Israel has unfortunately become a Police State
...the eyewitness account says it all.
Revava to the Temple Mount Eyewitness Report
The first thing I want to make clear is that the media and official police
reports of only a handful of protesters is an outright lie. Although it is
true that masses of people did not make it to the Temple Mount or even the
Western Wall Plaza, it was certainly not due to a lack of interest but a
virtual siege by the police of the entire Old City. It is hard to say
exactly how many people showed up, first of all because this was a
completely grassroots effort and there is no real way to differentiate
between a "Revava activist" and a regular Jew who is coming to pray at the
Kotel or visit the Old City. The police erred on the side of caution and
anyone who they remotely feared might be as they like to put it a "settler"
(even though a majority of Revava supporters do not live in the
"territories") was barred entry to the Old City or arrested on the spot. If
they did somehow manage to get through, or in my case were already in the
Old City, they scrutinized every person who entered the Kotel Plaza and
expelled or arrested anyone who they even thought might even consider being
involved. Finally, the turnout was naturally going to be lower than
expected because of the constant reports from the police and government
that the event was canceled and early reports of multiple arrests of Revava
activists and organizers (Yisrael Meir Cohen was arrested at roughly 6 AM
myself at 8). They even announced on the news in the morning that any
"right wing activists" who attempted to enter the Old City would be
immediately arrested (and they made good on that threat). I know for a fact
that there were several buses chartered from cities across Israel from as
far away as Haifa and Gush Katif and in the past several days we have had
non stop phone calls to our office and all of our personal cell phones. I
was away for Shabbat in Safed and even I personally spoke to at least 25
people on the bus Sat night who promised they would come and bring friends
and family.. While there were nowhere near our goal of 10,000 participants,
the police estimate of "several dozen" is blatantly dishonest and nothing
more than propaganda to delegitimize the organization and the entire
struggle for the Temple Mount. I personally saw many people in the Kotel
Plaza when I arrived at 8 AM and I was told by others that arrived later
that there was a solid presence throughout the day including Knesset
Members, veteran Land of Israel activists and many people who prayed and
danced in support of the Temple Mount. It is impossible to tell how many
people were turned away by the police at some point before they arrived but
"several dozen" does not do justice even for the number of people who
actually made it to the Kotel.
Yisrael Meir Cohen and I slept (or more accurately "rested briefly") last
night in the Old City because we feared (rightfully so) that the police
might attempt prevent us from entering in the morning. I received a call at
around 7:30AM that Yisrael was already arrested and I realized then that
it was going to be a long day. I finished the morning prayers and headed
down to the Western Wall, at 8AM sharp passing many people and police
officers on the way. None of them even alluded to the fact that I was
breaking the law merely by being there. I went through the security check
at the Western Wall, where 5 guards were standing and none of them
mentioned that anything was out of the ordinary so I figured that for the
time being the coast was clear. I didn't even make it all the way down the
stairs when the commander of the plainclothes division "pounced" on me and
told me "You realize that you are not allowed to be here?!" I figured that
he was referring to the Temple Mount which was closed to Jews, and guarded
by hundreds of riot police standing shoulder to shoulder at the gate. I
told him that he has nothing to worry about and that I had no intention of
storming the Temple Mount or causing any other disturbance. He informed me
that it was forbidden for me to be in the Kotel Plaza or even the Old City
at all and asked how I managed to "sneak in". When I told him that I simply
walked through the gate and I questioned him why he was not bothering the
thousands of other people who had come to pray he told me that I was under
arrest and that I had to "go with him to the car".
I made it clear that I had absolutely no intention of going anywhere, I
didn't have the chance to break any laws even if I wanted to and there is
no way he can arrest me for showing up at the Western Wall. He begged me
"not to make a scene" and that is precisely what I did. I ran away from him
and started shouting to the media circus which was there that I hadn't done
anything, and in the Israeli version of "democracy" Jews can be arrested
for merely coming to the Kotel. Religious freedom in Israel only applies to
Arabs! The Sharon government uses Bolshevik tactics on a regular basis in
an attempt to silence us, but he will not succeed. Finally, I shouted "The
Temple Mount belongs to the Jewish People" At this point I was surrounded
by several officers who attempted to push me towards the police car. I laid
on the ground and had a rather nice verbal exchange with the 8 or so
officers who attempted to carry me out. At one point they just got tired
and put me down to "take a break". I decided to have mercy on them and told
them I would walk by myself to the car if they left me alone. It was
obvious that they had laid a "trap" for me, the knew I would come and
therefore allowed me to do so in order that the have a pretense to arrest me.
They arrested me and brought me for "questioning" at the police station,
which was clear was not taken seriously even by the arresting officers who
allowed the arrestees to freely speak with each other and even talk on the
phone. They wanted to release me on my own recognizance on the condition
that I wouldn't return to the Old City for 24 hours. I told them that I
refuse to sign anything, I did nothing wrong, all of my belongings are in
the Old City, I fully intend to go back there and they can either release
me with no conditions or bring me before a judge for a remand hearing.
They were most displeased but legally they had to bring me before a judge
within 3 hours which is a huge waste of time and resources as we were only
talking about a 24 or even a 12 hour ban, or officially charge me with a
crime which was impossible because I hadn't committed one. If all the
arrestees demand to be brought before a judge it can seriously tie up the
courts for the entire day. In the end the Judge disregarded my 30 minute
argument complete with Supreme Court precedents why they had to release me
unconditionally and that my arrest was illegal to begin with. He
"sentenced" me to a 12 hour ban from entering the Old City and I was on my
way. While in the police station I sent out a bundle of text messages to
the "chevra" to see what was going on in the Old City. 90% of them were
also arrested or soon to be. The police arrested anyone who they recognized
as an "activist", or even anyone who had a gush katif or Revava t-shirt.
Everyone was released shortly with the same conditions.
In short "dozens" of people were arrested and many more expelled from the
Western Wall. There were even reports in the media of police savagely
beating an elderly man who merely asked them how they could throw good Jews
out of their homes?
One thing is for sure, I have never seen a police presence like the one I
witnessed today. There were literally thousands of officers, border police
and soldiers deployed all over Jerusalem many of whom where brought from
other cities. They certainly took Revava seriously regardless of their
mocking after the fact. In response President Moshe Katzav called for an
"solution" to be found in the near future which will allow Jewish Prayer on
the Temple Mount in a dignified manner.
Several members of Knesset showed up and citing their legal immunity
demanded to be allowed on the Temple Mount. When they were refused they had
very harsh words for the police and government. Especially Internal
Security Minister Gideon Ezra who was personally there to observe the
situation and received an earful of insults and criticism.
Regardless of how many people actually showed up, and how many actually
made it in, the campaign has been a success of magnitude proportions. For
nearly a month the subject of the Temple Mount permeated the media both
Israeli and worldwide and the issue has been firmly put on the agenda. The
fact that such a wide variety of people and "mainstream" members of Knesset
chose to participate is the best proof that Revava is not some "fringe
group" but speaks for a sizable portion of the Jewish People. We are not
"violent extremists" or "ultra-nationalists" as the media likes to dub us,
but plain old Jews who care about Eretz Yisrael and the desecration of
G-d's name which is permitted to go on. The Temple Mount is the heart of
the people and this campaign has showed that this is an important issue to
many Jews. This was no provocation or attempt to sabotage the disengagement
plan (although in essence it can serve as both), it was genuine concern for
the issue of freedom of religion in Israel and equal access to Jewish holy
sites. It is a disgrace that Jews are banished from our most holy site and
forbidden to pray there, and by a Jewish government no less. The majority
has now spoken that the Temple Mount belongs to the Jewish People and we
are willing to stand up for our rights to free access. If that is a
provocation, then so is the very fact that we are Jews...
Monday, April 11, 2005
Thursday, April 07, 2005
"...The IDF is no longer the ultimate tool for the realization of our national objectives. We must continue to stand in the vanguard of the Israeli army, but education, settlement, and concern for the weaker sections of the population are currently more important. A religious Air Force cadet who evicts Jews because if he refuses we won't have a religious pilot is in my opinion a person whose values have become totally confused."
For more read on....
It's Time to Refuse Orders
By Moshe Feiglin
14th of AdarII 5765 (Mar25, 05)
The caller sounded authentic.
"I'm a Manhigut Yehudit activist," he introduced himself, "and I've read the booklet, The Obligation to Refuse to Obey Orders. Now I've received a call-up notice for reserve duty to guard settlements in Northern Shomron. I told my battalion commander that I don't wish to participate in the activities of an army making preparations to evict Jews from their homes, and that I don't intend to appear. The commander explained to me that there is no connection between our assignment and the disengagement plan, that other soldiers will guard the Jews in Northern Shomron while I sit in jail. What do you advise me to do?" my caller asked.
"First of all," I replied, "I don't advise you to do anything. It's your decision. I can only think together with you and say how I think I would act. Obviously, if my service would facilitate the active participation of other forces during the actual eviction, then I would even refuse to wash dishes on a remote army base."
"That's not the situation," he explained. "The activity is planned for Pesach. My task would be to guard Jews in settlements."
"OK," I replied. "It's now clear that we are not talking about refusal with the intention of interfering with the implementation of the eviction order, but refusal in a far broader context."
"First of all, the true struggle for Gush Katif is not a tactical struggle. It is important to demonstrate at road junctions, to establish a mass physical presence in Gush Katif, and we encourage such activities. However, in the final analysis we aren't stronger than the State itself. All the acts of protest and struggle are based on the assumption that the government does not reflect the wishes of the nation; accordingly, its decisions are not legitimate."
"As long as we fail to prove that the disengagement plan is contrary to the nation's wishes, Sharon will find the tactical solution for all the forms the struggle takes. The disengagement plan will be finally discarded only when it becomes crystal clear that the nation is opposed to it. The solution will take the form of a decision by the nation."
"For precisely this reason, Sharon and the Left are afraid of a referendum. They know that a referendum campaign will recreate the direct link between the belief-based public and the national public that we saw in the Likud referendum. It will reveal the natural, healthy inclination of the majority of the nation towards its Jewish identity and beliefs and towards the public that represents these values."
"Of all the activities aimed at thwarting the disengagement plan, refusal to obey orders is the most important, not because it will necessarily halt the eviction, but because large-scale refusal is in fact an alternative form of referendum! The IDF is still the army of the people. If the majority of the soldiers refuse to carry out the order, it will be an unambiguous vote by the nation against the disengagement plan."
"You have to make up your own mind, but if I were to receive a call-up notice today, I would refuse to appear for reserve duty. The army's main assignment at the moment is to evict the Jews of Gush Katif. As long as the IDF prepares and trains for the execution of this crime I shall refuse to wear its uniform."
"Refusal today is referendum, and is the only possible way to vote against the disengagement plan."
There was silence on the line.
"So what do I reply to my battalion commander when he says that what I am actually doing is abandoning the security of Jews living in Northern Shomron?" he then asked.
"In my opinion this is a far simpler question," I replied. "Until Rabin shook hands with Arafat, a single company of the Border Guards could maintain security in the entire region. You are required to do reserve duty because of the Oslo process. The danger to the settlements and to the entire country does not come from the Arabs, but from the Left that brought the murder organizations here and gave them hope of victory. The soldiers guarding the settlements are carrying out a very important task, but they are dealing with symptoms -- not with the illness. In contrast, soldiers who will now refuse to serve, and will consequently be jailed, are carrying out a far more important task, since they are attacking the root of the matter, and because of their efforts we won't need guards at all in the future."
"It's important to realize that the problem doesn't lie with the Arabs but with the Jews. The IDF is, therefore, no longer the ultimate tool for the realization of our national objectives. We must continue to stand in the vanguard of the Israeli army, but education, settlement, and concern for the weaker sections of the population are currently more important. A religious Air Force cadet who evicts Jews because if he refuses we won't have a religious pilot is in my opinion a person whose values have become totally confused."
"Thank you for talking to me," said the voice on the other end of the line.
"With G-d's help, the situation will be turned upside down, just as in Megilat Esther," I replied.
"Happy Purim."
For more read on....
It's Time to Refuse Orders
By Moshe Feiglin
14th of AdarII 5765 (Mar25, 05)
The caller sounded authentic.
"I'm a Manhigut Yehudit activist," he introduced himself, "and I've read the booklet, The Obligation to Refuse to Obey Orders. Now I've received a call-up notice for reserve duty to guard settlements in Northern Shomron. I told my battalion commander that I don't wish to participate in the activities of an army making preparations to evict Jews from their homes, and that I don't intend to appear. The commander explained to me that there is no connection between our assignment and the disengagement plan, that other soldiers will guard the Jews in Northern Shomron while I sit in jail. What do you advise me to do?" my caller asked.
"First of all," I replied, "I don't advise you to do anything. It's your decision. I can only think together with you and say how I think I would act. Obviously, if my service would facilitate the active participation of other forces during the actual eviction, then I would even refuse to wash dishes on a remote army base."
"That's not the situation," he explained. "The activity is planned for Pesach. My task would be to guard Jews in settlements."
"OK," I replied. "It's now clear that we are not talking about refusal with the intention of interfering with the implementation of the eviction order, but refusal in a far broader context."
"First of all, the true struggle for Gush Katif is not a tactical struggle. It is important to demonstrate at road junctions, to establish a mass physical presence in Gush Katif, and we encourage such activities. However, in the final analysis we aren't stronger than the State itself. All the acts of protest and struggle are based on the assumption that the government does not reflect the wishes of the nation; accordingly, its decisions are not legitimate."
"As long as we fail to prove that the disengagement plan is contrary to the nation's wishes, Sharon will find the tactical solution for all the forms the struggle takes. The disengagement plan will be finally discarded only when it becomes crystal clear that the nation is opposed to it. The solution will take the form of a decision by the nation."
"For precisely this reason, Sharon and the Left are afraid of a referendum. They know that a referendum campaign will recreate the direct link between the belief-based public and the national public that we saw in the Likud referendum. It will reveal the natural, healthy inclination of the majority of the nation towards its Jewish identity and beliefs and towards the public that represents these values."
"Of all the activities aimed at thwarting the disengagement plan, refusal to obey orders is the most important, not because it will necessarily halt the eviction, but because large-scale refusal is in fact an alternative form of referendum! The IDF is still the army of the people. If the majority of the soldiers refuse to carry out the order, it will be an unambiguous vote by the nation against the disengagement plan."
"You have to make up your own mind, but if I were to receive a call-up notice today, I would refuse to appear for reserve duty. The army's main assignment at the moment is to evict the Jews of Gush Katif. As long as the IDF prepares and trains for the execution of this crime I shall refuse to wear its uniform."
"Refusal today is referendum, and is the only possible way to vote against the disengagement plan."
There was silence on the line.
"So what do I reply to my battalion commander when he says that what I am actually doing is abandoning the security of Jews living in Northern Shomron?" he then asked.
"In my opinion this is a far simpler question," I replied. "Until Rabin shook hands with Arafat, a single company of the Border Guards could maintain security in the entire region. You are required to do reserve duty because of the Oslo process. The danger to the settlements and to the entire country does not come from the Arabs, but from the Left that brought the murder organizations here and gave them hope of victory. The soldiers guarding the settlements are carrying out a very important task, but they are dealing with symptoms -- not with the illness. In contrast, soldiers who will now refuse to serve, and will consequently be jailed, are carrying out a far more important task, since they are attacking the root of the matter, and because of their efforts we won't need guards at all in the future."
"It's important to realize that the problem doesn't lie with the Arabs but with the Jews. The IDF is, therefore, no longer the ultimate tool for the realization of our national objectives. We must continue to stand in the vanguard of the Israeli army, but education, settlement, and concern for the weaker sections of the population are currently more important. A religious Air Force cadet who evicts Jews because if he refuses we won't have a religious pilot is in my opinion a person whose values have become totally confused."
"Thank you for talking to me," said the voice on the other end of the line.
"With G-d's help, the situation will be turned upside down, just as in Megilat Esther," I replied.
"Happy Purim."
Monday, April 04, 2005
Welcome Back Days of Oslo!!!
Re: Announcing the politically motivated arrest of Raanana veteran activist - Eallan Hirshfeld
I must completely set aside all the urgent things i have to do tonight, in order to tell you -- with great sadness I must admit -- of the unjustified politically motivated arrest of our dear friend, Eallan Hirshfeld, a Raanana businessman, formerly from Great Britain, by the Shabak (Israeli Secret Service), earlier today.
Eallan, a modern-Orthodox Anglo-Saxon resident of Raanana who recently retired from his airconditioner retail business, became a proud grandfather not long ago, and suffers from significant health problems (heart trouble, I believe). Eallan has been a leading figure in the Land of Israel movement during the entire Oslo period. I have always looked up to him, due to his peculiar combination of courage and philanthropy. During the struggle for the Golan Heights, it can now be told that there is a reason we never ran out of Golan stickers: every time we were about to, Eallan put his hand into his pocket, printed some more, and distributed them to everyone. As for Hebron, Eallan was always the moving spirit and initiator of the monthly trips from Raanana to Hebron that have been going on for years. Eallan has also been responsible for the beautiful Yesha arts & crafts fairs that have been held in Raanana on so many occasions. In short, Eallan is a terrific political activist and a pleasure to work with, and his arrest is an attempt to delegitimize him and you and me.
This is a grave escalation on the part of the Shabak (Israeli Secret Service). Just to give one example of how off-base the Shabak can be, when I demonstrated peacefully against Yosi Beilin and was briefly arrested in Rehovot a couple of years ago, the Shabak had the audacity to have me questioned for this "crime". Their investigation was doubly an embarrassment since it came AFTER my arrest had been publicized and denounced by outraged citizens all over Israel and the world and in particular by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel!!
Please IMMEDIATELY start banging on all the doors you know to get our good friend Eallan back home to his family -- and to us. We need him now more than ever:
Please email the following message (or similar) EACH TIME YOU SIT DOWN AT THE COMPUTER, to : panatz1@acri.org.il ;pm_eng@pmo.gov.il; sar@mops.gov.il; sars@int.gov.il; ulandau@knesset.gov.il; dankner@maariv.co.il; yoav@nfc.co.il; mikieitn@knesset.gov.il; ysteinitz@knesset.gov.il; gsaar@knesset.gov.il; eyishay@knesset.gov.il; nslomianski@knesset.gov.il; zhendel@knesset.gov.il; ylitzman@knesset.gov.il:
FREE EALLAN HIRSHFELD!!! שחררו את אילן הירשפלד !!
Association for Civil Rights in Israel: Please immediately demand the release of political activist Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Prime Minister Sharon and Police Minister Ezra: Free our friend -- Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Minister Natan Sharansky: Please meet urgently with the Prime Minister and demand the immediate release of Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Former Minister Uzi Landau, also from Raanana, who knows Eallan personally: Please demand the immediate release of Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Maariv Editor Amnon Dankner, NFC Editor Yoav Yizhak: Please write about the imprisoned Raanana businessman, Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Chairmen of the Knesset Law Committee M. Eitan, Defense Committee Y. Steinitz:: Demand a meeting with Sharon to discuss the immediate release of Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Knesset Faction Chairmen Saar (Likud), Yishai (Shas), Slomianski (Mafdal), Hendel (National Union); Litzman (UTJ): Speak up on behalf of your factions and demand our friend Eallan's immediate release!!
Other hawkish MKs: Help release our friend, Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Also, please call Uzi Cohen, the legendary deputy-mayor of Raanana, who knows Eallan personally and ask him to intervene. (09 7713152
09 7610300)
Thanks, everybody!!
Susie Dym, spokesperson (Mattot Arim)
sddym@bezeqint.net
Re: Announcing the politically motivated arrest of Raanana veteran activist - Eallan Hirshfeld
I must completely set aside all the urgent things i have to do tonight, in order to tell you -- with great sadness I must admit -- of the unjustified politically motivated arrest of our dear friend, Eallan Hirshfeld, a Raanana businessman, formerly from Great Britain, by the Shabak (Israeli Secret Service), earlier today.
Eallan, a modern-Orthodox Anglo-Saxon resident of Raanana who recently retired from his airconditioner retail business, became a proud grandfather not long ago, and suffers from significant health problems (heart trouble, I believe). Eallan has been a leading figure in the Land of Israel movement during the entire Oslo period. I have always looked up to him, due to his peculiar combination of courage and philanthropy. During the struggle for the Golan Heights, it can now be told that there is a reason we never ran out of Golan stickers: every time we were about to, Eallan put his hand into his pocket, printed some more, and distributed them to everyone. As for Hebron, Eallan was always the moving spirit and initiator of the monthly trips from Raanana to Hebron that have been going on for years. Eallan has also been responsible for the beautiful Yesha arts & crafts fairs that have been held in Raanana on so many occasions. In short, Eallan is a terrific political activist and a pleasure to work with, and his arrest is an attempt to delegitimize him and you and me.
This is a grave escalation on the part of the Shabak (Israeli Secret Service). Just to give one example of how off-base the Shabak can be, when I demonstrated peacefully against Yosi Beilin and was briefly arrested in Rehovot a couple of years ago, the Shabak had the audacity to have me questioned for this "crime". Their investigation was doubly an embarrassment since it came AFTER my arrest had been publicized and denounced by outraged citizens all over Israel and the world and in particular by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel!!
Please IMMEDIATELY start banging on all the doors you know to get our good friend Eallan back home to his family -- and to us. We need him now more than ever:
Please email the following message (or similar) EACH TIME YOU SIT DOWN AT THE COMPUTER, to : panatz1@acri.org.il ;pm_eng@pmo.gov.il; sar@mops.gov.il; sars@int.gov.il; ulandau@knesset.gov.il; dankner@maariv.co.il; yoav@nfc.co.il; mikieitn@knesset.gov.il; ysteinitz@knesset.gov.il; gsaar@knesset.gov.il; eyishay@knesset.gov.il; nslomianski@knesset.gov.il; zhendel@knesset.gov.il; ylitzman@knesset.gov.il:
FREE EALLAN HIRSHFELD!!! שחררו את אילן הירשפלד !!
Association for Civil Rights in Israel: Please immediately demand the release of political activist Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Prime Minister Sharon and Police Minister Ezra: Free our friend -- Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Minister Natan Sharansky: Please meet urgently with the Prime Minister and demand the immediate release of Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Former Minister Uzi Landau, also from Raanana, who knows Eallan personally: Please demand the immediate release of Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Maariv Editor Amnon Dankner, NFC Editor Yoav Yizhak: Please write about the imprisoned Raanana businessman, Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Chairmen of the Knesset Law Committee M. Eitan, Defense Committee Y. Steinitz:: Demand a meeting with Sharon to discuss the immediate release of Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Knesset Faction Chairmen Saar (Likud), Yishai (Shas), Slomianski (Mafdal), Hendel (National Union); Litzman (UTJ): Speak up on behalf of your factions and demand our friend Eallan's immediate release!!
Other hawkish MKs: Help release our friend, Eallan Hirshfeld!!
Also, please call Uzi Cohen, the legendary deputy-mayor of Raanana, who knows Eallan personally and ask him to intervene. (09 7713152
09 7610300)
Thanks, everybody!!
Susie Dym, spokesperson (Mattot Arim)
sddym@bezeqint.net
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Ariel Peres, Shimon Sharon and the end of Zionism
By Moshe Dann
Twelve years ago the 'Oslo Process' was inaugurated based on secret agreements and understandings. Its PR rationale was Land for Peace, relying on Arafat as a partner. It was all a lie.
Today, after thousands of dead and tens of thousands crippled, that same process (led by some of the same people) continues under the PR slogan disengagement. Since there is still no 'peace partner' as yet (only a truce partner) terrorists will not only stay in place but are honored and strengthened. Oslo III is, therefore, 'Land for Nothing.' Unilateral withdrawal is only a euphemism for retreat. No mandate and no explanations. As Israelis say, Kacha! (just because).
Missing in the debate over Israel's proposed retreat from all or most of Yesha – the historical and strategic heartland of Israel -- is the context from which that policy has emerged. During the last forty years the essence of Jewish identity, the foundations of Zionism, and the institutions of Israeli democracy has been assaulted.
This assault has diminished Jewish content in public education and in daily life, it has attacked the national religious settlement movement inYesha, has politicized the IDF and the courts, it has controlled the media, educational and cultural institutions and by and large Israel's political economy. By pitting loyalty to the State against the settlers there is a constant desire to divide and conquer public opinion. The State itself replaces ideology with its own values based on the myth that it represents the popular will and serves our common interests.
Engaging in diatribes against personalities and hysterical scenarios only contributes to a general confusion about who is responsible; there is a failure to understand the inner dynamics of what's really happening -- and this leaves us in anger and despair.
The Sharon/Peres plan is part of an agenda that seeks to destroy Zionism and replace it with a new Israelism (nationalism per se), to transform Jewish nationhood into a secular pluralistic republic (in the Western European tradition) and to maintain control of Israel's political/economic system in order to preserve the interests of the ruling elite. This agenda seeks to de-Judeize Israel, to assimilate and integrate into (and hopefully be accepted by) the international community, especially by the West, and to stay in power.
Three main obstacles stand in their way: Anti-Semitism, Arab terrorism and the national religious Zionist camp. The latter, especially the Jews who live in Yesha are not marginal; they are fully integrated into the fabric of daily life and especially the IDF. These Jews are rooted in an ideology of Jewish settlement that is basic to Zionism and Jewish consciousness.
Disengagement, even if possible is not only or even primarily intended to separate from Arabs (the external threat), but from the religious Right, the settlers, who represent an internal threat to Israel's ruling elite. Both Arab and religious Jewish nationalists – because they are idealists -- are perceived by the political/economic establishment in Israel as extremist threats to their power. Idealists can't be bought. Disengagement therefore means nothing more than uprooting Jewish communities and allowing Palestinian terrorists a sovereign state in return for, hopefully, international good will. PM Sharon has said clearly to the Palestinians: 'whether or not you stop terrorism and incitement, we will leave.' What a bargaining position and incentive!
The hope is, of course, that Palestinian moderates will control extremists in return for a significant cut of the loot, in addition to the billions stashed away by Arafat in Swiss banks and throughout the world. But even if terrorism continues at a reduced level, that too will be acceptable, manageable in the jargon of experts, as long as there won't be too many casualties and the elites continue to rule. It's not so much that the ruling elites want freedom from the Arabs, since they are necessary in the workforce; the elites want freedom from Judaism and from Zionism.
The willingness of Israel's government to cede most of Yesha to a terrorist-oriented Palestinian state is the logical consequence of the political agenda. This includes building barriers and fences throughout the country along what were the armistice lines of 1949 (with some exceptions). In some cases it may provide a temporary obstacle for terrorists; more important, however, it restricts the expansion of Jewish communities and defines a future Palestinian state. It declares: 'Israel stops here.' That, perhaps, may buy some respite, but not for long. Nor is it enough.
For the international ruling elites, Israel is an anachronism among nation states. Zionism is an impediment to both the international communtity and the Israeli State who desires an assimilation into a world economic structure. Israel is particularistic (nominally Jewish) in a 'pluralistic/universalistic' world; the basis for its existence is a 'homeland for Jews.' That made sense after the Holocaust; today it's inadequate and insufficient as an historical reference. Hence, the need to restructure.
Sharon and Peres seek to create a new coalition representing a center that will thwart challenges from the Greater Israel national religious anti-Palestinian-state forces on one side and those calling for the dismantling of the State on the other. Their agenda is not only to create physical borders, but social, cultural and political ones as well that will ensure their continued dominance of Israel's political economy and culture.
The Oslo Accords were meant to stop Jewish settlement in Yesha; the Sharon/Peres plan takes it the next step: the destruction of those Jewish communities.
Regardless of Palestinian terrorism and incitement, the inevitability of a Palestinian state (in Sharon's words) has become an obsession that has paralyzed the government's ability to consider any other options and requires Israel's dependence on American/European and Palestinian good will. That policy comes out of a deeply-rooted belief that the Jewish people do not have the inalienable right to establish their national home in the Land of Israel.
Yoram Hazony's book, The Jewish State; The Struggle for Israel's Soul, laid out in striking detail how Israel's Left-wing intellectual elite have undermined the basic premises of Zionism. Published just before former PM Ehud Barak agreed to give Arafat and the PLO almost everything they wanted – nearly all of Yesha, including east Jerusalem and exclusive rights over the Temple Mount, Hazony exposed a cancer that has eaten away at Israel's raison d'etre as a Jewish state. This post-Zionist policy waited only to be implemented. PM Sharon, who presented himself as a Right-wing leader, became its Godfather.
Coincident with Oslo, Education Ministers cut budgets for teaching about Judaism and introduced pro-Palestinian propaganda in textbooks. Today, Jewish students in Israeli secular schools may graduate knowing little or nothing about their religion or their history. That is deliberate policy.
Israeli universities, with one exception, are bastions of anti-Jewish propaganda. TV stations which are primary cultural molders denigrate Judaism and Jewish values and promote consumerism. Alternative radio stations (like Arutz 7) that provided services and information to supporters of the Greater Israel concept were closed (unlike the pro-peace at all costs, Voice of Peace, and unlike the hundreds of pirate Arab radio stations).
Specials laws and penalties have been proposed to prevent expressions of dissent. Legitimate protests are considered criminal acts. New prisons and detention camps are planned for those who resist evacuation.
Ministers who disagree with PM Sharon have been summarily fired. Never before has such arrogance been institutionalized and legitimized. Even institutions which are supposed to prevent such abuse have remained silent.
Indoctrinated by Israel's polictically dominated media, many Israelis no longer believe in their country and the justice of its cause. Politicians, community leaders and artists espouse anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist doctrines that would be considered bigotry if uttered by non-Jews; their insults are carried by a compliant media into every home.
Add to all this four years of unremitting terrorist attacks and the result is emotional exhaustion and despair. Sharon has taken advantage of that societal malaise to fragment and demoralize the opposition; but this is not new.
The seeds of this denouement can be found decades ago in attempts by Israeli socialists to substitute a form of nationalism for religious faith and a detachment from Judaism. Their attack on Jewish identity, the one common denominator which holds us together, is an attempt to break the connection between Judaism and Zionism.
Israeli leaders are unable to express an authentic, proud and definitive Jewish message. Nor have they been able to articulate Israel's place and purpose in Jewish history. They have defended Israel as if it were simply a country like any other – rather than one that lives on the edge of extinction because it is Jewish. That distinction is crucial: the only reason that the Land of Israel has value is because Jews live in it, because it is central to Jewish consciousness and belief.
The culture of Israelism, which spurns authentic Jewish content and has little or no understanding or connection to Judaism, or Israeli history, contains a kind of Judeophobia. Attacking Jews who live in Yesha is an example of the Kulturkampf that is tearing apart Israeli society and with it the nationalist ideology and religious belief that define and distinguish us. For many, that is why the Jews of Yesha have become The Enemy.
The struggle in Israel over Sharon's policy of retreat is not merely about power, and certainly not peace, but over Jewish identity and Jewish values. It is ironic that those who support this policy because of their concern for the Jewish character of Israel and Israeli democracy have so little regard for either at home.
Anti-Zionist Leftists have, however, raised important questions. What does Jewish national self-determination mean when so many Israelis either totally reject that concept or have little understanding of it?
If Israel is nothing more than a few Jewish symbols and some official recognition of holidays, but without a Jewish content, why does there need to be a State of Israel at all?
In order to ensure their control, the ruling elites and their supporters will buy off whomever they can and impoverish the rest until they too give in. They will imprison those who protest and try to break the will of any opposition. In the name of The State, they will try to destroy the Jewish and Zionist ethos that has sustained and inspired us for thousands of years and brought us back to our homeland.
The triumph of The State, wherever it is, can only be meaningful when it expresses the will of the people. Otherwise, it is only another form of repression.
________________________________________
The author, a former asst professor of History (at CUNY), is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem. moshedan@netvision.net.il Dedicated to the memory of Adir Zik.
Published on http://www.jewishmag.com/88mag/jewishnationalism/jewishnationalism.htm
By Moshe Dann
Twelve years ago the 'Oslo Process' was inaugurated based on secret agreements and understandings. Its PR rationale was Land for Peace, relying on Arafat as a partner. It was all a lie.
Today, after thousands of dead and tens of thousands crippled, that same process (led by some of the same people) continues under the PR slogan disengagement. Since there is still no 'peace partner' as yet (only a truce partner) terrorists will not only stay in place but are honored and strengthened. Oslo III is, therefore, 'Land for Nothing.' Unilateral withdrawal is only a euphemism for retreat. No mandate and no explanations. As Israelis say, Kacha! (just because).
Missing in the debate over Israel's proposed retreat from all or most of Yesha – the historical and strategic heartland of Israel -- is the context from which that policy has emerged. During the last forty years the essence of Jewish identity, the foundations of Zionism, and the institutions of Israeli democracy has been assaulted.
This assault has diminished Jewish content in public education and in daily life, it has attacked the national religious settlement movement inYesha, has politicized the IDF and the courts, it has controlled the media, educational and cultural institutions and by and large Israel's political economy. By pitting loyalty to the State against the settlers there is a constant desire to divide and conquer public opinion. The State itself replaces ideology with its own values based on the myth that it represents the popular will and serves our common interests.
Engaging in diatribes against personalities and hysterical scenarios only contributes to a general confusion about who is responsible; there is a failure to understand the inner dynamics of what's really happening -- and this leaves us in anger and despair.
The Sharon/Peres plan is part of an agenda that seeks to destroy Zionism and replace it with a new Israelism (nationalism per se), to transform Jewish nationhood into a secular pluralistic republic (in the Western European tradition) and to maintain control of Israel's political/economic system in order to preserve the interests of the ruling elite. This agenda seeks to de-Judeize Israel, to assimilate and integrate into (and hopefully be accepted by) the international community, especially by the West, and to stay in power.
Three main obstacles stand in their way: Anti-Semitism, Arab terrorism and the national religious Zionist camp. The latter, especially the Jews who live in Yesha are not marginal; they are fully integrated into the fabric of daily life and especially the IDF. These Jews are rooted in an ideology of Jewish settlement that is basic to Zionism and Jewish consciousness.
Disengagement, even if possible is not only or even primarily intended to separate from Arabs (the external threat), but from the religious Right, the settlers, who represent an internal threat to Israel's ruling elite. Both Arab and religious Jewish nationalists – because they are idealists -- are perceived by the political/economic establishment in Israel as extremist threats to their power. Idealists can't be bought. Disengagement therefore means nothing more than uprooting Jewish communities and allowing Palestinian terrorists a sovereign state in return for, hopefully, international good will. PM Sharon has said clearly to the Palestinians: 'whether or not you stop terrorism and incitement, we will leave.' What a bargaining position and incentive!
The hope is, of course, that Palestinian moderates will control extremists in return for a significant cut of the loot, in addition to the billions stashed away by Arafat in Swiss banks and throughout the world. But even if terrorism continues at a reduced level, that too will be acceptable, manageable in the jargon of experts, as long as there won't be too many casualties and the elites continue to rule. It's not so much that the ruling elites want freedom from the Arabs, since they are necessary in the workforce; the elites want freedom from Judaism and from Zionism.
The willingness of Israel's government to cede most of Yesha to a terrorist-oriented Palestinian state is the logical consequence of the political agenda. This includes building barriers and fences throughout the country along what were the armistice lines of 1949 (with some exceptions). In some cases it may provide a temporary obstacle for terrorists; more important, however, it restricts the expansion of Jewish communities and defines a future Palestinian state. It declares: 'Israel stops here.' That, perhaps, may buy some respite, but not for long. Nor is it enough.
For the international ruling elites, Israel is an anachronism among nation states. Zionism is an impediment to both the international communtity and the Israeli State who desires an assimilation into a world economic structure. Israel is particularistic (nominally Jewish) in a 'pluralistic/universalistic' world; the basis for its existence is a 'homeland for Jews.' That made sense after the Holocaust; today it's inadequate and insufficient as an historical reference. Hence, the need to restructure.
Sharon and Peres seek to create a new coalition representing a center that will thwart challenges from the Greater Israel national religious anti-Palestinian-state forces on one side and those calling for the dismantling of the State on the other. Their agenda is not only to create physical borders, but social, cultural and political ones as well that will ensure their continued dominance of Israel's political economy and culture.
The Oslo Accords were meant to stop Jewish settlement in Yesha; the Sharon/Peres plan takes it the next step: the destruction of those Jewish communities.
Regardless of Palestinian terrorism and incitement, the inevitability of a Palestinian state (in Sharon's words) has become an obsession that has paralyzed the government's ability to consider any other options and requires Israel's dependence on American/European and Palestinian good will. That policy comes out of a deeply-rooted belief that the Jewish people do not have the inalienable right to establish their national home in the Land of Israel.
Yoram Hazony's book, The Jewish State; The Struggle for Israel's Soul, laid out in striking detail how Israel's Left-wing intellectual elite have undermined the basic premises of Zionism. Published just before former PM Ehud Barak agreed to give Arafat and the PLO almost everything they wanted – nearly all of Yesha, including east Jerusalem and exclusive rights over the Temple Mount, Hazony exposed a cancer that has eaten away at Israel's raison d'etre as a Jewish state. This post-Zionist policy waited only to be implemented. PM Sharon, who presented himself as a Right-wing leader, became its Godfather.
Coincident with Oslo, Education Ministers cut budgets for teaching about Judaism and introduced pro-Palestinian propaganda in textbooks. Today, Jewish students in Israeli secular schools may graduate knowing little or nothing about their religion or their history. That is deliberate policy.
Israeli universities, with one exception, are bastions of anti-Jewish propaganda. TV stations which are primary cultural molders denigrate Judaism and Jewish values and promote consumerism. Alternative radio stations (like Arutz 7) that provided services and information to supporters of the Greater Israel concept were closed (unlike the pro-peace at all costs, Voice of Peace, and unlike the hundreds of pirate Arab radio stations).
Specials laws and penalties have been proposed to prevent expressions of dissent. Legitimate protests are considered criminal acts. New prisons and detention camps are planned for those who resist evacuation.
Ministers who disagree with PM Sharon have been summarily fired. Never before has such arrogance been institutionalized and legitimized. Even institutions which are supposed to prevent such abuse have remained silent.
Indoctrinated by Israel's polictically dominated media, many Israelis no longer believe in their country and the justice of its cause. Politicians, community leaders and artists espouse anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist doctrines that would be considered bigotry if uttered by non-Jews; their insults are carried by a compliant media into every home.
Add to all this four years of unremitting terrorist attacks and the result is emotional exhaustion and despair. Sharon has taken advantage of that societal malaise to fragment and demoralize the opposition; but this is not new.
The seeds of this denouement can be found decades ago in attempts by Israeli socialists to substitute a form of nationalism for religious faith and a detachment from Judaism. Their attack on Jewish identity, the one common denominator which holds us together, is an attempt to break the connection between Judaism and Zionism.
Israeli leaders are unable to express an authentic, proud and definitive Jewish message. Nor have they been able to articulate Israel's place and purpose in Jewish history. They have defended Israel as if it were simply a country like any other – rather than one that lives on the edge of extinction because it is Jewish. That distinction is crucial: the only reason that the Land of Israel has value is because Jews live in it, because it is central to Jewish consciousness and belief.
The culture of Israelism, which spurns authentic Jewish content and has little or no understanding or connection to Judaism, or Israeli history, contains a kind of Judeophobia. Attacking Jews who live in Yesha is an example of the Kulturkampf that is tearing apart Israeli society and with it the nationalist ideology and religious belief that define and distinguish us. For many, that is why the Jews of Yesha have become The Enemy.
The struggle in Israel over Sharon's policy of retreat is not merely about power, and certainly not peace, but over Jewish identity and Jewish values. It is ironic that those who support this policy because of their concern for the Jewish character of Israel and Israeli democracy have so little regard for either at home.
Anti-Zionist Leftists have, however, raised important questions. What does Jewish national self-determination mean when so many Israelis either totally reject that concept or have little understanding of it?
If Israel is nothing more than a few Jewish symbols and some official recognition of holidays, but without a Jewish content, why does there need to be a State of Israel at all?
In order to ensure their control, the ruling elites and their supporters will buy off whomever they can and impoverish the rest until they too give in. They will imprison those who protest and try to break the will of any opposition. In the name of The State, they will try to destroy the Jewish and Zionist ethos that has sustained and inspired us for thousands of years and brought us back to our homeland.
The triumph of The State, wherever it is, can only be meaningful when it expresses the will of the people. Otherwise, it is only another form of repression.
________________________________________
The author, a former asst professor of History (at CUNY), is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem. moshedan@netvision.net.il Dedicated to the memory of Adir Zik.
Published on http://www.jewishmag.com/88mag/jewishnationalism/jewishnationalism.htm
Sunday, February 27, 2005
The Principle of Pikuach Nefesh - Interview with Rabbi Moshe Tendler on the situation in Israel
Even before the government voted to destroy the communities of the Gaza Region, most people were feeling helpless - clueless about how they could personally help change the terrible decree facing the Jewish people. As the Jerusalem protest tent was folding last month, Voices Editor (moi) and Publisher had the opportunity to chat with the respected Yeshiva University rosh yeshiva and Jewish leader Rabbi Moshe David Tendler, shlita. Here are some excerpts of our talk:
Many years ago, a talmid of mine married and lived on a kibbutz. After nine years of married life, which included visits to the biggest fertility specialists in Israel, G-d did not strengthen with them with children.
He was appointed as a shaliach to America, where the couple consulted with experts in fertility management. None of the doctors they met had the key that the Ribono Shel Olam keeps in His pocket. After almost two years, and no children, they prepared to return to Eretz Yisrael. He asked me if he could see my father-in-law [the great sage of the previous generation HaRav Moshe Feinstein] ztz'l. Like a good Litvak, my father-in-law said to him, 'Did you try everything? The best in Israel? The best in America? You gave up? There's nothing else? Well, now the Ribono Shel Olam will help.' As long as you think you have a better idea, one that the Ribono Shel Olam didn't think of, He waits until you finish. Once you make up your mind that there's nothing to do, then you come to the conclusion, ‘Ein lanu al mi le'hisha'en elah al Aveinu She'BaShamayim.’ (We have no one to rely on, except our Father in Heaven.)
On the way home, they took a side trip to France and to Italy, and by the time they landed home in Israel, she was expecting. They have nine children today, bli ayin hara.
I use this story for myself and for others. The trick is to give up. We haven't given up enough.
Surely, we have to do everything. Lemaan yevarechecha H' Elokecha bechol ma'asecha asher ta'aseh... (So that Hashem will bless you in everything you do. If you do, Hashem will bless you, and if you don't, He won't bless you.)
So you did everything you could possibly do, and you have to have confidence that it will work out fine. The question is, 'Did we do all we could possibly do?' That's the whole shayala (question). Give up when there are some obvious important things to do yet, and then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not yet involved.
Did we do everything possible? I think there is more to do:
We must contact the American money men, who support Sharon and the city of Jerusalem. Money talks and money men talk. They should be told that we cannot have confidence in Sharon when military men, Shabak and the secret service all say we're increasing the danger to the lives of Israelis with this act [the Sharon Plan]."
We must get the cooperation of the OU (Orthodox Union), the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and the Young Israel to organize a march on Washington with very simple signs, 'Bush, would you let this happen in America?' 'Bush, where is your biblical integrity?' We must bring out 50,000 people, as we did for the march on Washington a few years ago. If we do, I am convinced that the Senate will become stronger in its support of Israel.
Pikuach Nefesh
"There's a klal gadol baTorah. In the gemora, sometimes discussions or controversies end up with the word teiku. What's teiku? Tishbi yetaretz kushiyot ubaayot (Eliyahu HaTishbi will answer the questions we have when he comes).
But in halacha, there's no such thing as no answer. When there's no specific answer in halacha for this case, you fall back on principles. Safeik de'oreita le chumra. Safeik derabanan lekulah. (If you have something you're not sure of, if it's from the Torah, you take the stringent approach. If the question is from the rabbis, you take the more lenient option.)
There's no specific answer to the problems facing Am Yisrael today. There's no quick answer to the Kassam rockets. But we have a base halacha which says, when in doubt, pasken the halacha as it is written. And what's written, Pikuach nefesh is docheh kol mitzvah she baTorah. (Where there's a life at stake, you can transgress the mitzvoth in the Torah [note: except three]). Therefore, analyze the situation.
Am I endangering the life of a Jew by the 'disengagement'? Am I improving their security by doing that? That will be my decision. Pikuach nefesh is docheh kol mitzvah she baTorah. So I ask myself a question, 'Is pikuach nefesh involved here?' The generals say it is. The Shabak says it is. The rabbanim in the hitnachluyot say it is. The people are yelling, 'You're killing me.' So, the 'disengagement' is forbidden.
Not because of ahavat haaretz (love of the land), Eretz Shelaimah (wholeness of the land). That confuses the situation. It causes the opposition to demean the machloket (disagreement) into whether we want more territory or less territory. That's not the issue. We want our children not to be killed. Period.
On the big issue of what's good for the Jews or bad for the Jews, we've reached an impasse - teiku. When you have a teiku, you go back to principles. The key principle here is pikuach nefesh.
That's the big error that's being made now in this whole battle. They [the organizations fighting the dismantling of Gush Katif] are putting too much Zionism into the picture. When in doubt, go with the halacha.
And the halacha says clearly, 'This act is endangering the life of Jews.' Oslo was isur me'doreita (forbidden from the Torah) for one reason - not because you felt it was going to fail, but because the signing of Oslo and the reincarnation of Arafat that followed, led to more Jews being killed.
That was foreseen by the little rabbanim in the hitnachlayut (Yesha communities). It wasn't seen by the big rabbanim who had trouble deciding whether they do or do not vote with the government. A shayala was asked, ‘Is Oslo good for the Jews or bad for the Jews al pi halacha?’ They didn't know, so they decided to support the government. That wasn't the issue. If they didn't know, they should have gone back to principles. The first principle, 'pikuach nefesh.'
The Infinite Jew
What do the proponents say? Will [disengagement] increase or decrease security? 'Well...it will decrease security now. But in the future, it will be good.' There's no such halacha that you kill somebody now because in the future you'll save more lives. That's against the halacha. We don't have that concept of sacrificing a few Jews so you can save a lot more Jews, because to wax mathematical and poetic, a Jew is of infinite worth, and ten infinities are no more than one infinity. Infinity is infinity.
What should regular people do?
Push this one point. Don't talk about anything else.
Don't talk about how much effort [people of Gush Katif] put into building their hot houses, and what a terrible thing it is to uproot someone, or that it is reminiscent of the Shoah. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about one simple thing, 'You're killing our children.' Period. Not here. Not in Gush Katif. You're killing our children in Tel Aviv.
The Kassam rockets are getting better. Israel is so small. Add a few more grains of powder to a kassam rocket. If you're not interested in accuracy, and just want blind terror, it will hit Tel Aviv also. If it hits Tel Aviv, then you'll get a reaction.
If the first rocket landed in Tel Aviv, they would have wiped out swaths of enemy territory in order to prevent it.
Endangering Ourselves
I have big investments in Eretz Yisrael - 43 grandchildren and great-grandchildren living here, bli ayin hara. So I'm not exactly an outsider. It cannot be that while I was not looking Israel became a fascist dictatorship country with one man calling all the shots.
The fact that Sharon is so resistant to a Misha’al Am (referendum), indicates that he knows he is not presenting a popular plan. If he could have a mandate and a decent majority voting with him, he'd have it his way.
We are surrounded by enemies. They're killing our children. Which nation has ever suffered this thing of arbitrary missiles - 'I'll just send out a missile and see whom I can kill' - and it doesn't lead to a declaration of war!
It boils down to: we have to do what we have to do. And no one's asking me.
[Speaking after the deadly Kassam missiles hit Sderot, Rav Tendler said] Right now, Sharon doesn't understand that he can do whatever he pleases against the Arab terrorists with full support of the people of America. Bush will yell that it wasn't a measured response, and so on. But the majority of Americans today, as anti-Semitic as they are, are pro-Israel, because they hate the Arabs more. It's not from Ahavat Mordechai, but from Sinat Haman.
If I were Sharon, I'd make an announcement on the radio today, 'If one more Kassam rocket lands, this geographic area consisting of ten blocks will be destroyed in the morning by bombers. You have 24 hours to take your belongings and leave. Next Kassam rocket, 20 blocks get destroyed. Next, 30 blocks get destroyed.' They'll stop.
This is like what Yehoshua did when he came into Eretz Yisrael. 'I will leave you an escape hatch, and you can go out.'
The halacha is clear. Pekuach nefesh must be the motivating factor."
Article published in the February Issue of Voices Magazine
Even before the government voted to destroy the communities of the Gaza Region, most people were feeling helpless - clueless about how they could personally help change the terrible decree facing the Jewish people. As the Jerusalem protest tent was folding last month, Voices Editor (moi) and Publisher had the opportunity to chat with the respected Yeshiva University rosh yeshiva and Jewish leader Rabbi Moshe David Tendler, shlita. Here are some excerpts of our talk:
Many years ago, a talmid of mine married and lived on a kibbutz. After nine years of married life, which included visits to the biggest fertility specialists in Israel, G-d did not strengthen with them with children.
He was appointed as a shaliach to America, where the couple consulted with experts in fertility management. None of the doctors they met had the key that the Ribono Shel Olam keeps in His pocket. After almost two years, and no children, they prepared to return to Eretz Yisrael. He asked me if he could see my father-in-law [the great sage of the previous generation HaRav Moshe Feinstein] ztz'l. Like a good Litvak, my father-in-law said to him, 'Did you try everything? The best in Israel? The best in America? You gave up? There's nothing else? Well, now the Ribono Shel Olam will help.' As long as you think you have a better idea, one that the Ribono Shel Olam didn't think of, He waits until you finish. Once you make up your mind that there's nothing to do, then you come to the conclusion, ‘Ein lanu al mi le'hisha'en elah al Aveinu She'BaShamayim.’ (We have no one to rely on, except our Father in Heaven.)
On the way home, they took a side trip to France and to Italy, and by the time they landed home in Israel, she was expecting. They have nine children today, bli ayin hara.
I use this story for myself and for others. The trick is to give up. We haven't given up enough.
Surely, we have to do everything. Lemaan yevarechecha H' Elokecha bechol ma'asecha asher ta'aseh... (So that Hashem will bless you in everything you do. If you do, Hashem will bless you, and if you don't, He won't bless you.)
So you did everything you could possibly do, and you have to have confidence that it will work out fine. The question is, 'Did we do all we could possibly do?' That's the whole shayala (question). Give up when there are some obvious important things to do yet, and then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not yet involved.
Did we do everything possible? I think there is more to do:
We must contact the American money men, who support Sharon and the city of Jerusalem. Money talks and money men talk. They should be told that we cannot have confidence in Sharon when military men, Shabak and the secret service all say we're increasing the danger to the lives of Israelis with this act [the Sharon Plan]."
We must get the cooperation of the OU (Orthodox Union), the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and the Young Israel to organize a march on Washington with very simple signs, 'Bush, would you let this happen in America?' 'Bush, where is your biblical integrity?' We must bring out 50,000 people, as we did for the march on Washington a few years ago. If we do, I am convinced that the Senate will become stronger in its support of Israel.
Pikuach Nefesh
"There's a klal gadol baTorah. In the gemora, sometimes discussions or controversies end up with the word teiku. What's teiku? Tishbi yetaretz kushiyot ubaayot (Eliyahu HaTishbi will answer the questions we have when he comes).
But in halacha, there's no such thing as no answer. When there's no specific answer in halacha for this case, you fall back on principles. Safeik de'oreita le chumra. Safeik derabanan lekulah. (If you have something you're not sure of, if it's from the Torah, you take the stringent approach. If the question is from the rabbis, you take the more lenient option.)
There's no specific answer to the problems facing Am Yisrael today. There's no quick answer to the Kassam rockets. But we have a base halacha which says, when in doubt, pasken the halacha as it is written. And what's written, Pikuach nefesh is docheh kol mitzvah she baTorah. (Where there's a life at stake, you can transgress the mitzvoth in the Torah [note: except three]). Therefore, analyze the situation.
Am I endangering the life of a Jew by the 'disengagement'? Am I improving their security by doing that? That will be my decision. Pikuach nefesh is docheh kol mitzvah she baTorah. So I ask myself a question, 'Is pikuach nefesh involved here?' The generals say it is. The Shabak says it is. The rabbanim in the hitnachluyot say it is. The people are yelling, 'You're killing me.' So, the 'disengagement' is forbidden.
Not because of ahavat haaretz (love of the land), Eretz Shelaimah (wholeness of the land). That confuses the situation. It causes the opposition to demean the machloket (disagreement) into whether we want more territory or less territory. That's not the issue. We want our children not to be killed. Period.
On the big issue of what's good for the Jews or bad for the Jews, we've reached an impasse - teiku. When you have a teiku, you go back to principles. The key principle here is pikuach nefesh.
That's the big error that's being made now in this whole battle. They [the organizations fighting the dismantling of Gush Katif] are putting too much Zionism into the picture. When in doubt, go with the halacha.
And the halacha says clearly, 'This act is endangering the life of Jews.' Oslo was isur me'doreita (forbidden from the Torah) for one reason - not because you felt it was going to fail, but because the signing of Oslo and the reincarnation of Arafat that followed, led to more Jews being killed.
That was foreseen by the little rabbanim in the hitnachlayut (Yesha communities). It wasn't seen by the big rabbanim who had trouble deciding whether they do or do not vote with the government. A shayala was asked, ‘Is Oslo good for the Jews or bad for the Jews al pi halacha?’ They didn't know, so they decided to support the government. That wasn't the issue. If they didn't know, they should have gone back to principles. The first principle, 'pikuach nefesh.'
The Infinite Jew
What do the proponents say? Will [disengagement] increase or decrease security? 'Well...it will decrease security now. But in the future, it will be good.' There's no such halacha that you kill somebody now because in the future you'll save more lives. That's against the halacha. We don't have that concept of sacrificing a few Jews so you can save a lot more Jews, because to wax mathematical and poetic, a Jew is of infinite worth, and ten infinities are no more than one infinity. Infinity is infinity.
What should regular people do?
Push this one point. Don't talk about anything else.
Don't talk about how much effort [people of Gush Katif] put into building their hot houses, and what a terrible thing it is to uproot someone, or that it is reminiscent of the Shoah. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about one simple thing, 'You're killing our children.' Period. Not here. Not in Gush Katif. You're killing our children in Tel Aviv.
The Kassam rockets are getting better. Israel is so small. Add a few more grains of powder to a kassam rocket. If you're not interested in accuracy, and just want blind terror, it will hit Tel Aviv also. If it hits Tel Aviv, then you'll get a reaction.
If the first rocket landed in Tel Aviv, they would have wiped out swaths of enemy territory in order to prevent it.
Endangering Ourselves
I have big investments in Eretz Yisrael - 43 grandchildren and great-grandchildren living here, bli ayin hara. So I'm not exactly an outsider. It cannot be that while I was not looking Israel became a fascist dictatorship country with one man calling all the shots.
The fact that Sharon is so resistant to a Misha’al Am (referendum), indicates that he knows he is not presenting a popular plan. If he could have a mandate and a decent majority voting with him, he'd have it his way.
We are surrounded by enemies. They're killing our children. Which nation has ever suffered this thing of arbitrary missiles - 'I'll just send out a missile and see whom I can kill' - and it doesn't lead to a declaration of war!
It boils down to: we have to do what we have to do. And no one's asking me.
[Speaking after the deadly Kassam missiles hit Sderot, Rav Tendler said] Right now, Sharon doesn't understand that he can do whatever he pleases against the Arab terrorists with full support of the people of America. Bush will yell that it wasn't a measured response, and so on. But the majority of Americans today, as anti-Semitic as they are, are pro-Israel, because they hate the Arabs more. It's not from Ahavat Mordechai, but from Sinat Haman.
If I were Sharon, I'd make an announcement on the radio today, 'If one more Kassam rocket lands, this geographic area consisting of ten blocks will be destroyed in the morning by bombers. You have 24 hours to take your belongings and leave. Next Kassam rocket, 20 blocks get destroyed. Next, 30 blocks get destroyed.' They'll stop.
This is like what Yehoshua did when he came into Eretz Yisrael. 'I will leave you an escape hatch, and you can go out.'
The halacha is clear. Pekuach nefesh must be the motivating factor."
Article published in the February Issue of Voices Magazine
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Quotes from Israeli Security Officials on Sharon's Expulsion Plan
Shock. That's the only way I can describe what so many people are feeling right now, following all the committee and Knesset votes to destroy Gush Katif, train the Palestinian Security Services and bring Arab armed forces in sneezing distance to our cities.
Nausea. Our reaction to the photos of Knesset members applauding and congrat-ulating one another after the passing of the Jewish evacuation/PA empowerment vote. They seemed to be celebrating something great, as they were all smiles over the plans to destroy communities, lives and futures. Sure, before the Cabinet vote, the Prime Minister said, “This day isn’t an easy day, and not a day of joy,” but you could have fooled me by the jubilant faces on our Knesset members after the vote.
Disgust. The opinion of anyone who's read B'Sheva's account of police plans to brutalize the citizens of Gush Katif and the Gaza Region. Adding non-Jewish forces to their ranks, B'Sheva says, the police were told to remove their tags, so that no one could complain about their violence, and that they would not accept any complaints for minor brutality like "breaking an arm." In the most frightening news since the time of Stalin, "B'Sheva also reported that police are being trained how to use violence without leaving any external signs which could be used as evidence against them."
The new level of police brutality has already previewed at the road-blocking demonstrations recently, where police used unprecedented force against the teenagers on the street.
Where is the outcry from human rights activists now? Where is the outcry of every Jew in Israel, of every Jew in the world at the plan to break the bones of our brothers?
Peace and Security
Will all this violence and destruction bring us peace and security for the Jewish people, in their albeit shrinking state?
What? Who says there won't be a utopian tomorrow?
* We can begin with one of our most dapper terrorists Mohammed Dahlan (the man responsible for the attack on the Kfar Darom bus that cost the lives of Miri Amitai and Gabi Biton, HY”D and that ripped off the legs of the Cohen children). According to Jpost, Dahlan said only last week that if Israel doesn't leave the Philadelphia Route (which it needs in order to control illegal weapons smuggling from Egypt to the PA) then "the Palestinians will continue to launch attacks on Israel".
* Not so well-dressed Hamas official Said Siam said that if ALL Arab terrorists and security prisoners are not released from Israeli jails unconditionally, "there will be no calm or hudna (temporary truce)."
* The soon-to-be-ditched Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon just told a Tel Aviv conference that Hamas terrorists are exploiting the cease fire to rebuild arms. Not a popular opinion, Bogie.
* IDF soldiers revealed, according to Israel National News, that terrorists are planting land mines at a rate of one a day, inside the Gaza Region and across the Green Line as well.
* HaModia reported that Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi, the head of IDF Intelligence, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the beginning of the month that "any lull in terror attacks is merely a tactic being employed by the terror groups to help the Palestinian Authority extract more concessions from Israel."
* GSS head Avi Dichter, "usually a calm speaker" finally spoke his mind (it spelled his political demise). HaModia reported that Dichter "lashed out against the prime minister. 'I don't know what's happened to you. There is no 'calm' yet, there is no quiet, and as of yet, there isn't the slightest guarantee that Abu Mazen will ultimately be able to fulfill his promise of achieving calm on the Palestinian street, but here you're already rushing to give him things that he'll deserve when there will be peace…You're in too much of a hurry."
Truth, not being in fashion lately, the delegitimization of Avi Dichter and his opinions began immediately. His experience could have been taken straight from Jeremiah, who prophesized the destruction of the Holy Temple if the Jews didn't repent. Instead of his warnings being heeded, Dichter was accused of prophesizing "doom and gloom."
What of other experts?
* Lt.-Col. Itamar Ya'ar, Deputy Chairman of the National Security Council, told the Knesset Interior Committee, last month, "It is very likely that the territory to be evacuated in the context of the disengagement plan will be taken advantage of [by terrorists],"
* Col. Uzi Buchbinder, the army's civil-defense officer, warned the Knesset Environment Committee last month, "The implementation of the Gaza disengagement/transfer plan will place 46 western Negev communities within range of Kassam rockets fired from northern Gaza….Other major Israeli population centers, including Afula, Hadera, and Ashkelon - the latter two of which host major Israel Electric Company power stations - will also come within range of Palestinian terrorists, if the pullout from Gush Katif and northern Shomron is carried out."
What? Did he mention Ashkelon?? Folks there are not afraid of a Sderot II scenario. They're fearful of much worse.
* "Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mehatzri warned, since the rockets are being improved all the time, Ashkelon's southern neighborhoods or even its downtown could come under threat. At the Katza station, there are gas containers that are stored above ground, only 1,500 meters away from residents, he said. He warned that 5,000 to 10,000 residents could be in danger from Kassam hits."
* The Knesset Interior Committee, according to INN, "assessed that the area threatened by missiles after a withdrawal would expand by 6-12 miles - and not 4-5 miles as has been previously assumed. Cities such as Ashkelon, Netivot, Ofakim and Kiryat Gat will be within firing range. The withdrawal from the northern Shomron, too, will place Beit She'an, Afula, Hadera and the towns of the Jezreel Valley within the sights of terror groups taking advantage of the newly evacuated areas."
* Mordechai Yogev from the conservative National Security Forum, confirmed those fears, and added Pardes Hanna to the Kassam-bound list of targets.
* Experts have told the media that there is no defense program in place or in development to protect any of the 46 communities in immediate danger from the withdrawal.
While many security officials have already announced that Israel's main power stations in Ashkelon and Hadera, as well as the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline are vulnerable to Arab attack if Israel leaves Gaza, what about its abandonment of Northern Shomron?
* INN reported that according to the manager of the water utility, Dr. Yosef Dreizen, “The loss of control of the northern Shomron will likely create serious problems for Israel's water infrastructure.” He warned that “it could bring about the drying up of the Jezreel Valley water supply and the salination of the coastal aquifers."
* All of these security officials might have made their findings known to the public last month, but Shas Mentor HaRav Ovadiah Yosef, shlita, announced three months ago, "We must vote against the disengagement! Dismantling Jewish communities in Gush Katif and northern Samaria will endanger Israel. Next, they will chase Jews out of Ashkelon, Hevron and Be'er Sheva; there will be no end!. This plan is 'pikuach nefesh' - a danger to life. If, Heaven forbid, we evacuate these Jewish communities, who will come in their place? The terrorists, who will then be in range of Ashkelon and Netivot, and they will fire their rockets and Kassams."
* The Finance Ministry has its own evacuation problems that will soon spill over into our pocketbooks. Bottom line, there isn't enough money to pay for the "disengagement." Jpost reported that the total cost of withdrawing Israeli forces from Gaza will reach NIS 5 billion, according to the Finance Ministry. But the political and defense establishments believe, that the true cost could leap to as much as NIS 6 billion. "This translates to about 1.1 percent of gross domestic product, and is triple the amount the treasury originally earmarked for the pullout in the government's 2005 budget." Other costs left unbudgeted involve adding protection to the next towns that would be threatened by the pullout, plus the costs of paying off coalition partners.
So, what will happen if there's no money to pay for the destruction of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron communities? There are two options. Increase the budget deficit (how high is the sky), or raise taxes (proof that blood can be taken from a stone).
Safe and Sound
If we all sit back, and allow the destruction, chas v’shalom, will the rest of Yesha be secure, as we’ve been promised?
What? Not that either?
World Net Daily reported, " Sharon, speaking to reporters after giving his annual address to the foreign press corps, said Bush supported the concept of a final peace agreement in which Israel would retain land in the West Bank and not accept Palestinian refugees if the Jewish state carried out the Gaza withdrawal."
"I don't think that we made compromise or concessions without getting anything in return," Sharon said. "In the agreement between Bush and myself, we [received] tremendous achievements that Israel never had since its establishment." Sounds good, but unfortunately when a US official was asked, by David S. Bedein, director of the Israel Resource News Agency, to confirm America's agreement to Israeli settlement in blocs in Yesha, his answer was NO!!
Don't believe him? So, ask US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. INN's headline after Rice's meeting with Dov Weisglass (he’s the casino king - today Jericho, tomorrow Gaza, the new Monte Carlo on the Mediterranean) read "Israel Must Withdraw from More than Gaza and Samaria." Why? Because, America's Road Map calls for the new Arab state to have continuity between Gaza and Yesha, "effectively dividing Israel in half, north and south of the Gaza-Hevron connection."
What about Israel’s continuity? Well, if Am Yisrael had a feeling of continuity to its past and an appreciation of its heritage and its land, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
Surely our own government will demand that President Bush hold to his letter supporting Israel's desire NOT to return to the 1949 armistice lines. Or maybe not.
This week’s cabinet vote called for the withdrawal from Gaza, and the approval of the fence route (which Voices told you long ago would be the border!) that would keep only 7% of Yesha as part of Israel. If these dastardly plans are realized, get ready, chas v’shalom, for Evacuation-The Sequel, to be played in a community near you, or maybe even closer than that.
Need confirmation on the plans to do away with Yesha?
INN reported that Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit said that groups from Gush Katif could resettle anywhere in the Negev or the Galilee. If they wished to move individually to Yesha, they could, but not as groups. "The government expects that many of the settlers will not want to move to the West Bank since that area will probably be evacuated in the long run as well, the official said."
Why? Why? Why?
Noah's sons (in the musical "NOAH! Ride the Wave!") say, "There must be a reason for all this." "I wish I knew what it is." Everyone else is wondering the same thing.
Caroline Glick, the Jerusalem Post's absolutely brilliant columnist, wrote last week, that Sharon's plan "arguably the most controversial plan ever to be adopted by an Israeli government - is being bulldozed through to implementation without Sharon or his allies ever satisfactorily explaining how it will advance Israel's security or political interests….Sharon has not explained how turning Gaza over to the Palestinians will enhance Israeli security….He has not explained how Israel will protect itself from rocket and mortar attacks on Ashkelon, Ashdod or Netivot after the withdrawal….He has never explained why it is necessary to give the Palestinians the communities in northern Gaza - Dugit, Alei Sinai and Nissanit - which are geographically indistinguishable from Ashkelon and whose heights control the entire area….He has never explained how Israel will be able to defend the strategic sites like the Ashkelon power station and the Ashkelon-Eilat oil pipeline with Hamas roaming freely on those heights.....He has never explained why it is necessary for Israel to remove itself to the 1949 armistice lines, rather than retain the areas necessary for its security and what Israeli acceptance of these lines in Gaza means for future negotiations regarding Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem."
And, unless we want to be charged with incitement in this period of democracy-suspension, we're not even allowed to ask.
Good luck to us all. Rocky waters ahead. May Hashem save His people. Especially in these times, when Am Yisrael needs you ... Let your Voices be heard.
Printed in the Febraruy 2005 Issue Voices Magazine
Shock. That's the only way I can describe what so many people are feeling right now, following all the committee and Knesset votes to destroy Gush Katif, train the Palestinian Security Services and bring Arab armed forces in sneezing distance to our cities.
Nausea. Our reaction to the photos of Knesset members applauding and congrat-ulating one another after the passing of the Jewish evacuation/PA empowerment vote. They seemed to be celebrating something great, as they were all smiles over the plans to destroy communities, lives and futures. Sure, before the Cabinet vote, the Prime Minister said, “This day isn’t an easy day, and not a day of joy,” but you could have fooled me by the jubilant faces on our Knesset members after the vote.
Disgust. The opinion of anyone who's read B'Sheva's account of police plans to brutalize the citizens of Gush Katif and the Gaza Region. Adding non-Jewish forces to their ranks, B'Sheva says, the police were told to remove their tags, so that no one could complain about their violence, and that they would not accept any complaints for minor brutality like "breaking an arm." In the most frightening news since the time of Stalin, "B'Sheva also reported that police are being trained how to use violence without leaving any external signs which could be used as evidence against them."
The new level of police brutality has already previewed at the road-blocking demonstrations recently, where police used unprecedented force against the teenagers on the street.
Where is the outcry from human rights activists now? Where is the outcry of every Jew in Israel, of every Jew in the world at the plan to break the bones of our brothers?
Peace and Security
Will all this violence and destruction bring us peace and security for the Jewish people, in their albeit shrinking state?
What? Who says there won't be a utopian tomorrow?
* We can begin with one of our most dapper terrorists Mohammed Dahlan (the man responsible for the attack on the Kfar Darom bus that cost the lives of Miri Amitai and Gabi Biton, HY”D and that ripped off the legs of the Cohen children). According to Jpost, Dahlan said only last week that if Israel doesn't leave the Philadelphia Route (which it needs in order to control illegal weapons smuggling from Egypt to the PA) then "the Palestinians will continue to launch attacks on Israel".
* Not so well-dressed Hamas official Said Siam said that if ALL Arab terrorists and security prisoners are not released from Israeli jails unconditionally, "there will be no calm or hudna (temporary truce)."
* The soon-to-be-ditched Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon just told a Tel Aviv conference that Hamas terrorists are exploiting the cease fire to rebuild arms. Not a popular opinion, Bogie.
* IDF soldiers revealed, according to Israel National News, that terrorists are planting land mines at a rate of one a day, inside the Gaza Region and across the Green Line as well.
* HaModia reported that Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi, the head of IDF Intelligence, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the beginning of the month that "any lull in terror attacks is merely a tactic being employed by the terror groups to help the Palestinian Authority extract more concessions from Israel."
* GSS head Avi Dichter, "usually a calm speaker" finally spoke his mind (it spelled his political demise). HaModia reported that Dichter "lashed out against the prime minister. 'I don't know what's happened to you. There is no 'calm' yet, there is no quiet, and as of yet, there isn't the slightest guarantee that Abu Mazen will ultimately be able to fulfill his promise of achieving calm on the Palestinian street, but here you're already rushing to give him things that he'll deserve when there will be peace…You're in too much of a hurry."
Truth, not being in fashion lately, the delegitimization of Avi Dichter and his opinions began immediately. His experience could have been taken straight from Jeremiah, who prophesized the destruction of the Holy Temple if the Jews didn't repent. Instead of his warnings being heeded, Dichter was accused of prophesizing "doom and gloom."
What of other experts?
* Lt.-Col. Itamar Ya'ar, Deputy Chairman of the National Security Council, told the Knesset Interior Committee, last month, "It is very likely that the territory to be evacuated in the context of the disengagement plan will be taken advantage of [by terrorists],"
* Col. Uzi Buchbinder, the army's civil-defense officer, warned the Knesset Environment Committee last month, "The implementation of the Gaza disengagement/transfer plan will place 46 western Negev communities within range of Kassam rockets fired from northern Gaza….Other major Israeli population centers, including Afula, Hadera, and Ashkelon - the latter two of which host major Israel Electric Company power stations - will also come within range of Palestinian terrorists, if the pullout from Gush Katif and northern Shomron is carried out."
What? Did he mention Ashkelon?? Folks there are not afraid of a Sderot II scenario. They're fearful of much worse.
* "Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mehatzri warned, since the rockets are being improved all the time, Ashkelon's southern neighborhoods or even its downtown could come under threat. At the Katza station, there are gas containers that are stored above ground, only 1,500 meters away from residents, he said. He warned that 5,000 to 10,000 residents could be in danger from Kassam hits."
* The Knesset Interior Committee, according to INN, "assessed that the area threatened by missiles after a withdrawal would expand by 6-12 miles - and not 4-5 miles as has been previously assumed. Cities such as Ashkelon, Netivot, Ofakim and Kiryat Gat will be within firing range. The withdrawal from the northern Shomron, too, will place Beit She'an, Afula, Hadera and the towns of the Jezreel Valley within the sights of terror groups taking advantage of the newly evacuated areas."
* Mordechai Yogev from the conservative National Security Forum, confirmed those fears, and added Pardes Hanna to the Kassam-bound list of targets.
* Experts have told the media that there is no defense program in place or in development to protect any of the 46 communities in immediate danger from the withdrawal.
While many security officials have already announced that Israel's main power stations in Ashkelon and Hadera, as well as the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline are vulnerable to Arab attack if Israel leaves Gaza, what about its abandonment of Northern Shomron?
* INN reported that according to the manager of the water utility, Dr. Yosef Dreizen, “The loss of control of the northern Shomron will likely create serious problems for Israel's water infrastructure.” He warned that “it could bring about the drying up of the Jezreel Valley water supply and the salination of the coastal aquifers."
* All of these security officials might have made their findings known to the public last month, but Shas Mentor HaRav Ovadiah Yosef, shlita, announced three months ago, "We must vote against the disengagement! Dismantling Jewish communities in Gush Katif and northern Samaria will endanger Israel. Next, they will chase Jews out of Ashkelon, Hevron and Be'er Sheva; there will be no end!. This plan is 'pikuach nefesh' - a danger to life. If, Heaven forbid, we evacuate these Jewish communities, who will come in their place? The terrorists, who will then be in range of Ashkelon and Netivot, and they will fire their rockets and Kassams."
* The Finance Ministry has its own evacuation problems that will soon spill over into our pocketbooks. Bottom line, there isn't enough money to pay for the "disengagement." Jpost reported that the total cost of withdrawing Israeli forces from Gaza will reach NIS 5 billion, according to the Finance Ministry. But the political and defense establishments believe, that the true cost could leap to as much as NIS 6 billion. "This translates to about 1.1 percent of gross domestic product, and is triple the amount the treasury originally earmarked for the pullout in the government's 2005 budget." Other costs left unbudgeted involve adding protection to the next towns that would be threatened by the pullout, plus the costs of paying off coalition partners.
So, what will happen if there's no money to pay for the destruction of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron communities? There are two options. Increase the budget deficit (how high is the sky), or raise taxes (proof that blood can be taken from a stone).
Safe and Sound
If we all sit back, and allow the destruction, chas v’shalom, will the rest of Yesha be secure, as we’ve been promised?
What? Not that either?
World Net Daily reported, " Sharon, speaking to reporters after giving his annual address to the foreign press corps, said Bush supported the concept of a final peace agreement in which Israel would retain land in the West Bank and not accept Palestinian refugees if the Jewish state carried out the Gaza withdrawal."
"I don't think that we made compromise or concessions without getting anything in return," Sharon said. "In the agreement between Bush and myself, we [received] tremendous achievements that Israel never had since its establishment." Sounds good, but unfortunately when a US official was asked, by David S. Bedein, director of the Israel Resource News Agency, to confirm America's agreement to Israeli settlement in blocs in Yesha, his answer was NO!!
Don't believe him? So, ask US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. INN's headline after Rice's meeting with Dov Weisglass (he’s the casino king - today Jericho, tomorrow Gaza, the new Monte Carlo on the Mediterranean) read "Israel Must Withdraw from More than Gaza and Samaria." Why? Because, America's Road Map calls for the new Arab state to have continuity between Gaza and Yesha, "effectively dividing Israel in half, north and south of the Gaza-Hevron connection."
What about Israel’s continuity? Well, if Am Yisrael had a feeling of continuity to its past and an appreciation of its heritage and its land, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
Surely our own government will demand that President Bush hold to his letter supporting Israel's desire NOT to return to the 1949 armistice lines. Or maybe not.
This week’s cabinet vote called for the withdrawal from Gaza, and the approval of the fence route (which Voices told you long ago would be the border!) that would keep only 7% of Yesha as part of Israel. If these dastardly plans are realized, get ready, chas v’shalom, for Evacuation-The Sequel, to be played in a community near you, or maybe even closer than that.
Need confirmation on the plans to do away with Yesha?
INN reported that Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit said that groups from Gush Katif could resettle anywhere in the Negev or the Galilee. If they wished to move individually to Yesha, they could, but not as groups. "The government expects that many of the settlers will not want to move to the West Bank since that area will probably be evacuated in the long run as well, the official said."
Why? Why? Why?
Noah's sons (in the musical "NOAH! Ride the Wave!") say, "There must be a reason for all this." "I wish I knew what it is." Everyone else is wondering the same thing.
Caroline Glick, the Jerusalem Post's absolutely brilliant columnist, wrote last week, that Sharon's plan "arguably the most controversial plan ever to be adopted by an Israeli government - is being bulldozed through to implementation without Sharon or his allies ever satisfactorily explaining how it will advance Israel's security or political interests….Sharon has not explained how turning Gaza over to the Palestinians will enhance Israeli security….He has not explained how Israel will protect itself from rocket and mortar attacks on Ashkelon, Ashdod or Netivot after the withdrawal….He has never explained why it is necessary to give the Palestinians the communities in northern Gaza - Dugit, Alei Sinai and Nissanit - which are geographically indistinguishable from Ashkelon and whose heights control the entire area….He has never explained how Israel will be able to defend the strategic sites like the Ashkelon power station and the Ashkelon-Eilat oil pipeline with Hamas roaming freely on those heights.....He has never explained why it is necessary for Israel to remove itself to the 1949 armistice lines, rather than retain the areas necessary for its security and what Israeli acceptance of these lines in Gaza means for future negotiations regarding Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem."
And, unless we want to be charged with incitement in this period of democracy-suspension, we're not even allowed to ask.
Good luck to us all. Rocky waters ahead. May Hashem save His people. Especially in these times, when Am Yisrael needs you ... Let your Voices be heard.
Printed in the Febraruy 2005 Issue Voices Magazine
Sunday, January 30, 2005
A Few Facts to Ponder
"Oslo - the Original Sin"
FACT - In 1987 Arabs stoned Israeli cars.
FACT - Before/during the Oslo process the Israeli right warned the Rabin government not to give the Arabs guns lest they be turned on Israelis.
FACT - Rabin hoped the guns would be turned on the Hamas.
FACT - Before the Oslo process the Isreali right warned the Rabin government that the Oslo process will bring rocket attacks to Sderot and Ashkelon
FACT - Suicide bombings in Israel only began after the Oslo process
QUESTION - Should Israel continue to make public policies based on false hopes?
QUESTION - If the Oslo process is the original sin that caused Israel to be terrified into giving up more and more of its own land to a sworn enemy (look at current PLO mandate that was never changed) then why are we continuing the process where it left off in 2000?
"Peace" Talks - again?
FACT - Just over a week ago the Israeli government was finally talking about a massive operation in the Gaza strip to crush the Gaza militias in order to stop the rockets flying over the fence into Sderot.
FACT - Step one of the infamous American Road Map is for the Palestinians to unarm all the armed militias. (A step that, according to the RM, must be fulfilled before any negotiations -Have you heard any Israeli demand for this step?)
QUESTION - If the euphoria of Oslo is returning and peace talks begin, why do Jews need to be transferred from their homes? Is that how peace is defined?
QUESTION - Or, if no peace is on the horizon then why are we giving the Arabs a prize for their 4 year terrorism? And why even sit down and "talk" (sic) peace with them without geting rid of their armed militias first?
The Israeli Supreme Court/Human Rights Activists Showing their True Face
FACT - The Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the State of Israel transfering the family of a terrorist from Shechem to Gaza to act as a deterent for future suicide bombers.
FACT - The Israeli Supreme Court ruled against transferring Beduin who illegaly built homes on State/army land.
FACT - The Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the planned route of the seperation wall because it cut off the path between some Arabs families and their farmlands.
QUESTION - Is the Israeli Supreme Court protecting the rights of 8,000 Israelis about to be forcefully transferred from their homes?
QUESTION - Are human rights activists protesting the planned human rights abuse of 8,000 Israeli citizens?
QUESTION - What would happen if Israel decided to transfer only 8! Arab families from their homes in the Galil to the Negev (within Israel)?
Would the world sit quietly?
Would human rights activists sit quietly?
Would human rights activists refuse orders?
Would human rights activists try to stop the soldiers?
Would the Israeli Supreme Court allow it?
Regardless of where you stand on the issue - the situation today with regards to the possible transfer of 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes stinks and people better start focusing on the facts instead of the spins, media hype and Oslo eupohoria....
...haven't we been here before?
Here's to a better tomorrow when Jews begin to believe in themselves, their faith and their abilities as a nation to stick to their beliefs.
Human Rights for all and justice for all.....will only be accomplished when we turn the State of the Jews into a true Jewish State. Here's praying and working towards a future Jewish leadership for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
What are you doing to change the situation?
Avi Abelow
"Oslo - the Original Sin"
FACT - In 1987 Arabs stoned Israeli cars.
FACT - Before/during the Oslo process the Israeli right warned the Rabin government not to give the Arabs guns lest they be turned on Israelis.
FACT - Rabin hoped the guns would be turned on the Hamas.
FACT - Before the Oslo process the Isreali right warned the Rabin government that the Oslo process will bring rocket attacks to Sderot and Ashkelon
FACT - Suicide bombings in Israel only began after the Oslo process
QUESTION - Should Israel continue to make public policies based on false hopes?
QUESTION - If the Oslo process is the original sin that caused Israel to be terrified into giving up more and more of its own land to a sworn enemy (look at current PLO mandate that was never changed) then why are we continuing the process where it left off in 2000?
"Peace" Talks - again?
FACT - Just over a week ago the Israeli government was finally talking about a massive operation in the Gaza strip to crush the Gaza militias in order to stop the rockets flying over the fence into Sderot.
FACT - Step one of the infamous American Road Map is for the Palestinians to unarm all the armed militias. (A step that, according to the RM, must be fulfilled before any negotiations -Have you heard any Israeli demand for this step?)
QUESTION - If the euphoria of Oslo is returning and peace talks begin, why do Jews need to be transferred from their homes? Is that how peace is defined?
QUESTION - Or, if no peace is on the horizon then why are we giving the Arabs a prize for their 4 year terrorism? And why even sit down and "talk" (sic) peace with them without geting rid of their armed militias first?
The Israeli Supreme Court/Human Rights Activists Showing their True Face
FACT - The Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the State of Israel transfering the family of a terrorist from Shechem to Gaza to act as a deterent for future suicide bombers.
FACT - The Israeli Supreme Court ruled against transferring Beduin who illegaly built homes on State/army land.
FACT - The Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the planned route of the seperation wall because it cut off the path between some Arabs families and their farmlands.
QUESTION - Is the Israeli Supreme Court protecting the rights of 8,000 Israelis about to be forcefully transferred from their homes?
QUESTION - Are human rights activists protesting the planned human rights abuse of 8,000 Israeli citizens?
QUESTION - What would happen if Israel decided to transfer only 8! Arab families from their homes in the Galil to the Negev (within Israel)?
Would the world sit quietly?
Would human rights activists sit quietly?
Would human rights activists refuse orders?
Would human rights activists try to stop the soldiers?
Would the Israeli Supreme Court allow it?
Regardless of where you stand on the issue - the situation today with regards to the possible transfer of 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes stinks and people better start focusing on the facts instead of the spins, media hype and Oslo eupohoria....
...haven't we been here before?
Here's to a better tomorrow when Jews begin to believe in themselves, their faith and their abilities as a nation to stick to their beliefs.
Human Rights for all and justice for all.....will only be accomplished when we turn the State of the Jews into a true Jewish State. Here's praying and working towards a future Jewish leadership for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
What are you doing to change the situation?
Avi Abelow
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Scary Times - but hold on to your hope
Last week the Israeli public was awakened to horrifying statements from prominent society members. The maddening thing about it was that they were all reported by the press in passing without any discussion, revulsion or any reactions of any kind!!!!
The first statement was made by Yair Lapid, the son of Tommy Lapid (leader of the Shinui party). He said that he is not afraid of a civil war in Israel because the settlers are not "our" brothers. --- Another nail in the coffin deligitimizing the settlers.
The second statement was made by Ehud Olmert, Sharon's right hand man in the government. He said that the army has to break the settlers bones. ---One step further in painting us to be the enemy.
The third statement was made by Ephraim Sneh, a prominent MK from the Labor party, who said that a little blood spilt in a civil war is better than more blood spilt later.
The fourth statement was made by Ami Ayalon, a past head of Shabak, Israeli intelligence, and now a contender for the Labor party leadership. He said that it is about time for Israel to have another Altalena. (The story of the Altalena is when David Ben-Gurion ordered Hagana soldiers to fire upon Menachem Begin's Irgun soldiers who were on a boat bringing in weapons to Israel). Ami Ayalon was refering to it being about time for Jews to once again shoot at fellow Jews.
These are extremely scary comments made by prominent people and reported in the press - none of them cause any uproar in Israel, none whatsoever!!! Don't you think that something is a little wrong with that?
For those who understand the real nature of the conflict in Israel it makes perfect sense because the real conflict in Israel today is not between Arabs and Jews, but between Jews and Jews -Those Jews who want to be Israelis without any connection to their Jewish heritage and those Jews who want to be Jews who live in a state connected to its Jewish heritage.
This is the reason our enlightened brothers are psychologically preparing Israels to acept the phenomenon of shooting at fellow Jews, even though these same enlightened Israelis are the ones who vehemently disagree with excesive violence used against our true enemies who kill us everyday.
Expelling Jews from YESHA is part of this fight against the Jews who want an Israel connected to its Jewish heritage.
The truth is that expelling Jews from their homes, anywhere in Israel, will not solve our problem with the Arabs around us. Furthermore, Israel will never be able to solve its conflict with the Arabs until it first solves theburning cultural conflict of Jew versus Israeli.
We are about to go through some scary times - where Jews are actually endorsing the need to shoot at fellow Jews.
Beezrat Hashem we will overcome this, and make sure Sharon and the most evil government the State of Israel has ever had goes down in Jewish history as a sad footnote.
Avi
The article below in today's Haaretz is worth your time to read.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/525461.html
Genuine alarm
By Nadav Shragai
Civil war is no longer a theoretical possibility. The subject is not a matter of hollow threats or baseless horror scenarios. True, there have been an abundance of these, up until a few weeks ago, whose sole purpose was to deter the prime minister from uprooting the settlements of Gush Katif. But now it is a genuine alarm. Some of the nightmare scenarios are now based on reality, even if it may be masking tactics of intimidation and deterrence.
Thousands of Israelis are signing petitions in which they proclaim their refusal to abet the disengagement. Thousands more are declining to sign, but make it clear that they will not cooperate when the day of disengagement comes. They represent not only the religious public, which defers to rabbinic halakhic authority, but also many others - religious and secular Jews - who wish to remain loyal to the dictates of their conscience. Immediate danger is posed by a handful of Yitzhar-type zealots, who are liable to strike at evacuating forces. Former head of the Central Command Yitzhak Eitan speaks of the possible use of live ammunition.But the real rupture that is developing is the chasm between a significant group in the Israeli public and a regime that is perceived as illegitimate, as deceiving its voting public, as carrying out an expulsion and "transfer" of its citizens, without having received any mandate from the public.The prime minister makes life easy for himself by throwing responsibility for the great conflagration that is arising before his eyes solely on the opponents of disengagement. He bears supreme responsibility for what is unfolding. It is he who wrought a situation that has brought us to the brink of the abyss, where refusal to follow orders in the army has ceased to be a marginal phenomenon and is gradually becoming the mainstream view among opponents of disengagement.This process occurred because Sharon has for months stubbornly refused to let the people make the historic decision, as is only right. Sharon could have neutralized this dangerous wave many months ago, and he can still cut it short simply by giving the people the right to decide.This would not only be moral and right; it is also the smart move. The mainstream among opponents of disengagement - the Yesha Council of settlers and the majority of extra-parliamentary rightist organizations, including most of the rabbis - have already announced their readiness to accept whatever decision is made. They believe that they will be able to persuade the public that Sharon is making an awful mistake. They have to be granted the opportunity to prove it, not only because Sharon's style of governance - firing ministers, threatening MKs and ignoring decisions reached by the institutions of his own party and its members - is undemocratic, but mainly because he has deceived his voters.Sharon - who declared prior to the elections that "so long as Palestinian terror continues, there will be no progress on even the beginning of an agreement," who promised "not to evacuate settlements when I am in office," who said that "any such withdrawal would only encourage terror," who spoke of "painful concessions only in exchange for true peace"; Sharon who showed Amram Mitzna the door, when the latter spoke of a unilateral evacuation of settlements - refuses to put his plan to the broad public test, for one simple reason: He is afraid of losing.Somebody has to tell the prime minister - and the president of Israel would be a suitable candidate - that at a time when civil war threatens to break out among us, he should put aside his political accounts and do all he can to prevent it. If he loses, it means that there truly was no legitimization for the unilateral uprooting of individuals from their homes. If he wins, he can carry out his plan, without the danger of a civil war. It is so simple. In fact, the knights of democracy from the left should have subdued their burning passion to evacuate settlements and said this to Sharon.Instead, supporters of Peace Now and the kibbutz movement, whose eyes are sometimes blinded by hatred, are now pouring oil on the burning campfire and enlisting battalions of volunteers for the evacuation. This draft, which Yoel Maharshak, one of the leaders of the kibbutz movement, says is being done with the blessing of the Prime Minister's Office, is a surefire recipe for civil war.However, most worrisome of all, the prime minister who bears the supreme responsibility to prevent a civil war promises he will not let the opponents of disengagement "win" and does not understand that in the internal dispute between Jews, there are only losers. The past few days show that Sharon and his close aides are panicking when it comes to the opponents of disengagement. Evidence is provided by recent statements about "breaking hands and legs."Logic also dictates that Sharon now maintain open channels of dialogue with the public that opposes the course he has taken, but Sharon, in his fervor to "disengage," has also been blinded by the light and has instructed the chief of staff and the defense minister to cease meeting with Jewish settlement leaders in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.The prime minister, it turns out, has not plumbed the depths of the rupture taking place among broad sections of the public, who feel more insulted and bitter with every passing day. This large public is only a step away from the Yitzhar-type extremists, but Sharon the Disengager is widening the circles of fanaticism instead of narrowing them. The president of Israel, who has in the past expressed his support for turning the decision over to the people, is well aware of the danger of internal conflict, but awareness is inadequate. If he wishes to prevent bloodshed between brothers, he must immediately throw his full weight behind an attempt to refer the decision to the public.
Last week the Israeli public was awakened to horrifying statements from prominent society members. The maddening thing about it was that they were all reported by the press in passing without any discussion, revulsion or any reactions of any kind!!!!
The first statement was made by Yair Lapid, the son of Tommy Lapid (leader of the Shinui party). He said that he is not afraid of a civil war in Israel because the settlers are not "our" brothers. --- Another nail in the coffin deligitimizing the settlers.
The second statement was made by Ehud Olmert, Sharon's right hand man in the government. He said that the army has to break the settlers bones. ---One step further in painting us to be the enemy.
The third statement was made by Ephraim Sneh, a prominent MK from the Labor party, who said that a little blood spilt in a civil war is better than more blood spilt later.
The fourth statement was made by Ami Ayalon, a past head of Shabak, Israeli intelligence, and now a contender for the Labor party leadership. He said that it is about time for Israel to have another Altalena. (The story of the Altalena is when David Ben-Gurion ordered Hagana soldiers to fire upon Menachem Begin's Irgun soldiers who were on a boat bringing in weapons to Israel). Ami Ayalon was refering to it being about time for Jews to once again shoot at fellow Jews.
These are extremely scary comments made by prominent people and reported in the press - none of them cause any uproar in Israel, none whatsoever!!! Don't you think that something is a little wrong with that?
For those who understand the real nature of the conflict in Israel it makes perfect sense because the real conflict in Israel today is not between Arabs and Jews, but between Jews and Jews -Those Jews who want to be Israelis without any connection to their Jewish heritage and those Jews who want to be Jews who live in a state connected to its Jewish heritage.
This is the reason our enlightened brothers are psychologically preparing Israels to acept the phenomenon of shooting at fellow Jews, even though these same enlightened Israelis are the ones who vehemently disagree with excesive violence used against our true enemies who kill us everyday.
Expelling Jews from YESHA is part of this fight against the Jews who want an Israel connected to its Jewish heritage.
The truth is that expelling Jews from their homes, anywhere in Israel, will not solve our problem with the Arabs around us. Furthermore, Israel will never be able to solve its conflict with the Arabs until it first solves theburning cultural conflict of Jew versus Israeli.
We are about to go through some scary times - where Jews are actually endorsing the need to shoot at fellow Jews.
Beezrat Hashem we will overcome this, and make sure Sharon and the most evil government the State of Israel has ever had goes down in Jewish history as a sad footnote.
Avi
The article below in today's Haaretz is worth your time to read.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/525461.html
Genuine alarm
By Nadav Shragai
Civil war is no longer a theoretical possibility. The subject is not a matter of hollow threats or baseless horror scenarios. True, there have been an abundance of these, up until a few weeks ago, whose sole purpose was to deter the prime minister from uprooting the settlements of Gush Katif. But now it is a genuine alarm. Some of the nightmare scenarios are now based on reality, even if it may be masking tactics of intimidation and deterrence.
Thousands of Israelis are signing petitions in which they proclaim their refusal to abet the disengagement. Thousands more are declining to sign, but make it clear that they will not cooperate when the day of disengagement comes. They represent not only the religious public, which defers to rabbinic halakhic authority, but also many others - religious and secular Jews - who wish to remain loyal to the dictates of their conscience. Immediate danger is posed by a handful of Yitzhar-type zealots, who are liable to strike at evacuating forces. Former head of the Central Command Yitzhak Eitan speaks of the possible use of live ammunition.But the real rupture that is developing is the chasm between a significant group in the Israeli public and a regime that is perceived as illegitimate, as deceiving its voting public, as carrying out an expulsion and "transfer" of its citizens, without having received any mandate from the public.The prime minister makes life easy for himself by throwing responsibility for the great conflagration that is arising before his eyes solely on the opponents of disengagement. He bears supreme responsibility for what is unfolding. It is he who wrought a situation that has brought us to the brink of the abyss, where refusal to follow orders in the army has ceased to be a marginal phenomenon and is gradually becoming the mainstream view among opponents of disengagement.This process occurred because Sharon has for months stubbornly refused to let the people make the historic decision, as is only right. Sharon could have neutralized this dangerous wave many months ago, and he can still cut it short simply by giving the people the right to decide.This would not only be moral and right; it is also the smart move. The mainstream among opponents of disengagement - the Yesha Council of settlers and the majority of extra-parliamentary rightist organizations, including most of the rabbis - have already announced their readiness to accept whatever decision is made. They believe that they will be able to persuade the public that Sharon is making an awful mistake. They have to be granted the opportunity to prove it, not only because Sharon's style of governance - firing ministers, threatening MKs and ignoring decisions reached by the institutions of his own party and its members - is undemocratic, but mainly because he has deceived his voters.Sharon - who declared prior to the elections that "so long as Palestinian terror continues, there will be no progress on even the beginning of an agreement," who promised "not to evacuate settlements when I am in office," who said that "any such withdrawal would only encourage terror," who spoke of "painful concessions only in exchange for true peace"; Sharon who showed Amram Mitzna the door, when the latter spoke of a unilateral evacuation of settlements - refuses to put his plan to the broad public test, for one simple reason: He is afraid of losing.Somebody has to tell the prime minister - and the president of Israel would be a suitable candidate - that at a time when civil war threatens to break out among us, he should put aside his political accounts and do all he can to prevent it. If he loses, it means that there truly was no legitimization for the unilateral uprooting of individuals from their homes. If he wins, he can carry out his plan, without the danger of a civil war. It is so simple. In fact, the knights of democracy from the left should have subdued their burning passion to evacuate settlements and said this to Sharon.Instead, supporters of Peace Now and the kibbutz movement, whose eyes are sometimes blinded by hatred, are now pouring oil on the burning campfire and enlisting battalions of volunteers for the evacuation. This draft, which Yoel Maharshak, one of the leaders of the kibbutz movement, says is being done with the blessing of the Prime Minister's Office, is a surefire recipe for civil war.However, most worrisome of all, the prime minister who bears the supreme responsibility to prevent a civil war promises he will not let the opponents of disengagement "win" and does not understand that in the internal dispute between Jews, there are only losers. The past few days show that Sharon and his close aides are panicking when it comes to the opponents of disengagement. Evidence is provided by recent statements about "breaking hands and legs."Logic also dictates that Sharon now maintain open channels of dialogue with the public that opposes the course he has taken, but Sharon, in his fervor to "disengage," has also been blinded by the light and has instructed the chief of staff and the defense minister to cease meeting with Jewish settlement leaders in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.The prime minister, it turns out, has not plumbed the depths of the rupture taking place among broad sections of the public, who feel more insulted and bitter with every passing day. This large public is only a step away from the Yitzhar-type extremists, but Sharon the Disengager is widening the circles of fanaticism instead of narrowing them. The president of Israel, who has in the past expressed his support for turning the decision over to the people, is well aware of the danger of internal conflict, but awareness is inadequate. If he wishes to prevent bloodshed between brothers, he must immediately throw his full weight behind an attempt to refer the decision to the public.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Have Hope - Hard to Believe but the seeds for a better tomorrow are being planted today
There are two sides to every coin and at least three opinions for every two Jews....
In the same vien I want to give over to you a more positive perspective on all the chaos that is engulfing the lives of Am Yisrael and the existence of Eretz Yisrael today.
On the one hand, it seems that the seams of Israeli society are coming apart bit by bit.
1. In the eyes of many the settlers and their supporters have become the enemy of the state
2. the threat of disobeying orders is tearing the army apart
3. the charedim have turned their backs on their fellow religious Jews who live in YESHA and the on the land of Israel
4. the Israeli political system is all topsy turvy (left wing parties supporting Sharon, right wing parties not, Likud MKs acting as if they belong in Meretz etc.)
and on and on and on.
Some days I really feel that I'm going to cry of utter sadness at what we are doing to ourselves.
However, there is another way to look at what is going on. To put it simply, I think that the process of chaos we are now going through is actually going to help us become a better, more solid society. A very very good thing that is necessary for the continued existence of the State of Israel.
It may be that the seams of Israeli society are coming apart right now because those seams aren't that strong enough to begin with or because they aren't made out of a strong enough foundation??
Think about it, is the "status quo" (that politicians love to talk about when refering to the religious/secular silent agreement on how we are supposed to live together) really the healthiest bond that is supposed to hold the Jewish people together in our own land?
I really don't think so, not at all.
The status quo has every type of Jew looking out for his own interests. Our political system has always been sectarian. The secular look after their interests, the national-religious look after their interests, the charedim look after their interests, the Russians look after their interests, the Arabs etc. Each and every group looks our for itself, but no group looks our for all of our interests as a society! They might preach that their interests are for the good of the state and all its citizens but that is just retoric, In reality, over the years, these "interests" have split our society further and further apart.
The irony is that the one actual set off values that tie us all together, the values of Judaism, are used by each and every group to tear us apart!
This is no way to bring a society together and no way to rebuild a Jewish society in the Holyland. It is actually the current status quo that has been lingering silently all these years that has lad to all the chaos now surrounding us. It just so happens that Sharon's expulsion plan is the straw that has broken the camels back and brought these issues to the fore.
The process taking place before our eyes is a direct consequence of the weak bonds that currently hold Israeli society together.
However, the good news is that due to the chaos taking place around us, and between us, a stronger more appropriate bond will take shape, bring us together and make us a stronger nation.
What I'm saying is that the chaotic process we are now going is actually going to help us rebuild the society around us based on more solid bonds, which is a good thing.
To say such a thing with all the craziness here in our holyland - with petitions flying around to refuse orders to expel fellow Jews, and politicians, army brass and Justice ministers coming up with every punishment in the books to punish those who are protesting against Sharon's expulsion plan - you must think I get my news from somewhere else. But I don't.
I'm just looking through the symptoms of today's chaos and focusing in on the illness.
Only with a correct diagnosis can a cure be found.
Our continued focus on the symptoms paints a very depressing picture, but a focus on the diagnosis is actaully a cause for gret hope.
I can't tell you exactly how this healing process will happen or how the common bonds will be strengthened between us after all this chaos that is tearing us further apart.
However I can tell you that I firmly believe it will happen because a majority of Israeli society believe, as I do, that we are closer and more connected to one another than our politicians and media make us out to be.
Most Jews in Israel feel a bond to each other and to the Land of Israel. We just lack leaders who take advantage of this bond to make these connections stronger. Instead we have leaders who use the differences between us to strengthen themselves politically. Most of the people see this hypocrisy.
The current chaos is the process that will bring the more appropriate leadership to the fore.
As a very relevant aside, I believe in the right of a soldier to refuse an army order to expel Jews from their homes, just as I believe in the right of a soldier to refuse an army order to expel Arabs from their homes or refuse an army order to serve in YESHA, if the order goes against his or her conscience. Each and every refusal should be accompanied by its appropriate punishment, but the right to refuse an immoral army order should not be delegitimized. It is our G-d given right to obey our conscience not the army, not even the Israeli army.
The time has come for the Jewish people to respect each others values, even if they conflict. I believe this because basically they are all the same moral values that deserve all of our respect even if we might disagree with the application of those values. I do not advocate agreeing with the application of those values but only respecting the right of ones judegement according to his or her values.
Contrary to what many of our (sic) leaders - political, community and even Rabbinic -are warning us about a rift in our society due to the right of soldiers to refuse the order of expulsion, I believe that our country, our people and our army will be stronger when we allow each soldier to refuse those orders he/she believes to be immoral and wrong. Otherwise how are we really different then those soliders that defended their actions against our grandparents and great grandparents with the claim that they were just following orders of a democraticly elected government?
From darkness will come light. Hold on to your faith, your hope, your prayers and your love for all of Am Yisrael. We will get out of this crisis in better shape, hopefully together with the families of Gush Katif and the Shomron still living in their homes.
Oh yeah, and with it all, this is our home and this is where we all belong as soon as we can get here because it is here that we are building our Jewish homeland.
Shabbat Shalom,
Avi
PS - For a good read on why Sharon's expulsion plan still is not realistic read this Letter to Heroes of Gush Katif...
There are two sides to every coin and at least three opinions for every two Jews....
In the same vien I want to give over to you a more positive perspective on all the chaos that is engulfing the lives of Am Yisrael and the existence of Eretz Yisrael today.
On the one hand, it seems that the seams of Israeli society are coming apart bit by bit.
1. In the eyes of many the settlers and their supporters have become the enemy of the state
2. the threat of disobeying orders is tearing the army apart
3. the charedim have turned their backs on their fellow religious Jews who live in YESHA and the on the land of Israel
4. the Israeli political system is all topsy turvy (left wing parties supporting Sharon, right wing parties not, Likud MKs acting as if they belong in Meretz etc.)
and on and on and on.
Some days I really feel that I'm going to cry of utter sadness at what we are doing to ourselves.
However, there is another way to look at what is going on. To put it simply, I think that the process of chaos we are now going through is actually going to help us become a better, more solid society. A very very good thing that is necessary for the continued existence of the State of Israel.
It may be that the seams of Israeli society are coming apart right now because those seams aren't that strong enough to begin with or because they aren't made out of a strong enough foundation??
Think about it, is the "status quo" (that politicians love to talk about when refering to the religious/secular silent agreement on how we are supposed to live together) really the healthiest bond that is supposed to hold the Jewish people together in our own land?
I really don't think so, not at all.
The status quo has every type of Jew looking out for his own interests. Our political system has always been sectarian. The secular look after their interests, the national-religious look after their interests, the charedim look after their interests, the Russians look after their interests, the Arabs etc. Each and every group looks our for itself, but no group looks our for all of our interests as a society! They might preach that their interests are for the good of the state and all its citizens but that is just retoric, In reality, over the years, these "interests" have split our society further and further apart.
The irony is that the one actual set off values that tie us all together, the values of Judaism, are used by each and every group to tear us apart!
This is no way to bring a society together and no way to rebuild a Jewish society in the Holyland. It is actually the current status quo that has been lingering silently all these years that has lad to all the chaos now surrounding us. It just so happens that Sharon's expulsion plan is the straw that has broken the camels back and brought these issues to the fore.
The process taking place before our eyes is a direct consequence of the weak bonds that currently hold Israeli society together.
However, the good news is that due to the chaos taking place around us, and between us, a stronger more appropriate bond will take shape, bring us together and make us a stronger nation.
What I'm saying is that the chaotic process we are now going is actually going to help us rebuild the society around us based on more solid bonds, which is a good thing.
To say such a thing with all the craziness here in our holyland - with petitions flying around to refuse orders to expel fellow Jews, and politicians, army brass and Justice ministers coming up with every punishment in the books to punish those who are protesting against Sharon's expulsion plan - you must think I get my news from somewhere else. But I don't.
I'm just looking through the symptoms of today's chaos and focusing in on the illness.
Only with a correct diagnosis can a cure be found.
Our continued focus on the symptoms paints a very depressing picture, but a focus on the diagnosis is actaully a cause for gret hope.
I can't tell you exactly how this healing process will happen or how the common bonds will be strengthened between us after all this chaos that is tearing us further apart.
However I can tell you that I firmly believe it will happen because a majority of Israeli society believe, as I do, that we are closer and more connected to one another than our politicians and media make us out to be.
Most Jews in Israel feel a bond to each other and to the Land of Israel. We just lack leaders who take advantage of this bond to make these connections stronger. Instead we have leaders who use the differences between us to strengthen themselves politically. Most of the people see this hypocrisy.
The current chaos is the process that will bring the more appropriate leadership to the fore.
As a very relevant aside, I believe in the right of a soldier to refuse an army order to expel Jews from their homes, just as I believe in the right of a soldier to refuse an army order to expel Arabs from their homes or refuse an army order to serve in YESHA, if the order goes against his or her conscience. Each and every refusal should be accompanied by its appropriate punishment, but the right to refuse an immoral army order should not be delegitimized. It is our G-d given right to obey our conscience not the army, not even the Israeli army.
The time has come for the Jewish people to respect each others values, even if they conflict. I believe this because basically they are all the same moral values that deserve all of our respect even if we might disagree with the application of those values. I do not advocate agreeing with the application of those values but only respecting the right of ones judegement according to his or her values.
Contrary to what many of our (sic) leaders - political, community and even Rabbinic -are warning us about a rift in our society due to the right of soldiers to refuse the order of expulsion, I believe that our country, our people and our army will be stronger when we allow each soldier to refuse those orders he/she believes to be immoral and wrong. Otherwise how are we really different then those soliders that defended their actions against our grandparents and great grandparents with the claim that they were just following orders of a democraticly elected government?
From darkness will come light. Hold on to your faith, your hope, your prayers and your love for all of Am Yisrael. We will get out of this crisis in better shape, hopefully together with the families of Gush Katif and the Shomron still living in their homes.
Oh yeah, and with it all, this is our home and this is where we all belong as soon as we can get here because it is here that we are building our Jewish homeland.
Shabbat Shalom,
Avi
PS - For a good read on why Sharon's expulsion plan still is not realistic read this Letter to Heroes of Gush Katif...
Thursday, November 25, 2004
First they came to expel the Jews of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron
Many years ago I spoke to a group of children in Manhattan Day School on or near Israel Independence Day.
One message I left them with (one that I try to give over whenever I talk about the importance of Israel and living in Israel) was that when I was a soldier in the Israeli army I knew that I was not just protecting the Jews living in the State of Israel,but I was a Jewish soldier protecting Jews worldwide. I felt this because the I knew that the existence and the strength of the State of Israel is world Jewry's best protection.
I firmly believe that the worldwide rise of anti-semitism today is directly linked to the submisive diplomatic stance and military doctrine (no military solution to situation - military to keep the terror on a low flame) that Israel has taken vis a vis our sworn enemies who continue to kill us.
The ultimate climax of this situation is that Israel has begun to train its own army on how to confront fellow Jews with the aim of expelling them from their homes. Regardless of whether you agree with Sharon's policy or not, it is a sad day that the protectors of world Jewry are being trained to turn against their fellow Jews. It is therefore no surprise to me that anti-semitism worldwide is on the rise - one is a direct link of the other.
Below I have adapted a famous poem from the days of WWII Europe (that I believe also applies to today) with a few minor changes. I believe it is a testament to the denial of Jews, in Israel and abroad, to the underlying process that is taking place in Israel today that is fundamentally aimed at Jewry (with Israel being Jewry's major symbol), just like the denial that was back then.
The poem is called "First they came for the Jews"
First they came to expel the Jews of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron
And I did not speak out –
Because I did not live in Gush Katif or the Northern Shomron.
Then they came to expel the Jews of Yehuda and Shomron
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of Yehudah or Shomron.
Then they came to expel the Jews of the Golan
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of the Golan.
Then they came to expel the Jews of the Galil and the Negev
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of the Galil and the Negev.
Then they came to expel the Jews of Yafo and Acco
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of Yafo and Acco.
Then they came to expel all the other Jews who lived in Israel's auschwitz borders
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of Israel's auschwitz borders.
Then they came for me –
And there was no-one left
To speak out for me.
With it all, I'm very optomistic that even Sharon's Gaza expulsion plan will not come to fruition and I firmly believe we will stop this process - I just wish more of my fellow brethren would wake up from their slumber of denial.
Shabbat Shalom,
Avi
Many years ago I spoke to a group of children in Manhattan Day School on or near Israel Independence Day.
One message I left them with (one that I try to give over whenever I talk about the importance of Israel and living in Israel) was that when I was a soldier in the Israeli army I knew that I was not just protecting the Jews living in the State of Israel,but I was a Jewish soldier protecting Jews worldwide. I felt this because the I knew that the existence and the strength of the State of Israel is world Jewry's best protection.
I firmly believe that the worldwide rise of anti-semitism today is directly linked to the submisive diplomatic stance and military doctrine (no military solution to situation - military to keep the terror on a low flame) that Israel has taken vis a vis our sworn enemies who continue to kill us.
The ultimate climax of this situation is that Israel has begun to train its own army on how to confront fellow Jews with the aim of expelling them from their homes. Regardless of whether you agree with Sharon's policy or not, it is a sad day that the protectors of world Jewry are being trained to turn against their fellow Jews. It is therefore no surprise to me that anti-semitism worldwide is on the rise - one is a direct link of the other.
Below I have adapted a famous poem from the days of WWII Europe (that I believe also applies to today) with a few minor changes. I believe it is a testament to the denial of Jews, in Israel and abroad, to the underlying process that is taking place in Israel today that is fundamentally aimed at Jewry (with Israel being Jewry's major symbol), just like the denial that was back then.
The poem is called "First they came for the Jews"
First they came to expel the Jews of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron
And I did not speak out –
Because I did not live in Gush Katif or the Northern Shomron.
Then they came to expel the Jews of Yehuda and Shomron
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of Yehudah or Shomron.
Then they came to expel the Jews of the Golan
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of the Golan.
Then they came to expel the Jews of the Galil and the Negev
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of the Galil and the Negev.
Then they came to expel the Jews of Yafo and Acco
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of Yafo and Acco.
Then they came to expel all the other Jews who lived in Israel's auschwitz borders
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew of Israel's auschwitz borders.
Then they came for me –
And there was no-one left
To speak out for me.
With it all, I'm very optomistic that even Sharon's Gaza expulsion plan will not come to fruition and I firmly believe we will stop this process - I just wish more of my fellow brethren would wake up from their slumber of denial.
Shabbat Shalom,
Avi
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Sharon's Hypocrisy
How sad, but true.
This is why Sharon's end as an Israeli political leader is on the horizon - he has fallen into the same trap as Rabin, the other "Mr. Security", that Israelis followed blindly into today's oslo war.
A good read....
Look who’s Talking about Defeating Terror
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/475593.html
By Israel Harel
Haaretz 09/09/2004
"You cannot make compromises with terror," Ariel Sharon told the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. "It must be fought and defeated."
And the sorrowing guest - this revolutionary lesson being taught to him at a time when most of the victims had not yet been laid to rest - did not respond, at least according to the communique that reported the above lesson, "Look who's talking about defeating terrorism." But if not publicly, than at least during their private conversation, it would nevertheless have been proper for the guest to put his host in his place."If one cannot make compromises with terror," Lavrov might have asked (though he apparently did not), "why did you declare, at the height of the terrorist war against Israel, that Israel recognizes the Palestinians' right to a state? No prime minister before you ever said that, and so from the Palestinians' point of view, that statement was not merely a compromise - it was capitulation. And from the standpoint of those who are fighting Islamic terror worldwide, Israel, who gave the terrorists a state before defeating them militarily, thereby encouraged terrorism against us, however unintentionally."And even when the terrorists continued their atrocities, thereby proving that they were not fighting only for a state - since if they had been, they would have stopped blowing up buses and started establishing their state - you compromised, in defiance of the lesson you just taught me, with the ongoing terror."Fact: Instead of defeating them, as per your own doctrine, you began to build a fence. And even before the fence had been completed, you hastened to announce an additional compromise: the `unilateral disengagement.' And the disengagement, in addition to being a compromise with terror, is also causing an internal rift in your nation and your party the likes of which have never been seen before."In the past, Israel acquired a reputation - in Operation Jonathan in Entebbe, for instance - as a country that does not give in to terrorism. And in a world in which countries many times larger than Israel, such as Germany and France, did give in to terror and even paid it protection money in various forms, your uncompromising stance aroused admiration and constituted a strategic asset."No longer. And, though it pains me to say so, this process of Israel losing its deterrent power in the face of terror has occurred precisely at a time when someone like you, who contributed perhaps more than any other Israeli to your country's deterrent image, is at its helm. The fact that you, of all people, are the one who decided to grant the Palestinians a state in response to terrorism, and to hide from terrorism by means of a fence, and who afterward chose the already tested option known as `unilateral disengagement,' has caused a vast erosion - whose negative ramifications are hard to exaggerate - in your country's deterrent power vis-a-vis other, `conventional' enemies as well.Moreover, instead of waging the offensive war that previously characterized your army, and particularly your own military leadership, you are putting your people and your army into a narrow ghetto, both mental and territorial, and turning the Arabs, the originators of suicide terrorism, into the victors and heroes of the Muslim world. And that fact also impacts on us: We assume that the Palestinians' impressive achievements - yes, impressive - will also encourage our terrorists and increase their motivation."You know that we oppose the settlements. But tell me: What is the rationale behind packing them up now, before you have defeated the terror? If that is the conclusion you draw from the rule you advised us to adopt - that `one cannot make compromises with terror' - then I must say, with all due respect, that this capitulation is a negative contribution to the war that we and the rest of the world are waging against terror. And don't be impressed by the compliments you receive - including, publicly, from us - for uprooting settlements: That is part of the verbal protection money that we also pay to buy a little quiet. But, as was proven in Beslan, to no avail."Despite the flattering articles in favor of disengagement that have appeared both in Israel and the rest of the world - articles whose purpose is to push you into additional concessions - you will never achieve the rehabilitation for which you long so greatly. Even now, they are saying that the fence is an act of apartheid and that you should be put on trial, along with the defense minister and senior Israeli officers, on charges of crimes against humanity. And such things were never said before, even when you controlled all the territory, when you built settlements on it, when you declared that it was the inheritance of your forefathers and that a Palestinian state would never arise upon it."Your excessive concessions have led the Palestinians, and all Muslims, to reach one clear conclusion: Terrorism pays. And that is what worries us. Just as international public opinion justifies terror against you, it is liable to justify terror against us, even though we are a great power. And we are liable to lose all the autonomous Muslim republics, not just Chechnya."Presumably, these things were not said. But there is no doubt that Russians, Americans, Britons and even Frenchmen who are engaged in the war on terror are indeed astonished by what has happened to Israel, which has lost its self-confidence - a development that, as noted, also impacts negatively on the entire world's ability to fight Islamic terrorism.
How sad, but true.
This is why Sharon's end as an Israeli political leader is on the horizon - he has fallen into the same trap as Rabin, the other "Mr. Security", that Israelis followed blindly into today's oslo war.
A good read....
Look who’s Talking about Defeating Terror
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/475593.html
By Israel Harel
Haaretz 09/09/2004
"You cannot make compromises with terror," Ariel Sharon told the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. "It must be fought and defeated."
And the sorrowing guest - this revolutionary lesson being taught to him at a time when most of the victims had not yet been laid to rest - did not respond, at least according to the communique that reported the above lesson, "Look who's talking about defeating terrorism." But if not publicly, than at least during their private conversation, it would nevertheless have been proper for the guest to put his host in his place."If one cannot make compromises with terror," Lavrov might have asked (though he apparently did not), "why did you declare, at the height of the terrorist war against Israel, that Israel recognizes the Palestinians' right to a state? No prime minister before you ever said that, and so from the Palestinians' point of view, that statement was not merely a compromise - it was capitulation. And from the standpoint of those who are fighting Islamic terror worldwide, Israel, who gave the terrorists a state before defeating them militarily, thereby encouraged terrorism against us, however unintentionally."And even when the terrorists continued their atrocities, thereby proving that they were not fighting only for a state - since if they had been, they would have stopped blowing up buses and started establishing their state - you compromised, in defiance of the lesson you just taught me, with the ongoing terror."Fact: Instead of defeating them, as per your own doctrine, you began to build a fence. And even before the fence had been completed, you hastened to announce an additional compromise: the `unilateral disengagement.' And the disengagement, in addition to being a compromise with terror, is also causing an internal rift in your nation and your party the likes of which have never been seen before."In the past, Israel acquired a reputation - in Operation Jonathan in Entebbe, for instance - as a country that does not give in to terrorism. And in a world in which countries many times larger than Israel, such as Germany and France, did give in to terror and even paid it protection money in various forms, your uncompromising stance aroused admiration and constituted a strategic asset."No longer. And, though it pains me to say so, this process of Israel losing its deterrent power in the face of terror has occurred precisely at a time when someone like you, who contributed perhaps more than any other Israeli to your country's deterrent image, is at its helm. The fact that you, of all people, are the one who decided to grant the Palestinians a state in response to terrorism, and to hide from terrorism by means of a fence, and who afterward chose the already tested option known as `unilateral disengagement,' has caused a vast erosion - whose negative ramifications are hard to exaggerate - in your country's deterrent power vis-a-vis other, `conventional' enemies as well.Moreover, instead of waging the offensive war that previously characterized your army, and particularly your own military leadership, you are putting your people and your army into a narrow ghetto, both mental and territorial, and turning the Arabs, the originators of suicide terrorism, into the victors and heroes of the Muslim world. And that fact also impacts on us: We assume that the Palestinians' impressive achievements - yes, impressive - will also encourage our terrorists and increase their motivation."You know that we oppose the settlements. But tell me: What is the rationale behind packing them up now, before you have defeated the terror? If that is the conclusion you draw from the rule you advised us to adopt - that `one cannot make compromises with terror' - then I must say, with all due respect, that this capitulation is a negative contribution to the war that we and the rest of the world are waging against terror. And don't be impressed by the compliments you receive - including, publicly, from us - for uprooting settlements: That is part of the verbal protection money that we also pay to buy a little quiet. But, as was proven in Beslan, to no avail."Despite the flattering articles in favor of disengagement that have appeared both in Israel and the rest of the world - articles whose purpose is to push you into additional concessions - you will never achieve the rehabilitation for which you long so greatly. Even now, they are saying that the fence is an act of apartheid and that you should be put on trial, along with the defense minister and senior Israeli officers, on charges of crimes against humanity. And such things were never said before, even when you controlled all the territory, when you built settlements on it, when you declared that it was the inheritance of your forefathers and that a Palestinian state would never arise upon it."Your excessive concessions have led the Palestinians, and all Muslims, to reach one clear conclusion: Terrorism pays. And that is what worries us. Just as international public opinion justifies terror against you, it is liable to justify terror against us, even though we are a great power. And we are liable to lose all the autonomous Muslim republics, not just Chechnya."Presumably, these things were not said. But there is no doubt that Russians, Americans, Britons and even Frenchmen who are engaged in the war on terror are indeed astonished by what has happened to Israel, which has lost its self-confidence - a development that, as noted, also impacts negatively on the entire world's ability to fight Islamic terrorism.
The Tide Is Continuing to Build Up
Enjoy the read....
Right-wing petition calls for refusal to evacuate settlements
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/475966.html
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
Haaretz 09/09/2004
A right wing petition signed by 185 officers, former MKs, scholars and other public figures is calling on police and Israel Defense Forces troops to "listen to the voice of their personal and national conscience" and refuse to take part in the evacuation of settlements, an act they define as a crime against humanity, a national crime and an explicitly illegal act.
The petition, the first of a series of advertisements published starting Thursday in the Besheva newspaper, will be seen on other papers on Friday. It was signed by Ben Zion Netanyahu, the finance minister's father, as well as by Netanyahu's brother and uncle. The petition was also signed by Meir Har Zion of the renowned IDF unit 101, former Prime Minister's Office director-general Yossi Ben Aharon, senior IDF reserve officers, scientists, municipal council heads, former MKs, as well as writer Naomi Frenkel and Ezra Cohen.
The petition states that "in light of the Sharon government's intention to destroy settlements in the land of Israel and hand them over to the enemy, uprooting their residents and violently expelling them, we hereby declare that expulsion and uprooting are a national crime and a crime against humanity, constitute evil, arbitrary, dictatorial behavior, aimed at depriving Jews of their right to live in their country. We declare that the Israel Defense Forces' purpose is to defend against an enemy and not to act against Jewish civilians. The IDF is the people's army and does not belong to any political group."
"Therefore," the petitioners call on "public officials who are called upon to lay out the groundwork for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homeland, as well as on all of the officers, troops and policemen, to listen to the voice of their personal and national conscience and refrain from taking part in acts that will cast a mark upon them, and which they will regret for the remainder of their lives."
The petitioners also call on the "future victims of the expulsion not to cooperate with the expulsion machinery, not to receive compensation, to resist the uprooting but to refrain from harming the people of their nation, even though they come to demolish their homes."
Enjoy the read....
Right-wing petition calls for refusal to evacuate settlements
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/475966.html
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
Haaretz 09/09/2004
A right wing petition signed by 185 officers, former MKs, scholars and other public figures is calling on police and Israel Defense Forces troops to "listen to the voice of their personal and national conscience" and refuse to take part in the evacuation of settlements, an act they define as a crime against humanity, a national crime and an explicitly illegal act.
The petition, the first of a series of advertisements published starting Thursday in the Besheva newspaper, will be seen on other papers on Friday. It was signed by Ben Zion Netanyahu, the finance minister's father, as well as by Netanyahu's brother and uncle. The petition was also signed by Meir Har Zion of the renowned IDF unit 101, former Prime Minister's Office director-general Yossi Ben Aharon, senior IDF reserve officers, scientists, municipal council heads, former MKs, as well as writer Naomi Frenkel and Ezra Cohen.
The petition states that "in light of the Sharon government's intention to destroy settlements in the land of Israel and hand them over to the enemy, uprooting their residents and violently expelling them, we hereby declare that expulsion and uprooting are a national crime and a crime against humanity, constitute evil, arbitrary, dictatorial behavior, aimed at depriving Jews of their right to live in their country. We declare that the Israel Defense Forces' purpose is to defend against an enemy and not to act against Jewish civilians. The IDF is the people's army and does not belong to any political group."
"Therefore," the petitioners call on "public officials who are called upon to lay out the groundwork for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homeland, as well as on all of the officers, troops and policemen, to listen to the voice of their personal and national conscience and refrain from taking part in acts that will cast a mark upon them, and which they will regret for the remainder of their lives."
The petitioners also call on the "future victims of the expulsion not to cooperate with the expulsion machinery, not to receive compensation, to resist the uprooting but to refrain from harming the people of their nation, even though they come to demolish their homes."
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
A surprisingly refreshing read from Haaretz - written by a Left wing writer!
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/474477.html
On terror and hypocrisy
Haaretz
By Yoel Marcus
September is steadily gaining a name for itself as the most damned month of the year. World War II broke out in September. In "Black September," King Hussein confronted Arafat and his cronies, and exiled them to Lebanon. The Al-Aqsa intifada, in which 4,000 Israelis and Palestinians lost their lives, began in September. The assault on the Twin Towers, which exposed America's vulnerability to foreign aggression for the first time since Pearl Harbor, took place in September. This September will be remembered for the terror attack in North Ossetia - one of the cruelest, bloodiest rampages the human eye has ever seen on live TV.
Unlike September 1939, when Europe quickly realized that it was looking at a world war, it's not clear whether Europe today realizes what America grasped long ago - that World War III is in full swing. This war is different from all the wars in history. It's not countries fighting countries. It's not a war that can be won by conquest or some cut-and-dried military victory. Because the enemy is terror. It's everywhere and nowhere.Terror is not bound by the Geneva Convention. Not only is harming civilians not a problem, but those are precisely the targets it seeks out - women, children, old people. Ordinary folk are murdered just because they happen to be there. To make it hurt more. If the Al-Qaida pilots had settled into the cockpit two hours later, the casualty figures for 9/11 would have hit 30,000.The world has known all kinds of terror since World War II: anarchists like Danny the Red and Carlos; the Irish, the Basques and the Palestinians, spurred on by nationalism. But those who have inflated terror to its current proportions - murdering indiscriminately, shooting helpless children, choosing random targets - are the Muslims, and to what aim no one has entirely figured out.In his book "What Went Wrong," Prof. Bernard Lewis speculates that it is connected to the backwardness of Muslim society since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and Islam's inability to keep pace with Western modernization. Islamic regimes have contributed nothing since then to world culture or the advancement of their people.President Bush is the only one who hasn't beaten around the bush. He says there's an Axis of Evil out there. A war without rules and borders, a war that must be stopped before the worst happens, which could be anything from a biological holocaust to a nuclear showdown. The terror organizations and those who harbor them must be fought wherever they are, using every ounce of strength the world can muster. But the strength of Monsieur le President de la Republique and Herr Chancellor lies in condolence telegrams.Europe has donned kid gloves and is playing UN. It decides which terror is justified and which isn't. When the attack is in Israel, it's because we're being tough on the Palestinians. As if terror will stop as soon as an agreement is signed. President Putin enjoys great respect in Europe even when 100,000 people are massacred in Chechnya as it battles for independence. To paraphrase Skinny in "The Teahouse of the August Moon," political pornography is also a matter of geography.In the European Union, hypocrisy and double standards are the name of the game. When it comes to gathering intelligence, the countries of Europe may help America here and there, but they won't physically participate in the war on terror or those who harbor terrorists. They won't raise a finger against Syria, which shelters Hezbollah and Hamas, or against Saudi Arabia, which supplies manpower for the most gruesome attacks, for fear of an oil embargo. They won't say boo to Iran, despite definite proof that it has been involved in mega-attacks in recent years and is building itself up as a nuclear power with missiles capable of reaching the very heart of Europe.Israel is both a victim and a member of the Bush brigade, a tiny link in a family of nations determined to defend itself against the scourge of terror. In the eyes of this family, there is no such thing as justified and unjustified terror. Terror is terror. The entire Western world is a potential target. One day, when someone decides in the hallowed name of Allah to carry out the ultimate attack-to-end-all-attacks, even Europe will not be spared.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/474477.html
On terror and hypocrisy
Haaretz
By Yoel Marcus
September is steadily gaining a name for itself as the most damned month of the year. World War II broke out in September. In "Black September," King Hussein confronted Arafat and his cronies, and exiled them to Lebanon. The Al-Aqsa intifada, in which 4,000 Israelis and Palestinians lost their lives, began in September. The assault on the Twin Towers, which exposed America's vulnerability to foreign aggression for the first time since Pearl Harbor, took place in September. This September will be remembered for the terror attack in North Ossetia - one of the cruelest, bloodiest rampages the human eye has ever seen on live TV.
Unlike September 1939, when Europe quickly realized that it was looking at a world war, it's not clear whether Europe today realizes what America grasped long ago - that World War III is in full swing. This war is different from all the wars in history. It's not countries fighting countries. It's not a war that can be won by conquest or some cut-and-dried military victory. Because the enemy is terror. It's everywhere and nowhere.Terror is not bound by the Geneva Convention. Not only is harming civilians not a problem, but those are precisely the targets it seeks out - women, children, old people. Ordinary folk are murdered just because they happen to be there. To make it hurt more. If the Al-Qaida pilots had settled into the cockpit two hours later, the casualty figures for 9/11 would have hit 30,000.The world has known all kinds of terror since World War II: anarchists like Danny the Red and Carlos; the Irish, the Basques and the Palestinians, spurred on by nationalism. But those who have inflated terror to its current proportions - murdering indiscriminately, shooting helpless children, choosing random targets - are the Muslims, and to what aim no one has entirely figured out.In his book "What Went Wrong," Prof. Bernard Lewis speculates that it is connected to the backwardness of Muslim society since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and Islam's inability to keep pace with Western modernization. Islamic regimes have contributed nothing since then to world culture or the advancement of their people.President Bush is the only one who hasn't beaten around the bush. He says there's an Axis of Evil out there. A war without rules and borders, a war that must be stopped before the worst happens, which could be anything from a biological holocaust to a nuclear showdown. The terror organizations and those who harbor them must be fought wherever they are, using every ounce of strength the world can muster. But the strength of Monsieur le President de la Republique and Herr Chancellor lies in condolence telegrams.Europe has donned kid gloves and is playing UN. It decides which terror is justified and which isn't. When the attack is in Israel, it's because we're being tough on the Palestinians. As if terror will stop as soon as an agreement is signed. President Putin enjoys great respect in Europe even when 100,000 people are massacred in Chechnya as it battles for independence. To paraphrase Skinny in "The Teahouse of the August Moon," political pornography is also a matter of geography.In the European Union, hypocrisy and double standards are the name of the game. When it comes to gathering intelligence, the countries of Europe may help America here and there, but they won't physically participate in the war on terror or those who harbor terrorists. They won't raise a finger against Syria, which shelters Hezbollah and Hamas, or against Saudi Arabia, which supplies manpower for the most gruesome attacks, for fear of an oil embargo. They won't say boo to Iran, despite definite proof that it has been involved in mega-attacks in recent years and is building itself up as a nuclear power with missiles capable of reaching the very heart of Europe.Israel is both a victim and a member of the Bush brigade, a tiny link in a family of nations determined to defend itself against the scourge of terror. In the eyes of this family, there is no such thing as justified and unjustified terror. Terror is terror. The entire Western world is a potential target. One day, when someone decides in the hallowed name of Allah to carry out the ultimate attack-to-end-all-attacks, even Europe will not be spared.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
The Tide is Turning, But...
It might sound weird, but even with all the media hype surronding the future implementation of Sharon's Gaza expulsion plan, I'm not so worried anymore that Sharon will actually be able to implement it.
The more anti-democratic and dictatorial that Sharon acts in his zeal to implement this plan the more desperate he is actually becoming in trying to overcome the obstacles within his own party to implement it.
The truth is that today I'm more worried and distraught about the state of much of Am Yisrael - who have come to believe and trust Sharon that it is in Israel's best interests to destory Jewish settlements and expel Jewish residents from their homes.
I have to give credit to Sharon for one major accomplishment over the past 4 years - he convinced most Jews and the world that "peace" today can not be achieved with the Arab murderers who live in our midst.
But his accomplishments end there. Unfortunately, he has managed to also convince a whole lot of people that defeatism is in our best interests - even staunch Likudnikim and strong supporters of Israel, who would have never dared accept that theory before his leadership.
And that worries me a lot.
How can people believe that destroying settlements and expelling Jews from their homes will help Israel?
Expeling our own brothers and sisters from their homes will only raise the moral of our enemies to continue their war against us.
In addition to that, it will be even easier for them to attack us (easier access to weapons, no Israeli army in the area to stop them, much harder to gather intelligence information, rockets over the fence and tunnels under the fence etc.). Especially with yesterday's statement from the Israeli Attorney General who said that any attack by Israel on Gaza (after the Gaza expulsion) will probably be considered a war crime by the international community. So how will we exactly defend ourselves when attacked from our enemies in Gaza?
The world pressure won't let up either. After we run out of Gaza the pressure will be on to run away from Yehuda and Shomron, then East Jerusalem, and then the Galil and the Negev (in case you missed it in the news - just last week Peres said to a Labor gathering that one day we will have to come to an agreement with the Arabs in the Negev and the Galil. - something to think about)
Domgaphic difference for Israel? You must be kidding! Gaza will be a ticking time bomb of Arabs waiting to overflow somewhere, at some time. I do not think Egypt will allow them to extend into the Sinai so so the only place they can extend into will be into Israel - with world pressure. Ditto for the West Bank after we run from there as well (specially since nothing will stop millions of Arabs from migrating to the West Bank which would quadruple the number of Arabs living in the West Bank - to then overflow into Israel).
This expulsion plan is a dangerous slope to start sliding on if you really want Israel to continue to exist.
No, acts of defeatism - giving away our land and expeling fellow Jews - are not the answer to our ills, just a symptom of our weakness and tidings of even worse to come.
Our weekness is big, very big and it is in not realizing that our biggest nemesis are not the Arabs, but our fellow Jews/Israelis who are excited about getting rid of Jewish land and expelling Jewish residents. They have been preaching this attitude for years, and now it has become mainstream, but they still remain a minority of the population.
As long as that attittude remains dominant, even after a Gaza expulsion, our problems will continue.
The solution to our situation lies in neutralizing the voices and the influence of those people within Jewish/Israeli society who weaken our resolve and our cause. Only then will Israel be able to truly cure its ills (not just security but society ills as well). Once the people of Israel once again feel justice in our cause to live in the land of our forefathers, our enemies power will decrease.
Sound simple? It might, but it is reality. Unfortunately, most people place their faith on so-called leaders and their promises and predictions that in reality are futile.
You would think that after trusting Rabin, Peres, Clinton, Barak, Netanyahu, Bush etc that Jews would wake up and realize that their promises of peace and/or security are futile words all based on Israeli steps of defeatism. After 12 years of an attitude of defeatim, we are still considerred the major impediment to peace.
Sharon started to change this with Operation Defensive Shield and we all thought he would continue in this direction, but he too fell into the pit of defeatism and brought many of us down with him - since it must be true if the most right wing PM of Isreal follows this path as well.
Maybe soon we can wake up and realize that it is actually the attitude of defeatism that is defeating us, and that to change our situation we must begins to change our thinking and the Jews/Israelis with influence in Israel and the US before we can win this war against our enemies.
Am Yisrael will prevail as will Eretz Yisrael. Have faith in your own intellect in disecting the reality around you and not blind faith in promises of leaders who tell us to trust them.
Avi
It might sound weird, but even with all the media hype surronding the future implementation of Sharon's Gaza expulsion plan, I'm not so worried anymore that Sharon will actually be able to implement it.
The more anti-democratic and dictatorial that Sharon acts in his zeal to implement this plan the more desperate he is actually becoming in trying to overcome the obstacles within his own party to implement it.
The truth is that today I'm more worried and distraught about the state of much of Am Yisrael - who have come to believe and trust Sharon that it is in Israel's best interests to destory Jewish settlements and expel Jewish residents from their homes.
I have to give credit to Sharon for one major accomplishment over the past 4 years - he convinced most Jews and the world that "peace" today can not be achieved with the Arab murderers who live in our midst.
But his accomplishments end there. Unfortunately, he has managed to also convince a whole lot of people that defeatism is in our best interests - even staunch Likudnikim and strong supporters of Israel, who would have never dared accept that theory before his leadership.
And that worries me a lot.
How can people believe that destroying settlements and expelling Jews from their homes will help Israel?
Expeling our own brothers and sisters from their homes will only raise the moral of our enemies to continue their war against us.
In addition to that, it will be even easier for them to attack us (easier access to weapons, no Israeli army in the area to stop them, much harder to gather intelligence information, rockets over the fence and tunnels under the fence etc.). Especially with yesterday's statement from the Israeli Attorney General who said that any attack by Israel on Gaza (after the Gaza expulsion) will probably be considered a war crime by the international community. So how will we exactly defend ourselves when attacked from our enemies in Gaza?
The world pressure won't let up either. After we run out of Gaza the pressure will be on to run away from Yehuda and Shomron, then East Jerusalem, and then the Galil and the Negev (in case you missed it in the news - just last week Peres said to a Labor gathering that one day we will have to come to an agreement with the Arabs in the Negev and the Galil. - something to think about)
Domgaphic difference for Israel? You must be kidding! Gaza will be a ticking time bomb of Arabs waiting to overflow somewhere, at some time. I do not think Egypt will allow them to extend into the Sinai so so the only place they can extend into will be into Israel - with world pressure. Ditto for the West Bank after we run from there as well (specially since nothing will stop millions of Arabs from migrating to the West Bank which would quadruple the number of Arabs living in the West Bank - to then overflow into Israel).
This expulsion plan is a dangerous slope to start sliding on if you really want Israel to continue to exist.
No, acts of defeatism - giving away our land and expeling fellow Jews - are not the answer to our ills, just a symptom of our weakness and tidings of even worse to come.
Our weekness is big, very big and it is in not realizing that our biggest nemesis are not the Arabs, but our fellow Jews/Israelis who are excited about getting rid of Jewish land and expelling Jewish residents. They have been preaching this attitude for years, and now it has become mainstream, but they still remain a minority of the population.
As long as that attittude remains dominant, even after a Gaza expulsion, our problems will continue.
The solution to our situation lies in neutralizing the voices and the influence of those people within Jewish/Israeli society who weaken our resolve and our cause. Only then will Israel be able to truly cure its ills (not just security but society ills as well). Once the people of Israel once again feel justice in our cause to live in the land of our forefathers, our enemies power will decrease.
Sound simple? It might, but it is reality. Unfortunately, most people place their faith on so-called leaders and their promises and predictions that in reality are futile.
You would think that after trusting Rabin, Peres, Clinton, Barak, Netanyahu, Bush etc that Jews would wake up and realize that their promises of peace and/or security are futile words all based on Israeli steps of defeatism. After 12 years of an attitude of defeatim, we are still considerred the major impediment to peace.
Sharon started to change this with Operation Defensive Shield and we all thought he would continue in this direction, but he too fell into the pit of defeatism and brought many of us down with him - since it must be true if the most right wing PM of Isreal follows this path as well.
Maybe soon we can wake up and realize that it is actually the attitude of defeatism that is defeating us, and that to change our situation we must begins to change our thinking and the Jews/Israelis with influence in Israel and the US before we can win this war against our enemies.
Am Yisrael will prevail as will Eretz Yisrael. Have faith in your own intellect in disecting the reality around you and not blind faith in promises of leaders who tell us to trust them.
Avi
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Food for Thought this Tisha Ba'av
I was forwarded this email and I thought it pertinant for Tisha Ba'av as well.
A meaningful fast to all.
Avi
BS”D Bayn Ha’me’tzarim 5764
Today is the 17th of Tamuz, which ushers in a three week period of mourning, concluding with the ninth day of Av. The period is called Bayn Ha’metzorim, meaning “between the straits”, for the dangers and tragedies which befell our nation over the generations in this period are likened to a light ship being tossed from boulder to boulder in treacherous waters, with each blow ripping apart another piece of the ship.
As I walk around the walls of the Old City, I can visualize the moment when the northern side was breached by the Roman troops on this day 1934 years ago, and according to some, was breached on this very day 500 years earlier by the troops of Nevuchadnetzer, King of Bavel.
What marks the intimate, exclusive relationship between Am Yisrael and the Creator is not the suffering we have endured to this very day, but the fact that with it all Hashem has caused this impossible little ship to survive the straits. For me, all our history was reduced today to a simple act. I walked near the City’s walls with the blue-white flag of Medinat Yisrael over the old city and waved to a Jewish boy in uniform and spoke to each other in the language our fathers spoke in the bet hamikdash.
And it occurred to me:
The prophet Zecharia says in chapter 8,19:
“Thus says the L-ord of hosts, “the fast of the fourth (month 17th of Tamuz) and the fast of the fifth (month 9th of Av) and the fast of the seventh (month Tzom Gedalia on the 3rd of Tishrei) and the fast of the tenth (month the 10th of Tevet) will be (in the future) for the House of Yehuda for joy and gladness and for holidays and truth and peace shall exist together in love”.
It is enlightening that this year the 17th of Tamuz falls out in the week of the Fourth of July, the 228th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. The 17th of Tamuz called the “fast of the fourth” which marks the beginning of our long exile, falls out in the week of July fourth, the day of independence of that land which became home to so many Jews. There is a message here, as there is in everything a Jew sees and does.
Zecharia’s sees that these fast days will one day turn into days of rejoicing. How can one eradicate the raging sounds of the 17th of Tamuz when the walls came crashing down and the enemy charged into the city to vent their rage on the Jews of Yerushalayim!? How can we sing on the 9th of Av when so many bitter things happened; the worst being the destruction of the bet hamikdash and the beginning of our 2000 year exile!?
But the words of the prophet are torah and hence true. Indeed, we see them becoming a reality today in many parts of the world. In the Jewish communities of Antwerp, London, Jo-berg SA., Sidney, Sao Paolo, the “Five Towns”, Teaneck, Boca, Beverly Hills (don’t feel left out if I didn’t mention your spot). In all these places, the fasts of the “fourth” and the “fifth” have become days of “joy and gladness”, because what occurred on them caused all these Jews to be where they are today.
If not for the 17th of Tamuz in the year 70 CE, the big palatial home in Silver Springs would not have a beautifully designed mezuza near the entrance, but a little statuette of the “savior” of some goyishe family in the garden.
If not for Tish’ah Be’Av, Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights Brooklyn, would have several hundred more black families rather than wide brim hatted young Jewish men proclaiming a holy Jewish soul now residing in Olam Haba as still alive and waiting to answer your questions - just write it on a note and put it into the sefer.
If not for these days of strife, which have like the Prophet’s prediction, turned into days of joy for their contribution in giving our brothers in galut the comforts they enjoy, we would all be here in Eretz Yisrael having to struggle together to maintain a Jewish presence in the Holy Land.
So let us give praise to these days of joy!
I propose that in recognition of the simcha of the “fourth” and “fifth” fasts, that a new greeting be instituted. On Shabbat you say “gut shabbas”, on yom tov you say “gut yomtov”, from now on greet your fellow Jew in galut on the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av etc., with the words “a freilicha churban”.
I can very well imagine the reaction of many people to what I have written. Let me explain.
My brother, Rav Meir z”l, and I, very often discussed how we can bring about the return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael. He claimed that the most potent way is through fear. So he raised the flag of fear in his talks and writings: fear of anti-Semitism; fear that your son will one day bring home a shiksa, fear that after all your efforts your children will depart from yiddishkeit. I would answer Meir, that he might be correct that fear is the most potent method, but I don’t think Hashem wants His children to come home because of fear. My way is different.
I want my brothers and sisters to recognize the absolute incompatibility with a torah way of life in chutz La’aretz when the gates of Eretz Yisrael are open. I want to show that the communities in the galut today are in a state of voluntary exile - a sin of the highest order.
A serious pious Jew has to ask himself, free of the influences of his rabbi etc.: I have one life to lead, and a day gone by can never be > regained. Where does my Jewish conscience lead me. To make myself the center of my world or to make Hashem the center of my life.
G-d gave us the freedom to make choices in our lives, and we are responsible for what we choose. Life is like a super-market. When you enter you get a cart into which you can put any assortment of items. No one will limit your choices. But at the end of the day, the cashier will take out, register and charge you for every item you chose. So too, when we are born we get a proverbial cart. You can put into it mitzvot, avayrot, foolishness, arrogance - whatever+ you wisht. But at the end of the line the angel will withdraw every act and thought of your essence, weigh it, register it, and charge you. And up above there are no credit cards or checks - it'’s cash on the line.
The way for a Jew to go is to escape the siren’s song of the galut. To take advantage of the huge zechut Hashem has given us - to return home to Eretz Yisrael. It is here where by our concerted efforts we will bring the ge’ula ha’she’layma and indeed turn the days of fasting into holidays-holydays. Here and only here, can we close the historical circle which began in agony and terror and will end in joy, gladness and thanksgiving to Hashem for being born Jews and sharing in the bounty of eternity.
Nachman Kahana
I was forwarded this email and I thought it pertinant for Tisha Ba'av as well.
A meaningful fast to all.
Avi
BS”D Bayn Ha’me’tzarim 5764
Today is the 17th of Tamuz, which ushers in a three week period of mourning, concluding with the ninth day of Av. The period is called Bayn Ha’metzorim, meaning “between the straits”, for the dangers and tragedies which befell our nation over the generations in this period are likened to a light ship being tossed from boulder to boulder in treacherous waters, with each blow ripping apart another piece of the ship.
As I walk around the walls of the Old City, I can visualize the moment when the northern side was breached by the Roman troops on this day 1934 years ago, and according to some, was breached on this very day 500 years earlier by the troops of Nevuchadnetzer, King of Bavel.
What marks the intimate, exclusive relationship between Am Yisrael and the Creator is not the suffering we have endured to this very day, but the fact that with it all Hashem has caused this impossible little ship to survive the straits. For me, all our history was reduced today to a simple act. I walked near the City’s walls with the blue-white flag of Medinat Yisrael over the old city and waved to a Jewish boy in uniform and spoke to each other in the language our fathers spoke in the bet hamikdash.
And it occurred to me:
The prophet Zecharia says in chapter 8,19:
“Thus says the L-ord of hosts, “the fast of the fourth (month 17th of Tamuz) and the fast of the fifth (month 9th of Av) and the fast of the seventh (month Tzom Gedalia on the 3rd of Tishrei) and the fast of the tenth (month the 10th of Tevet) will be (in the future) for the House of Yehuda for joy and gladness and for holidays and truth and peace shall exist together in love”.
It is enlightening that this year the 17th of Tamuz falls out in the week of the Fourth of July, the 228th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. The 17th of Tamuz called the “fast of the fourth” which marks the beginning of our long exile, falls out in the week of July fourth, the day of independence of that land which became home to so many Jews. There is a message here, as there is in everything a Jew sees and does.
Zecharia’s sees that these fast days will one day turn into days of rejoicing. How can one eradicate the raging sounds of the 17th of Tamuz when the walls came crashing down and the enemy charged into the city to vent their rage on the Jews of Yerushalayim!? How can we sing on the 9th of Av when so many bitter things happened; the worst being the destruction of the bet hamikdash and the beginning of our 2000 year exile!?
But the words of the prophet are torah and hence true. Indeed, we see them becoming a reality today in many parts of the world. In the Jewish communities of Antwerp, London, Jo-berg SA., Sidney, Sao Paolo, the “Five Towns”, Teaneck, Boca, Beverly Hills (don’t feel left out if I didn’t mention your spot). In all these places, the fasts of the “fourth” and the “fifth” have become days of “joy and gladness”, because what occurred on them caused all these Jews to be where they are today.
If not for the 17th of Tamuz in the year 70 CE, the big palatial home in Silver Springs would not have a beautifully designed mezuza near the entrance, but a little statuette of the “savior” of some goyishe family in the garden.
If not for Tish’ah Be’Av, Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights Brooklyn, would have several hundred more black families rather than wide brim hatted young Jewish men proclaiming a holy Jewish soul now residing in Olam Haba as still alive and waiting to answer your questions - just write it on a note and put it into the sefer.
If not for these days of strife, which have like the Prophet’s prediction, turned into days of joy for their contribution in giving our brothers in galut the comforts they enjoy, we would all be here in Eretz Yisrael having to struggle together to maintain a Jewish presence in the Holy Land.
So let us give praise to these days of joy!
I propose that in recognition of the simcha of the “fourth” and “fifth” fasts, that a new greeting be instituted. On Shabbat you say “gut shabbas”, on yom tov you say “gut yomtov”, from now on greet your fellow Jew in galut on the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av etc., with the words “a freilicha churban”.
I can very well imagine the reaction of many people to what I have written. Let me explain.
My brother, Rav Meir z”l, and I, very often discussed how we can bring about the return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael. He claimed that the most potent way is through fear. So he raised the flag of fear in his talks and writings: fear of anti-Semitism; fear that your son will one day bring home a shiksa, fear that after all your efforts your children will depart from yiddishkeit. I would answer Meir, that he might be correct that fear is the most potent method, but I don’t think Hashem wants His children to come home because of fear. My way is different.
I want my brothers and sisters to recognize the absolute incompatibility with a torah way of life in chutz La’aretz when the gates of Eretz Yisrael are open. I want to show that the communities in the galut today are in a state of voluntary exile - a sin of the highest order.
A serious pious Jew has to ask himself, free of the influences of his rabbi etc.: I have one life to lead, and a day gone by can never be > regained. Where does my Jewish conscience lead me. To make myself the center of my world or to make Hashem the center of my life.
G-d gave us the freedom to make choices in our lives, and we are responsible for what we choose. Life is like a super-market. When you enter you get a cart into which you can put any assortment of items. No one will limit your choices. But at the end of the day, the cashier will take out, register and charge you for every item you chose. So too, when we are born we get a proverbial cart. You can put into it mitzvot, avayrot, foolishness, arrogance - whatever+ you wisht. But at the end of the line the angel will withdraw every act and thought of your essence, weigh it, register it, and charge you. And up above there are no credit cards or checks - it'’s cash on the line.
The way for a Jew to go is to escape the siren’s song of the galut. To take advantage of the huge zechut Hashem has given us - to return home to Eretz Yisrael. It is here where by our concerted efforts we will bring the ge’ula ha’she’layma and indeed turn the days of fasting into holidays-holydays. Here and only here, can we close the historical circle which began in agony and terror and will end in joy, gladness and thanksgiving to Hashem for being born Jews and sharing in the bounty of eternity.
Nachman Kahana
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Food for Thought: Imagine If...
Imagine if Shimon Peres was Prime Minister and he would announce a plan to annex the Gaza Strip against the wishes of the Labor party and his parties platform - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if the Labor party central committee passed a resolution against such an action - yet he pushes through the annexation plan anyway - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if a referendum was held for Labor party members that Prime Minister Peres morally committed to honoring and it came out against the annexation plan, yet he pushes through the annexation plan anyway - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if he fires government ministers just to secure himself a supportive ministerial vote to support the annexation plan - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if part of the plan called for transferring Arabs from their homes - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if famous Left wing personalities started speaking out against the plan and calling upon citizens to stand up against the plan - Has the media/government and justice offices stayed silent?
*Yossi Sarid and former MK Ya'ir Tzaban wrote in Yediot Acharonot (June 27, 1990), in response to a proposal to temporarily move several Arab villages until the end of the grape harvest: "Let there be no misunderstandings amongst us, and let it not be said that you were not warned in advance: We shall not obey the transfer order, nor will our children or our students obey it. The day that the transfer order - a patently illegal order - is given, shall be the day of refusal to obey an order."
*Yehonatan Gefen, 1998: "Secular Israel is the occupied territories of the religious parties. If the secular desire to live here, they have no choice but to start an intifada. Yes, I am prepared to throw the first stone."
*An article in the Ha-Kibbutz newsletter, August 1995: "They [the settlers] are not my brothers. [...] A civil war will be a war [...] I will run to it [...] and I will crush their flesh with mighty blows, to rout them. [...] I will go forth to the foe in order to fight, for once, a justified war. [...] Much blood will be shed."
*Zeev Sternhal, in the Davar newspaper, 1988: "Fascism cannot be stopped with rational arguments. This can be stopped only by force, and when there is willingness to risk a civil war. When necessary, we shall have to forcibly deal with the settlers in Ofrah or in Elon Moreh. Only a person who is willing to advance against Ofrah with tanks will be capable of curbing the fascist drift that threatens to inundate Israeli democracy."
*In an article in the Ha'Aretz newspaper in 2001, this same Sternhal incited the Arabs to murder settlers, advising the terrorist organizations to place explosive charges only on the eastern side of the Green Line. "There is no doubt regarding the legitimacy of the [Arab] armed resistance in the territories themselves. If the Palestinians had a bit of sense, they would concentrate their struggle against the settlements. [...] They would similarly refrain from placing explosive charges on the western side of the Green Line."
*Minister Yosef Lapid himself has publicly supported refusal to serve in the IDF in any capacity as a form of protest, "I am merely calling for soldiers to refuse to carry out an illegal order - a principle taught to every IDF soldier during basic training." Elitzur quoted Lapid as having written, "The shame of exempting yeshiva students from IDF service will not end until a draft refusal movement arises in Israel ... Only if hundreds and thousands of draftees return their service orders will the political establishment be compelled to come to the IDF's aid."
This message is sponsored by the wake-up-already-if-you-still-think-Israel-is-a-functioning-Democracy-committee.
Imagine if Shimon Peres was Prime Minister and he would announce a plan to annex the Gaza Strip against the wishes of the Labor party and his parties platform - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if the Labor party central committee passed a resolution against such an action - yet he pushes through the annexation plan anyway - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if a referendum was held for Labor party members that Prime Minister Peres morally committed to honoring and it came out against the annexation plan, yet he pushes through the annexation plan anyway - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if he fires government ministers just to secure himself a supportive ministerial vote to support the annexation plan - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if part of the plan called for transferring Arabs from their homes - would the media stay silent about this behavior?
Imagine if famous Left wing personalities started speaking out against the plan and calling upon citizens to stand up against the plan - Has the media/government and justice offices stayed silent?
*Yossi Sarid and former MK Ya'ir Tzaban wrote in Yediot Acharonot (June 27, 1990), in response to a proposal to temporarily move several Arab villages until the end of the grape harvest: "Let there be no misunderstandings amongst us, and let it not be said that you were not warned in advance: We shall not obey the transfer order, nor will our children or our students obey it. The day that the transfer order - a patently illegal order - is given, shall be the day of refusal to obey an order."
*Yehonatan Gefen, 1998: "Secular Israel is the occupied territories of the religious parties. If the secular desire to live here, they have no choice but to start an intifada. Yes, I am prepared to throw the first stone."
*An article in the Ha-Kibbutz newsletter, August 1995: "They [the settlers] are not my brothers. [...] A civil war will be a war [...] I will run to it [...] and I will crush their flesh with mighty blows, to rout them. [...] I will go forth to the foe in order to fight, for once, a justified war. [...] Much blood will be shed."
*Zeev Sternhal, in the Davar newspaper, 1988: "Fascism cannot be stopped with rational arguments. This can be stopped only by force, and when there is willingness to risk a civil war. When necessary, we shall have to forcibly deal with the settlers in Ofrah or in Elon Moreh. Only a person who is willing to advance against Ofrah with tanks will be capable of curbing the fascist drift that threatens to inundate Israeli democracy."
*In an article in the Ha'Aretz newspaper in 2001, this same Sternhal incited the Arabs to murder settlers, advising the terrorist organizations to place explosive charges only on the eastern side of the Green Line. "There is no doubt regarding the legitimacy of the [Arab] armed resistance in the territories themselves. If the Palestinians had a bit of sense, they would concentrate their struggle against the settlements. [...] They would similarly refrain from placing explosive charges on the western side of the Green Line."
*Minister Yosef Lapid himself has publicly supported refusal to serve in the IDF in any capacity as a form of protest, "I am merely calling for soldiers to refuse to carry out an illegal order - a principle taught to every IDF soldier during basic training." Elitzur quoted Lapid as having written, "The shame of exempting yeshiva students from IDF service will not end until a draft refusal movement arises in Israel ... Only if hundreds and thousands of draftees return their service orders will the political establishment be compelled to come to the IDF's aid."
This message is sponsored by the wake-up-already-if-you-still-think-Israel-is-a-functioning-Democracy-committee.
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