The coincidental timing couldn't be more appropriate.

 UNESCO -- one of the UN's many agencies with an anti-Israel agenda --pressures Israel to remove the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron from its list of national heritage sites.  The cave is the burial place of Judaism's three Patriarchs -- Abrahma, Isaac and Jacob -- and three of its four Matriarchs -- Sarah, Rebecca and Leah.

The fourth Jewish Matriarch, Rachel, is buried near Bethlehem.  As part of its campaign to help Palestinians with their efforts to deny historic Jewish ties to the Holy Land, UNESCO also announced that Rachel's Tomb is really a mosque.

However, UNESCO's timing turns out to be a bit untimely.  Because this week, in synagogues around the world, Jews  read the "Chaye Sarah" portion of the Book of Genesis, which recounts how Abraham, in his search for a burial place for his beloved Sarah, bougt the Cave of Machpelah and its adjacent land from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels of silver as a deed in perpetuity.

Thus, this week's Torah reminder squarely puts the spotlight on the first real estate transaction in biblical history -- the start of nearly 4,000 years of Jewish ties to the Holy Land.  Because of the Cave of the Patriarachs and the Matriarchs, Hebron is Judaism's second holiest city -- after Jerusalem.

But UNESCO brushes all this aside.  Like other UN bureaucracies, it already has decided that a future Palestinian state will encompass the entire West Bank as defined by a 1949 armistice line.  And since the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem are on the Palestinian side of that line, UNESCO wants Israel to disown their sacred and historic ties to Israel and the Jewish people.

However, notwisthstanding UNESCO's latest anti-Israel propaganda drive, in this instance, the Bible fortuitously offers the best and most authoritative refutation of this clumsy UN attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state.

UNESCO, the land is ours.  We bought it fair and square.  Just consult the Bible -- assuming there happens to be one in your august offices.


LEO RENNERT