout
and have him report what he sees.'” (21:6)

On May 12, 1943, a group of olim (Jewish immigrants) from Romania and Turkey made aliyah (immigrated to the Holy Land). They were the first to do so in the Negev region of southern Israel. The modern state of Israel was still five years from declaring her independence, but she still had watchmen on her walls.

These olim founded a settlement called Mitzpe Gevulot (Hebrew for “Borders Lookout”). You see, this area – still the target for so many terrorist rockets – was already a dangerous one. Gevulot was the first of what became known as “The Three Lookouts” (along with Revivim and Beit Eshel), and would be instrumental in planting a flag for Israel on her biblical and historic land.

We salute these historic men and women who helped found the Jewish state as we know her today.