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| GUSH KATIF |
WHAT WOULD MY GRANDFATHER SAY?
Posted by Paula R. Stern, July 31, 2005. |
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My grandfather lived in a world that did not understand or care about his religion and so he was forced to choose between observance and feeding his family, abandoning much of what he'd learned as a child in Poland in order to raise a family in America while trying to save his mother and sisters from the clouds of darkness spreading across his native Poland. His world came crashing down with the knowledge that the storm broke too soon and his family perished in Auschwitz. As I grew up, he often spoke about Israel and we shared a dream of coming here together one day. He was a father and grandfather, a house painter, a simple man in many ways, but most of all, he was simply a Jew. As I raise my children in the Jewish state he loved, as I try to shape the people they are becoming, we have reclaimed the Jewish Sabbath, and brought back to life the pride he once felt. We no longer need the world's permission or approval to practice our religion. My daughter and I returned to Poland to walk the streets of my grandfather's youth with pride and anger. We held our heads high in Auschwitz. We were the survivors, proud Israelis come to tell the world that never again would Jews be at anyone's mercy. Never again, would there be a Holocaust on our watch, no ghettos, no synagogues destroyed and people shipped off to death camps. I spoke to the memory of my grandfather often while in Poland. I told him that he could be proud, he could rest in peace. Jewish communities and houses of worship, cemeteries and schools were finally safe. Israel would protect all Jews everywhere from the hatred that drove him out of Poland and murdered his family. Often as I toured Poland, I asked myself what kind of person could have committed these horrors, what kind of person ordered these crimes of murder, destruction and desecration? And now, as the bitter countdown continues towards one of the most disastrous and dangerous decisions any Israeli government has ever thrust on our nation, I am haunted by the simple question, what kind of Jew will it take to implement Sharon's madness? What kind of Jew does it take to incarcerate 14-year-old Chaya Belogorodsky who is accused of standing on a sidewalk while her friends blocked traffic. Not content to arrest her teenage friends, a female police officer warned Chaya to leave the area. Chaya responded that she was standing on the sidewalk and had a legal right to do so. She was then arrested and has spent the last four weeks in jail. Here in Israel. Impossible to imagine, and yet there sits Chaya. And she is not alone. There are literally dozens of other young people being held for similar "crimes" of absurdity. This is the government Sharon has established, the justice system of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, the police force of Commissioner Moshe Karadi and ultimately, the army of Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz. What kind of Jew does it take to imprison and besiege 40,000 peaceful protesters? What kind of Jew imprisons mothers and babies, rabbis and teachers with barbed wire? What kind of Jew will it take to implement Ariel Sharon's expulsion plan? And, as if those weren't hard enough questions to answer, another one creeps into my mind and refuses to leave. What kind of Jew can go into a synagogue and blow it up? I first thought of this question on a Friday night in Neve Dekalim a few weeks ago as I listened to the rabbi speaking. He spoke about his community, about Jews fighting .Sharon's evil plan peacefully and with no violence. He talked of life in Gush Katif, what they had built, why they had come, and how much they loved what they had created. Paradise, he called the place. And as the rabbi spoke, I found myself looking around the large room, at the windows, at the people, at the books. It shouldn't happen. It can't happen. They have such faith that it won't happen. Please let them be right, let Ariel Sharon come to his senses before he rips people from their homes in exchange for nothing, before he tears a society to pieces. In the morning, I went to a different synagogue. This one also beautifully designed and decorated, filled with books and light and air and again I wondered. What kind of Jew, a soldier in our army, a son of Israel will blow them up? When the soldiers come, the people will be gone, the bookshelves empty. The Torah scrolls will be removed from the Holy Ark. They will walk into the empty synagogue, their boots echoing off the empty walls. They'll have to look straight up to see the high ceilings, but will they notice the way the architect designed it so that the morning light shines into the large room, or how one of the synagogues is shaped like the Star of David? Will they realize that they are doing something that no Jew has ever done, that no Jew should ever do? They will calculate, as they have been taught to do, where to place the explosives to maximize the damage, to bring the ceiling down and make the walls crumble. They have been ordered to destroy a place of learning, of prayer, of respect, the very essence of why we have come to live in this land. These buildings are why they hate us, why they hound us, why we need a land of our own. If we destroy who we are, there is nothing left. We are not the same people we were when my grandfather had to choose between desecrating the Sabbath and trying to raise money to save his family. Don't do what other nations have done to us, don't destroy a Jewish house of prayer, don't expel Jews from their land. In the entire history of our people, when have we ever destroyed our own places of worship? This is what they did to us in Europe, in the pogroms, the crusades, the Holocaust. This is what our enemies have tried to do all along, to erase who we are. This is not something that a soldier of the Jewish army should do. I can't help but wonder what my grandfather would say if he knew that this time, it will be the Jews themselves who plan to destroy the Houses of God. Paula R. Stern is the founder and documentation manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company. |
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TALKING TRASH IN N'VEI DEKALIM
Posted by David Miller, July 31, 2005. |
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This was an interview with David Hoffmanin N'vei Dekalim. It appeared in Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) last Friday. The next time you're in N'vei Dekalim in Gush Katif , keep your eyes open for the trash man. According to David Hoffman, who has lived in N'vei Dekalim since 1993, it'll most likely be an American. Listen to the related interview on Israel National Radio You see, Hoffman should know better than most, because when he first decided to make aliyah, the local town council offered him a job which they said was just for Americans: a garbage collector. "Not a problem," says Hoffman. In an interview broadcast this week on IsraelNationalRadio.com's Stutz and Fleisher show, Hoffman adds, "There's absolutely no shame in it at all. It was just a joke in the city government. It was just a job Americans could do." Well, this bit of employment news should dispel more than a few pre-conceived notions. American olim are all rich, professional people, right? Not so. Hoffman expounds: "In N'vei Dekalim, there really are no 'rich Americans'. Here people come, and it's an extremely special community. Status is very non applicable. When we sit down at the study table, you'll have the gardener, the psychologist, the rabbi, a plumber or an air conditioning repair man. It simply does not matter." So, now we get to the heart of the matter. Stereo types have often dictated how a person's experience turns out when immigrating to Israel. However, for this community, breaking the mold is just part of their daily existence. Deep rooted traditions in Judaism makes the mere fact of living here special, so any job will do in a storm. "N'vei Dekalim escapes all the nonsense of the modern age and brings you right back to the core of Judaism," says Hoffman. As Hoffman relates his experiences, he sits between the two beautiful synagogues here - one Sephardic [following the customs of Jews from the Near East], one Ashkenazi [following customs of Jews from Russia and Europe]. Suddenly, a wistful but knowing look comes across his face. You know the look. Sharon. Expulsion. Then, probably the most telling look emerges --confidence. It's almost as if he anticipates the next question, like a prize fighter ducking a left hook (special emphasis on left): "If Israel's Prime Minister has his way, all this will be empty in mere weeks, right?" "Don't bet on it," says Hoffman. He continues: "I'm very inclined to think there will be a tremendous surge of power coming out of Jewish communities all over the country, and I feel that he [Sharon] will be stopped. Fully 40 percent of his army is going to sit down and not do anything. Anyone that talks to the soldiers realizes that. They don't want to do it. The police, too. They know it's wrong." Not leaving it to chance, however, Hoffman does his part by attending demonstrations, and talks about it to anyone who will listen. But more than any of this, he makes sure that his family continues their lives. His kids go to school. His wife works. They go to synagogue. This is proof of life. It's clear that Hoffman understands that this land was given by G-d, and he plans to make the most of that gift. "If human civilization is not successful here, especially here in N'vei Dekalim, one has to ask what does heaven want out of human behavior, because this is altogether a wonderful place to live," says Hoffman. <.blockquote> David Miller is a staff writer for Arutz-Sheva. |
| GUSH KATIF |
AFSI CHIZUK MISSION RETURNS TO ISRAEL NOV. 20-28, 2005
Posted by AFSI, July 31, 2005. |
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Once again, in the true tradition of the AFSI Chizuk missions, we will be departing for Israel on Sunday, Nov. 20 from Newark airport on El Al airlines. This November mission is always based around celebrating the parsha of Chaye Sarah in Hebron at the Ma'arat HaMachpela. We plan to be doing that again on Nov. 25 & 26, staying at the very hospitable Yeshivat Nir in Kiryat Arba. Our past trips have always included visits to our friends in Gush Katif, Judea, Samaria, the Golan, and Jerusalem . We hope to continue in this tradition. As always, our itinerary, jam packed with exciting people, places, and activities, is fluid. Please consult the afsi.org website for details and photos of our previous trips. This is a very popular mission, unique in its travels to the disputed areas of Israel . We have the best guides and travel in an armored bus with the best drivers. The cost of the trip is guesstimated to be $2000 plus airport taxes and additional costs for non-members, single occupancy and other personal preferences. A deposit of $150 is required by Thursday, August 4. It is totally refundable up to Sept.19, and non-refundable after that. You may make your check out to AFSI or call in with your charge card information. If you are at all interested in joining the AFSI Chizuk mission, you are advised to sign up immediately. Please contact Helen, Sima or Charlotte at AFSI : 212-828-2424; afsi@rcn.com. We look forward to welcoming you to the AFSI traveling family. AMERICANS FOR A SAFE ISRAEL/AFSI; 1623 Third Ave., # 205, New York, N.Y. 10128; Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717; afsi@rcn.com; www.afsi.org; June 30, 2005 Contact: Helen Freedman, Executive Director |
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IN DEFENSE OF NADIA
Posted by Professor Paul Eidelberg, July 31, 2005. |
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In "Scorched-earth Kulturampf" (Jerusalem Post, July 12) Caroline B. Glick contends that it was "both wrong and nasty" of Nadia Matar to refer to Yonatan Bassi as "a modern version of the Judenrat." The unflattering comparison appears in a fax Ms. Matar sent Bassi on the occasion of his having accepted the position to head the government's withdrawal authority, that is, to be Prime Minister's Sharon's chief liquidator of Jewish homes and communities in Israel. Ms. Matar's fax has resulted in her being indicted for "insulting a public official" - a remarkable commentary on Israeli democracy! Was Nadia "both wrong and nasty" for drawing an analogy between Bassi and the Judenrat? I don't think so - and I say this with great admiration of Ms. Glick, who recently referred to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a coward. Needless to say, Matar knows as well as Glick that the 10,000 Jews scheduled to be expelled from Gaza and northern Samaria are not going to be sent to any death camps. But many will be forcibly evicted, incarcerated, and even held in detention camps, and this recalls the initial stage of the Nazi treatment of Jews. Hence, to liken Bassi to the Judenrat is, in my opinion, a politically justifiable analogy. Indeed, unlike the Judenrat, Mr. Bassi was free to decline the position to supervise the expulsion of Jews. In this respect the analogy between Bassi and the Judenrat is not quite fair - to the Judenrat! But even if that analogy is somewhat hyperbolic, I would like to remind Ms. Glick of Ortega y Gasset, who acutely remarked that nothing significant is said without exaggeration. Besides, Ms. Matar was not engaging in some academic exercise when likening Bassi to the Judenrat. She is concerned about Israel's survival, and she fears, as does Ms. Glick and Israel's highest military and intelligence officials, that surrendering the land in question to Arab terrorists will endanger Israel's existence. This makes Bassi complicit in what some legal experts deem treason! Ms. Matar is also concerned about the ideological motive of the withdrawal plan, the same that underlies Oslo or the Left's policy of "territory for peace." The real motive of that policy was not the desire for peace. Had that been the motive, why would the Left persist in this policy after twelve years of terrorism and 10,000 Jewish casualties? Some leftists may live in denial, but this is not true of Israel's political and judicial elites. Let's go to the heart of the matter. As the present writer said many years ago, given the high birth rate of the religious community, the Left knows it is doomed to political oblivion. This is why it has eased the entry of gentiles, relaxed the conversion and citizenship laws, emasculated the rabbinate, legitimized pornography and homosexuality, and, more generally, advocates Israel's transformation into "a state of its citizens." By now it should be obvious that the Left wants to destroy Judaism in this country, which is why it has pursued the policy of "territory for peace." This is what lurks in the Sharon withdrawal plan. Ms. Glick confirms this in her "Kulturampf" article. She asks, what are the state prosecutors trying to accomplish by criminalizing Nadia Matar? She sees the explanation in the July 12 issues of Ha'aretz and Ma'ariv. As Ms. Glick puts it, "the rationale for the Left's support of Sharon's plan was laid bare" in Ha'aretz's editorial: The disengagement of Israeli policy from its religious fuel is the real disengagement currently on the agenda... On the day after the disengagement, religious Zionism's status will be different... The real question is not how many mortar shells will fall, or who will guard the Philadelphi route, or whether the Palestinians will dance on the roofs of Ganei Tal. The real question is who sets the national agenda. Ma'ariv's senior commentator Dan Margolit would place quotas on the number of religious Jews allowed to serve as officers in the IDF. (This would inevitably diminish the influence of religious Jews on the course and character of the state, especially in view of the projected abandonment of Judea and Samaria to achieve the Peres-Sharon goal of a Palestinian state.) Nadia Matar is well aware of the Left's ideological agenda. She knows how the Left deJudaized the curriculum of Israel's public schools. She knows that the expulsion of Jews from Gaza will lead to the expulsion of the 250,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria. She knows that Judea and Samaria are linked to the teachings of Israel's prophets and sages and are thus engraved in the Jewish people's collective memory. She knows that the Disengagement Plan will shrink and emasculate the Jewish soul. But this is precisely the motive underlying the Left's policy of "territory for peace," now spearheaded by Ariel Sharon. Disengagement is part of a power struggle for Israel's future. The struggle is between authentic Jews like Nadia Matar and Jews who lack her intellectual integrity, her moral courage, and her sense of Jewish national pride. Professor Paul Eidelberg is a political scientist, author and lecturer; co-founder and president of The Foundation For Constitutional Democracy and is the President of the Yamin Israel movement. |
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PROFILING SUPPORTERS OF TERROR
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 31, 2005. |
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This article is stored on http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpresp=666s/?: The MSM spend so much time debating the profiling of potential terrorists that they never quite get around to discussing the profiling of people who SUPPORT terrorism. What the world needs is a clear system of profiling PRO-Terrorists, so that ordinary citizens in Peoria can beware and be wary of the true agendas of such people. A pro-terrorist is someone who thinks that al-Qaeda terrorism has "roots" in the form of legitimate grievances of terrorists. You know, grievances of Palestinian graduate students planning suicide bombings and Saudi oil millionaires joining al-Qaeda. Their main grievances of course being Israel's very existence and the failue to restore Saddam Hussein to power. A pro-terrorist is someone who thinks that terrorism is due to "occupation" by Israel of Israeli lands and "occupation" by Allied troops of Iraq and Afghanistan. A pro-terrorist is someone who thinks Israel is an "apartheid state", whereas we all know that it is the only state in the Middle East that is NOT an apartheid regime. A pro-terrorist speaks about solving the problems of terror via "justice", but by "justice" they mean the genocide of Israelis. A pro-terrorist thinks that the US and Britain need to alter their regimes along the lines of the leftist "vision" as the only possible way to stop terrorism. A pro-terrorist thinks that arms should never be used against terrorists and can only legitimately be used to "resist" Israeli occupation and the anti-terror campaign of the West. A pro-terrorist thinks Western greed and selfishness are the root of all problems. A pro-terrorist thinks that anti-Americanism is based upon true caring and compassion. A pro-terrorist opposes US intervention anywhere in the world unless it is to be in support of Palestinian terrorists. A pro-terrorist does not consider anti-American or anti-Jewish terrorists to be actual terrorists but rather to be "activists" and militants". Israeli troops who arrest people planning suicide attacks are the REAL terrorists. A pro-terrorist opposes Israel's security wall because such a wall might make it harder for Palestinians to conduct mass murders of Jewish children. A pro-terrorist opposes "racial profiling" because it might help prevent Islamofascist terrorism. A pro-terrorist insists that only American and British isolationism is a permissible form of combat against Islamofascism. (It should be noted that some seeming conservatives, like Anthony Gregory over at www.LewRockewell.com, are as clearly pro-terror as are the usual leftists and "anarchists" correctly so profiled. [One comment on the article noted that "But it's only the Radical Muslins" is the next fallback. Sure, the radicals do all the bombing and throat cutting, while the "'moderates' deny reposibility and cry persecution. That's not internal dissention, that's playing 'Good Hadji, Bad Hadji' and the game is wearing thin."] Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
REJECT EXTREMISM; EMBRACE MODERATION
Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), July 31, 2005. |
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This essay was written by Yehezkel Bin-Num and it appeared in Arutz-7
(www.IsraelNationalNews.com).
I was recently thrown in jail by the Israeli "justice" system for two and a half weeks. My "crime"? I am accused of supporting non-violent civil disobedience in opposition to the ethnic cleaning of the Jews of Gaza and to demand that the expulsion plan be decided on democratically by the People of Israel. Never mind that thousands of other Israelis who have actually blocked roads were not punished at all. It is unfortunate that the law is different if you are religious and right-wing. I received fantastic support from many people while I was in jail, but the amazing success of the road-blockings has also caused some disgruntled people to complain. "It Won't Help" A favorite claim of the opponents of Gush Katif is to say that it "won't help". That all the facts prove the exact opposite doesn't faze these know-it-alls. Crime reporter Buki Naeh, of Yediot Acharonot (Israel's largest newspaper), wrote the day after the road-blockings, "When the Israeli police force wants to do something, it does it, and when it does not want to, it does not. The events of yesterday raise the suspicion that there is no chance in the world that the police will be able to fulfill the mission of the Disengagement." Israel's Chief of Police himself stated months ago that if the people "go into the streets," then there is "no way the expulsion plan can be implemented." Even the Israeli Justice system agrees. The judge who tried Shai Malka and Ariel Vengrover, the head of the movement which called for the road-blockings, stated that the two were dangerous to society because "the road-blockings are capable of stopping implementation of the Disengagement Plan." On 28 June, Ha'aretz newspaper commentator Amir Oren even wrote that, due to the opposition, the IDF was preparing for the possible cancellation of the expulsion. It's lucky that no one told Martin Luther King and India's Gandhi that road-blockings don't help, otherwise India would never have won independence and American blacks would still be living under segregation. But it is funny, too. How dumb can Israelis be? They have been blocking roads in Israel for decades and they don't even know it doesn't work! A few years ago, the residents of Mevaseret Tzion blocked the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway to protest the planned annexation of their city to Jerusalem - the plan was subsequently scrapped. Two years ago the government planned to raise fees for university students, which are currently the lowest in the world. The students said they wouldn't stand for it. They blocked roads all over the country and (surprise, surprise) the government quickly backed down and trashed the fee hike. New immigrants, cab and truck drivers, farmers, lesbians and homosexuals, leftist/anarchists and Haredim - all have blocked roads across the country; and for a good reason - it gets the job done. The know-it-alls continue to spout their nonsense even though Ariel Sharon has made it clear that the only people who bother him are the road-blockers. Twice in the past week Sharon has publicly attacked the road-blockers. On June 23, for instance, Sharon, at wits ends from the demonstrations, shrieked that the road-blockings "could not continue" and that they were "halting regular life in Israel." Why does Sharon ignore all the 'nice' demonstrators? As a career general, he knows to spot a threat when he sees one. A poll publicized on June 26 by the University of Haifa revealed that 20% of Israel's Jewish population - or over one million people (!) - are willing to block the roads. The Prisons Authority recently admitted it will only have 2,500 places for road-blockers by the time of the expulsion. It "Upsets" People Another favorite argument is that the road-blockings "upset people" and "make the people hate us." Where did they get this from, I don't know? My friend, a programmer at a hi-tech company in Tel Aviv found just the opposite. The day after the road-blockings, his fellow employees came up to him and told him how impressed they were that the national-religious were willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause. Of course, it may be just a coincidence that, a few days after the road-blockings, the polls showed, for the first time, that support for the Disengagement had fallen below 50%. Also following the road-blockings, Army Radio's left-wing commentator, the famous Razi Barkai, said for the first time that he does not think the expulsion plan could be implemented. Coincidence, of course. But even if it were true that it angers some people - who cares? What kind of person gets upset when he is delayed for an hour, but doesn't bat an eyelash when 10,000 people are expelled from their homes? Does a person with such a warped value system deserve to be taken into account? It was none other than Rabbi Carlebach, the Master of Love, who said, "If you're doing something and it's not bothering anybody, it's probably not worth doing." "What Will They Think Of Us?" The national-religious public must stop trying to get everyone to love them. It doesn't work and it usually engenders just the opposite reaction. There is no community in Israel attacked as much as the national-religious. One need only open a Haredi or secular newspaper to see how much the national-religious are maligned. Self-Sacrifice Those who stand by while 10,000 Jews are expelled from their homes are not being kind; they are being extremely cruel. But, of course, it is easier to camouflage our egotistical self-interests as elevated values in order to mollify our conscience. Nobody wants to sit in jail. But sometimes, in order to do what is right, you need to pay a price. The Torah teaches: "Three things are acquired with suffering: Torah, Olam Habah and Eretz Yisrael." Those who wish to ignore this reality only manage to fool themselves. Thank God, the price we are asked to pay is nothing compared to that of our ancestors. In previous generations, Jews had to give their lives to protect the Land of Israel. All we are required to do is spend a few days or weeks in the slammer. We must learn to put the interests of Am Yisrael before our own. It's inconceivable that gentiles should be willing to go to jail to defend all the questionable values they consider important and that Jews would not willingly to go to jail for the Land of Israel and to protect God's honor. We must stop fearing men and start fearing only God. Many people think that the secular Left is opposed to Jewish values and so, we must compromise them for "peace". But others know how to see deeper. The left does not oppose our values so much as our weakness. The fascination in the secular world with such things as sex and drugs comes from a desire for things that generate powerful feelings. The secular will share our values, but only if they are strong. By capitulating on them, we actually do the most harm to brotherhood, by denying the secular person the opportunity to respect observant Jews and Judaism. Extremism Any value taken to an extreme becomes evil - yes, even love. The Torah teaches that those who are merciful to the cruel are eventually cruel to the merciful. A very well known rabbi, famous for preaching "love", wrote an article in the Machon Meir Torah sheet entitled "Not by Force". The rabbi seems to have meant that passive civil disobedience is force. This very same rabbi demands that IDF soldiers forcefully drive Jews from their homes because, according to him, it is "forbidden to refuse orders." And so, we arrive at the absurdity that in the name of "love" and "brotherhood" we are required to expel 10,000 Jews from their homes. For any rabbi to support violence against Jews is terrible, but to support it in the name of "love" is unthinkable. This hypocrisy must stop! But between the extremes of pacifism and violence lies a third moderate way - passive civil disobedience. On the one hand, you refuse to raise your hand against your neighbor. On the other hand, you block his path to committing evil. The Rambam teaches that the middle path, the path of moderation is the path of the Jew. Extremism, meanwhile, only engenders extremism. In the last generation, two very charismatic American rabbis dominated the Jewish scene - one taught strict justice and the other extreme kindness. Both were tzaddikim who sacrificed themselves for the Jewish people. I think that by sending us these two rabbis, G-d was sending us a clear message - both kindness and justice are important. Not just one, or the other. As King David says in Psalm 101, "Of kindness and justice do I sing." Judaism is not Christianity, we do not believe in turning the other cheek. When injustice is being done, we are commanded to stand up to prevent it, even if this means paying a personal price. The Gemarra relates that when Jesus made a lustful remark about a woman in a pub, his rabbi "pushed him away with both hands." This was credited with causing Jesus to stray and create Christianity, which later caused so much suffering to the Jews. Instead, our sages say, this rabbi should have "pushed Jesus away with his left hand and pulled him in with his right hand." Unfortunately, it seems that our generation is intent on making the opposite mistake - that of pulling people in with both hands. But neither of these extremes is the way of our sages. Violence Another favorite slander is to depict the road-blockings as "violence". Of course, the commentators only say it is violence when the Right does it. When the Left does it, none of those same people say anything. It would be interesting for the millions of civil rights activists who admire Ghandi and Martin Luther King to know that the passive civil disobedience practiced by their heroes was really criminal violence. Only in Israel are people rewriting history and defaming the lives of great men to win a political argument. Prayer is Enough A final excuse is to say that "prayer is enough". The people preaching that stance like to depict themselves as being very pious, and hence, they can not be bothered to deal with earthly, mundane matters like demonstrating. Unfortunately for them, the Torah rejects this view, as is proven by the famous midrash that states that King David was greater than King Hezekiah because David would not only pray for salvation, as Hezekiah did, but he would also go out and fight. Many people ask me, "What do you think will be? Will there be an expulsion or not?" My answer is: "Who cares." God didn't create us to predict the future. He gave us free will because he wants us to use it and act to change this world for the better. The only question is, "What is the right thing to do?" As Rabbi Kook once wrote, "The majority is up to us." If we prefer to be passive and sit home and cry, then there will be a tragedy; but if we prefer to take our fate into our own hands, with God's help, the dictator will fall and the racist expulsion will be annulled. The state of Israel does not belong to the far-left, it belongs to all Israelis. The time has come to return the power to the people.
Sergio Tezza can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net.
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ARIEL SHARON, DEAD AT AGE ...
Posted by Beth Goodtree, July 31, 2005. |
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When dealing with someone well-known to the public, the media writes their obituaries long before they die, just in case something happens and it is suddenly needed. In asking people why they think Mr. Sharon is behaving the way he is, many experts say it is because he wants to go down in history as a great leader. Well, it ain't a'gonna happen. If Ariel Sharon were to drop dead today, here is the obituary I would write. And I was only slightly less kind than my premature eulogy to Yasser Arafat, who at least was honest enough to be a self-declared enemy of the Jewish people. Ariel Sharon Exploded Today From Overeating Crow Ariel Sharon was given the opportunity to be a great leader of the Jewish people and instead sold them out to those bent upon their destruction. He single-handedly destroyed multiple generations of hard work. He single-handedly sold the lives and livelihoods of dedicated Jews to their enemies in return for a free pass on his shady financial and political dealings. Mr. Sharon gave, with no concessions whatsoever, ancient Jewish homeland that had been recovered and revitalized by the Hebrew people over generations. Mr. Sharon proved what a traitor of the Jewish people he was when he reneged on every single campaign pledge he made during his 2000 election. Then he embraced the very person the Israeli people absolutely rejected as their leader -- Shimon Peres -- and gave him practically a co-chair in the government. But Mr. Sharon didn't stop at that. Reminiscent of Mussolini, Stalin and the like, he fired anyone who disagreed with him and blackmailed others into going along with them so they or their family or friends could keep their jobs. Mr. Sharon went even further, demonizing the hardworking Israelis who did not want to have their bought-and-paid-for homes and businesses confiscated and given over -- for free no less -- to the very people who bombed, shot at and stoned them mercilessly day and night for four years, with 22,000 attacks. Mr. Sharon gave these murderous and genocidally bent monsters the homes, lands and business properties of these innocent Israelis. Yet he kept his own huge $11M farm. (Where does a civil servant get that kind of money?) Mr. Sharon lost all of his Jewish heritage and teachings and took up the very same immoral, nay demonic, practices of the Islamist enemies of the Hebrew people. Besides having shady financial dealings and then lying about them, he staged incidents of violence and then blamed his victims for them. One incident is speculated to have been throwing oil and nails onto highways and blaming it on those opposed to being ethnically cleansed from their homes. Another incident involved getting the media to make another Jenin falsification media feeding frenzy. It has been said that at Sharon's request, the media inflated a minor skirmish into a near lynching. A Jewish boy, having been besieged by upwards of 30 Arab youths was held up by Sharon as a terrorist who tried to lynch one of the Arabs. This boy accused of the near lynching was also one of the ones slated for ethnic cleansing by Sharon because he is Jewish and was opposed to it. Meanwhile, the Arab victim of the incident was seen walking away and later stated that it was not a lynching and that he was perfectly all right. More subtle evidence of perfidy was Mr. Sharon jailing children as young as 12 and 13 years old for protesting being evicted from the only homes they had ever known, also because they are Jewish. Contrast that to Mr. Sharon failing to respond to the countless rocket and mortar attacks on these same children's houses, despite his obligation to protect all Israelis living in Israel. Recently, one landed on a nursery school. Yet Mr. Sharon failed to respond. And in that failure, Sharon gave his obviously willing passive (aggressive) support for genocide against the Jewish people. All the while jailing children who protest being ethnically cleansed and having their lives, homes and communities ripped from them and given to those very people who have been trying to murder them. Ariel Sharon will go down forever in Jewish history as a modern-day Amalek and Haman combined. May he and his descendants be cursed forever. (By the way Ariel, you arrested the wrong guy for the National Home website. This website, which told Israelis who oppose the disengagement how to avoid participating without losing their jobs, was also taken down by your storm troopers. Apparently freedom of speech no longer applies in Israel if one disagrees with you. Unfortunately for you, Ariel, that man you arrested was only the webmaster and not the brains. The people running it are out of your reach by being in countries that do practice democracy. Looks like you can't control everything no matter how much you bully and use the police, the courts and the media as your personal slaves and henchmen. Look for it to come back from places and people you can't touch.) Beth Goodtree is a popular writer covering Middle East politics, national interests and also writes the occasional science and humor pieces. Her webpage can be acccessed from is www.theraphi.com (Beth is also the inventor of the Mazel Tov Cocktail: Start with some nice Kosher wine, add a bissele Cel-Ray tonic, serve with a cherry in a fancy-shmancy clean glass, and say this toast:
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IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
Posted by Morris J. Amitay, July 31, 2005. |
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There are certain basic questions about the Middle East which really deserve answers, but are often conveniently avoided. Here are a number of queries we think deserve consideration. The Terrorist Threat Why are U.S. officials still reluctant to cite radical Islam as the source of the terrorist threat? Why did the Administration recently rename the fight against terrorism as "a global struggle against violent extremism: - instead of describing it more aptly as "Islamic extremism?: Isn't this the same kind of mindset that has the security personnel at our airports frisking an 84 year-old grandmother from Iowa instead of a 25 year-old male from Saudi Arabia? Al-Jazeera Why do we permit Al-Jazeera's blatant anti-U.S., and "inciteful" broadcasts to openly operate here, and even have government officials occasionally appear before its cameras? Similarly, why do the new Iraqi authorities not have anti-sedition laws which would shut down Al-Jazeera in Baghdad? Condi Rice Is there something in the water at the State Department which turns its occupants? minds into even-handed mush when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict? How else do you explain Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice publicly complementing the Palestinian leadership for taking "important steps" against terrorism? Why didn't anyone ask her to name these "steps" - or even one? Egypt With Egypt receiving another $1.3 b. in U.S. military aid this year (and more than $50 billion in overall aid since 1979), and with no enemies around, has anyone come up with a rationale why it needs all this advanced hardware, including over 200 F-16s? Could it be that Cairo is preparing for a future military confrontation with Israel? Should we then be surprised that leading Egyptian commentators are now blaming Israel for the Sharm el-Sheik bombings? Saudi Arabia If you (rightfully) considered outgoing Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar to be an ultimate slimeball, could his successor, Prince Turki with his "intelligence" background and early support for Bin-Laden actually be any better? So what is the logic behind Brookings Saban Center's Flynt Leverett, a former CIA operative and Kerry adviser, writing (where else) in the NY Times, that the new envoy represents "reformist elements" in Saudi Arabia? Given Leverett's background, (he was also wisely removed from the Bush NSC's Middle East desk), is it any wonder he also called for modifying U.S. policy towards Israel "to recognize Saudi interests and initiatives"? London How can P.M. Tony Blair, who is now getting a crash course in combating urban terrorism, really believe that settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will keep London's subways safe? Will his desperate search to uncover the "root causes" prevent him from rooting out the terrorists in his midst? Could he be taking his cues here from spouse Cherie, who once declared - "As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up, you are never going to make progress"? Isn't the terrorists? fondest "hope" to kill as many innocents as possible? Russia How come more alarm bells are not going off as Vladimir Putin systematically returns Russia to the bad old Stalinist days and continues to help Iran acquire nukes? With a rubber stamp Duma, control over the media and prosecution of potential political adversaries, where is the bright spotlight on the machinations of this former KGB-nik? Disengagement Are there any valid reasons to believe that having broken all their solemn arguments going back to 1993 (Oslo), that the post-Arafat Palestinian leadership (which still blames Israel for provoking the ongoing terrorist attacks) will be any different after the Gaza disengagement? Isn't it a near certainty that the Israeli withdrawal will only whet the appetites of the Jihadists who rule the Gaza streets and who largely reflect Palestinian public opinion? Morrie Amitay is a former Executive Director of AIPAC and founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC (www.washingtonpac.com). |
| GUSH KATIF |
OLEG CARTOON: DESTROYING THE PROMISED LAND
Posted by Women in Green, July 31, 2005. |
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Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
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A CHRISTIAN PASTOR WRITES TO U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH!
Posted by Women in Green, July 31, 2005. |
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July 29, 2005 Dear Mr. President: Sir, political correctness is going to give our Islamic terrorist enemies the advantage in our "War Against Terrorism" which you and your leaders have changed to the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism." Let me be very candid about this. Sir, in the early days of the "Soviet invasion of Afghanistan," young Islamic zealots were recruited with Saudi Wahabi funds and then trained at training camps in Egypt and Pakistan, run by the CIA, which provided their weapons. The Islamic recruits were conveniently not told of USA CIA involvement in the camps. Sir, the goal and motive of the recruitment was to kick out of Islamic territory the evil power, the former Soviet Union. Sir, after their success therein, they then developed the ambition to take on another empire, the United States, whom the Islamists call the Crusaders and Zionists. The defining point for new recruits, right at this moment, is that of driving us Crusaders and Zionists out of Muslim Iraqi soil. Sir, the heroic icon fronting their present recruitment drive is the super-Muslim-general, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. While he also eludes capture from the 130,000 Americans and 40,000 other foreign devils, he runs circles around them. Initially, Sir, young Islamic recruits were put off by the horrendous video tapes his people kept releasing showing the most brutal beheadings of prisoners and hostages with Islamic long knives, savage rites that recall Muslim sacrificial ceremonies. Now, Sir, those ghastly scenes have been replaced with large-scale quasi-military assaults, the Egyptian envoy's kidnapping, and the 2 Algerian diplomats abduction, with no footage showing their murder. Zarqawi "reinvented" his image from "butcher" to "hero." Now, the creation is that of a Muslim general with ability to liberate "Iraq." Sir, recruitment at this moment is yes, still religious, but the language spoken in Islamic publications, local media, radio programs, Internet, and correspondence is the burning desire in Iraq to defeat America. That recruitment is manifested in London on 7-7, 7-21, and even at this moment as these lines are being written. Sir, "Islamic recruitment for their holy war" against us "Crusaders and Zionists" - the Palestinian-Israeli war is exactly the same as ours - is being accomplished by Islamic terror making the hajj (to Mecca) the backbone of their recruiting machine. (The pullout from Gaza and Shomron is a retreat without getting anything in return. After the pullout, the United Nations, the European Union, and even the USA will probably force Israel to make additional, far-reaching, one-sided concessions.) The Jewish ethos will be forever tarnished. Television coverage of dozens of synagogues, built with the full backing of the Israeli government, being violently destroyed by the Jews themselves, satellite-transmitted all over the world will so embolden the Islamic terrorists in Israel that the Israelis will have more on their hands than they can say grace over. Sir, at Madrassas - mosques, universities, sport clubs, etc. - Al Qaeda operatives gently prod young men to make the hajj. Their journey is then financed by some "Muslim charity." Little do those young Islamic pilgrims know that their names, places of origins and identities of the groups that send them on the pilgrimage are meticulously transferred in code by Internet to the "Islamic holy war" recruiting agents who are planted in the Saudi hajj bureaucracy. Sir, while performing the Islamic rites in Mecca and Medina, this vast mass of Islamic humanity is constantly on the move from station to station, all garbed in the same two white cloths. The ceremonies take place in an "atmosphere of extreme religious Islamic exhilaration," which then produces the perfect setting for recruitment to the "Islamic Terror War" against us "Crusaders and Zionists." Sir, many of the Islamic recruits go straight to Iraq. Others are sent to training facilities in north Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and some of the Gulf Emirates. Sir, what Zarqawi now has is a "manpower glut" with numbers, which used to be counted in the hundreds, up in the tens of thousands. Zarqawi is expanding his control in Iraq's Anbar province, enlarging his pool of suicide bombers and increasing his number of trained terrorist operatives to new arenas of taking on us "Crusaders and Zionists." Now, Sir, here in America, we have become so "politically correct" that Mr. Mueller (FBI) will not mention "Islamic" and "terror" in the same sentence. And, you and your higher-ups have changed our "War Against Terror" (no mention of Islam there either) to the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremists." Mr. President, your Road Map vision is flawed, at best. We will force Israel to concede territory to their "Islamic enemies," while at the same time, in the big picture, of our "Islamic Terrorist War" we stick our heads in the proverbial sand and continue to let American fighting men expend their lives and limbs in Iraq. How long, Sir, do you think it will be (with America proceeding in World War III, yet not doing so in a "totally mobilized manner") before Osama Bin Laden strikes with one of those "missing Soviet nukes" on Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, or Philadelphia? Mr. President, recruitment for future homicide bombers has drastically risen in the last few months. Your intelligence advisers must have missed that. If a 65-year-old poor boy from the Panhandle of God's Texas can pick up on that, how come American intelligence cannot get it? Mr. President, you need to go on national television and tell the American people exactly what we are up against. If you do not, it will only be a matter of time before the leftists in the Democratic party, the Republican leftists, the leftist in the news media, and the leftist in the academia count the casualties we are continuing to suffer in Iraq and turn the American public against our involvement. Then, Sir, we will pull out of Iraq and turn over parts of Israel to the Islamists. Islamic recruitment of homicide bombers will then sky-rocket, and free people will not be safe anywhere. Backpack bombs will be set off in American cities, universities, subways, busses, schools, government buildings, etc., by the hundreds. Then, Sir, because of our political correctness, we will have lost the "Islamic Terrorist War," which we so foolishly called the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" in an effort not to offend Islam! Sincerely, Jim Vineyard
Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
| GUSH KATIF |
PHILADELPHI AND KATIF - THE LINES THAT BIND
Posted by Art Bashani, July 31, 2005. |
To: Letter to the Editor, Jerusalem PostBelow I suggst a way to have separation without withdrawal of the settlements. THE RAFIAH PLAN PM Sharon has set up a demographic strawman regarding Gaza. The fact is that the 8,000 Jewish settlers do not "live amid 1.2 million Arabs". There are only 150,000 Arabs in the Rafiah area, the Strip's least populated district, where most of the Jewish residents are located by strategic design in "Gush Katif", along the border with Egypt. If Sharon cannot achieve consensus in the Likud to relocate all settlements, he can go for the "Rafiah Plan" that will achieve separation without the need for withdrawal. With a spur southward through Israeli Morag and another next to Arab Rafiah, Gush Katif can be linked to the western Negev, "for the duration", instead of northward through the rest of the Strip. That area can be evacuated to allow over a million Arabs free movement in all but Rafiah. Sharon can thus avoid the national trauma of uprooting 8,000 Jewish settlers for the sake of terror, not for peace. He would then finally muster the elusive approval of the Likud. President Bush would support this plan given his statement that major settlement blocs be considered in any negotiations. Sharon would encourage this by evacuating one or two Gaza settlements and moving their few hundred settlers into Gush Katif. The U.S. administration, however, might realize that Sharon's withdrawal plan is little more than:
Contact Aaron Bashani by email at artb@netmedia.net.il |
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JANE'S AIR FORCES NEWS BRIEF
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, July 31, 2005. |
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Isn't this an amazing article? El Al was the first airline to install this equpment on any aircraft and the only one to install it on all aircraft. Israel is the only manufacturer of such defensive equipment that is certified. Yet, neither are mentioned here. Isn't it always to nice to see how fair Janes is? US awards commercial aircraft air-defence contracts Key points: * The US Department of homeland security (DHS) has awarded two contracts, worth USD45 million each, as part of the Counter Man-Portable Air-Defence programme, which aims to protect US commercial aircraft against shoulder-fired rocket systems. * According to the DHS, it would cost at least USD6 billion to fit
the entire US commercial airline fleet with counter-MANPADS equipment.
Some commercial carriers - Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Virgin
Airlines, for example - have already installed DIRCM devices on their
aircraft. Elbit acquires stake in Elisra Electronic Systems Key points: * Israel's biggest defence company, Elbit Systems, has acquired Koor Industries' 70 per cent stake in Elisra Electronic Systems in a USD70 million agreement. * The deal follows agreements that began in December 2004 with
steps towards the merger of the country's three leading private
industries: Elbit Systems, Tadiran Communications and Elisra
Electronics Industries. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
| GUSH KATIF |
SOME US CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS WORRY GAZA PULLOUT AMOUNTS TO APPEASEMENT
Posted by IsrAlert, July 31, 2005. |
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This comes from Geostrategy Direct (www.geostrategy-direct.com).
Nobody in the Republican-controlled Congress wants to be seen as opposing the wishes of both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Bush administration. But quietly, the unilateral Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip is making some prominent House and Senate members nervous. Over the past few weeks, these legislators have been briefed by leading Israeli and U.S. strategists over the impact of the Israeli pullout. The briefers have not been unanimous in their assessment. But virtually all raised the prospect of the Gaza Strip turning into another Somalia, or a terrorist haven hosted by a dysfunctional Palestinian Authority. The terrorists would certainly include members of the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah as well as Al Qaida. One scenario envisioned that Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi would use the Gaza Strip to recruit Palestinians for the Sunni insurgency in Iraq as well as for operations in neighboring Jordan. Another scenario was that Gaza would be used as a launching pad for attacks on U.S. and NATO shipping in the eastern Mediterranean. Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican and regarded as one of the most security-minded members of the House, expressed his concern over the Gaza pullout on U.S. interests in the Middle East and the war on terrorism. In a June 20 House speech, Burton, a senior member of the House International Relations Committee, viewed the Israeli withdrawal as a victory for terrorism both over the Jewish state and the United States. "Personally, I will not second guess the prime minister's wisdom," Burton said. "I very much hope that he is right. But again, my experience tells me that if you take steps to appease an enemy you only give him a green light to put more pressure on you. In my opinion, it is imperative and critical to U.S. national security that we as policymakers understand the consequences should the Israeli disengagement plan fail to live up to expectations." Burton then introduced into the record an assessment by a former Israeli diplomat, (Isralert subscriber/commentator) Yoram Ettinger, who served in Washington and as consulate-general in Houston during the 1990s. The assessment warned that the Israeli pullout could create a terrorist regime that could turn the Palestinians into an international threat against the United States as well as against such allies as Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. "Disengagement is perceived, by the Mideast, as cut and run, appeasement and cave-in, in sharp contrast to U.S. war on terrorism," the assessment said. "No negotiation with - and no concession to - terrorists; no ceasefire with, but destruction, of terrorist regimes; no political, but military solution, to terrorism." [Editor's note: Read Yoram Ettinger's assessment below.] Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com |
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LAND AND SOUL
Posted by Alexander Maistrovoy, July 30, 2005. |
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Settlers do everything possible for the saving of a doomed bulwark, but forget about a dying citadel. During the last 10 years I, being a secular man, have voted for the National-Religious Party (MAFDAL). In MAFDAL and in the settlers' movement on the whole I have seen the only force capable of leading Israel in the future. Truly adherents of pure Judaism, free of dogmatism and superstitions, Kipot srugot ("Knitted Yarmulkhas") are the embodiment of the spirit of Biblical prophecy, an ideal of a Jew in a Jewish country, to my mind. They are inseparably linked with Jewish tradition, while being actively involved in the development of modern civilization and the struggle of ideas. Unfortunately, with growing bitterness, I observe that kipot srugot are losing the fight. Not the struggle for Gush-Katif, but - much worse - the fight for the Israeli State, its soul and land. Rabbi Kook's followers achieved a lot, they succeeded in many fields. Pioneers of Israel in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the best soldiers and officers in the Army, people who have never been involved in intrigues and corruption, they're the salt of this land in every respect. From my point of view, they made only onw mistake, but it was a strategic, if not a fatal, error. Developing so selflessly and ardently the Land of Israel, they neglected the Soul of Israel. They forgot that besides the Land they are so anxious to keep, there are people in this country. And for these people a word about the destination of Israel and Biblical prophecies either mean nothing, or annoy them or sometimes even make them as angry as a bull when it sees a red rag. They idealized the situation too much, and all their efforts went to nothing. There is no secret that Israel society is sick. It suffers from corruption, mutual hostility, impetuous mercantilism and primitive selfishness. It is confused because of deception and lies; it lost its spiritual and moral guide lines, and has been going down-stream lately. Not Jerusalem, but a casino in Jericho, this new incarnation of the Golden Calf might be considered a symbol of today's Israel. Thousands of Israelis were striving to get there after the "intifada" had started, knowing well enough that the money they squandered there would be used for killing their compatriots by Arafat. There is hardly any doubt that the moment the Jericho casino is opened, Israelis will rush there with no less enthusiasm. Is it likely to keep Gush-Katif, if for half of Israeli young people Goa and Rishikesh are closer than Rachel's Grave and Mahpela Cave in Hebron, if the center of pilgrimage for the inhabitants of the Jewish State became not the Western Wall but coffee-shops in Amsterdam? Kipot srugot and MAFDAL concentrated all their efforts on keeping Gush-Katif, pretending not to see they have lost Gush-Dan (Big Tel-Aviv) long before. And the more persistence they demonstrate to hold settlements in Gaza, the more they lose. It isn't worth calling for disobedience to authorities, blocking highways and especially spilling oil on roads. It's absolutely out of the question to declare that the possibility of a few Israelis dying now in road accidents pales in consequences of withdrawal, as Moshe Feiglin said. Feiglin couldn't find a better occasion to discredit the settlers' movement. These are tactical errors, but they are the outcome of the wrong strategy. The direction of the "main thrust" must be changed. Kipot srugot shouldn't try to keep Gush-Katif with all their might but should change the soul of Israel society. Only society changes can affect the policy of the country. Otherwise they will lose not only Gaza, but Judea and Samaria too, and Israel itself. It will happen. There is no use striving to rescue a doomed bastion while the main citadel is falling down. There is no doubt it's difficult to breath in new life and faith into the falling-to-pieces society, but it's a real task. We can find a lot of evidence in Ancient and Modern History. For example, a tiny group of true believers led by Ignacius Loyola managed to stop the splitting of of the Catholic Church in Europe and the advance of the Reformation. In our days the Moral Majority and neoconservatives in the USA could find an antidote to vulgar liberalism, held back America from degradation and prevented the defeat in cold war with the Soviet Union and later Islamists. In less than 10 years the Israeli Sefardic Party SHAS created a dynamic and powerful movement; a handful of marginals representing "Shalom Ahshav" could impose pacifist views on the intellectual elite. But if Uri Avinery and SHAS with its oriental mysticism and middle aged ceremonial rites succeeded, why can't kipot srugot with their belief in authentic Jewish values and oracles can't win the heart of Israel? They need two components for success: a clear, well formulated idea and the ability to find the way to the hearts of every Israeli either in Shenkin Street or Or-Akiva, "Russian" and "Moor", kibuznik or a student of Tel-Aviv University. It will require extraordinary resourcefulness, sophistication and even refinement. But the future of Israel is at stake and the main task of kipot srugot is to prevent a sliding to the abyss. Jewish people will not overcome the downfall of Third Temple and the second Holocaust. Who should understand it better than MAFDAL? Alexander Maistrovoy is political columnist for the Russian-language newspaper "Novosty nedely" in Israel. Contact him by email at amaist@lycos.com |
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"DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS" OR COVER FOR FANATICS?; ARAB FAKE
CIVIC GROUPS; SHARON'S SELF-CONTRADICTIONS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 30, 2005. |
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"DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS" The Pres. of Iran proposed in 1999 a "dialogue among civilizations." The UNO set up an office for it. When the Israeli Consul General arrived at one of its meetings, the Iranian speaker suddenly remembered a "previous engagement" and left the room. He would not recognize Jewish civilization, which long preceded his Shiite one. "The farce should have ended there: Any regime that refuses to recognize the legitimacy of one of its adversaries while claiming to sponsor dialogues should be laughed at." The UNO now holds meetings for an "Alliance of Civilizations." Instead of being involved in Iranian propaganda initiatives, the UNO should be involved in potentially productive matters as demanding the release of the Iranian hunger-striker. When Pres. Bush challenged the Secretary-General to demand that release, the latter claimed not to be aware of the case. A week later, his officials had not acted. The Iranian initiatives have "nothing to do with the London bombers, their handlers, and the rest of those in the Islamic world who scoff at 'dialogues' and 'alliances' and believe Jews and Christians deserve nothing short of extinction. Battling that enemy is where funds and effort should go, rather than to meaningless Turtle Bay programs." (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 7/18, p.8.) DON'T BLAME MUSLIMS, ASSERTS SAUDI A UNESCO official and former dean of the King Fahd Academy in London expressed shock at the carnage in London. He remembers fondly the huge march against the Iraq war and violence in general, an opposition that IMRA calls irresponsible. He refers to the post-9/11 terrorism, bringing a reminder from IMRA about pre-9/11 terrorism, already extensive. The official declares that only a few individuals are involved in terrorism, and terrorism is not a monopoly of one faith. Therefore he considers it unfair to be suspicious of Islam and worries about terrorism prompting hostility towards Muslims and unfair treatment of Palestinian Arabs. It is the reaction to terrorism that may cause a clash of civilization and certainly impede the integration of Muslims within Europe (IMRA, 7/17 from Arab News). One may be outraged, but only the naïve or collaborators are shocked at the carnage in London. There have been many attacks all over the world. Thousands of terrorists are fighting. Surely, many others are engineering, planning, organizing, recruiting, and fundraising for them. S. Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, etc. are devoted to it, so as to keep youth streaming to battle, as fast as regular armies liquidate them. This is not a case of a few individuals, but of worldwide jihad, in accordance with basic principles of Islam, which is to clash with other civilizations. There are a few other non-Muslim terrorist groups, as in Ireland and Ceylon, but most are Muslim, especially on the international scene, and Islamists radicalize Muslim youth. Palestinian Arab setbacks: since their case is fraudulent, and since they wholeheartedly approve of depriving the Jews of their homeland, it is they who are unfair to others and deserve setbacks. "Integration" of Muslims in Europe is a good one! Besides being a criminal and bigoted element that attacks Christian women and Jews daily, many of the Arabs boast of a coming conquest of a cowed Europe. Helping them in that goal is their general self-segregation, their refusal to integrate in other ways, and their preachers promoting hatred. The Saudi is attempting to undermine European resistance. Be alert to Muslim pretenses at opposing jihad. Instead of becoming hostile as a result of suffering their hostile presence, Europe should expel them and then pursue its own destiny with some equanimity. HAMAS CHARITY FOR EDUCATION A charity in Britain sends the money to Hamas, but denies that this helps terrorism, because, it claims (perhaps falsely) that the money is used for education. What do you think education means to Hamas? Indoctrination. It indoctrinates in hatred and terrorism. Jihad thus is fought not only by violence but also by economic means. Britain has frozen the assets of more than 100 organizations and 200 individuals, but other groups continue to funnel money to jihadists. European states have failed to fulfill pledges to combat terrorism financially and to coordinate with each other and with the US (IMRA, 7/17). SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT ABANDONMENT Leftist columnist, Danny Rubinstein of "Haaretz," has second thoughts about Sharon's abandonment plan. He does not dispute it ideologically, but finds it counter-productive. Since the Arabs consider it the result of their terrorism, they are encouraged by it to step up that terrorism. Rubinstein believes this makes the plan unsatisfactory (IMRA, 7/18). "Disengagement" is a death trap for Israelis. If the issue were discussed honestly, openly, and fully, it would have been understood and unpopular from the start. There is nothing to commend it and everything to object in it. JORDAN TO HOST CONFERENCE ON THE TRUE ISLAM The YWCA is running an international conference in Jordan on "the true nature of Islam." The purpose is to eliminate prejudices. Why Jordan? The answer given is because of the ancient events that took place in what now is Jordan and because Jordan is known for religious coexistence (and, according to IMRA, because of YWCA myopia"). The program seeks to counter some of the negative publicity that befell Islam over violent acts in the name of Islam. IMRA suggests instead countering some of the terrorism (IMRA, 7/18). This sounds like a Muslim attempt to deceive the Christians and undermine Christians' awareness of jihad's threat to them and Christian self-defense. Jordan, far from being tolerant, has had antisemitic textbooks, until recently had the death penalty for selling land to Jews, and when it controlled Jerusalem, exerted pressure upon Christians, many of whom had to leave. In this era of jihad, the main problem is prejudice by Muslims, not against Islam. There should be more public information about the menace of Islamism. FATWA AGAINST BOMBING Britain's largest Sunni Muslim group issued a fatwa condemning the bombing of London as from a "perverted ideology." The group declared that no one has the right to kill others and that suicide bombing is contrary to Islam (NY Sun, 7/18, p.8). Is this the sincere start of the unheard from "moderate" Muslims or another exercise in damage control, like that conference in Jordan, where the Islamists form a large proportion of the population, and are no aberrant fringe. Another example is the earlier anti-terrorism march in London. Islamists, ever deceptive, participated in it, to defuse resentment against them. ARAB FAKE CIVIC GROUPS P.A. environmental NGOs use "ecological issues as a pretext for political and ideological attacks on Israel" and promoting disinvestments fromit. Of 21 P.A. environmental NGOs, only two are involved in environmental issues, but those two also campaign against Israel for its security fence and settlements. Israeli groups have had to suspend cooperation with the Arab ones, because the Arab ones have switched entirely from environmental issues to a propaganda war against Israel. "Such organizations continue to misappropriate their funds towards political campaigns, and repeatedly present unreliable and even false data, for example in accusing Israel of cutting down trees in order to build the security barrier. Yet international donors continue to support the NGOs' 'environmental' projects. (Donors repeat the defamation as if factual.) One group "claimed that the IDF had 'burned considerable areas of cropped lands and forbid Palestinian (Arab) farmers to reach their lands using dogs" and then 'randomly dispensed flyers on the farmers' lands informing of the Army's intention to clear all trees (mostly olive) existing along the Israeli bypass roads". In fact, a visit to the area demonstrates that no trees have been uprooted from the area around Tekoa, despite their use as a cover for terrorists to shoot at the road." (IMRA, 7/19.) Why didn't Israel clear those trees used by terrorists for cover? It would be justified. Since Israel gets accused anyway of doing so wantonly, it may a well do it when warranted. P.A. human rights organizations as well as environmental organizations are covers for propaganda against Israel. The P.A. Arabs have a totalitarian society and are waging total war against the Jewish state, because it is a Jewish state. That is a fact that I have not seen bruited in the "NY Times." Is ignorance why the foreign donors continue to allocate funds for the P.A. propaganda war? Or do the foreign donors, some of them governments, know and approve? ISRAELI SURREALISM The Jews of Israel are no more realistic than were the Jews of Poland. They believe what they are told by official sources, and don't realize the nature of their fascist rulers. They think officials follow the law, and are meek towards them. The officials, however, have hired foreigners in Israeli uniforms, to expel the Jews with brutality. They don't think the trucks are for them, just as they didn't expect to be carried away by the Nazis. They think the official date will be followed, although Barry Chamish warned that the government probably would move faster, to catch the settlers off guard. Indeed, the government now admits it will move earlier. Ordinary folk believe their leaders, whom they don't realize work with the officials. The leaders against abandonment tell soldiers to follow orders to expel their followers. The leaders arrange calm protests that do not impress the brutal government. The leaders tell their followers, whom the police tell to stop marching, to return home while the leaders appeal to the Supreme Court. Not much can be expected from the left-wing activist Court. The government has prepared extensively for expulsion, but the Jews involved have not planned extensively for resistance. They let police move freely in their communities, to watch them and prepare further. The Jews of Gaza do not have cans of gasoline near their hothouses, ready to burn them down, if expulsions goes through, so Peres and the Arabs cannot profit from them (Chamish, 7/19) or have profit as a motive for expulsion. I don't understand what dynamic it takes to overthrow an oppressive government. I do admire the bravery and high class, good nature of the people who face down the police. COURT FREES PROTESTOR An Israeli court found no evidence to support the charge of road-blocking against an older man held in prison for nine weeks, pending court appearance. "On the way to his Supreme Court hearing earlier this month, a policeman brutally pulled Eliyahu Herbst out of the car by his handcuffs, causing him to fall on the ground, and he was then dragged on the ground by his handcuffs until he was thrown into another car. He was then placed in solitary confinement without his belongings or a change of clothes, suffering humiliation in the process." (Arutz-7, 7/20.) The court acted decently in releasing the man, but failed to punish the police for this among many false arrests and brutality. The government is using ostensible police action as a cover for repression. The unnecessary roughing up of detainees and their long pre-trial imprisonment under harsh conditions are examples. In the US, police carefully tuck prisoners' heads under car roofs, as they place them inside, whereas Israeli police throw people in and pull them out onto the ground and drag them so as to hurt them. The government does not treat Arabs that way. Hence this is political. No one in Israel should be treated that way, not Jews, not Arabs. Punishment should be up to the justice system. The consequences may reverberate beyond the current injustice, itself serving a bad cause. SUPREME COURT COMES DOWN HARD ON ROAD-BLOCKING The Supreme Court ruled in favor of keeping two protest leaders in prison awaiting trial for road-blocking. It denied that that kind of civil disobedience is within the democratic tradition. It refused to be tolerant, lest it undermine Israeli democracy. IMRA reminds us that when unions block roads, the courts are lenient and the prosecutors are inactive (IMRA, 7/22). The Court's inconsistency indicates that it did not rule in favor of law and order or democracy but to stifle a political movement with which it disagrees ideologically. That is a perversion of justice and anti-democratic. It's expressed concern about democracy is hypocritical. SHARON'S ASSURANCE TO ARIEL OF BECOMING PART OF ISRAEL PM Sharon assured residents of Ariel that it would become a contiguous part of Israel. This contradicts US policy. Some observers attributed his unexpectedly right-wing statement to an attempt to head off his main competitor to head the Likud Party, Finance Min. Netanyahu. One of Sharon's Labor Party competitors, former PM Barak, said that the day after Gaza is abandoned, it would become clear that the US did not promise Israel to acquiesce in Israel's retaining Ariel or any other settlement blocs. Worse for the integrity of Sharon, Barak pointed out that Sharon knows this now, even as he gives Ariel assurances. Evidence? He omitted Ariel from the security fence (Arutz-7, 7/22). Israelis ought to be inured, by now, to Prime Ministers' assurances about security and about firm measures against the Arab enemy. Perhaps they are -- they defeat them for re-election, but the successor picks up where the predecessor left off. Who is putting the successors up to this? ISRAEL BLOCKS "HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS" One or two hundred activists for the Palestinian Arabs, calling themselves human rights activists, tried to enter Israel from Jordan. Israeli officials marked their passport rejected, and turned them back (7/22). Glad Israel was not masochist about it. CONGRESS STILL PRETENDS TO MONITOR AID TO P.A. ZOA is proud to have sponsored a bill that just passed the House. The bill supposedly links aid for the P.A. to what the P.A. does against terrorism and incitement to it, and gives Congress more opportunity to shut off such aid. ZOA thinks that the overwhelming vote for the bill indicates frustration over lack of information from the State Dept. about P.A. non-compliance with previously set conditions about terrorism and indoctrination in behalf of it. The bill requires the State Dept. to report more on P.A. compliance and releases the aid only if the President certifies that the law's conditions are met. The conditions are a list of the important ones in Oslo and Road Map. ZOA thinks that Congress would maintain more control inasmuch as the bill divides aid into quarterly disbursements, giving more frequent opportunity to cut off aid (IMRA, 7/22). ZOA is fooling itself about this, as Jewish organizations and idealistic Members of Congress tend to do. They are depending upon a dishonest State Dept. to report honestly and a dishonest President to certify honestly. The State Dept. and President routinely lie and pretend the Arabs comply. Such bills are deceptive, a self-deception by ZOA and a phony attempt by certain Members of Congress to take undeserved credit. The US never has penalized P.A. non-compliance. This bill represents the failure of the previous bills, about which Members of Congress boasted and which Jewish organizations praised. If the previous bills worked, this one would not be necessary. It is necessary because the State Dept. and President practiced deceit. U.S. COURT OF APPEALS REJECTS POLLARD'S APPEAL The Court rendered a negative verdict, after having refused to allow Pollard's attorneys to present most of their best arguments, during the oral presentation in March. A judge who expressed an antisemitic sentiment and revealed personal prejudice against Pollard (who did not speak) as considering himself "special," derided the defense's legal efforts but by consuming its limited time with hostile interruptions, did not get to hear what the panel derided in advance. The verdict rejects the several points of the appeal. The verdict upholds an earlier court assertion that Pollard filed the initial appeal too late. Many legal experts disagree. The appeal claims that timeliness is not an issue, because the original defense attorney failed to advise his client of his rights in the matter. The appeal claims the issue is grossly inadequate defense in the first place. The Court ruled that since Pollard knew what his previous attorneys did, he should have been aware of the legal consequences. That is not true if they did not advise him of the legal consequences. Again, the Court missed the obvious point. The appeal demanded an opportunity for defense counsel to inspect the sentencing docket that doomed the client. The Appeals Court denied that too. The justices thus denied elementary justice. It's the kind of ruling one would expect from the Soviet (or Israeli) system. The Pollards believe that the judges are acting politically, rather than judicially (IMRA, 7/22). Seems so, all the way through the case, here and in Israel. "JERUSALEM POST" HAS EDITORIAL LIKE MINE The PA "foreign minister has candidly reneged on the PA's road map commitments to confiscate weapons and explosives" from the illegal militias. Sec. "Rice nevertheless complimented the Palestinian leadership for taking 'important steps' against terrorism." "What 'steps' she was referring to was left to the imagination," while terrorism is escalating. The US continues being evenhanded, though one side is preparing for peace, and the other, for war (IMRA, 7/24). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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PALESTINIANS PREPARE FLAGS FOR EMPTY SETTLEMENTS
Posted by Daily Alert, July 30, 2005. |
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This was written by Nidal al-Mughrabi and comes from Reuters. It appeared July 28, 2005 on the Reuters Foundation AlertNet website (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28192293.htm). GAZA, July 28 (Reuters) - Israel's evacuation of its settlements in the Gaza Strip will be a banner day for Palestinians. Tens of thousands of white-black-green-and-red Palestinian national flags are being sewn in workshops in Gaza City to fly over the 21 settlements, hated symbols of occupation, once the pullout starting in mid-August is complete. "Palestinian flags will tell the world that Palestinian land ... has been returned to its Palestinian owners," Ahmed Abu Dayya, owner of Gaza's biggest flag shop, said on Thursday. Abu Dayya said the Palestinian Authority had ordered 60,000 flags for the pullout. Workers at one factory have been se wing some 3,000 pennants a day, labouring to meet an Aug. 7 delivery deadline. Some 35,000 other flags will carry the logo of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and 20,000 will be imprinted with white-and-black headresses and pictures of Abbas and the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. The work has provided sorely needed employment for hundreds of workers in the impoverished Gaza Strip, whose economy has been hit hard by more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Israel intends to demolish the settlements' red-roofed homes, dwellings the Palestinian Authority has said are impractical for meeting the housing needs of bigger Palestinian families. But both sides have yet to agree on rubble removal. Flag-making has been a booming business in Gaza, even during the Palestinian uprising. Abu Dayya said sales at his PLO Flag Shop increased during the revolt, thanks to orders by Palestinian militant groups for national flags and banners bearing the symbols of armed factions. He also sold Israeli flags to be burnt at anti-Israeli rallies. While welcoming withdrawal from land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, Palestinians note Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed to hold on to large settlement blocs in the West Bank under any final peace treaty. The World Court describes Israeli settlements in Gaza and the West Bank as illegal. Israel disputes this. The Daily Alerts are Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (http://www.conferenceofpresidents.org/) by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (http://www.jcpa.org/). |
| GUSH KATIF |
ANTI-DISENGAGEMENT ESSAYS
Posted by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, July 30, 2005. |
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Those who support the government's Disengagement Plan, which would uproot the Jewish towns of Gush Katif and northern Samaria, have ready access to Israeli and international mass media and, of course, to the government offices through which the plan is being promoted and implemented. Therefore, in light of urgent events in Gush Katif and the approaching target date for implementation of the Disengagement Plan, we present our readers with the following two opposition articles, which have appeared on our Opinion pages. While both authors oppose the government's current plans for Gush Katif and Samaria, their reasons are vastly different and address various concerns of the thoughtful, pro-Israel reader. We hope that the presentation of two strikingly different viewpoints on the faults of the Disengagement will facilitate reaching the widest possible audience. Next year in Gush Katif, "Disengagement Now - No Way to Peace" by Arthur Cohn (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=5289) [Arthur Cohn is the only international film producer to have won six Academy Awards. His productions include The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Central Station, and One Day in September.] Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for an Israeli pullout of Gaza and a few more settlements in the Shomron has found initially extensive approval among Jews in the Diaspora. At first glance, this is understandable. The absence of a credible Palestinian negotiating partner, combined with Israel's vigorous desire to create a more peaceful atmosphere in the Middle East, has made a partial segregation from the Palestinian Arabs appear to be a step in the right direction. But before we leap, let's look. Let's pay attention to the serious voices of dissent that have become stronger in the last weeks. Avi Dichter, outgoing head of Intelligence, declared a few months ago in front of the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that the evacuation of the northern Shomron would reproduce the earlier situation in the south of Lebanon, because the firing of mortar shells can be stopped only by Israeli forces on the ground. Israel's former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, a member of the Labor party, as well as Shabtai Shavit, former head of Intelligence, stated in unison that the unilateral abandonment of the Gaza Strip under prevailing conditions would destabilize the region to a frightening degree. "The plan does not create the necessary minimum of balance that would enable long-term co-existence," said Shavit. The objections these men and others raise fall under two general headings. One is leadership. Many in Israel and abroad see Abu Mazen, the current Palestinian Authority president, as representing a basic change in the strategic goals of the Palestinians. However, Abu Mazen's past activities as a close confidante of the late Yasser Arafat and his alarmingly militant statements about the future status of Jerusalem and the "right of return" cast doubts on this. "Abu Mazen is not Arafat," Zalman Shoval, Israel's previous Ambassador in Washington, stated last month, "but his objectives - not only according to intelligence assessments, but according to his own statements, as well - are no different from those of his predecessor." Still, the Gaza pullout offers an appropriate opportunity to verify Abu Mazen's support for peace, and to test his influence for pursuing peace within the Palestinian Authority. This giant endeavor - the compulsory evacuation of some 10,000 Israeli citizens - could be set up in complete agreement and coordination with the Palestinian authorities. Lacking such agreement, the Disengagement may cause a devastating aftermath. In the absence of clear-cut accords with Abu Mazen, the security situation in Israel will decisively degrade. Outgoing Chief of General Staff Moshe Yalon said recently that in addition to Sderot, many other places will be surprised with missiles from the Gaza Strip. Terrorist groups would proclaim Israel's unilateral step as their own victory, and this is likely to aggravate future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. "Retreat without getting anything in return is liable to be interpreted by some as surrender and likely to strengthen extremist forces," former general security chief Ami Ayalon stated. The political situation will become much more complicated, and the pressure on Israel to continue making unilateral steps will - also according to the Israeli foreign minister - be enormously intensified. The pullout from Gaza now is considered as a step within the "Road Map" and no longer as a unilateral act in the absence of a Palestinian interlocutor. After the withdrawal, the United Nations, the European Union and even the United States will most probably force Israel to make additional, far-reaching, one-sided concessions. The inner discord in Israel could become huge and almost unbridgeable, especially as Israelis are getting nothing from Palestinians in return. We should not forget that the large majority who in the last elections voted for Sharon and the Likud did so because he and the party were strictly against any unilateral abandonment of territories - which is exactly the policy Sharon advocates now. He defied the will of his party that opposed the Gaza pullout and refused to conduct a referendum, even though the Israelis of Gaza confirmed that they would have accepted the results of a referendum. The Jewish ethos would be strongly tarnished. Images of dozens of synagogues and Torah centers, built with the full backing of the Israeli government, violently destroyed by the Jews themselves, will be satellite-transmitted all over the world. What terrible negative impression will such devastating pictures leave with all viewers, Jews and non-Jews alike! It is and remains incomprehensible that such a traumatic action should happen without a binding accord with the Palestinians. Finally, the Zionist ethos would be substantially enfeebled by a unilateral pullout from Gaza. A big, impressive settlement in the desert, explicitly subsidized by the government, in which barren land was made fertile in a miraculous way and in the style of Zionist pioneering spirit, is on the verge of being devastated by Israel itself. A large swath of land that had been settled by Jews in the days before the 1948 War of Independence now shall become "free of Jews" without any quid pro quo. By contrast, an orderly turnover of the Gaza Strip would allow many practical problems to be solved, such as the "fate" of the Israeli houses, farms and orchards there. On the condition that the Palestinians deliver real tradeoffs, the Disengagement could become a meaningful step towards a potential co-existence between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours. A relinquishing of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians is not to be rejected principally. An abandonment of the Gaza Strip - if done in the scope of a bilateral peace process involving Abu Mazen - would certainly weaken the strong opposition against Disengagement. The settlers' great sacrifice then would make more sense. One-sided concessions under the given circumstances are dangerously counter-productive. In this, former Minister Nathan Sharansky stands by his political credo consistently, unflinchingly, and in remarkable openness, without consideration of any potential damage his political career might suffer in Israel. Sharansky's thesis is that democracies do not war with each other, and that a peace with the Palestinians therefore can only be achieved when their authorities have implemented democratic reforms. According to him, Israel gives up far too much when it pulls out of Gaza before the Palestinian government has fulfilled its promises for democratisation and other reforms, which must include forswearing all future terrorism. It is not surprising that the backing for Sharon's disengagement program has fallen below 50 percent (the exact figure of 48 percent includes Israeli Arabs). People fail to understand why Israel does not require from the new Palestinian leaders meaningful bilateral negotiations for peace, especially as Israel prepares to do something so remarkable and unprecedented for the sake of peace. "Do Not Let Jewish History Be Erased" by Ruth Matar (www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=3964) [Ruth Matar is co-chairwoman of the grass-roots activist organization Women for Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green).] The other day I turned on the radio and I heard Ariel Sharon say in his heavily accented English, "The Disengagement Plan is the most important item on our agenda, and with G-d's help we shall succeed." What incredible chutzpah! Sharon well knows that the Almighty promised His Holy Land to the Jewish People. This Promise certainly includes Judea, Samaria and Gaza! He can't really seriously be calling for G-d's help. Does he not realize that G-d does not change his Word? Sharon might be justified in calling on his newly found godless cronies - Shimon Peres, Yossi Sarid, Tommy Lapid, et al - to come and help him. As it is, Sharon's statement is the height of attempted obfuscation, bordering on blasphemy. Okay, let's again make this clear once and for all - Gaza is Jewish land promised by Hashem in the Bible as an everlasting inheritance; it was, in fact, apportioned to the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:47 and Judges 1:18) as part of Israel's eternal patrimony. A few examples of evidence of a Jewish presence in Gaza since Biblical times: * A beautiful remnant of the mosaic floor, dated 508/509 CE, of a Gaza synagogue. It pictured King David playing the harp. King David's name was rendered in Hebrew letters. * One of the big mosques in Gaza has a pillar that had the name Chananya Bar-Yaakov (an important figure from the days of the Hasmoneans) engraved on it. Above his name was a picture of a Menorah with a Shofar on one side, and an etrog on the other. * There is an old neighborhood in Gaza that is called by the Arabs, to this day, Harat Al-Yahud - "neighborhood of the Jews". * Israel Ben Moses Najara (1555-1625) was a prominent rabbi in Gaza. Throughout the years after his death, many Jews came to pray at his grave. Most physical evidence of the Jewish presence in Gaza since Biblical times has been deliberately erased by the Arabs, especially at the time of the first Intifada (1987-1993). The Arabs feel that if they erase such physical evidence, they will be able to convince the world of their Big Lie, that they are the original inhabitants of the Holy Land. Rabbi Najara was not only the rabbi of Gaza, but he was also a famous poet. The following is a translation of one of his most well-known poems "Yoh Ribbon Olam ve-Allemayya", a poem that appears in the Jewish prayer book, to be sung every Sabbath: "Lord of all worlds! All Your creatures praise You. Even if we lived a thousand years, we could not recount the extent of Your greatness. God, save Your people from their exile and rebuild the Temple, and there, in Jerusalem, we will really be able to sing to You!" The poetry of Rabbi Najara is beautiful, inspiring and a tribute to Hashem. But poetry can also be vile, inciting and a call to terror and violence. One of the most famous Arab poets today is Mahmoud Darwish, whose poems deal with the Arab-Jewish conflict. (By the way, Yossi Sarid, who was Minister of Education under Prime Minister Ehud Barak, made the incredible demand that the poetry of Darwish become part of the curriculum for Jewish children.) The following is from one of Darwish's most popular poems: "Dig up your dead! / Take their bones with you / and leave our land." Desecration of Jewish graves occurred already while Ehud Barak was Prime Minister. Barak allowed the burning and vandalizing of graves such as the tombs of Joseph and Joshua in Samaria, and Jewish graves in Hebron. Now, shamefully, Prime Minister Sharon is planning to make Mahmoud Darwish's poem even more of a reality. Shame on you, Ariel Sharon! Would you even contemplate digging up the bones of your beloved wife Lilly? Or of your son who died at a young age? The widely accepted and most important code of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, states as follows (Yoreh De'ah , 363:1): "You are not allowed to remove the dead and the bones, not from a respectful grave to a respectful grave, not from a disrespectful grave to a disrespectful grave, and not from a disrespectful grave to a respectful one. (It goes without saying that it is not allowed to remove from a respectful grave to a disrespectful one.) The only cases where transfer of the dead would be allowed are if it was the will of the deceased, or if the remains are being transferred to Israel." Member of Knesset Gila Finkelstein of the National Religious Party delivered a speech in the Knesset on July 7, 2004, which dealt with the human suffering of Sharon's Disengagement Plan: "Who will lift up the three Cohen family children - those heroic youngsters from Kfar Darom who lost legs [in a murderous Palestinian terror attack on a school bus - ed.] - and take them out of their house, the house to which they returned after the attack when they made a courageous decision to show that terrorism had not won? The Jews of Gaza have been targeted by more than 4,200 Palestinian rockets and mortar shells in the past four years. They have been demonized and delegitimized by the media, disparaged by the Left, and threatened with expulsion by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Despite the threat of withdrawal hanging over their heads, it turns out that in the first six months of 2004, the number of Jews living in Gaza actually soared, growing at a rate three times faster than last year. (By the way, Sharon has made it clear that anybody who moves to Gaza now, will not be compensated.) I firmly believe that, as long as we remain confident in Hashem and in the justness of our cause, no power in the world can dislodge us from our Land, our Biblical patrimony. As Menachem Begin noted in his book The Revolt, "Faith is perhaps stronger than reality, for faith itself creates reality."
Nissan Ratzlav-Katz is the Opinion Editor of Arutz-7 (www.Israel
National News.com)
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ENOUGH MUSLIM VICTIMHOOD ALREADY!
Posted by Barry Shaw, July 30, 2005. |
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I am sick and tired of hearing cries of victimhood from Muslims as Islamic Jihadists carry out the most horrendous crimes worldwide. I was saddened and sickened when members of the Bigley family accused Tony Blair of having blood on his hands as we saw brother Kenneth having his severed head held up in the bloodied hands of his Muslim murderer. I was angered when the educated British Muslim who trapped Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, and cut off his head, blamed Jews and Israel for driving him to carry out this piece of inhumanity. Pearl's parents have been trying to build a bridge between the West and Islam since their son's murder in 2002. They have given up in despair. They have been overwhelmed by the passionate fanaticism of Islam. I am in despair when the mayor of a great city like London can spout anti-Semitic rubbish and still keep his job. He also advocates the motivation of a Palestinian homicide bomber, while his own citizens live in fear from the same sick mind-set that has sent over twenty four thousand terror attacks against Israel. I am appalled by Christians worldwide who remain silent when Muslims falsely accuse Americans of destroying their Koran while Saudi Arabia routinely shreds Christian Bibles if found in their country. I am amazed when people describe Islam as being a religion based on peace and tolerance. It is a religion based on domination, intolerance, and submission to its creed. It is time for people to realise that the silent majority of British Muslims will remain silent until their leaders demand of them loyalty to Allah and Jihad instead of Queen and country. The opinions of most Muslims in Britain may be to condemn the terror attacks in London, but they quietly support suicide bombings in Israeli. They may protest that they support the Palestinians, but this is untrue. Palestinians are despised in all the Arab states, despite the rhetoric. The Palestinians are useful only in that they are in the vanguard of the Muslim desire to eradicate the Jewish State. Did you not notice that not one of the hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombers has been a Christian? Are they not as frustrated as their Islamic countrymen? With the excellent police and intelligence work in Britain the bombers will move over to a softer target country in Europe to continue their mayhem. However, in the threatening words of The Terminator, they'll be back! When that day comes, when the bombers and radicals return, will London and Britain be more, or less, Islamic? Barry Shaw made aliyah from Manchester, England 25 years ago with his family. Initially, he lived on various kibbutzim. He now runs a busy real estate office in Netanya. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Netanya Terror Victims Fund. He writes the "View from Here" columns from Israel. To sign up to receive his emails, contact him at netre@matav.net.il |
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WHERE ARE ALL THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY M-16s
Posted by Tamar psion, July 29, 2005. |
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This is from Arutz-7 - www.israelnationalnews.com (ttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=86698). It was written by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu U.S. Gen. Wm. Ward said he cannot account for thousands of M-16 assault rifles, which Israel gave to the PA. Another official offered no clear way to stop Hamas from getting American aid money. At a Congressional subcommittee hearing of the House Appropriations committee, which is considering a bill that would provide $50 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, Congressman Mark Kirk told special envoy General William Ward, "I worry that I've seen this movie before." He explained that during the 1990s, Congress relented to pressure from former envoy Dennis Ross and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to give the rifles directly to the PA. "Under a veto threat, the Congress relented... Now, imagine how we felt a year later when we saw those -- when we saw Palestinian policemen using those M-16s to shoot Israelis.... And General Ward, do we know where all these M-16s are? Have we done an audit of all the guns we've already given the Palestinian Authority?" Ward answered, "No, we've not yet seen the audit. However... that report is supposed to be shared... and I specifically asked, 'Will we or will we not be able to have access to that report?'" Ward did not provide any further answers. Another official was not able to directly answer a question by another Congressman who asked what would be done with American aid to the PA, which plans to form a coalition with Hamas terrorists. The U.S. has classified Hamas as a terrorist organization and has barred assisting it. American envoy David Welch was not able to clarify how the American government would deal with the issue. Congressman Joe Knollenberg pointed out that Hamas has won several local council seats, including all of the seats in the Arab city of Kalkilya, adjacent to Kfar Saba. He asked, "What is the U.S. policy on interacting with Palestinian individuals... who have been elected and who are also members of terrorist organizations like Hamas?" Welch, unable to give a direct answer, said, "We're trying to work with those realities in such a manner that we don't skip over law or policy." Another subcommittee witness, James Wolfensohn, the Quartet's special envoy for Gaza, told Congressman Steven Rothman that anti-Semitism is "very limited" at the leadership level. Rothman asked, "But how about the textbooks in the schools?" which describe the entire country of Israel as "Palestine". Wolfensohn replied, "No. No. Well, that's a separate question." When asked about the Arabs accepting Israel as a Jewish state, he replied, "There are some that would accept it willingly, and there are some that, I need hardly explain to you, don't feel that." |
| GUSH KATIF |
BACK FROM GUSH KATIF
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, July 29, 2005. |
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This was written by Roberta Feinstein Bienenfeld of Beit Shemesh. Just back from Gush Katif (a few hours ago) but left our wayward car there as it still isn't fixed... It is very hot and humid there and there are visitors and guests everywhere. Despite the fact that noone is allowed in except for close relatives people are getting in. At the beach, the jellyfish, they tell me, are the size of big plastic bags. They are checking everyone--in and out. They say there are too many people in Gush Katif and that is why they have closed off the roads to anyone except relatives of the first degree. I am still waiting to hear the complaints from our leftist countrymen who have to show their ID cards to move anywhere on the roads down south. I can't imagine what will happen next week when everyone gets to Sderot. Will the police put up wire fences around a city as well? Everyone we spoke to there (as I hope you will all read in Tami Wiseman's article in the Jerusalem Post Magazine to appear sometime in the near future--but not this week) is full of Emunah and praying for that miracle. Unfortunately I do not think that either Yesha or any radical organizations will provide that miracle at this time. I don't know what happened to all the threats of closing down the country. I see the country still running while Gush Katif is closed down and getting tighter every day. Two nights ago we were warned of the roundup of all the illegals. Everyone was running scared. The illegals all stayed inside. I don't think it happened--yet. Last night at midnight somebody rang my doorbell. We didn't answer. Earlier in the evening someone came by trying to collect money. They said they were from Netivot and tried to get into my house. I didn't let them in or give them money. Something was suspicious about them and it was only after they left that I realized--How could a shnorrer from Netivot get past all the soldiers and police? I have gotten three calls in three days asking me to anser a survey--a political survey. Every day in Neve Dekalim the yishuv gives out another information sheet on what is happening. There are shiurim and activities everywhere and at all hours of the day. Of course one of the favorites is the kids going out to Kissufim every night to talk to the soldiers. People are getting arrested day and night but not a word of it gets to the press. A woman (on the way out) wouldn't show her identity card--off to prison. And the reports of brutality and violence also go unreported. There was also a big march on foot the night after the murder by the Gush Katif Bridge. Noone reported that either. The police/soldiers were unable to contain the 150 women (and some men) who did the marching. They were scared s....less. Yes, we were there when the chief army rabbi was there--and booed. I found it hard not to cry as I remembered the last time we stood by the same house, a large group of residents, waiting for the funeral. We were actually asked (unofficially) by at least one of the families there to come and protest by their house against moving the bodies of their loved ones from the cemetery. And we were also there when the Sephardi chief rabbi Amar gave a special shiur to the women telling them to be strong and try to keep their families together--no matter what happens and a very, very moving prayer meeting, shofar and all, where representatives of many Edot got up and read the prayers (7 times in all) . There are reporters everywhere--all looking for a scoop. The stores had run out of food--I think this is due to all the guests but had filled up a bit when we left. And of course the mortars continued to fall and the tanks to roar and the guns continue their rat-tat-tat spitting out bullets in either direction. Nothing about that in the press either--we only hear about Sderot. So good night to all--may we only hear good news. Judy Lash Balint is an investigative journalist and author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com |