A Questionable Organization
I have just heard of a group called Tzionut Datit Realit (Realistic Religious Zionism) and I just took a few minutes to read up on them.
Two major issues bother me about this organization.
Their mission statement includes the following (from their website):
“We hereby call upon the Religious Zionist public to recognize the necessity of relinquishing our rule over the Territories and to turn its efforts to dealing with the urgent problems affecting Israeli society in general, and the religious public in particular."
"We hereby call upon every Religious Zionist Jew, who is touched by our words, who desires the renewal of the authentic spirit of Religious Zionism, who is anxious for the future of the Judaism of Torah and Mitzvoth, and who holds dear the future of the State of Israel and the Jewish people – to join us in a shared effort for the reshaping of Religious Zionism”
First of all, I don't understand why they have the need to take a stand on relinquishing our control over YESHA in the same breath as the need to refocus the communal discourse and attention on essential Jewish values to improve Israeli society? One is not connected to the other! The need to refocus communal discourse to include other extremely important issues is a totally seperate issue, one that I totally agree with, but it does not mean that our community must distance itself from our right to live in all of Eretz Yisrael.
If the communal discourse is the burning issue for them they could have stated as follows:
“We hereby call upon the Religious Zionist public to increase its efforts to dealing with the urgent problems affecting Israeli society in general, and the religious public in particular.”
But they don’t state that.
The fact that they believe in this connection is a huge red flag for me.
As I mentioned in my last email, the mistake of the dati leumi community is not the attention it has given to the Land of Israel issue, but the neglect of all other issues.
Without this stand of theirs I would be a supporter of their organization.
Once I saw that this is an essential part of their plaform I was interested in looking up what groups financially support their activities and I visited the New Israel Fund website. This leads me to the second issue that bothers me - that this organization gets funds from the New Israel Fund - a problematic philanthropy with regards to Israel.
New Israel Fund website on Tzionut Datit Realit
http://www.nif.org/content.cfm?id=2023&currbody=1
Problems with the New Israel Fund and it's philanthropy vis a vis Israel:
An article on the Ford foundation and it's recipient groups including the NIF
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11793
An article on the partnership between the Ford foundation and the NIF
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Ford+partners+with+Jewish+group&intcategoryid=4
I wholeheartedly agree with the dire need to reintroduce other Jewish values into the daily communal discourse in order for the Dati Leumi community to influence Israeli society on these issues, not instead of, but in addition to the Land of Israel issue. I do not believe in dividing one Jewish value from all the others. That is why I support Manhigut Yehudit which is for stregthening all Jewish values in Israeli society and not just the ones that the New Israel Fund supports.
Avi
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
The Real Issue that the Religious Zionist Community in Israel Must Face
I think that most people today agree with the analysis that the Religious Zionist community in Israel has become a one-issue community – The Land of Israel – and has neglected all other issues from its communal agenda. Some might not like to hear this analysis, but it can't be denied. (The problem isn't the attention given to the to the issue of the Land of Israel but the almost complete neglect of all other issues from the communal agenda).
The question is how do we get out of this situation?
How does this community reinvigorate itself to begin letting its voice be heard on social issues, Jewish identity issues (not just the 'who is a Jew' issue), the issue of public institutions/companies activities on Shabbat, environmental issues, judicial issues, societal ethical/moral norms related issues etc. - all issues that our Torah has guidelines for?
The good news is twofold:
1. More and more efforts are taking place all over the country by groups and individuals from the Dati Leumi community that are connected to the above - i.e - yeshivot and kollels being set up in the middle of cities/towns developing programs with the outside communities, Rav Moti Elon's Mibrasheit program that is spreading in the Mamlachti Dati elementary school system, local tzedakah initiatives, local social justice initiatives etc.
2. A movement aimed at developing an overall Jewish society in Israel, based on Jewish values in every area of life, is growing little by little - Manhigut Yehudit. This movement is still in its infancy and mostly only heard of with regards to the 'Land of Israel' issue, but it is growing. This movement is based upon the premise that in order to make the above change all happen, the Dati Leumi community can no longer just lead itself and look out for its own interests on the communal level, but must work and lead together with the rest of Am Yisrael.
We have much work to do to accomplish this turnaround in the Religious Zionist community, but the key to making it work is the realization that we must work hand in hand together with the other Jews in this country who also care about these issues - only then will we make it work. Once we, as a community, realize that there are other Jews in this country, maybe not as religious as us, who also care about these issues and we are willing to work together with them to place those issues on the communal-Israeli agenda than half the battle will be won.
Avi
I think that most people today agree with the analysis that the Religious Zionist community in Israel has become a one-issue community – The Land of Israel – and has neglected all other issues from its communal agenda. Some might not like to hear this analysis, but it can't be denied. (The problem isn't the attention given to the to the issue of the Land of Israel but the almost complete neglect of all other issues from the communal agenda).
The question is how do we get out of this situation?
How does this community reinvigorate itself to begin letting its voice be heard on social issues, Jewish identity issues (not just the 'who is a Jew' issue), the issue of public institutions/companies activities on Shabbat, environmental issues, judicial issues, societal ethical/moral norms related issues etc. - all issues that our Torah has guidelines for?
The good news is twofold:
1. More and more efforts are taking place all over the country by groups and individuals from the Dati Leumi community that are connected to the above - i.e - yeshivot and kollels being set up in the middle of cities/towns developing programs with the outside communities, Rav Moti Elon's Mibrasheit program that is spreading in the Mamlachti Dati elementary school system, local tzedakah initiatives, local social justice initiatives etc.
2. A movement aimed at developing an overall Jewish society in Israel, based on Jewish values in every area of life, is growing little by little - Manhigut Yehudit. This movement is still in its infancy and mostly only heard of with regards to the 'Land of Israel' issue, but it is growing. This movement is based upon the premise that in order to make the above change all happen, the Dati Leumi community can no longer just lead itself and look out for its own interests on the communal level, but must work and lead together with the rest of Am Yisrael.
We have much work to do to accomplish this turnaround in the Religious Zionist community, but the key to making it work is the realization that we must work hand in hand together with the other Jews in this country who also care about these issues - only then will we make it work. Once we, as a community, realize that there are other Jews in this country, maybe not as religious as us, who also care about these issues and we are willing to work together with them to place those issues on the communal-Israeli agenda than half the battle will be won.
Avi
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
An Interview Arafat Does Not Want the World to Hear
An Interview with Walid Shoebat - an Arab Terrorist from Beit Lechem area turned Zionist
After a few minutes of a news report, the interview begins (around 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the recording).
Avi
An Interview with Walid Shoebat - an Arab Terrorist from Beit Lechem area turned Zionist
After a few minutes of a news report, the interview begins (around 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the recording).
Avi
How Can we Trust Any Other Party Other than Ourselves?
Video of armed Arabs in Gaza using UN ambulances to travel to and from battles
Have we heard a peep about this from the UN? The US? Does anybody remember the scandal of the UN involvement in the kidnapping of the three Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border in the year 2000?
We all know this fact about the UN, and it is sad and scary, but true. The Jewish State is on its own in this world to defend itself. It can't trust outside powers (UN, EU or even the US) to defend us, regardless of the pacts signed. They all have their own geo-political interests - and that leaves Israel as their pawn. We must trust ourselves, and as soon as the other powers realize that, we will be in a better position than we are today.
The world loves the Jewish people as victims, but not as leaders of their own country, their own destiny, a position of strength.
Now Sharon is talking to Mubarek about helping out with bringing security to Gaza. Something stinks here - since Egytpt is obviously not doing the job of preventing weaponry from getting into Gaza in the first place so why trust them to help us secure Gaza if we are not there? Why does Sharon even entertain the thought?
In anycase, =tThis Gaza plan of Sharon is only the beginning of the world-powers planned land give-away that they have planned for us anyways - regardless of Sharon's plan that pulling out of Gaza would give us diplomatic quiet from the world. What is he thinking??
The following article spells this out quite well
Pressure begins: Disengagement from Gaza is not Enough
Avi
Video of armed Arabs in Gaza using UN ambulances to travel to and from battles
Have we heard a peep about this from the UN? The US? Does anybody remember the scandal of the UN involvement in the kidnapping of the three Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border in the year 2000?
We all know this fact about the UN, and it is sad and scary, but true. The Jewish State is on its own in this world to defend itself. It can't trust outside powers (UN, EU or even the US) to defend us, regardless of the pacts signed. They all have their own geo-political interests - and that leaves Israel as their pawn. We must trust ourselves, and as soon as the other powers realize that, we will be in a better position than we are today.
The world loves the Jewish people as victims, but not as leaders of their own country, their own destiny, a position of strength.
Now Sharon is talking to Mubarek about helping out with bringing security to Gaza. Something stinks here - since Egytpt is obviously not doing the job of preventing weaponry from getting into Gaza in the first place so why trust them to help us secure Gaza if we are not there? Why does Sharon even entertain the thought?
In anycase, =tThis Gaza plan of Sharon is only the beginning of the world-powers planned land give-away that they have planned for us anyways - regardless of Sharon's plan that pulling out of Gaza would give us diplomatic quiet from the world. What is he thinking??
The following article spells this out quite well
Pressure begins: Disengagement from Gaza is not Enough
Avi
Monday, May 31, 2004
A Sad Sad State of Affairs For Am Yisrael
Pinui Mitzpeh Yitzhar Video Link
The above video includes raw footage of the destruction of the "illegal" caravan site of Mitzpeh Yitzhar.
It is so sad to see Jews beating up fellow Jews, all by order of a Jewish government, in order to appease the world and our enemies, just so that they could be appeased to continue to kill us.
The world is topsy turvy - settlements are not an obstacle to peace, their
continued development ensures that one day true peace will envelop us!! Their
continued develpment will make sure the Arabs and the world know that we belong
on this land, and all of this land - that is part of the moral antidote
necessary for true peace to develop.
This is pragmatic and realistic. Destorying Jewish homes in the Land of Israel does just the opposite. Thinking that it is constructive towards achieving peace is a fantasy.
The Jewish people are strong and getting stronger. We will outlive this government and the next and the next, we will passively resist all home destructions and expulsions of Jews, and we will then return and rebuild and resettle. Am Yisrael will overcome.
Avi
Pinui Mitzpeh Yitzhar Video Link
The above video includes raw footage of the destruction of the "illegal" caravan site of Mitzpeh Yitzhar.
It is so sad to see Jews beating up fellow Jews, all by order of a Jewish government, in order to appease the world and our enemies, just so that they could be appeased to continue to kill us.
The world is topsy turvy - settlements are not an obstacle to peace, their
continued development ensures that one day true peace will envelop us!! Their
continued develpment will make sure the Arabs and the world know that we belong
on this land, and all of this land - that is part of the moral antidote
necessary for true peace to develop.
This is pragmatic and realistic. Destorying Jewish homes in the Land of Israel does just the opposite. Thinking that it is constructive towards achieving peace is a fantasy.
The Jewish people are strong and getting stronger. We will outlive this government and the next and the next, we will passively resist all home destructions and expulsions of Jews, and we will then return and rebuild and resettle. Am Yisrael will overcome.
Avi
Here Comes the Cavalry....
Prominent US Jews, Israel blamed for start of Iraq War
The heat is about to be turned up on Israel to do anything to make the world a safer place (sic). It's just that the things we will be asked to do will do just the opposite!!
How sad that US Jews will now start to hear more and more anti-Israel, anti-Jewish sentiments from their own countrymen, their own public servants.
The anti-Israel, anti-Jewish public statements and write-ups in the press that we have taken for granted as coming from Europe will now start coming more and more from the US.
Things might get a little uncomfortable for US Jews.
When will they realize that they really don't belong there? When will they realize that the most realistic solution for peace (in the world and in Israel) is actually if they pick up, move to Israel, and help us make Israel into the moral bedrock of society that it is supposed to be. Then and only then will true peace develop. That is pragmatism and that is reality. All the band-aid/diplomatic solutions forced upon us are not realistic and not pragmatic, they are forced appeasement and they will only prolong the period of terrorism in Israel and around the world - because appeasement does not work, not in the short run or in the long run.
Help us bring true peace by coming home and helping us make Israel into the society it is supposed to be.
Prominent US Jews, Israel blamed for start of Iraq War
The heat is about to be turned up on Israel to do anything to make the world a safer place (sic). It's just that the things we will be asked to do will do just the opposite!!
How sad that US Jews will now start to hear more and more anti-Israel, anti-Jewish sentiments from their own countrymen, their own public servants.
The anti-Israel, anti-Jewish public statements and write-ups in the press that we have taken for granted as coming from Europe will now start coming more and more from the US.
Things might get a little uncomfortable for US Jews.
When will they realize that they really don't belong there? When will they realize that the most realistic solution for peace (in the world and in Israel) is actually if they pick up, move to Israel, and help us make Israel into the moral bedrock of society that it is supposed to be. Then and only then will true peace develop. That is pragmatism and that is reality. All the band-aid/diplomatic solutions forced upon us are not realistic and not pragmatic, they are forced appeasement and they will only prolong the period of terrorism in Israel and around the world - because appeasement does not work, not in the short run or in the long run.
Help us bring true peace by coming home and helping us make Israel into the society it is supposed to be.
Sunday, May 30, 2004
How Silly We Are
What Europe Wants (From Israel)
There are so many Jews who honestly believe, deep in their hearts, that as long as Israel does what is necessary - gives in to world pressures, leaves its biblical heartland, expels Jews from their homes or anything else that it is pressured to do - that the world will get off our backs, allow us to live peacefully and allow us to defend ourselves from our enemies on the other side of an internationally "approved" border (sic).
How silly are they?
Don't they read between the lines when they read the news? Don't they listen to what world personalities are actually saying - verbatim? The truth of the matter is that many of these world personalities do not want us here!
No border changes, expulsions or house destroying will appease our global friends. The Arabs don't want us here, the Europeans don't want us here, the liberals don't want us here etc. I could go on.
Don't the Jews see that the reason we are not wanted here is because we symbolize a return of the chosen people to the Holyland? The Holyland being run and lead by the one and only chosen people!
Don't they see that this is the basis of all the animosity towards us.
So lets say that we leave Gaza. Lets even say that we leave Yehuda and Shomron. We even leave half of Jerusalem!! Do these Jews really think that we will be left in peace?
What it boils down to is that in order for us to succeed here in the Holy Land we must act like the chosen people who are supposed to inherit this Holyland.
We are currently acting like imposters - exactly as our enemies say - and we are unable to stand up to others because we can't even look ourselves in the mirror and recognize who we are and why we are here!!
We are weak in our national character, weak in our national resolve and weak in our own identity!!!
Of course the world is pressuring us to give it all up, we are in the perfect position to actually do it!!
But the situation does not have to be so bleak.
The solution to our situation lies very nearby - within each and everyone of us.
The sooner we realize who we are as a people and why we are supposed to live in this Holyland (after realizing that we ARE supposed to be living in this land and moving here), the sooner we will be able to poo-poo the anti-semitic/anti-Israel attitude of so many of our global "friends".
It is at that point in time that we will gain the fear and respect of our global "friends" to be able to live in the Holyland in true peace. Not a peace based on promises and signatures on a piece of paper, but a peace based on upholding common holy values of life, respect and a true eternal appreciation and love for the world's creator and creations.
As Chazal teaches us - true peace will only come tothe world when we have true peace in the Holyland.
Avi
What Europe Wants (From Israel)
There are so many Jews who honestly believe, deep in their hearts, that as long as Israel does what is necessary - gives in to world pressures, leaves its biblical heartland, expels Jews from their homes or anything else that it is pressured to do - that the world will get off our backs, allow us to live peacefully and allow us to defend ourselves from our enemies on the other side of an internationally "approved" border (sic).
How silly are they?
Don't they read between the lines when they read the news? Don't they listen to what world personalities are actually saying - verbatim? The truth of the matter is that many of these world personalities do not want us here!
No border changes, expulsions or house destroying will appease our global friends. The Arabs don't want us here, the Europeans don't want us here, the liberals don't want us here etc. I could go on.
Don't the Jews see that the reason we are not wanted here is because we symbolize a return of the chosen people to the Holyland? The Holyland being run and lead by the one and only chosen people!
Don't they see that this is the basis of all the animosity towards us.
So lets say that we leave Gaza. Lets even say that we leave Yehuda and Shomron. We even leave half of Jerusalem!! Do these Jews really think that we will be left in peace?
What it boils down to is that in order for us to succeed here in the Holy Land we must act like the chosen people who are supposed to inherit this Holyland.
We are currently acting like imposters - exactly as our enemies say - and we are unable to stand up to others because we can't even look ourselves in the mirror and recognize who we are and why we are here!!
We are weak in our national character, weak in our national resolve and weak in our own identity!!!
Of course the world is pressuring us to give it all up, we are in the perfect position to actually do it!!
But the situation does not have to be so bleak.
The solution to our situation lies very nearby - within each and everyone of us.
The sooner we realize who we are as a people and why we are supposed to live in this Holyland (after realizing that we ARE supposed to be living in this land and moving here), the sooner we will be able to poo-poo the anti-semitic/anti-Israel attitude of so many of our global "friends".
It is at that point in time that we will gain the fear and respect of our global "friends" to be able to live in the Holyland in true peace. Not a peace based on promises and signatures on a piece of paper, but a peace based on upholding common holy values of life, respect and a true eternal appreciation and love for the world's creator and creations.
As Chazal teaches us - true peace will only come tothe world when we have true peace in the Holyland.
Avi
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Food For Thought
The quote below was taken from an article titled "It's a Fight for Survival - Pull Out All Stops" posted in the Los Angelos Times on May 12th written by Bruce Herschenson.
It applies to the US, thousands of miles away from Iraq, and it definately applies to Israel as well.
It says everything I have been saying (sounding very extreme and fanatic - which you all know I'm not) in a very profound way...
"Our victory in World War II was not achieved by trying to win the hearts and minds of Germans and Japanese. We did not dominate the newsreels with pictures of those things a few American troops did to captured enemies. Instead of all that, we bombed our enemies to submission with all the power and weaponry we had available."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-herschensohn12may12,1,7863582.story
My little addition - Think about what the world, and Jewry, might be like today if the Allies did NOT bomb Germany and Japan to submission. Back then there also were innocent German and Japanese civilians who were not all evil.
Food for thought.......................................
May humanity quickly return to 100% believing in its fight for the value of life instead of doubting itself and easily surrendering to the despicable ones who value death and martyrdom, may we all assist in developing Isreal to be a light unto the nations, as we should be doing, and may we all have a Shabbat Shalom.
Avi
It applies to the US, thousands of miles away from Iraq, and it definately applies to Israel as well.
It says everything I have been saying (sounding very extreme and fanatic - which you all know I'm not) in a very profound way...
"Our victory in World War II was not achieved by trying to win the hearts and minds of Germans and Japanese. We did not dominate the newsreels with pictures of those things a few American troops did to captured enemies. Instead of all that, we bombed our enemies to submission with all the power and weaponry we had available."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-herschensohn12may12,1,7863582.story
My little addition - Think about what the world, and Jewry, might be like today if the Allies did NOT bomb Germany and Japan to submission. Back then there also were innocent German and Japanese civilians who were not all evil.
Food for thought.......................................
May humanity quickly return to 100% believing in its fight for the value of life instead of doubting itself and easily surrendering to the despicable ones who value death and martyrdom, may we all assist in developing Isreal to be a light unto the nations, as we should be doing, and may we all have a Shabbat Shalom.
Avi
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
The Morality of Fighting Against Our Enemies Today
In response to my last posting I received the following comment from a reader:
"One of our "secret" weapon against 300 million arabs who hate us is
that we have a higher morality than they do, when we stoop down to there level
wer'e lost."
What follows below was my reply:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain my point better,
because I think it is a crucial issue that is not brought up in todays
diaogue about the "matzav".
Is ALLOWING a society to celebrate killing and martyrdom moral
behavior?
That is what we are practically doing by not declaring all out war
against the Palestinians and the PA.
If I'm not mistaken an important lesson in Judaism is 'kill your enemy
before he kills you'. Another lesson is not to have pity on your
enemies.
I firmly believe that by treating our enemy with kid gloves - by ONLY
using pinpoint bombings on individuals or floors of buildings - we are
being immoral!
There is nothing moral in allowing a sick society to become sicker,
more
despicable and kill more. By calling for all out war (and not just a
'war on terrorists' - which is a euphamism for a fight against a bunch
of crazy individuals) and destroying their culture of hate, murder and
shahidism we will be doing the Arab world a favor.
"There is a time for war and a time for peace..." No, killing is not
nice and it is usually wrong, but if we have to kill in order to defend
ourselves and simultaneously save them from morally destructing
themselves even more, then we have to kill. Not be prooud of it, not
want to do it, but do it because it is the right thing to do to end the
situation - in both of our interests.
Yes, our higher morality is our secret weapon, too bad we are not using
it. Just because the "enlightened world" thinks our inaction today is
moral does not make it so.
Avi
In response to my last posting I received the following comment from a reader:
"One of our "secret" weapon against 300 million arabs who hate us is
that we have a higher morality than they do, when we stoop down to there level
wer'e lost."
What follows below was my reply:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain my point better,
because I think it is a crucial issue that is not brought up in todays
diaogue about the "matzav".
Is ALLOWING a society to celebrate killing and martyrdom moral
behavior?
That is what we are practically doing by not declaring all out war
against the Palestinians and the PA.
If I'm not mistaken an important lesson in Judaism is 'kill your enemy
before he kills you'. Another lesson is not to have pity on your
enemies.
I firmly believe that by treating our enemy with kid gloves - by ONLY
using pinpoint bombings on individuals or floors of buildings - we are
being immoral!
There is nothing moral in allowing a sick society to become sicker,
more
despicable and kill more. By calling for all out war (and not just a
'war on terrorists' - which is a euphamism for a fight against a bunch
of crazy individuals) and destroying their culture of hate, murder and
shahidism we will be doing the Arab world a favor.
"There is a time for war and a time for peace..." No, killing is not
nice and it is usually wrong, but if we have to kill in order to defend
ourselves and simultaneously save them from morally destructing
themselves even more, then we have to kill. Not be prooud of it, not
want to do it, but do it because it is the right thing to do to end the
situation - in both of our interests.
Yes, our higher morality is our secret weapon, too bad we are not using
it. Just because the "enlightened world" thinks our inaction today is
moral does not make it so.
Avi
Destroy Them
We must destroy the culture of hatred and murder of our enemies and win this war.
That means killing our enemies without taking into consideration public relations and world opinion.
That means that we must accept that even though we have no intention of killing civilians, they might get killed too.
We can't think twice of killing shooters because they are surrounded by civilians. We can't think twice about bombing a building filled with terrorists because civilians are in or around the building. Whether willingly or not, these civilians are "soldiers" in this war against us, used stegically against our moral weakness of not trying to harm civilians. The only way to destroy their culture of hatred and murder, the Arabs must be shown that we will not hold back from attacking anyone just because they are hiding behind civilians.
That is the solution.
If we feel uncomfortable with that then that means that we are human, a good thing, but we must do it anyway, otherwise we will continue to pay the price for pitying our enemies.
Yesterday one of the army officers explained that they sent the soldiers into Gaza instead of bombing buildings from the air because they didn't want to hurt innocent civilians.
Please make sure our media and politicians know that we have had enough of their misguided leadership and messages - those 6 holy soldiers did not die defending Jews in Gush Katif, they died defending Arabs living in Gaza!!
Unethical leadership - we have had enough!
Avi
That means killing our enemies without taking into consideration public relations and world opinion.
That means that we must accept that even though we have no intention of killing civilians, they might get killed too.
We can't think twice of killing shooters because they are surrounded by civilians. We can't think twice about bombing a building filled with terrorists because civilians are in or around the building. Whether willingly or not, these civilians are "soldiers" in this war against us, used stegically against our moral weakness of not trying to harm civilians. The only way to destroy their culture of hatred and murder, the Arabs must be shown that we will not hold back from attacking anyone just because they are hiding behind civilians.
That is the solution.
If we feel uncomfortable with that then that means that we are human, a good thing, but we must do it anyway, otherwise we will continue to pay the price for pitying our enemies.
Yesterday one of the army officers explained that they sent the soldiers into Gaza instead of bombing buildings from the air because they didn't want to hurt innocent civilians.
Please make sure our media and politicians know that we have had enough of their misguided leadership and messages - those 6 holy soldiers did not die defending Jews in Gush Katif, they died defending Arabs living in Gaza!!
Unethical leadership - we have had enough!
Avi
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
This is What it is Really About: An Arab Campaign of Denial to Disinherit the Jews
This is a must read article in today's Haaretz that clearly shows us what the Arab war against us is really about. All the creative solutions for borders and refugees won't help until we face up to the real issues and deal with them, after winning the war, of course.
Avi
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/425971.html
Years ago, a group of archaeology students from Bar-Ilan University went to Jerusalem's Kidron Valley, hoping to save archaeological remnants from earth the Waqf [Muslim religious trust] had dug up on the Temple Mount and dumped in the riverbed. A Waqf official who noticed the students began yelling at them. One sentence struck them in particular: "You have nothing to look for here, just as the Crusaders had nothing to look for here. Jerusalem is Muslim."
In the past, such comments could be seen as the exception. All of that changed at the Camp David Conference of June 2002: it was then that senior Israeli officials became aware that the claim that the Jews have no real connection to Jerusalem and the holy sites had not only been disseminated and become entrenched in Arab and Muslim communities and part of the public discourse, but was also been adopted by the Palestinian leadership.
Indeed, a new study by Dr. Yitzhak Reiter, conducted for the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies states: "In the last generation, the Islamic and Arab history of
All
Reiter, of the
history of the
The Muslims are slowly dropping use of the name given to the
"Al-Aqsa" now refers to the entire
At the same time there is growing use of the term "Al-Aqsa" as a symbol and a name for different institutions and organizations, be it a Jordanian army journal, a Palestinian police unit established by the Palestinian Authority in Jericho, the Fatah terrorist cells known as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade or Internet sites of the northern and southern branches of the Islamic Movement and organizations they have set up and, of course, in the current intifada and the Arab summit convened in its wake.
Contrary to the standard history whereby the Al-Aqsa mosque was built in the seventh century, in recent years an ancient tradition from the beginning of Islam has been gaining ground. According to it, the Al-Aqsa mosque was built 40 years after the construction of the mosque in
For hundreds of years,
Members of the Saudi royal family, Palestinian archaeologists (such as Dr. Dimitri Baramki), Sheikh Kardawi, Syrian clerics and others all identify the Jebusites as an ancient Arab tribe that wandered from the Arabian peninsula, together with the Canaanites, around 3,000 years B.C.E. and therefore predated the children of Israel in the land.
The "fabricated"
The new history most jarring to Jewish hearers is that the First and
The current Jordanian minister of Waqf affairs, Ahmed Khalil, said last year that
In another article, which recently appeared on the Internet site of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, Egyptian archaeologist Abed al-Rahim Rihan Barakat, the manager of the archaeological site at Dahab in Sinai, writes, "The myth of the fabricated
A fatwa on the Internet site of the Waqf in
There is a similar campaign of denial with regard to the Western Wall and it has two aspects: one is the identification of the Western Wall as a sacred place for Muslims because the prophet Mohammed tethered his horse Al-Buraq there and that it is part of the Al-Aqsa mosque; and the other is the argument that the Jews fabricated the Western Wall as a place that is sacred to them, and they have no historical connection to it. Palestinian and Egyptian religious authorities have issued fatwas to that effect.
"Al-Aqsa is in danger" continues to be the motto of articles by Muslim figures and the focus of mass rallies organized each year by the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. "The most far-flung Muslim communities hear the stories about the Palestinian struggle over their sacred site and through the political tale the revised religious traditions are also internalized," says Reiter. The fact that
Reiter's work was delivered as a position paper to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was discussed yesterday at a seminar at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. Two main conclusions emerged from the discussion. One is that
No, We Don't Know G-d's Plan
In response to my last posting, I received a response from someone who felt that it was not right for me to claim that G-d revealed himself, since I have no idea what G-d's plan is.
I admit, I do not know what G-d has planned - not for the Jewish people and not for all of humanity. But I do know from our Torah what G-d wants from us - and that is for us to assist him in this project called humanity - by working on ourselves to be the best people we could be and by working on our nation and our country to become the light unto the nations that we are supposed to be.
In my eyes, the events of last week that I wrote about were actions that Am Yisrael took, with the help of G-d, in redirecting our nation and country in the direction we are supposed to be going - in becoming "the light unto the nations" we are supposed to be instead of being "a reflection of the nations", the state we are now in.
6 more holy Israeli soldiers died this morning in fighting our enemies. Last week almost a whole family was wiped off the face off the earth in our struggle. The losses we have experienced are a very heavy price we are paying in our struggle to exist as the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. It does not have to do with borders or with refugees, it has to do with who we are and why we are here. Our enemies know this and they say so bluntly, our own people, however, prefer to selectively hear and block these messages out.
Unfortunately, the longer it takes us to wake up to fulfilling our responsibility as a nation that I mentioned above, the more of our own we will have to bury. Let us hope and pray that it ends soon.
Beautiful things are happening in Israel today. Really wonderful, wonderful things - by so many people in so many realms. Yet there is still so much more to do. The sooner it takes for us, those of us who understand what our reposonsability is as a nation, to take control of our destiny instead of being controlled by others, who do not fully understand or comprehend that responsability, our work will be much easier and take much less time.
Avi
In response to my last posting, I received a response from someone who felt that it was not right for me to claim that G-d revealed himself, since I have no idea what G-d's plan is.
I admit, I do not know what G-d has planned - not for the Jewish people and not for all of humanity. But I do know from our Torah what G-d wants from us - and that is for us to assist him in this project called humanity - by working on ourselves to be the best people we could be and by working on our nation and our country to become the light unto the nations that we are supposed to be.
In my eyes, the events of last week that I wrote about were actions that Am Yisrael took, with the help of G-d, in redirecting our nation and country in the direction we are supposed to be going - in becoming "the light unto the nations" we are supposed to be instead of being "a reflection of the nations", the state we are now in.
6 more holy Israeli soldiers died this morning in fighting our enemies. Last week almost a whole family was wiped off the face off the earth in our struggle. The losses we have experienced are a very heavy price we are paying in our struggle to exist as the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. It does not have to do with borders or with refugees, it has to do with who we are and why we are here. Our enemies know this and they say so bluntly, our own people, however, prefer to selectively hear and block these messages out.
Unfortunately, the longer it takes us to wake up to fulfilling our responsibility as a nation that I mentioned above, the more of our own we will have to bury. Let us hope and pray that it ends soon.
Beautiful things are happening in Israel today. Really wonderful, wonderful things - by so many people in so many realms. Yet there is still so much more to do. The sooner it takes for us, those of us who understand what our reposonsability is as a nation, to take control of our destiny instead of being controlled by others, who do not fully understand or comprehend that responsability, our work will be much easier and take much less time.
Avi
Friday, May 07, 2004
A Historical Week
We just experienced one of the most eventful weeks in the history of the State of Israel. I think that in historical importance it falls right behind the eventful weeks when the State of Israel was declared and the victory of the Six Day War. Many of us might not yet know it, but I firmly believe that this week will be looked at by history as the major turning point in the existence of the State of Israel.
G-d's hand was not just revealed once, but twice!
The first revelation was the wonderful victory in the referndum against Sharon's plan to uproot Jews from their homes.
The second revelation was the amazing coverage given to the totally improper conduct of the Israeli judicial system that included the blatant disregard of proper conduct by our own Judicial Leadership!
These two issues might look unrelated, but they are extremely related.
The Oslo process was not just a peace process, it was much more than that. It was a process to break the spirit of the Jewish people and to break the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. This was best expressed in Peres' quote in 1996 when he lost the elections to Bibi Netanyahu - Peres is quoted as saying 'The Israelis lost and the Jews won'.
But, unfortuntely Peres was wrong, Netanyahu continued in the direction of Oslo, in the direction of the Israelis.
The Jewish connection to the land and the connection of the people to our religion has been deligitmized by politicians and the media for the past 10 years, all with the assistance of the Israeli Supreme Court.
But this week will become known as the turning point when the Land of Israel was reinvigorated with the spirit of the Jewish people. This is the beginning of the end of the "new" Israeli identity that Peres and the Left have always dreamed about creating here.
The Amcha have spoken. The tide is now about to turn.
People no longer want to have the "new" Israeli identity - most Israelis want to be Jews -Jewish Israelis - connected to their land, connected to their heritage and connected to behavior becoming of a Jew.
It has now become clear to all that the only way these changes will happen is if it comes from the Likud party. We are already witnessing thousands of religious people signing up for membership in the Likud. Why? Because the people of the Likud have spoken up to their spineless leadership and told them that they will no longer let them lead us down the path of Peres and the "new" Israelis. They clearly coneyed to their leaders that it is not so easy to disconnect Jews from their heritage or their homeland. The Likud has just been strengthened as the party of the Jewish people.
Change takes time, and not everything will go our way, but at least now the people have awaken, the leadership is shaken, the trust of the people in the system (Knesset and Justice) has reached rock bottom, and the only direction now is up.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are now living in exciting times. The people here in Israel will now begin taking back their country and making it the proud Jewish State it is supposed to be.
To all of you who are still not here yet - come home and help us make this happen because this is what being Jewish is all about.
Avi
We just experienced one of the most eventful weeks in the history of the State of Israel. I think that in historical importance it falls right behind the eventful weeks when the State of Israel was declared and the victory of the Six Day War. Many of us might not yet know it, but I firmly believe that this week will be looked at by history as the major turning point in the existence of the State of Israel.
G-d's hand was not just revealed once, but twice!
The first revelation was the wonderful victory in the referndum against Sharon's plan to uproot Jews from their homes.
The second revelation was the amazing coverage given to the totally improper conduct of the Israeli judicial system that included the blatant disregard of proper conduct by our own Judicial Leadership!
These two issues might look unrelated, but they are extremely related.
The Oslo process was not just a peace process, it was much more than that. It was a process to break the spirit of the Jewish people and to break the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. This was best expressed in Peres' quote in 1996 when he lost the elections to Bibi Netanyahu - Peres is quoted as saying 'The Israelis lost and the Jews won'.
But, unfortuntely Peres was wrong, Netanyahu continued in the direction of Oslo, in the direction of the Israelis.
The Jewish connection to the land and the connection of the people to our religion has been deligitmized by politicians and the media for the past 10 years, all with the assistance of the Israeli Supreme Court.
But this week will become known as the turning point when the Land of Israel was reinvigorated with the spirit of the Jewish people. This is the beginning of the end of the "new" Israeli identity that Peres and the Left have always dreamed about creating here.
The Amcha have spoken. The tide is now about to turn.
People no longer want to have the "new" Israeli identity - most Israelis want to be Jews -Jewish Israelis - connected to their land, connected to their heritage and connected to behavior becoming of a Jew.
It has now become clear to all that the only way these changes will happen is if it comes from the Likud party. We are already witnessing thousands of religious people signing up for membership in the Likud. Why? Because the people of the Likud have spoken up to their spineless leadership and told them that they will no longer let them lead us down the path of Peres and the "new" Israelis. They clearly coneyed to their leaders that it is not so easy to disconnect Jews from their heritage or their homeland. The Likud has just been strengthened as the party of the Jewish people.
Change takes time, and not everything will go our way, but at least now the people have awaken, the leadership is shaken, the trust of the people in the system (Knesset and Justice) has reached rock bottom, and the only direction now is up.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are now living in exciting times. The people here in Israel will now begin taking back their country and making it the proud Jewish State it is supposed to be.
To all of you who are still not here yet - come home and help us make this happen because this is what being Jewish is all about.
Avi
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Taking A Deep Deep Breath
Baruch Hashem,
As of this moment it looks like Sharon's plan has been voted down by the Likud membership.
If this holds up to be true, we can hopefully take a deep deep breath and smile. Not celebrate and not feel invincible, but smile and take a deep breath.
This is the turning point in the State of Israel returning to itself, a proud country conneected to its Jewish identity and its land - the (not-so) secret combination for true peace and security in the Land of Israel.
This battle hopefully has been won, with many more battles to come. However, now we are in a much better position to win those future battles too because this referendum will be the turning point in favor of the Jewish people with Jewish pride and a loss for the Jewish people who have lost hope in standing up for ourselves and our country.
Now is the time to join Manhigut Yehudit and strengthen the Likud. Join the thousands who have already joined and assisted in returning the Likud to its roots. We will change the direction of this country only be leading it - and that we have begun to do in the Likud - the only party in Israel that represents the nation (ashkenazim, sepharadim, chilonim, datiim, charedim - and not sectoral) that actually has the realistic option of leading the nation.
Did we really return to our land to just lead ourselves - each group for their own interests? Or did we return to this land to lead the whole Jewish people? If the latter - than we must rise to the challenge of leading the people in a party of the people, working with the people and convincing the people of the right direction.
May we hold on to this deep breath and hold on to the hope that we are now beginning the road back to having a Jewish State with a Jewish identity that stands up for itself - that will bring us the true peace and security that we truly pray for.
Tizku L'mitzvot to all those volunteers who made today happen.
Am Yisrael Chai,
Avi
Baruch Hashem,
As of this moment it looks like Sharon's plan has been voted down by the Likud membership.
If this holds up to be true, we can hopefully take a deep deep breath and smile. Not celebrate and not feel invincible, but smile and take a deep breath.
This is the turning point in the State of Israel returning to itself, a proud country conneected to its Jewish identity and its land - the (not-so) secret combination for true peace and security in the Land of Israel.
This battle hopefully has been won, with many more battles to come. However, now we are in a much better position to win those future battles too because this referendum will be the turning point in favor of the Jewish people with Jewish pride and a loss for the Jewish people who have lost hope in standing up for ourselves and our country.
Now is the time to join Manhigut Yehudit and strengthen the Likud. Join the thousands who have already joined and assisted in returning the Likud to its roots. We will change the direction of this country only be leading it - and that we have begun to do in the Likud - the only party in Israel that represents the nation (ashkenazim, sepharadim, chilonim, datiim, charedim - and not sectoral) that actually has the realistic option of leading the nation.
Did we really return to our land to just lead ourselves - each group for their own interests? Or did we return to this land to lead the whole Jewish people? If the latter - than we must rise to the challenge of leading the people in a party of the people, working with the people and convincing the people of the right direction.
May we hold on to this deep breath and hold on to the hope that we are now beginning the road back to having a Jewish State with a Jewish identity that stands up for itself - that will bring us the true peace and security that we truly pray for.
Tizku L'mitzvot to all those volunteers who made today happen.
Am Yisrael Chai,
Avi
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Sunday is the Big Day
Yep, Sunday is the day where Likud members get to decide whether the Oslo process started 10 years ago (where Jewish Land is given to our enemies for Jewish deaths) gets thrown into the dustpin of history - B"H.
Imagine, just imagine that Sharon's expulsion plan of Jews gets voted down by the constituency of the largest party in Israel. Imagine the meaning and message that that will send to the world, the Jews and especially to Israeli politicians - it will be a clear message to all that Israel will no longer give up OUR land for any political deal. I surely hope that this comes to be on Sunday.
Yom Haatzmaut was just this week and it was a very emotional one for me - considering the current events here in the Land of Israel. Even though I stated in an earlier email that I believe it is time for Jews and Israelis to realize that we are living in Israel, and should be living in Israel, because of Judaism and not Zionism, that in no way takes away from the magnificent miracles (The Rav - Soloveitchik - writes that 6 different miracles took place with the establishment of the Jewish State. Read his essay Kol Dodi Dofek for more info) that took place in 1948 when the fledgling Land of Israel was established as a Jewish State and overcame its numerous enemies in a battle over its existence. Yom Haatzmaut is a miraculous day that all Jews should celebrate regardless of their views on the politics of Israel, today and back then, because the ikar is that at that moment, 56 years ago, the Jews returned to be the ones ruling their own fate in their own Land - the beginning of the process towards redemption.
Today, with Sharon's plan that continues in the path of Oslo, one really must ask oneself if Israel today is master of its own fate. In my eyes, and many others, the Oslo process is symbolic of the State of Israel being run by other world leaders, not Jews. We have returned to become Court Jews running to the Masters for permission. Whatever they say goes. This must come to an end now, and Sunday might be the turning point. If not, then we will wait for the next ray of light that will come. And it will come, it is only a matter of time. Little by little Israelis are waking up to the nightmare that our (sic) leaders have been leading us through. One day they will wake up and make sure it is put to an end.
In the meantime, below is a thought provoking piece about Sharon's expulsion plan. Give it a good read, it is worth it.
Shabbat Shalom
A Dispassionate View of The Sharon Plan:
From Disengagement to Retreat
David Bedein
The Sharon Plan will be voted on in an unprecedented referendum which will take place among the 200,00 members of the Likud Party in Israel this coming Sunday.
This is not just an internal party election.
The Sharon Plan has become a hotly debated news item in Israel and throughout the world.
Essentially, the vote on the Sharon Plan will provide the first referendum on the eleven year Oslo process.
Whatever the result, the situation in Israel will radically change.
If the Sharon Retreat Plan is ratified, the precedent will be established for the Israeli government to uproot Jewish communities.
A new government will be formed. The architect of the 1993 Oslo process, Shimon Peres, once again the leader of Israel's Labor Party, will again assume the post of foreign minister. The Oslo process will continue.
If the Sharon Plan is rejected, the Oslo process will be dead in the water.
Yet what is even more newsworthy, given the charged emotions that this debate has created, is the fact that very few people across the political spectrum in Israel, and even in the media and diplomatic corps represented in Israel, have bothered to read the Sharon Plan. Even though it is posted on the official web site of the Israeli Prime Minister, at http://www.pmo.gov.il , I repeat, few people have taken the time to read the Sharon Plan.
On one of Israel's most popular call-in shows last Friday morning, where everyone calling in had a passionate comment on the issue, the talk show host revealed that not one of the callers had read the Sharon Plan.
Likud Party Chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had promised to mail out a copy of his plan to all of the Likud voters.
Well, if you take a dispassionate view of the plan, you will understand why he did not send it out.
The Sharon Plan is officially called the "Disengagement Plan", because, according to the preamble to clause 1, section 1, "Israel has come to the conclusion that there is currently no reliable Palestinian partner with which it can make progress in a bilateral peace process." The preamble goes on to say that "In order to break out of this stalemate, Israel is required to initiate moves not dependent on Palestinian cooperation×’€¦Israel is required to initiate moves not dependent on Palestinian cooperation×’€¦Accordingly, it has developed a plan of unilateral disengagement"
In other words, after 12 years of negotiations with the PLO, the Israeli government has reached the solemn conclusion that the negotiations have failed completely, and that the PLO is indeed at war with the state of Israel. After more than 22,000 terror attacks And almost one thousand people murdered in cold blood by Palestinian Arab terrorists in less than four years, that would be a seeming understatement.
Yet the paragraph that follows the preamble of the Sharon Plan is a seeming non-sequiter:
The Sharon Plan's answer to the PLO terror campaign is that "there will be no Israeli towns and villages in the Gaza Strip" and that "upon completion of this process, there shall no longer be any permanent presence of Israeli security forces or Israeli civilians in the areas of Gaza Strip territory which have been evacuated." Why retreat in the face of PLO adversity? No reason is given.
The plan offers an analysis, however, which states that "The relocation from the Gaza Strip and from Northern Samaria will reduce friction with the Palestinian population, and carries with it the potential for improvement in the Palestinian economy and living conditions."
Why would the Israeli government suddenly state that Jewish communities in Gaza and Northern Samaria are a "source of friction"? No reason is given. Why would it improve the economy and living conditions to abandon Jewish homes and farms? Again, no reason is given. After all, the Jewish communities in Gaza and Northern Samaria did not replace a single Arab family nor do they encroach on any Arab owned land. They were, in fact, built on vacant land not owned by any individuals, be they Palestinian, Jordanian or Egyptian after 1967 Six Day War.
The Sharon Plan does state that now "there will be no basis for claiming that the Gaza Strip is occupied territory," a specious claim that no government of Israel has ever accepted, since Israel does not define itself as a foreign "occupier" of any area of the historical land of Israel.
The Sharon Plan continues with a statement that seems to belie the preamble that the PLO is not a "reliable Palestinian partner" by stating that "the hope is that the Palestinians will take advantage of the opportunity created by the disengagement in order to break out of the cycle of violence and to reengage in a process of dialogue."
Why would an Israeli abandonment of Jewish communities cause the Palestinians to "break out of a cycle of violence"? It got them all of Gaza and will result in the deportation of Jews.
Since the majority of the Palestinians in Gaza, who live in the squalor of UN Arab refugee camps, are nurtured by the ideas of the "right of return" to liberate lands where their Arab villages existed in 1948, why would Israel's dismemberment of Jewish communities established on lands where no Arab villages were lost in 1967 satisfy their political goals?
Meanwhile, another premise of the Sharon Plan is that "the process of disengagement will serve to dispel claims regarding Israel's responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." So why does the plan continue to obligate Israel to provide water pipes, electricity, industrial zones, markets, employment and an industrial zone to sustain the Palestinian Arab economy of Gaza? In the words, the Sharon Plan promises that the "Infrastructure relating to water, electricity, sewage and telecommunications serving the Palestinians will remain in place" and that " In general, Israel will enable the continued supply of electricity, water, gas and petrol to the Palestinians, in accordance with current arrangements. Other existing arrangements, such as those relating to water and the electro-magnetic sphere shall remain in force" while "economic arrangements currently in operation between Israel and the Palestinians shall, in the meantime, remain in force. These arrangements include, inter alia:
i. The entry of workers into Israel in accordance with the existing criteria.
ii. The entry and exit of goods between the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Israel and abroad.
iii. The monetary regime.
iv. Tax and customs envelope arrangements.
v. Postal and telecommunications arrangements.
Meanwhile, Israel will continue to operate The Erez industrial zone, situated in the Gaza Strip, which employs some 4,000 Palestinian workers."
So what the Israeli Prime Minister's office describes as a "disengagement plan" does anything but disengage Israel from the Palestinian Arab population.
For whatever reason, the Sharon plan assumes that the PLO will abandon its terror campaign.
The plan says, "When", and not "if" "×’€¦there is evidence from the Palestinian side of its willingness, capability and implementation in practice of the fight against terrorism and the institution of reform as required by the Road Map, it will be possible to return to the track of negotiation and dialogue."
While the premise of the Sharon plan is that the PLO will not fight terrorism, and with evidence that the PLO continues to run a system based of corruption, what basis does the Sharon plan have for any assumption that the PLO will "fight against terrorism" or institute any "reform"? There is no answer.
And when it comes to security issues in other areas, the Sharon plan promises to "evacuate an Area in the Northern Samaria Area (the West Bank) including 4 villages and all military installations, and re-deploy outside the vacated area. The move will enable territorial contiguity for Palestinians in the Northern Samaria Area "while Israel will improve the transportation infrastructure in the West Bank in order to facilitate the contiguity of Palestinian transportation." Israel will provide them buses as they blow ours up?
Does this also mean that abandoned villages and military installations will be handed over to a PLO that is "not a reliable peace partner"? Once more, since the Sharon Plan defines the PLO as maintaining a state of war with Israel, why does the same Sharon Plan provide the PLO with the strategic assistance of "territorial contiguity"? No answer is given as merrily we roll along.
Meanwhile, the Sharon Plan mandates that the Gaza Strip "be demilitarized and shall be devoid of weaponry, the presence of which does not accord with the Israeli-Palestinian agreements."
However, the Sharon Plan does not even allude to the fact that the PLO violated all previous agreements in this regard and refused to implement the agreement with Israel to have their personnel vetted by Israel. Did Sharon forget that the PLO increased against the Oslo agreement the size of the agreed upon security force from 9,000 in 1993 to more than 50,000 by 1995, ignoring protestations of the government of Israel?
The Sharon Plan that demilitarizes Gaza provides no process to disarm the PLO armed forces now in Gaza.
And what does the Sharon Plan mandate in terms of Israeli security? The Sharon Plan asserts that " Israel reserves its inherent right of self-defense, both preventive and reactive, including where necessary the use of force, in respect of threats emanating from the Gaza Strip." Incredibly, Israel's right to pursue terrorists into Gaza is not mentioned anywhere. They can shoot at us but we may not go after the terrorists.
As far as the security situation in the West Bank is concerned, the Sharon Plan states that "upon completion of the evacuation of the Northern Samaria Area, no permanent Israeli military presence will remain in this area," while another section states that " Military Installations and Infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria will be dismantled and removed, with the exception of those which Israel decides to leave and transfer to another party . . . "
Does that mean that the PLO security forces, described in clause 1 of the Sharon Plan as "not a reliable peace partner," will now inherit Israel's abandoned IDF miltary bases?
Why would Israel cede military installations to an entity with who it is in a state of war?
The Sharon Plan also states that "In other areas of the West Bank, current security activity will continue" and that " . . . as circumstances permit, Israel will consider reducing such activity in Palestinian cities×’€¦" and that "Israel will work to reduce the number of internal checkpoints throughout the West Bank."
So here we have a situation where Israel moves its forces out of cities and reduces checkpoints and is expected to maintain mobility to respond to the PLO terror war.
Perhaps the most amazing issue of all is that the Sharon Plan agrees to provide "advice, assistance and training" to "the Palestinian security forces for the implementation of their obligations to combat terrorism and maintain public order, by American, British, Egyptian, Jordanian or other experts, as agreed with Israel."
The Sharon Plan ignores Israel's decade-long failed experience with security assistance that Israel facilitated for the PLO.
The Sharon Plan ignores how military training facilitated by Israel and western countries for the PLO was abused to conduct a terror campaign against Israel in every part of the country for the past four years. The U.S. State Department trained Palestinian policemen for "security" who then used that training to kill Israelis.
The Sharon Plan goes on to say that "Israel will be willing to consider the possibility of the establishment of a seaport and airport in the Gaza Strip, in accordance with arrangements to be agreed with Israel." Did Israel not try that already? And weren't guns and rockets smuggled in?
In terms of Israel's border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, (called the Philadelphi Route), the Sharon Plan only states that "Initially, Israel will continue to maintain a military presence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt" and that " . . . subsequently, the evacuation of this area will be considered×’€¦. dependent, inter alia, on the security situation and the extent of cooperation with Egypt in establishing a reliable alternative arrangement."
Why "initially" and "subsequently"?
Does Israel expect that situation on the Egyptian border to change? Will weapons continue to be smuggled through tunnels on Egypt's frontier?
And how does the Sharon Plan deal with the fate of the 25 Israeli communities that it has slated for abandonment? Three generations of families who worked hard and built productive lives on vacant sand dunes to make a thriving agricultural community?
The Sharon Plan makes no mention of the property rights, human rights or civil liberties of the residents and landowners in these communities.
Instead, the Sharon Plan relates only to the property values of Jewish owned property in terms of how they might help their new occupants, stating that "Israel will strive to leave the immovable property relating to Israeli towns and villages intact," while "Israel reserves the right to request that the economic value of the assets left in the evacuated areas be taken into consideration" and that "The transfer of Israeli economic activity to Palestinians carries with it the potential for a significant improvement in the Palestinian economy." In other words, terrorism pays.
But worse still, the Sharon Plan does not take into account that only the leadership of the PLO would likely take this property for themselves, irrespective of the economic needs of the Palestinian society. The record of corruption of the highest levels of the PLO is a matter of public record throughout the world.
Instead, the Sharon Plan states that "Israel proposes that an international body be established (along the lines of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee), with the agreement of the United States and Israel, which shall take possession from Israel of property which remains, and which will estimate the value of all such assets." In other words, the Israeli government has decided to implement a process designed to confiscate the private property belonging to thousands of people, without any mention of the human rights, civil liberties or the property rights of people who have the rightful deed to their homes, businesses and farms.
Instead of recognizing the rights of landowners of the Israeli communities scheduled for abandonment, the Sharon Plan offers hundreds of Israeli homes to the PLO, stating that "Israel will strive to leave in place the infrastructure relating to water, electricity and sewage currently serving the Israeli towns and villages."
Finally, The Sharon Plan envisions continued international support for the PLO, " in order to bring the Palestinians to implement in practice their obligations to combat terrorism and effect reforms, thus enabling the parties to return to the path of negotiation."
And if the support for the PLO continues and the terror does not cease? What then? The Sharon Plan provides no answer.
So there you have it. The text of the Sharon Plan speaks for itself: Ethnic Cleansing of Jews, strengthening of the PLO, and no disengagement whatsoever. This is not a disengagement plan. This is a plan of hasty retreat that doesn't even include a request of the Palestine Authority to stop endorsing the murder of Jews from their own Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation shows.
What sanctions are listed if the PLO does not comply? Is this not worse than the Oslo Accords?
http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/
Yep, Sunday is the day where Likud members get to decide whether the Oslo process started 10 years ago (where Jewish Land is given to our enemies for Jewish deaths) gets thrown into the dustpin of history - B"H.
Imagine, just imagine that Sharon's expulsion plan of Jews gets voted down by the constituency of the largest party in Israel. Imagine the meaning and message that that will send to the world, the Jews and especially to Israeli politicians - it will be a clear message to all that Israel will no longer give up OUR land for any political deal. I surely hope that this comes to be on Sunday.
Yom Haatzmaut was just this week and it was a very emotional one for me - considering the current events here in the Land of Israel. Even though I stated in an earlier email that I believe it is time for Jews and Israelis to realize that we are living in Israel, and should be living in Israel, because of Judaism and not Zionism, that in no way takes away from the magnificent miracles (The Rav - Soloveitchik - writes that 6 different miracles took place with the establishment of the Jewish State. Read his essay Kol Dodi Dofek for more info) that took place in 1948 when the fledgling Land of Israel was established as a Jewish State and overcame its numerous enemies in a battle over its existence. Yom Haatzmaut is a miraculous day that all Jews should celebrate regardless of their views on the politics of Israel, today and back then, because the ikar is that at that moment, 56 years ago, the Jews returned to be the ones ruling their own fate in their own Land - the beginning of the process towards redemption.
Today, with Sharon's plan that continues in the path of Oslo, one really must ask oneself if Israel today is master of its own fate. In my eyes, and many others, the Oslo process is symbolic of the State of Israel being run by other world leaders, not Jews. We have returned to become Court Jews running to the Masters for permission. Whatever they say goes. This must come to an end now, and Sunday might be the turning point. If not, then we will wait for the next ray of light that will come. And it will come, it is only a matter of time. Little by little Israelis are waking up to the nightmare that our (sic) leaders have been leading us through. One day they will wake up and make sure it is put to an end.
In the meantime, below is a thought provoking piece about Sharon's expulsion plan. Give it a good read, it is worth it.
Shabbat Shalom
A Dispassionate View of The Sharon Plan:
From Disengagement to Retreat
David Bedein
The Sharon Plan will be voted on in an unprecedented referendum which will take place among the 200,00 members of the Likud Party in Israel this coming Sunday.
This is not just an internal party election.
The Sharon Plan has become a hotly debated news item in Israel and throughout the world.
Essentially, the vote on the Sharon Plan will provide the first referendum on the eleven year Oslo process.
Whatever the result, the situation in Israel will radically change.
If the Sharon Retreat Plan is ratified, the precedent will be established for the Israeli government to uproot Jewish communities.
A new government will be formed. The architect of the 1993 Oslo process, Shimon Peres, once again the leader of Israel's Labor Party, will again assume the post of foreign minister. The Oslo process will continue.
If the Sharon Plan is rejected, the Oslo process will be dead in the water.
Yet what is even more newsworthy, given the charged emotions that this debate has created, is the fact that very few people across the political spectrum in Israel, and even in the media and diplomatic corps represented in Israel, have bothered to read the Sharon Plan. Even though it is posted on the official web site of the Israeli Prime Minister, at http://www.pmo.gov.il , I repeat, few people have taken the time to read the Sharon Plan.
On one of Israel's most popular call-in shows last Friday morning, where everyone calling in had a passionate comment on the issue, the talk show host revealed that not one of the callers had read the Sharon Plan.
Likud Party Chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had promised to mail out a copy of his plan to all of the Likud voters.
Well, if you take a dispassionate view of the plan, you will understand why he did not send it out.
The Sharon Plan is officially called the "Disengagement Plan", because, according to the preamble to clause 1, section 1, "Israel has come to the conclusion that there is currently no reliable Palestinian partner with which it can make progress in a bilateral peace process." The preamble goes on to say that "In order to break out of this stalemate, Israel is required to initiate moves not dependent on Palestinian cooperation×’€¦Israel is required to initiate moves not dependent on Palestinian cooperation×’€¦Accordingly, it has developed a plan of unilateral disengagement"
In other words, after 12 years of negotiations with the PLO, the Israeli government has reached the solemn conclusion that the negotiations have failed completely, and that the PLO is indeed at war with the state of Israel. After more than 22,000 terror attacks And almost one thousand people murdered in cold blood by Palestinian Arab terrorists in less than four years, that would be a seeming understatement.
Yet the paragraph that follows the preamble of the Sharon Plan is a seeming non-sequiter:
The Sharon Plan's answer to the PLO terror campaign is that "there will be no Israeli towns and villages in the Gaza Strip" and that "upon completion of this process, there shall no longer be any permanent presence of Israeli security forces or Israeli civilians in the areas of Gaza Strip territory which have been evacuated." Why retreat in the face of PLO adversity? No reason is given.
The plan offers an analysis, however, which states that "The relocation from the Gaza Strip and from Northern Samaria will reduce friction with the Palestinian population, and carries with it the potential for improvement in the Palestinian economy and living conditions."
Why would the Israeli government suddenly state that Jewish communities in Gaza and Northern Samaria are a "source of friction"? No reason is given. Why would it improve the economy and living conditions to abandon Jewish homes and farms? Again, no reason is given. After all, the Jewish communities in Gaza and Northern Samaria did not replace a single Arab family nor do they encroach on any Arab owned land. They were, in fact, built on vacant land not owned by any individuals, be they Palestinian, Jordanian or Egyptian after 1967 Six Day War.
The Sharon Plan does state that now "there will be no basis for claiming that the Gaza Strip is occupied territory," a specious claim that no government of Israel has ever accepted, since Israel does not define itself as a foreign "occupier" of any area of the historical land of Israel.
The Sharon Plan continues with a statement that seems to belie the preamble that the PLO is not a "reliable Palestinian partner" by stating that "the hope is that the Palestinians will take advantage of the opportunity created by the disengagement in order to break out of the cycle of violence and to reengage in a process of dialogue."
Why would an Israeli abandonment of Jewish communities cause the Palestinians to "break out of a cycle of violence"? It got them all of Gaza and will result in the deportation of Jews.
Since the majority of the Palestinians in Gaza, who live in the squalor of UN Arab refugee camps, are nurtured by the ideas of the "right of return" to liberate lands where their Arab villages existed in 1948, why would Israel's dismemberment of Jewish communities established on lands where no Arab villages were lost in 1967 satisfy their political goals?
Meanwhile, another premise of the Sharon Plan is that "the process of disengagement will serve to dispel claims regarding Israel's responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." So why does the plan continue to obligate Israel to provide water pipes, electricity, industrial zones, markets, employment and an industrial zone to sustain the Palestinian Arab economy of Gaza? In the words, the Sharon Plan promises that the "Infrastructure relating to water, electricity, sewage and telecommunications serving the Palestinians will remain in place" and that " In general, Israel will enable the continued supply of electricity, water, gas and petrol to the Palestinians, in accordance with current arrangements. Other existing arrangements, such as those relating to water and the electro-magnetic sphere shall remain in force" while "economic arrangements currently in operation between Israel and the Palestinians shall, in the meantime, remain in force. These arrangements include, inter alia:
i. The entry of workers into Israel in accordance with the existing criteria.
ii. The entry and exit of goods between the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Israel and abroad.
iii. The monetary regime.
iv. Tax and customs envelope arrangements.
v. Postal and telecommunications arrangements.
Meanwhile, Israel will continue to operate The Erez industrial zone, situated in the Gaza Strip, which employs some 4,000 Palestinian workers."
So what the Israeli Prime Minister's office describes as a "disengagement plan" does anything but disengage Israel from the Palestinian Arab population.
For whatever reason, the Sharon plan assumes that the PLO will abandon its terror campaign.
The plan says, "When", and not "if" "×’€¦there is evidence from the Palestinian side of its willingness, capability and implementation in practice of the fight against terrorism and the institution of reform as required by the Road Map, it will be possible to return to the track of negotiation and dialogue."
While the premise of the Sharon plan is that the PLO will not fight terrorism, and with evidence that the PLO continues to run a system based of corruption, what basis does the Sharon plan have for any assumption that the PLO will "fight against terrorism" or institute any "reform"? There is no answer.
And when it comes to security issues in other areas, the Sharon plan promises to "evacuate an Area in the Northern Samaria Area (the West Bank) including 4 villages and all military installations, and re-deploy outside the vacated area. The move will enable territorial contiguity for Palestinians in the Northern Samaria Area "while Israel will improve the transportation infrastructure in the West Bank in order to facilitate the contiguity of Palestinian transportation." Israel will provide them buses as they blow ours up?
Does this also mean that abandoned villages and military installations will be handed over to a PLO that is "not a reliable peace partner"? Once more, since the Sharon Plan defines the PLO as maintaining a state of war with Israel, why does the same Sharon Plan provide the PLO with the strategic assistance of "territorial contiguity"? No answer is given as merrily we roll along.
Meanwhile, the Sharon Plan mandates that the Gaza Strip "be demilitarized and shall be devoid of weaponry, the presence of which does not accord with the Israeli-Palestinian agreements."
However, the Sharon Plan does not even allude to the fact that the PLO violated all previous agreements in this regard and refused to implement the agreement with Israel to have their personnel vetted by Israel. Did Sharon forget that the PLO increased against the Oslo agreement the size of the agreed upon security force from 9,000 in 1993 to more than 50,000 by 1995, ignoring protestations of the government of Israel?
The Sharon Plan that demilitarizes Gaza provides no process to disarm the PLO armed forces now in Gaza.
And what does the Sharon Plan mandate in terms of Israeli security? The Sharon Plan asserts that " Israel reserves its inherent right of self-defense, both preventive and reactive, including where necessary the use of force, in respect of threats emanating from the Gaza Strip." Incredibly, Israel's right to pursue terrorists into Gaza is not mentioned anywhere. They can shoot at us but we may not go after the terrorists.
As far as the security situation in the West Bank is concerned, the Sharon Plan states that "upon completion of the evacuation of the Northern Samaria Area, no permanent Israeli military presence will remain in this area," while another section states that " Military Installations and Infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria will be dismantled and removed, with the exception of those which Israel decides to leave and transfer to another party . . . "
Does that mean that the PLO security forces, described in clause 1 of the Sharon Plan as "not a reliable peace partner," will now inherit Israel's abandoned IDF miltary bases?
Why would Israel cede military installations to an entity with who it is in a state of war?
The Sharon Plan also states that "In other areas of the West Bank, current security activity will continue" and that " . . . as circumstances permit, Israel will consider reducing such activity in Palestinian cities×’€¦" and that "Israel will work to reduce the number of internal checkpoints throughout the West Bank."
So here we have a situation where Israel moves its forces out of cities and reduces checkpoints and is expected to maintain mobility to respond to the PLO terror war.
Perhaps the most amazing issue of all is that the Sharon Plan agrees to provide "advice, assistance and training" to "the Palestinian security forces for the implementation of their obligations to combat terrorism and maintain public order, by American, British, Egyptian, Jordanian or other experts, as agreed with Israel."
The Sharon Plan ignores Israel's decade-long failed experience with security assistance that Israel facilitated for the PLO.
The Sharon Plan ignores how military training facilitated by Israel and western countries for the PLO was abused to conduct a terror campaign against Israel in every part of the country for the past four years. The U.S. State Department trained Palestinian policemen for "security" who then used that training to kill Israelis.
The Sharon Plan goes on to say that "Israel will be willing to consider the possibility of the establishment of a seaport and airport in the Gaza Strip, in accordance with arrangements to be agreed with Israel." Did Israel not try that already? And weren't guns and rockets smuggled in?
In terms of Israel's border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, (called the Philadelphi Route), the Sharon Plan only states that "Initially, Israel will continue to maintain a military presence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt" and that " . . . subsequently, the evacuation of this area will be considered×’€¦. dependent, inter alia, on the security situation and the extent of cooperation with Egypt in establishing a reliable alternative arrangement."
Why "initially" and "subsequently"?
Does Israel expect that situation on the Egyptian border to change? Will weapons continue to be smuggled through tunnels on Egypt's frontier?
And how does the Sharon Plan deal with the fate of the 25 Israeli communities that it has slated for abandonment? Three generations of families who worked hard and built productive lives on vacant sand dunes to make a thriving agricultural community?
The Sharon Plan makes no mention of the property rights, human rights or civil liberties of the residents and landowners in these communities.
Instead, the Sharon Plan relates only to the property values of Jewish owned property in terms of how they might help their new occupants, stating that "Israel will strive to leave the immovable property relating to Israeli towns and villages intact," while "Israel reserves the right to request that the economic value of the assets left in the evacuated areas be taken into consideration" and that "The transfer of Israeli economic activity to Palestinians carries with it the potential for a significant improvement in the Palestinian economy." In other words, terrorism pays.
But worse still, the Sharon Plan does not take into account that only the leadership of the PLO would likely take this property for themselves, irrespective of the economic needs of the Palestinian society. The record of corruption of the highest levels of the PLO is a matter of public record throughout the world.
Instead, the Sharon Plan states that "Israel proposes that an international body be established (along the lines of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee), with the agreement of the United States and Israel, which shall take possession from Israel of property which remains, and which will estimate the value of all such assets." In other words, the Israeli government has decided to implement a process designed to confiscate the private property belonging to thousands of people, without any mention of the human rights, civil liberties or the property rights of people who have the rightful deed to their homes, businesses and farms.
Instead of recognizing the rights of landowners of the Israeli communities scheduled for abandonment, the Sharon Plan offers hundreds of Israeli homes to the PLO, stating that "Israel will strive to leave in place the infrastructure relating to water, electricity and sewage currently serving the Israeli towns and villages."
Finally, The Sharon Plan envisions continued international support for the PLO, " in order to bring the Palestinians to implement in practice their obligations to combat terrorism and effect reforms, thus enabling the parties to return to the path of negotiation."
And if the support for the PLO continues and the terror does not cease? What then? The Sharon Plan provides no answer.
So there you have it. The text of the Sharon Plan speaks for itself: Ethnic Cleansing of Jews, strengthening of the PLO, and no disengagement whatsoever. This is not a disengagement plan. This is a plan of hasty retreat that doesn't even include a request of the Palestine Authority to stop endorsing the murder of Jews from their own Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation shows.
What sanctions are listed if the PLO does not comply? Is this not worse than the Oslo Accords?
http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Today’s Big Question
Today I have a Big Question that I want to deal with:
What are we doing in this world? Why and what purpose do we have?
Those are actually three big questions!
I will try to answer them as simply as I can according to my level of understanding. I'm not a Rabbi and not a philosopher, just a simple Jew trying to make sense of it all.
I believe the Jewish people are not "The chosen people" because we are better, more connected to G-d, or more spiritual people - rather because we were chosen by G-d to be responsible for spreading certain values to the rest of humankind. Having such a responsibility as a people and as individuals is no easy matter that we can not take lightly. But, what is important to emphasize is that being Jewish brings with it this responsibility, whether we like it or not.
This is no easy task and nothing to gloat about either - as a people or individuals.
In many ways we have succeeded pretty well - The idea of monotheism has become the norm.
However, that is not all that we are supposed to do.
We have much more work to do.
One example of just how much work we have before us is the whole focus nowadays on "rights" - everybody has rights - woman's right, children's rights, minority rights, prisoner's rights and even fetus rights (to get the list started). I have no problem with rights, but I do have a problem when rights are disconnected from responsibilities and consequences – that is where today's modern values are skewed and where the Jewish people actually can and must influence. Everyone talks about rights but nobody talks about responsibilities or consequences.
Since the key to our existence is recognition of our responsibilities to ourselves, each other and G-d we are in a unique position to spread this value to others. We understand that only those who uphold the responsibilities attributed to them deserve to receive their rights (i.e – our actions as a people and whether we deserve the “right” to live our lives as a people in Eretz Yisrael).
Without upholding ones responsibilities, the right to “rights” is very questionable indeed!
Sample A - A student has a right to be treated decently, but if the student's behavior is out of line, then he/she has been irresponsible and must pay the consequences - therefore allowing the teacher punish the student – a responsibility the teacher has in educating the student. (I bring this as a real life example from today’s world of rights).
Sample B – A couple has the right to have casual sex (in today’s world) but they also have a responsibility to live with the consequences of those actions without terminating the existence of the fetus if the woman gets pregnant due to their actions.
Sample C - The world pressure on Israel not to assasinate terrorists instead of the irresponsability of people to be terrorists or conduct terrorism in civilian areas.
Yes, there are examples in the above cases where living with the consequences is overlooked, but that is not because of special circumstances, not becausse of ones "rights". Society today is not educating the public with “the rule” and the “exceptions to the rule” – rather society is just focusing on poeple's rights without any focus on the responsibility and consequences!
However, our instructions as a people were very clear – in order for us to successfully perform our responsibilities – we, as a people must act appropriately and we must be living our lives as a nation in Eretz Yisrael.
This is what we are all about – not our careers, not our hobbies – but fulfilling our responsibilities of being “the chosen people ” in order to make this world a better place.
Now we can understand the greater picture of what is going on in Israel today:
There are two “ideological” camps in Israel today-
Camp #1: Believers that the Land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people where we are to develop a Jewish culture in the Jewish homeland
Camp #2: Believers that Israel should be a democratic country like any other – one, in which it just so happens, that many Jews live.
Every issue today in Israel is connected to the struggle between the two groups above........citizenship issues, Shabbat-as-a-day-of-rest or shopping issues, giving up parts of the Land of Israel issues etc.
Those that believe Israel is supposed to be a Jewish homeland are struggling to make it look and feel like a Jewish country – and that includes keeping the connection alive between the Land and our right to live in it.
Those that believe that Israel should be like any other country are doing everything in their power to break the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel (both literally – in uprooting Jews from their homes, and spiritually – in turning the culture into a secular democratic culture with little or no connection to our Jewish roots ---- ( Just take a little example - Have you ever noticed that more and more people and radio programs nowadays say “Sofe shavuah” instead of “Shabbat”? It might seem insignificant but it has great implications, especially over time.)
To make a difference, each one of us must understand this underlying struggle and be active in it. It is not enough for us Israelis to go to work everyday, return home, spend time with the family and go to sleep, and it is not enough to be good religious Jews in galut.
What is needed is for us to live up to our responsibilities – make sure we live in the Land of Israel and make part our lives the active pursuit of improving the Jewish culture here in the Land of Israel.
We have a responsibility and we will succeed - but first we must re-recognize what our responsability really is.
By the way, interestingly enough, this isn’t just my opinion (a religious, right winger etc etc) this analysis is also understood from in the left wing circles in Israel.
To read more on this topic from a different perspective (The Israeli left/Post-Zionist perspective) check out the article below that appeared in Haaretz on April 28th, 2004.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/421027.html
Avi
Today I have a Big Question that I want to deal with:
What are we doing in this world? Why and what purpose do we have?
Those are actually three big questions!
I will try to answer them as simply as I can according to my level of understanding. I'm not a Rabbi and not a philosopher, just a simple Jew trying to make sense of it all.
I believe the Jewish people are not "The chosen people" because we are better, more connected to G-d, or more spiritual people - rather because we were chosen by G-d to be responsible for spreading certain values to the rest of humankind. Having such a responsibility as a people and as individuals is no easy matter that we can not take lightly. But, what is important to emphasize is that being Jewish brings with it this responsibility, whether we like it or not.
This is no easy task and nothing to gloat about either - as a people or individuals.
In many ways we have succeeded pretty well - The idea of monotheism has become the norm.
However, that is not all that we are supposed to do.
We have much more work to do.
One example of just how much work we have before us is the whole focus nowadays on "rights" - everybody has rights - woman's right, children's rights, minority rights, prisoner's rights and even fetus rights (to get the list started). I have no problem with rights, but I do have a problem when rights are disconnected from responsibilities and consequences – that is where today's modern values are skewed and where the Jewish people actually can and must influence. Everyone talks about rights but nobody talks about responsibilities or consequences.
Since the key to our existence is recognition of our responsibilities to ourselves, each other and G-d we are in a unique position to spread this value to others. We understand that only those who uphold the responsibilities attributed to them deserve to receive their rights (i.e – our actions as a people and whether we deserve the “right” to live our lives as a people in Eretz Yisrael).
Without upholding ones responsibilities, the right to “rights” is very questionable indeed!
Sample A - A student has a right to be treated decently, but if the student's behavior is out of line, then he/she has been irresponsible and must pay the consequences - therefore allowing the teacher punish the student – a responsibility the teacher has in educating the student. (I bring this as a real life example from today’s world of rights).
Sample B – A couple has the right to have casual sex (in today’s world) but they also have a responsibility to live with the consequences of those actions without terminating the existence of the fetus if the woman gets pregnant due to their actions.
Sample C - The world pressure on Israel not to assasinate terrorists instead of the irresponsability of people to be terrorists or conduct terrorism in civilian areas.
Yes, there are examples in the above cases where living with the consequences is overlooked, but that is not because of special circumstances, not becausse of ones "rights". Society today is not educating the public with “the rule” and the “exceptions to the rule” – rather society is just focusing on poeple's rights without any focus on the responsibility and consequences!
However, our instructions as a people were very clear – in order for us to successfully perform our responsibilities – we, as a people must act appropriately and we must be living our lives as a nation in Eretz Yisrael.
This is what we are all about – not our careers, not our hobbies – but fulfilling our responsibilities of being “the chosen people ” in order to make this world a better place.
Now we can understand the greater picture of what is going on in Israel today:
There are two “ideological” camps in Israel today-
Camp #1: Believers that the Land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people where we are to develop a Jewish culture in the Jewish homeland
Camp #2: Believers that Israel should be a democratic country like any other – one, in which it just so happens, that many Jews live.
Every issue today in Israel is connected to the struggle between the two groups above........citizenship issues, Shabbat-as-a-day-of-rest or shopping issues, giving up parts of the Land of Israel issues etc.
Those that believe Israel is supposed to be a Jewish homeland are struggling to make it look and feel like a Jewish country – and that includes keeping the connection alive between the Land and our right to live in it.
Those that believe that Israel should be like any other country are doing everything in their power to break the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel (both literally – in uprooting Jews from their homes, and spiritually – in turning the culture into a secular democratic culture with little or no connection to our Jewish roots ---- ( Just take a little example - Have you ever noticed that more and more people and radio programs nowadays say “Sofe shavuah” instead of “Shabbat”? It might seem insignificant but it has great implications, especially over time.)
To make a difference, each one of us must understand this underlying struggle and be active in it. It is not enough for us Israelis to go to work everyday, return home, spend time with the family and go to sleep, and it is not enough to be good religious Jews in galut.
What is needed is for us to live up to our responsibilities – make sure we live in the Land of Israel and make part our lives the active pursuit of improving the Jewish culture here in the Land of Israel.
We have a responsibility and we will succeed - but first we must re-recognize what our responsability really is.
By the way, interestingly enough, this isn’t just my opinion (a religious, right winger etc etc) this analysis is also understood from in the left wing circles in Israel.
To read more on this topic from a different perspective (The Israeli left/Post-Zionist perspective) check out the article below that appeared in Haaretz on April 28th, 2004.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/421027.html
Avi
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Great PR piece on Gush Katif.
This is an 11 minute movie in Hebrew showing us all about Gush Katif.
http://www.shwartzy.co.il/katif/gush1_04.wmv
Send this link to everyone you know so they see for their own eyes the reality that Sharon is planning to destroy - lives, industry, housing, education etc..
Gush Katif: Facts In Brief
* 21 communities, most of them founded some 20 years ago
* close to 8,000 residents
* over 20 yeshivot, schools and other educational institutions (not including nurseries and kindergartens)
* 900 acres of greenhouses growing bugless lettuce, cherry tomatoes, organic vegetables, spices, flowers, plants and more
* $60 million a year in exports - an average of $7,500 for every man, woman and child
* manufactures 70% of all of Israel's organic produce grown for export
* has faced over 4,000 mortar shells and Kassam rocket attacks, as well as 10,000 shooting incidents, at the hands of Palestinian terrorists over the past 3.5 years
* a 10% growth in population since the Oslo War began in September 2000
Avi
This is an 11 minute movie in Hebrew showing us all about Gush Katif.
http://www.shwartzy.co.il/katif/gush1_04.wmv
Send this link to everyone you know so they see for their own eyes the reality that Sharon is planning to destroy - lives, industry, housing, education etc..
Gush Katif: Facts In Brief
* 21 communities, most of them founded some 20 years ago
* close to 8,000 residents
* over 20 yeshivot, schools and other educational institutions (not including nurseries and kindergartens)
* 900 acres of greenhouses growing bugless lettuce, cherry tomatoes, organic vegetables, spices, flowers, plants and more
* $60 million a year in exports - an average of $7,500 for every man, woman and child
* manufactures 70% of all of Israel's organic produce grown for export
* has faced over 4,000 mortar shells and Kassam rocket attacks, as well as 10,000 shooting incidents, at the hands of Palestinian terrorists over the past 3.5 years
* a 10% growth in population since the Oslo War began in September 2000
Avi
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
My take on our situation in Israel today
I must be honest, my mood nowadays fluctuate between optimism and sadness. It is very frustrating to see the values of Judaism and the Land of Israel disintegrate from the minds and mouths of its own leaders. The fact that Jews might possibly be expelled from their homes in Gaza and that the terrorism will get much worse as a result is very scary.
However, I see the light in this as well. First of all, there is still a chance that Likud members will trash the plan and essentially vote against Sharon, even against the many odds Sharon the bulldozer has and is placing before us. Also, we now know the true faces of our Nationalistic leaders and we will not trust them again!
Even though I feel pain at the thought that Likud members who might have voted against Sharon's plan now will vote for it or abstain ( making it harder for us to gain a majority against the plan) because their "leaders" are now supporting Sharon's plan, on the other hand I'm glad that most people will not be fooled by them anymore.
And I'm optimistic for that same reason, the traditional leaders of the Likud and the National camp have now sealed their fate as non-leaders for the National camp in the future. A leadership vacuum has been developed.
Now the practical minded leadership of Manhigut Yehudit will be in the position to fill that leaderless void of the Likud. It might not happen tomorrow or next year, but it will happen, because there is no other option. The Mafdal and Ichud Haleumi will never become big enough to be a ruling party, and even if the Likud goes through a rough patch of time, losing some power because of their mistakes under Sharon, they will still remain a potential ruling party. Therefore the only realistic option for a Nationalistic leadership in Israel is Manhigut Yehudit. Now is the time to join to help bring this about as soon as we can.
Click here for an up-to-date article on Manhigut Yehudit last week in Haaretz.
Now for a quick synopsis of our situation today in Israel.
1. Sharon is non-stop bulldozing his plan to surrender Gaza to the terrorists and expel the Jews of Gaza in a very undemocratic way (i.e. he canceled debates on the issue because he didn't want to be questioned about the plan, he has sent out a translation of Bush's letter to him to Likud members that had words added to it that Bush didn't write(today's Haaretz article) etc.)
2. Likud senior ministers have shown us that they might be leaders but they don't know how to lead! Rather the know how to look after their own interests - totally going against the stands that they have always taken until now.
3. Israeli Arabs shooting on Israeli police officers in the Galil - proving to us all that the Arabs are not just after Yesha but motivated to destroy all of Israel. Unfortunately, the second we pull out of Gaza - the next intifada will be in the Galil and the Negev.
4. With it all Sharon's advisors worried that he doesn't have enough support from Likud members to show the world - Hopefully we will see that most if not many Likud members will vote against Sharon's plan.
5. I'm driving out to visit homes of Likud members in Nes Tziona with my father to convince them to vote against the plan (together with thousands of other Israeli citizens concerned about the fate of the State of Israel)
With this all, I must say that our future is bright, very bright, we just will continue to have a period of hardship until Am Yisrael wakes up to the reality of the situation - that reality is that peace will only come upon us when we stand up for our right to live in all of Israel. Until then, the messengers of fantasy (left and, now, right) will continue to sell us fantasy plans of quiet that will never come if we follow their lead.
THAT IS REALITY. Get with the program and start analyzing the facts for yourself, instead of relying on the "professional" opinions of politicians and journalists.
And by the way, with it all, Israel is the place to come to live now - and nowhere else. It is only here where you have the possibility of living a full Jewish life of creating the Jewish culture in Israel that our Judaism is supposed to be about.
Avi
I must be honest, my mood nowadays fluctuate between optimism and sadness. It is very frustrating to see the values of Judaism and the Land of Israel disintegrate from the minds and mouths of its own leaders. The fact that Jews might possibly be expelled from their homes in Gaza and that the terrorism will get much worse as a result is very scary.
However, I see the light in this as well. First of all, there is still a chance that Likud members will trash the plan and essentially vote against Sharon, even against the many odds Sharon the bulldozer has and is placing before us. Also, we now know the true faces of our Nationalistic leaders and we will not trust them again!
Even though I feel pain at the thought that Likud members who might have voted against Sharon's plan now will vote for it or abstain ( making it harder for us to gain a majority against the plan) because their "leaders" are now supporting Sharon's plan, on the other hand I'm glad that most people will not be fooled by them anymore.
And I'm optimistic for that same reason, the traditional leaders of the Likud and the National camp have now sealed their fate as non-leaders for the National camp in the future. A leadership vacuum has been developed.
Now the practical minded leadership of Manhigut Yehudit will be in the position to fill that leaderless void of the Likud. It might not happen tomorrow or next year, but it will happen, because there is no other option. The Mafdal and Ichud Haleumi will never become big enough to be a ruling party, and even if the Likud goes through a rough patch of time, losing some power because of their mistakes under Sharon, they will still remain a potential ruling party. Therefore the only realistic option for a Nationalistic leadership in Israel is Manhigut Yehudit. Now is the time to join to help bring this about as soon as we can.
Click here for an up-to-date article on Manhigut Yehudit last week in Haaretz.
Now for a quick synopsis of our situation today in Israel.
1. Sharon is non-stop bulldozing his plan to surrender Gaza to the terrorists and expel the Jews of Gaza in a very undemocratic way (i.e. he canceled debates on the issue because he didn't want to be questioned about the plan, he has sent out a translation of Bush's letter to him to Likud members that had words added to it that Bush didn't write(today's Haaretz article) etc.)
2. Likud senior ministers have shown us that they might be leaders but they don't know how to lead! Rather the know how to look after their own interests - totally going against the stands that they have always taken until now.
3. Israeli Arabs shooting on Israeli police officers in the Galil - proving to us all that the Arabs are not just after Yesha but motivated to destroy all of Israel. Unfortunately, the second we pull out of Gaza - the next intifada will be in the Galil and the Negev.
4. With it all Sharon's advisors worried that he doesn't have enough support from Likud members to show the world - Hopefully we will see that most if not many Likud members will vote against Sharon's plan.
5. I'm driving out to visit homes of Likud members in Nes Tziona with my father to convince them to vote against the plan (together with thousands of other Israeli citizens concerned about the fate of the State of Israel)
With this all, I must say that our future is bright, very bright, we just will continue to have a period of hardship until Am Yisrael wakes up to the reality of the situation - that reality is that peace will only come upon us when we stand up for our right to live in all of Israel. Until then, the messengers of fantasy (left and, now, right) will continue to sell us fantasy plans of quiet that will never come if we follow their lead.
THAT IS REALITY. Get with the program and start analyzing the facts for yourself, instead of relying on the "professional" opinions of politicians and journalists.
And by the way, with it all, Israel is the place to come to live now - and nowhere else. It is only here where you have the possibility of living a full Jewish life of creating the Jewish culture in Israel that our Judaism is supposed to be about.
Avi
Thursday, April 01, 2004
A Pre-Pesach Thought
I want to share with you a personal thought that has been developing in me for quite a long time. I have to admit that it has not been an easy journey reaching this conclusion but I believe it to be true.
It pains me to say this, put it pains me to delude myself even more.
The Land of Israel is Holy, however the institution called the 'State of Israel' is not holy - it is only a method of administering the Land that allows us to bring holiness to it.
Although we have been educated to believe otherwise, I think it is time for the religious community to realize that we must be 'mikadesh the chol' of statehood, instead of acting towards the state as being holy itself.
Furthermore, Zionism is not the reason we are living here, Judaism is. The Zionist movement was the method that brought us back to our land and brought about the creation of the State, but Judaism is the reason we stay and live here.
I firmly believe that only when people start to truly internalize the above facts will we be spiritually prepared to do what it is necessary to truly make the State of Israel into the Jewish community that will fill the Land of Israel with holiness. Until then we are deluding
ourselves and allowing the state to deconstruct (both physically and, more importantly, spiritually) at the hands of the Zionists and post-Zionists who run this state.
May this Pesach we re-experience the feeling of spiritual and physical freedom that our anscentors experienced, and realize that we also need to go through a "freeing" experience today - from our spiritual connection to Zionism and the State and replace that with a true spiritual connection to Judaism and the Land.
Chag Kasher V'sameach.
Avi
I want to share with you a personal thought that has been developing in me for quite a long time. I have to admit that it has not been an easy journey reaching this conclusion but I believe it to be true.
It pains me to say this, put it pains me to delude myself even more.
The Land of Israel is Holy, however the institution called the 'State of Israel' is not holy - it is only a method of administering the Land that allows us to bring holiness to it.
Although we have been educated to believe otherwise, I think it is time for the religious community to realize that we must be 'mikadesh the chol' of statehood, instead of acting towards the state as being holy itself.
Furthermore, Zionism is not the reason we are living here, Judaism is. The Zionist movement was the method that brought us back to our land and brought about the creation of the State, but Judaism is the reason we stay and live here.
I firmly believe that only when people start to truly internalize the above facts will we be spiritually prepared to do what it is necessary to truly make the State of Israel into the Jewish community that will fill the Land of Israel with holiness. Until then we are deluding
ourselves and allowing the state to deconstruct (both physically and, more importantly, spiritually) at the hands of the Zionists and post-Zionists who run this state.
May this Pesach we re-experience the feeling of spiritual and physical freedom that our anscentors experienced, and realize that we also need to go through a "freeing" experience today - from our spiritual connection to Zionism and the State and replace that with a true spiritual connection to Judaism and the Land.
Chag Kasher V'sameach.
Avi
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
An Article on the Correct Persective of Jewish Belief and a Sense of Reality
By Moshe Feiglin
Fifty-six years ago the Jews decided to establish a state. America,
which initially
supported the idea, sensed the Arab opposition and retracted its
support. The entire
world stood aside and left the tiny Jewish country to its fate. They
all waited to see how
seven Arab armies would continue from the point where Rommel was halted
in El
Alamein, and add to the six million Jews murdered in Europe another six
hundred
thousand Jews in Eretz Israel. An embargo was imposed on the sales of
arms to the new
Jewish State which attempted to defend itself. Weapons purchased by
Jews in the US
(from Second World War surplus stocks) were confiscated in the port of
New Jersey
before they could be sent to Eretz Israel.
There had never before been such a desperate, dangerous, and hopeless
attempt to
establish a state. Only a few of the 600 Jews taken prisoner by the
Arabs in the War of
Independence remained alive. The Arabs made no effort to hide their
intentions
regarding the fate of the Jews during that war (or during the wars that
followed it).
They were sentenced to death with terrible cruelty. The leader of the
Arabs in Eretz
Israel, Haj Amin el Husseini (the same family) received training in
German
concentration camps for the construction of gas chambers. An area had
already been
allocated for the death camps to be constructed in Eretz Israel, in a
special place in the
Dotan Valley, not far from my home in Karnei Shomron where I am writing
this.
Against all the odds, the State of Israel arose and became a
well-established and
strong country in the region.
Over the last ten years the entire world, led by Israel itself, has
been attempting to
establish another state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean,
an Arab state
for the same Husseinis.
However, in contrast to the case of the Jews, this time the entire
world is
enthusiastically supporting the idea. Not merely supporting, but
raising funds for the
Arabs, and supplying weapons. The CIA is training the terrorists in
special camps.
They are given well equipped military bases, international recognition,
support from
the media, and ports and airports are being built for them.
Never before has an ethnic group of any kind received a country on such
a red carpet.
But, amazingly, the Arab state in Eretz Israel is not being
established.
It seems that reality in Eretz Israel has its own rules: it is directly
linked to the wishes
of the Creator. Whatever matches His wishes is realistic, even if the
entire world is
recruited in order to do the opposite. This is of course true at all
times, but in our time,
in Eretz Israel, the Holy Land, it is felt immediately.
Again and again the apparently "realistic" people are hitting our heads
against the
wall. They think that their brand of logic matches reality. For them
the country is only
a piece of real estate (as Rabin said about the Golan Heights), a
bargaining counter for
negotiations. Those who do not take the Creator's wishes into account,
are denying
reality, and the price of the denial by our leaders is unbearable.
We know that there is always hope for Israel. We know that our Father
in Heaven has
not returned us to our country for the third time in order to destroy
the renewed Jewish
presence in the land of the Patriarchs. The latest version of the
Return to Zion is not a
macabre joke of the Creator.
So why do we need Manhigut Yehudit? After all, everything will turn out
all right
anyway.
It is possible to regard belief as something divorced from reality.
Such a religious
attitude characterized the Jewish people through the exile until the
appearance of
Zionism, and it still characterizes important sections of it. This
disconnected attitude
is not a real Jewish one, and it led entire Jewish communities to
destruction during the
period of the Holocaust. Those Jews who believed that the Jewish people
would return
to their country in a miraculous way were right, but what a terrible
price was paid for
belief divorced from reality.
Authentic Jewish belief is not divorced from reality. On the contrary,
it defines reality
and obligates us to act in order to realize it.
Reality is the wishes of the Creator in His world. The reality is that
there is G-d, that
there is a nation indicating Him by its very existence, and that there
is a country
chosen by G-d for His nation only, and that only in it and from it the
sons of the
Creator can carry out their universal mission.
This is the reality, and our task is to expose it and realize it.
There is at the moment only one political body acting in coordination
with this reality.
This is Manhigut Yehudit. This correlation with reality is becoming
clear even to
those who were opposed to the movement in the beginning. Like a surfer
who rides
the wave instead of fighting it, Manhigut Yehudit correctly understands
the reality and
is advancing Israel and the Jewish people towards a safe shore.
Join in the wonderful challenge of Manhigut Yehudit and avoid
unnecessary suffering
for our people.
Be realistic, and join Manhigut Yehudit.
By Moshe Feiglin
Fifty-six years ago the Jews decided to establish a state. America,
which initially
supported the idea, sensed the Arab opposition and retracted its
support. The entire
world stood aside and left the tiny Jewish country to its fate. They
all waited to see how
seven Arab armies would continue from the point where Rommel was halted
in El
Alamein, and add to the six million Jews murdered in Europe another six
hundred
thousand Jews in Eretz Israel. An embargo was imposed on the sales of
arms to the new
Jewish State which attempted to defend itself. Weapons purchased by
Jews in the US
(from Second World War surplus stocks) were confiscated in the port of
New Jersey
before they could be sent to Eretz Israel.
There had never before been such a desperate, dangerous, and hopeless
attempt to
establish a state. Only a few of the 600 Jews taken prisoner by the
Arabs in the War of
Independence remained alive. The Arabs made no effort to hide their
intentions
regarding the fate of the Jews during that war (or during the wars that
followed it).
They were sentenced to death with terrible cruelty. The leader of the
Arabs in Eretz
Israel, Haj Amin el Husseini (the same family) received training in
German
concentration camps for the construction of gas chambers. An area had
already been
allocated for the death camps to be constructed in Eretz Israel, in a
special place in the
Dotan Valley, not far from my home in Karnei Shomron where I am writing
this.
Against all the odds, the State of Israel arose and became a
well-established and
strong country in the region.
Over the last ten years the entire world, led by Israel itself, has
been attempting to
establish another state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean,
an Arab state
for the same Husseinis.
However, in contrast to the case of the Jews, this time the entire
world is
enthusiastically supporting the idea. Not merely supporting, but
raising funds for the
Arabs, and supplying weapons. The CIA is training the terrorists in
special camps.
They are given well equipped military bases, international recognition,
support from
the media, and ports and airports are being built for them.
Never before has an ethnic group of any kind received a country on such
a red carpet.
But, amazingly, the Arab state in Eretz Israel is not being
established.
It seems that reality in Eretz Israel has its own rules: it is directly
linked to the wishes
of the Creator. Whatever matches His wishes is realistic, even if the
entire world is
recruited in order to do the opposite. This is of course true at all
times, but in our time,
in Eretz Israel, the Holy Land, it is felt immediately.
Again and again the apparently "realistic" people are hitting our heads
against the
wall. They think that their brand of logic matches reality. For them
the country is only
a piece of real estate (as Rabin said about the Golan Heights), a
bargaining counter for
negotiations. Those who do not take the Creator's wishes into account,
are denying
reality, and the price of the denial by our leaders is unbearable.
We know that there is always hope for Israel. We know that our Father
in Heaven has
not returned us to our country for the third time in order to destroy
the renewed Jewish
presence in the land of the Patriarchs. The latest version of the
Return to Zion is not a
macabre joke of the Creator.
So why do we need Manhigut Yehudit? After all, everything will turn out
all right
anyway.
It is possible to regard belief as something divorced from reality.
Such a religious
attitude characterized the Jewish people through the exile until the
appearance of
Zionism, and it still characterizes important sections of it. This
disconnected attitude
is not a real Jewish one, and it led entire Jewish communities to
destruction during the
period of the Holocaust. Those Jews who believed that the Jewish people
would return
to their country in a miraculous way were right, but what a terrible
price was paid for
belief divorced from reality.
Authentic Jewish belief is not divorced from reality. On the contrary,
it defines reality
and obligates us to act in order to realize it.
Reality is the wishes of the Creator in His world. The reality is that
there is G-d, that
there is a nation indicating Him by its very existence, and that there
is a country
chosen by G-d for His nation only, and that only in it and from it the
sons of the
Creator can carry out their universal mission.
This is the reality, and our task is to expose it and realize it.
There is at the moment only one political body acting in coordination
with this reality.
This is Manhigut Yehudit. This correlation with reality is becoming
clear even to
those who were opposed to the movement in the beginning. Like a surfer
who rides
the wave instead of fighting it, Manhigut Yehudit correctly understands
the reality and
is advancing Israel and the Jewish people towards a safe shore.
Join in the wonderful challenge of Manhigut Yehudit and avoid
unnecessary suffering
for our people.
Be realistic, and join Manhigut Yehudit.
Sunday, January 18, 2004
This is an important piece to read.
Tactics and Strategy
Moshe Feiglin
At the time of writing the fate of the famous amendment 19c is not clear. If the amendment is brought to the vote it is reasonable to assume that it will receive a majority. However, the intensity of the opposition originating in those close to the prime minister, and in the Leftist elites, who are afraid of the creation of a democratic tool that will balance the pressure they are currently applying to the prime minister, is likely to take the form of a variety of legalistic arguments and administrative stratagems to prevent this important amendment being brought to the vote.
We are of course making every effort for the success of the move, and with G-d's help we will cause the amendment to be passed in its entirety. However, we have noticed that there is another kind of danger threatening us, an internal one amongst the ranks of Manhigut Yehudit members and our supporters. This article is intended to address this issue.
This is not the first time that Manhigut Yehudit is facing a difficult trial in the political reality. We have already waged several similar political battles. These included those centering around our representation in the Likud Central Committee, the list for the Knesset, and for the leadership of the Likud. We are now in the middle of a battle about changes to the Likud constitution. In addition we are daily waging a number of exhausting battles. We sometimes win these battles, and sometimes lose. Perhaps on balance we have lost more than we have won, but it is important to keep in mind that even if we occasionally lose a battle, we are actually winning the war.
Do you remember how people reacted to the failure of our efforts to get our candidates into the Likud list for the Knesset? Many people claimed at that time that this marked the end of Manhigut Yehudit. Some people even canceled their membership of the Likud in despair, thus considerably harming our efforts. They failed to understand that we regard the Knesset as a means to an end, and not as the end itself.
It is now clear that Manhigut Yehudit, even without MKs and ministers, has more influence than MKs and ministers from other parties. It seems that the race will be won by the one who chooses the right path. Many interpretations can be given to Livnat's slanderous attack on the "Feiglinites", but everyone realizes that when a senior minister is prepared to present her party as one of "criminals", and when sources close to the prime minister compare those who initiated amendment 19c to the Nazi party (Yossi Werter in Ha'aretz, 6.1.04), this means that Manhigut Yehudit is applying pressure where it hurts.
Did we win the battle for the Knesset? Of course not. Will we win the battle for amendment 19C? Perhaps.
But the most important thing to remember is that we're are all the time winning the overall war. These small battles are tactical struggles on the way to achieving the strategic objective. If we succeed in getting amendment 19c passed, this will represent a major advance. If we do not succeed in doing so, the advance will be more moderate. Our strategic objective is to put forward a belief-based alternative for the leadership of Israel. The road to achieve this strategic objective is still long, difficult, and complicated. But if, as a result of the tactical battles, some of which we lost and some of which we won, we have advanced towards this objective or retreated from it – this is the real issue.
Let us assume for a moment that in the current Israeli reality the Manhigut Yehudit movement did not exist. Would a 17-year-old boy from any yeshiva high school dare to imagine such a strange dream?
Let us assume that all these political struggles, and the consequent headlines, had not taken place. Would anyone think in this direction? Would these views have been publicized in any way? Would anyone on the Right seek an option lying outside the Netanyahu/ Olmert/ Mofaz axis?
We are therefore winning all the time because, as Herzl said, "If you want it to happen, it will not remain a dream". It is only a question of time from the moment when the public begins dreaming the right dream until this dream becomes reality. Such dreams are in fact the reality itself. Manhigut Yehudit is planting in the public consciousness the right dream, which will inevitably become the reality. This is our strategic objective and we are winning, because we are advancing towards it all the time. All the rest is just tactics. However important they are (and we are making every effort to succeed in them also), they remain tactics only.
You can join Manigut Yehudit either by calling the office at:
09-792-9046
or by visiting the website below and sending a request form.
http://www.manhigut.org/english/getmsg.html
Tactics and Strategy
Moshe Feiglin
At the time of writing the fate of the famous amendment 19c is not clear. If the amendment is brought to the vote it is reasonable to assume that it will receive a majority. However, the intensity of the opposition originating in those close to the prime minister, and in the Leftist elites, who are afraid of the creation of a democratic tool that will balance the pressure they are currently applying to the prime minister, is likely to take the form of a variety of legalistic arguments and administrative stratagems to prevent this important amendment being brought to the vote.
We are of course making every effort for the success of the move, and with G-d's help we will cause the amendment to be passed in its entirety. However, we have noticed that there is another kind of danger threatening us, an internal one amongst the ranks of Manhigut Yehudit members and our supporters. This article is intended to address this issue.
This is not the first time that Manhigut Yehudit is facing a difficult trial in the political reality. We have already waged several similar political battles. These included those centering around our representation in the Likud Central Committee, the list for the Knesset, and for the leadership of the Likud. We are now in the middle of a battle about changes to the Likud constitution. In addition we are daily waging a number of exhausting battles. We sometimes win these battles, and sometimes lose. Perhaps on balance we have lost more than we have won, but it is important to keep in mind that even if we occasionally lose a battle, we are actually winning the war.
Do you remember how people reacted to the failure of our efforts to get our candidates into the Likud list for the Knesset? Many people claimed at that time that this marked the end of Manhigut Yehudit. Some people even canceled their membership of the Likud in despair, thus considerably harming our efforts. They failed to understand that we regard the Knesset as a means to an end, and not as the end itself.
It is now clear that Manhigut Yehudit, even without MKs and ministers, has more influence than MKs and ministers from other parties. It seems that the race will be won by the one who chooses the right path. Many interpretations can be given to Livnat's slanderous attack on the "Feiglinites", but everyone realizes that when a senior minister is prepared to present her party as one of "criminals", and when sources close to the prime minister compare those who initiated amendment 19c to the Nazi party (Yossi Werter in Ha'aretz, 6.1.04), this means that Manhigut Yehudit is applying pressure where it hurts.
Did we win the battle for the Knesset? Of course not. Will we win the battle for amendment 19C? Perhaps.
But the most important thing to remember is that we're are all the time winning the overall war. These small battles are tactical struggles on the way to achieving the strategic objective. If we succeed in getting amendment 19c passed, this will represent a major advance. If we do not succeed in doing so, the advance will be more moderate. Our strategic objective is to put forward a belief-based alternative for the leadership of Israel. The road to achieve this strategic objective is still long, difficult, and complicated. But if, as a result of the tactical battles, some of which we lost and some of which we won, we have advanced towards this objective or retreated from it – this is the real issue.
Let us assume for a moment that in the current Israeli reality the Manhigut Yehudit movement did not exist. Would a 17-year-old boy from any yeshiva high school dare to imagine such a strange dream?
Let us assume that all these political struggles, and the consequent headlines, had not taken place. Would anyone think in this direction? Would these views have been publicized in any way? Would anyone on the Right seek an option lying outside the Netanyahu/ Olmert/ Mofaz axis?
We are therefore winning all the time because, as Herzl said, "If you want it to happen, it will not remain a dream". It is only a question of time from the moment when the public begins dreaming the right dream until this dream becomes reality. Such dreams are in fact the reality itself. Manhigut Yehudit is planting in the public consciousness the right dream, which will inevitably become the reality. This is our strategic objective and we are winning, because we are advancing towards it all the time. All the rest is just tactics. However important they are (and we are making every effort to succeed in them also), they remain tactics only.
You can join Manigut Yehudit either by calling the office at:
09-792-9046
or by visiting the website below and sending a request form.
http://www.manhigut.org/english/getmsg.html
An Article on the Tactics and Strategy of Manhigut Yehudit
By: Moshe Feiglin
At the time of writing the fate of the famous amendment 19c is not clear. If the amendment is brought to the vote it is reasonable to assume that it will receive a majority. However, the intensity of the opposition originating in those close to the prime minister, and in the Leftist elites, who are afraid of the creation of a democratic tool that will balance the pressure they are currently applying to the prime minister, is likely to take the form of a variety of legalistic arguments and administrative stratagems to prevent this important amendment being brought to the vote.
We are of course making every effort for the success of the move, and with G-d's help we will cause the amendment to be passed in its entirety. However, we have noticed that there is another kind of danger threatening us, an internal one amongst the ranks of Manhigut Yehudit members and our supporters. This article is intended to address this issue.
This is not the first time that Manhigut Yehudit is facing a difficult trial in the political reality. We have already waged several similar political battles. These included those centering around our representation in the Likud Central Committee, the list for the Knesset, and for the leadership of the Likud. We are now in the middle of a battle about changes to the Likud constitution. In addition we are daily waging a number of exhausting battles. We sometimes win these battles, and sometimes lose. Perhaps on balance we have lost more than we have won, but it is important to keep in mind that even if we occasionally lose a battle, we are actually winning the war.
Do you remember how people reacted to the failure of our efforts to get our candidates into the Likud list for the Knesset? Many people claimed at that time that this marked the end of Manhigut Yehudit. Some people even canceled their membership of the Likud in despair, thus considerably harming our efforts. They failed to understand that we regard the Knesset as a means to an end, and not as the end itself.
It is now clear that Manhigut Yehudit, even without MKs and ministers, has more influence than MKs and ministers from other parties. It seems that the race will be won by the one who chooses the right path. Many interpretations can be given to Livnat's slanderous attack on the "Feiglinites", but everyone realizes that when a senior minister is prepared to present her party as one of "criminals", and when sources close to the prime minister compare those who initiated amendment 19c to the Nazi party (Yossi Werter in Ha'aretz, 6.1.04), this means that Manhigut Yehudit is applying pressure where it hurts.
Did we win the battle for the Knesset? Of course not. Will we win the battle for amendment 19C? Perhaps.
But the most important thing to remember is that we're are all the time winning the overall war. These small battles are tactical struggles on the way to achieving the strategic objective. If we succeed in getting amendment 19c passed, this will represent a major advance. If we do not succeed in doing so, the advance will be more moderate. Our strategic objective is to put forward a belief-based alternative for the leadership of Israel. The road to achieve this strategic objective is still long, difficult, and complicated. But if, as a result of the tactical battles, some of which we lost and some of which we won, we have advanced towards this objective or retreated from it – this is the real issue.
Let us assume for a moment that in the current Israeli reality the Manhigut Yehudit movement did not exist. Would a 17-year-old boy from any yeshiva high school dare to imagine such a strange dream?
Let us assume that all these political struggles, and the consequent headlines, had not taken place. Would anyone think in this direction? Would these views have been publicized in any way? Would anyone on the Right seek an option lying outside the Netanyahu/ Olmert/ Mofaz axis?
We are therefore winning all the time because, as Herzl said, "If you want it to happen, it will not remain a dream". It is only a question of time from the moment when the public begins dreaming the right dream until this dream becomes reality. Such dreams are in fact the reality itself. Manhigut Yehudit is planting in the public consciousness the right dream, which will inevitably become the reality. This is our strategic objective and we are winning, because we are advancing towards it all the time. All the rest is just tactics. However important they are (and we are making every effort to succeed in them also), they remain tactics only.
You can join Manigut Yehudit either by calling the office at:
09-792-9046
or by visiting the website below and sending a request form.
http://www.manhigut.org/english/getmsg.html
By: Moshe Feiglin
At the time of writing the fate of the famous amendment 19c is not clear. If the amendment is brought to the vote it is reasonable to assume that it will receive a majority. However, the intensity of the opposition originating in those close to the prime minister, and in the Leftist elites, who are afraid of the creation of a democratic tool that will balance the pressure they are currently applying to the prime minister, is likely to take the form of a variety of legalistic arguments and administrative stratagems to prevent this important amendment being brought to the vote.
We are of course making every effort for the success of the move, and with G-d's help we will cause the amendment to be passed in its entirety. However, we have noticed that there is another kind of danger threatening us, an internal one amongst the ranks of Manhigut Yehudit members and our supporters. This article is intended to address this issue.
This is not the first time that Manhigut Yehudit is facing a difficult trial in the political reality. We have already waged several similar political battles. These included those centering around our representation in the Likud Central Committee, the list for the Knesset, and for the leadership of the Likud. We are now in the middle of a battle about changes to the Likud constitution. In addition we are daily waging a number of exhausting battles. We sometimes win these battles, and sometimes lose. Perhaps on balance we have lost more than we have won, but it is important to keep in mind that even if we occasionally lose a battle, we are actually winning the war.
Do you remember how people reacted to the failure of our efforts to get our candidates into the Likud list for the Knesset? Many people claimed at that time that this marked the end of Manhigut Yehudit. Some people even canceled their membership of the Likud in despair, thus considerably harming our efforts. They failed to understand that we regard the Knesset as a means to an end, and not as the end itself.
It is now clear that Manhigut Yehudit, even without MKs and ministers, has more influence than MKs and ministers from other parties. It seems that the race will be won by the one who chooses the right path. Many interpretations can be given to Livnat's slanderous attack on the "Feiglinites", but everyone realizes that when a senior minister is prepared to present her party as one of "criminals", and when sources close to the prime minister compare those who initiated amendment 19c to the Nazi party (Yossi Werter in Ha'aretz, 6.1.04), this means that Manhigut Yehudit is applying pressure where it hurts.
Did we win the battle for the Knesset? Of course not. Will we win the battle for amendment 19C? Perhaps.
But the most important thing to remember is that we're are all the time winning the overall war. These small battles are tactical struggles on the way to achieving the strategic objective. If we succeed in getting amendment 19c passed, this will represent a major advance. If we do not succeed in doing so, the advance will be more moderate. Our strategic objective is to put forward a belief-based alternative for the leadership of Israel. The road to achieve this strategic objective is still long, difficult, and complicated. But if, as a result of the tactical battles, some of which we lost and some of which we won, we have advanced towards this objective or retreated from it – this is the real issue.
Let us assume for a moment that in the current Israeli reality the Manhigut Yehudit movement did not exist. Would a 17-year-old boy from any yeshiva high school dare to imagine such a strange dream?
Let us assume that all these political struggles, and the consequent headlines, had not taken place. Would anyone think in this direction? Would these views have been publicized in any way? Would anyone on the Right seek an option lying outside the Netanyahu/ Olmert/ Mofaz axis?
We are therefore winning all the time because, as Herzl said, "If you want it to happen, it will not remain a dream". It is only a question of time from the moment when the public begins dreaming the right dream until this dream becomes reality. Such dreams are in fact the reality itself. Manhigut Yehudit is planting in the public consciousness the right dream, which will inevitably become the reality. This is our strategic objective and we are winning, because we are advancing towards it all the time. All the rest is just tactics. However important they are (and we are making every effort to succeed in them also), they remain tactics only.
You can join Manigut Yehudit either by calling the office at:
09-792-9046
or by visiting the website below and sending a request form.
http://www.manhigut.org/english/getmsg.html
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