SHARON’S DISENGAGEMENT PLAN IS AN ATTACK ON THE
JEWISH RELIGION
LETTER FROM RUTH MATAR (WOMEN IN GREEN) JERUSALEM
Thursday, January 6, 2005
Dear Friends,
Your email responses to my weekly Letter from Jerusalem are
always eagerly received, even though it isn’t always possible to
answer them individually. The difficult and downright dangerous
political situation prevailing in Israel at the present time requires
all our energies to just stay afloat.
In my December 23 Letter from Jerusalem I discussed an article
by the well-known American columnist Charles Krauthammer,
entitled “”Goodbye Christmas?”” I not only discussed this article,
but I included it in its entirety, praising it enthusiastically.
Unexpectedly, I received a great many responses from you, some
in praise of Mr. Krauthammer, but also many letters which
express the thought that his beautiful words are inconsistent
with his apparent support for Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement Plan.
I am including only a small sample of such replies:
* “”But please note that Krauthammer is in favor of the
Disengagement Plan”” — R. M.
* “”All very nice and well… But you forgot to mention that Mr.
Krauthammer is one of those misguided Jewish American
reporters who support the Disengagement Plan (like Abraham D.
Sofaer and Thomas L. Freedman) — M. J. G.
* “”Yes Ruth, but he has come out in favor of Sharon’s diabolical
Plan which literally shocked the hell out of me! He has lost all
credibility with me from now on.”” — K. H.
* “”Regarding Krauthammer, I am somewhat thankful for this
article but I have read another of his articles in which he
espouses the destruction of the Gaza settlements. Perhaps it
would not be wise to accept the writings of one who defends
Christianity, but who at heart hates Judaism.”” — E. D.
* “”Doesn’t look to me like Krauthammer himself is so tolerant and
caring where his Jewish Brethren are concerned, when he
advocates that they be thrown out of their homes in Gaza and
Samaria.”” — D. S.
I tried to find an article written by Krauthammer himself about
Sharon’s Disengagement Plan, but was not successful. I did find
an article written by Sheldon Kirshner, Staff Reporter of the
Canadian Jewish News. (I got this tip from one of my readers).
The article can be found at
.
It is surprising to me that there was no article by Krauthammer
himself about the Disengagement Plan on the internet. After all,
how many people in the United States read the Canadian Jewish
News? If you, dear readers, have any idea on which occasion
and where Mr. Krauthammer expressed his ideas on
Disengagement, I would be most interested.
The following are opinions expressed by Krauthammer as
enumerated by the Canadian Jewish News Reporter, Sheldon
Kirshner:
* “”Israel should pull out because Gaza is indefensible militarily,””
he said in a recent interview. “”Israel has to rationalize and
straighten out its defensive lines.”” [R. M.: If so, then all of Israel
is indefensible with 22 hostile Arab countries, and a combined
population of 300 million Arabs, surrounding her, and wishing
her demise.]
* Krauthammer posits further reasons why a unilateral withdrawal
is necessary. He notes that Israel is at war with the Palestinians
and that the current Palestinian leadership is not a credible
negotiating partner. [R. M.: So why do we have to negotiate away
our Land altogether?]
* Krauthammer suggests that most Israelis back a withdrawal
from Gaza. [R. M.: Absolutely untrue! He must be believing all of
Sharon’s wishful spin, which he fabricates in order to stay in
power. In fact, in any situation where the Israeli people were able
to vote, such as the Likud referendum, Sharon was soundly
defeated.]
* Krauthammer says an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will not be
interpreted as a Palestinian victory [R. M.: Abu Mazen, and the
other so-called candidates, publicly and vociferously enthuse
that it was their heroic struggle against the “”Israeli occupation””,
which forced the Jews to abandon Gaza, exactly the way
Hizbollah had previously driven the Jews out of Lebanon.]
* Krauthammer expressed sympathy for Gaza’s Jewish settlers,
who vehemently opposed Sharon’s proposal. “”People don’t want
to be uprooted from their homes. That’s pretty understandable,
but in the end, the People as a whole decide what’s in the
nation’s interest.”” [R. M.: This again is Sharon’s propaganda. The
“”People”” were never offered a chance to decide what was in their
interest. In fact, Sharon fought, and continues to fight, the idea of
a national referendum, which he is afraid he might not win.]
Now for a discussion of Krauthammer’s change of attitude with
regard to Israel. Until now, Charles Krauthammer was always a
friend and defender of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State.
His radical change of attitude towards the Jewish State no doubt
has shocked and disappointed many of his admirers. What
changed his mind is anybody’s guess.
Krauthammer’s turnabout forced me to reevaluate my
enthusiastic reaction to his “”Goodbye Christmas?”” article.
The main theme in Krauthammer’s article is that there are absurd
and relentless attempts to de-Christianize Christmas. I certainly
agree with him on that. For secular people to fight a Christmas
tree in a public square being called a Christmas Tree, insisting
that it instead be called a Holiday Tree, is utterly ludicrous. There
is no reason that anyone should feel threatened by Christians
celebrating their religion in public. However, I do agree with my
correspondent who feels that his child should not be forced to
take part in any formal religious Christmas observance in the
public school.
Something much more serious has caused my reevaluation of
Mr. Krauthammer’s article. I agree that there is a campaign to
DE-CHRISTIANIZE Christmas. But Mr. Krauthammer does not
seem to realize that he himself is DE-JUDAIZING the Jewish
People and the Jewish religion, when he endorses Sharon’s
Disengagement Plan. By doing this, Mr. Krauthammer, probably
unwittingly, attacks the three pillars of the Jewish religion: The
People of Israel, the Torah of Israel and the Land of Israel.
The People of Israel have a common religion, based on the Torah
of Israel which was given to them by G-d at Mount Sinai. The
Land of Israel was promised by the Almighty to the Jews as an
everlasting inheritance. The People of Israel have survived as a
People because of their adherence to the Jewish religion.
Mr. Krauthammer acts as an armchair general and cavalierly
agrees with his friend Ariel Sharon, that it is now in the national
interest of the Jewish People to give away Gaza, the inheritance
of the Tribe of Judah, to the terrorist enemy. Charles
Krauthammer also agrees with Sharon that it is necessary to
expel the Jews who live on their own land in Gaza.
There is quite a bit of inconsistency here, even hypocrisy!
Is it possible that these are the opinions held by the erstwhile
loyal friend of Israel, Charles Krauthammer? Is it possible that
those beautiful words about religious tolerance and respect for
each other’s religion are not meant for the Jewish People as
well?
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
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Arafat’s Heir
By Charles Krauthammer
Has no one learned anything?
On Sept. 13, 1993, I was on the White House lawn watching the
signing of the Oslo accords. I also watched the intellectual
collapse of the entire Middle East intelligentsia — journalists,
politicians, “”experts”” — as they swooned at the famous
handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin and
refused, that day and for years to come, to recognize what was
obvious: that Arafat was embarking not on peace but on the next
stage of his perpetual war against Israel, this one to be launched
far more advantageously from a base of Palestinian territory that
Israel had just suicidally granted him.
Why was this so obvious? Because Arafat said so — that very
night (in an Arabic broadcast to his own people on Jordanian
television) and many times afterward. The Middle East experts
refused to believe it. They did not want to hear it. Then came the
intifada. Thousands of dead later, they now believe it. The more
honest ones among them even admit they were wrong.
Now Arafat is dead, Mahmoud Abbas is poised to succeed him
and the world is swooning again. Abbas, we are told, is the great
hope, the moderate, the opponent of violence, the man who has
said the intifada was counterproductive.
The peacemaker cometh. Once again, euphoria is in the air. Once
again, no one wants to listen to what is being said.
Elections for the new Palestinian leader are on Sunday.
Conveniently, this being a Palestinian election, we already know
the winner. How has President-to-be Abbas been campaigning?
Dec. 30: Abbas, appearing in Jenin, is hoisted on the shoulders
of Zakaria Zbeida, a notorious and wanted al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades terrorist. Abbas declares that he will protect all
terrorists from Israel.
Dec. 31: Abbas reiterates his undying loyalty to Arafat’s
maximalist demands: complete Israeli withdrawal to the 1949
armistice lines, Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and — the
red-flag deal-breaker — the “”right of return,”” which would send
the millions of Palestinians abroad not to their own country of
Palestine but to Israel in order to destroy it demographically.
Jan. 1: Abbas declares that he will never crack down on
Palestinian terrorism.
Jan. 4: Abbas calls Israel “”the Zionist enemy.”” That phrase is so
odious that only Hezbollah and Iran and others openly dedicated
to the extermination of Israel use it.
What of Abbas’s vaunted opposition to violence? On Jan. 2 he
tells Hamas terrorists firing rockets that maim and kill Jewish
villagers within Israel, “”This is not the time for this kind of act.””
This is an interesting “”renunciation”” of terrorism: Not today,
boys; perhaps later, when the time is right. Which was exactly
Arafat’s utilitarian approach to terrorism throughout the Oslo
decade.
Some of the American and Israeli responses to Abbas are
enough to make you weep. Spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in
Israel: “”We don’t think it is useful to focus on every statement by
every official; what’s important is the process.”” Official in Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon’s office: “”Words don’t count in the Middle
East; what counts are actions.””
Have we learned nothing? In the Middle East, words are actions.
Never more so than in an election campaign in which your words
define your platform and establish your mandate. Abbas is
running practically unopposed, and yet, on the question of both
ends and means, he chooses to run as Yasser Arafat.
During the decade of Oslo, Arafat’s every statement of hatred,
incitement and glorification of violence was similarly waved
away. Then bombs began going off in cafes and buses, and the
Middle East wise men realized he meant it all along. Now once
again they are telling us to ignore the words. Abbas does not
really mean it, they assure us. This is just electioneering. We
know his true moderate heart. Believe us.
Why? On the basis of their track record? And even more
important, you do not conduct foreign policy as a branch of
psychiatry. Does Abbas mean the things he says about Israel
now? I do not know, and no matter what you hear from the
experts — the same people who assured you that Arafat wanted
peace — neither do they.
But we do know this: In Abbas’s first moment of real leadership,
his long-anticipated emergence from the shadow of Arafat, he
chooses to literally hoist the flag of the terrorist al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades.
Can Abbas turn into a Sadat, who also emerged from the shadow
of a charismatic leader, reversed policy and made peace with
Israel? I’ll believe it when I see it. And hear it.
(Editor’s Note: Krauthammer doesn’t mention that the PLO, which
Abbas co-founded with Arafat 40 years ago, still has in its
Charter that it seeks to destroy Israel.)
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Genuine alarm
By Nadav Shragai
Civil war is no longer a theotical possibility. The subject is not a
matter of hollow threats or baseless horror scenarios. True, there
have been an abundance of these, up until a few weeks ago,
whose sole purpose was to deter the prime minister from
uprooting the settlements of Gush Katif. But now it is a genuine
alarm. Some of the nightmare scenarios are now based on reality,
even if it may be masking tactics of intimidation and deterrence.
Thousands of Israelis are signing petitions in which they
proclaim their refusal to abet the disengagement. Thousands
more are declining to sign, but make it clear that they will not
cooperate when the day of disengagement comes. They
represent not only the religious public, which defers to rabbinic
halakhic authority, but also many others – religious and secular
Jews – who wish to remain loyal to the dictates of their
conscience. Immediate danger is posed by a handful of Yitzhar-
type zealots, who are liable to strike at evacuating forces.
Former head of the Central Command Yitzhak Eitan speaks of the
possible use of live ammunition.
But the real rupture that is developing is the chasm between a
significant group in the Israeli public and a regime that is
perceived as illegitimate, as deceiving its voting public, as
carrying out an expulsion and “”transfer”” of its citizens, without
having received any mandate from the public.
The prime minister makes life easy for himself by throwing
responsibility for the great conflagration that is arising before his
eyes solely on the opponents of disengagement. He bears
supreme responsibility for what is unfolding. It is he who
wrought a situation that has brought us to the brink of the abyss,
where refusal to follow orders in the army has ceased to be a
marginal phenomenon and is gradually becoming the
mainstream view among opponents of disengagement.
This process occurred because Sharon has for months
stubbornly refused to let the people make the historic decision,
as is only right. Sharon could have neutralized this dangerous
wave many months ago, and he can still cut it short simply by
giving the people the right to decide. This would not only be
moral and right; it is also the smart move. The mainstream
among opponents of disengagement – the Yesha Council of
settlers and the majority of extra-parliamentary rightist
organizations, including most of the rabbis – have already
announced their readiness to accept whatever decision is made.
They believe that they will be able to persuade the public that
Sharon is making an awful mistake. They have to be granted the
opportunity to prove it, not only because Sharon’s style of
governance – firing ministers, threatening MKs and ignoring
decisions reached by the institutions of his own party and its
members – is undemocratic, but mainly because he has deceived
his voters.
Sharon – who declared prior to the elections that “”so long as
Palestinian terror continues, there will be no progress on even
the beginning of an agreement,”” who promised “”not to evacuate
settlements when I am in office,”” who said that “”any such
withdrawal would only encourage terror,”” who spoke of “”painful
concessions only in exchange for true peace””; Sharon who
showed Amram Mitzna the door, when the latter spoke of a
unilateral evacuation of settlements – refuses to put his plan to
the broad public test, for one simple reason: He is afraid of
losing.
Somebody has to tell the prime minister – and the president of
Israel would be a suitable candidate – that at a time when civil war
threatens to break out among us, he should put aside his political
accounts and do all he can to prevent it. If he loses, it means that
there truly was no legitimization for the unilateral uprooting of
individuals from their homes. If he wins, he can carry out his
plan, without the danger of a civil war. It is so simple. In fact, the
knights of democracy from the left should have subdued their
burning passion to evacuate settlements and said this to Sharon.
Instead, supporters of Peace Now and the kibbutz movement,
whose eyes are sometimes blinded by hatred, are now pouring
oil on the burning campfire and enlisting battalions of volunteers
for the evacuation. This draft, which Yoel Maharshak, one of the
leaders of the kibbutz movement, says is being done with the
blessing of the Prime Minister’s Office, is a surefire recipe for
civil war.
However, most worrisome of all, the prime minister who bears
the supreme responsibility to prevent a civil war promises he will
not let the opponents of disengagement “”win”” and does not
understand that in the internal dispute between Jews, there are
only losers. The past few days show that Sharon and his close
aides are panicking when it comes to the opponents of
disengagement. Evidence is provided by recent statements about
“”breaking hands and legs.””
Logic also dictates that Sharon now maintain open channels of
dialogue with the public that opposes the course he has taken,
but Sharon, in his fervor to “”disengage,”” has also been blinded
by the light and has instructed the chief of staff and the defense
minister to cease meeting with Jewish settlement leaders in
Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
The prime minister, it turns out, has not plumbed the depths of
the rupture taking place among broad sections of the public, who
feel more insulted and bitter with every passing day. This large
public is only a step away from the Yitzhar-type extremists, but
Sharon the Disengager is widening the circles of fanaticism
instead of narrowing them. The president of Israel, who has in the
past expressed his support for turning the decision over to the
people, is well aware of the danger of internal conflict, but
awareness is inadequate. If he wishes to prevent bloodshed
between brothers, he must immediately throw his full weight
behind an attempt to refer the decision to the public.
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WE MUST UNITE IN OUR FIGHT
LETTER FROM RUTH MATAR (WOMEN IN GREEN) JERUSALEM
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Dear Friends,
Last week I was fortunate to meet a remarkable person, a real
friend of Israel, James A. Vineyard, a Christian Pastor from
Oklahoma City in the United States.
Pastor Vineyard is a firm believer in G-d’s Word as set forth in the
Bible, and is therefore diametrically opposed to G-d’s Covenant
Land being traded for promises of peace and security, and “”this
planned illegal and immoral deportation of Jews from their
homes in Gush Katif and the Shomron.”” I have cancelled all
plans for this week’s Letter from Jerusalem, and I am instead
publishing Pastor Vineyard’s letter to President George W. Bush
of January 12, 2005, which I believe highlights the current
dangerous situation in Israel.
JANUARY 12, 2005
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
GREETINGS TO YOU FROM JERUSALEM FROM A FELLA TEXAN
AND FELLOW CHRISTIAN, AS I PREPARE TO LEAVE TO COME
BACK HOME TO OKLAHOMA.
IT IS PREPOSTEROUS TO BELIEVE, AS OUR AMERICAN
ELITISTS DO, SIR, THAT MAHMOUD ABBAS IS THE “”GREAT
PALESTINIAN HOPE””, “”THE MODERATE””, “”THE SUCCESSOR OF
ARAFAT WHO WILL PUT AN END TO PALESTINIAN VIOLENCE.””
AND OUR “”ROAD MAP TO PEACE PLAN”” IS PUTTING
PRESSURE ON OUR GREATEST ALLY IN THE WORLD, THE
LITTLE NATION OF ISRAEL, TO NEGOTIATE WITH THIS
(COMPLICIT) MURDERER OF TWO OF OUR AMERICAN
AMBASSADORS IN THE SUDAN IN ’73.
MR. PRESIDENT, WE ARE INVITING DISASTER TO FALL UPON
AMERICA. THIS PLANNED “”ILLEGAL AND IMMORAL
DEPORTATION”” OF JEWS FROM THEIR HOMES IN THE GUSH
KATIF AND SHOMRON IS ABOUT TO INVOKE THE
CONSEQUENCES OF ALMIGHTY GOD UPON AMERICA (AND
ISRAEL) ACCORDING TO JOEL 3:2, WHICH TELLS US
JUDGMENT FOR ‘PARTING’ OR DIVIDING GOD ALMIGHTY’S
LAND.
MR. PRESIDENT, GOD’S COVENANT LAND IS ISRAEL’S AND IS
NOT TO BE TRADED FOR PROMISES OF PEACE AND
SECURITY, EITHER BY YOURSELF OR MR. SHARON.
IMMEDIATELY, MR. PRESIDENT, OUR U.S. GOVERNMENT
SHOULD STOP THIS SPONSORSHIP OF “”LAND FOR PEACE””
NONSENSE AND TELL THE “”WORLD COMMUNITY”” THAT THE
UNITED STATES STANDS WITH ISRAEL TO HELP INSURE HER
FUTURE AND THAT HER LAND IS NOT TO BE GIVEN TO
PALESTINIANS, SYRIANS, JORDANIANS, OR ANY OTHER SONS
OF ISHMAEL AND ESAU.
MR. PRESIDENT, READ HISTORY. ANY NATIONS THAT HAVE
HINDERED THE LITTLE NATION OF ISRAEL, IN ANY WAY AT
ANY TIME, HAS INVITED DEVASTATION UPON THEIR PEOPLES
BY THEIR ACTIONS.
WE SIMPLY CANNOT BE A PART, TO ANY DEGREE, OF A
“”DASTARDLY PLAN TO HELP ONE JEW DEPORT OTHER JEWS””
FROM THEIR HOMES IN THE LAND WHICH YOUR GOD, SIR, MY
GOD, SIR, AND THE GOD OF THE JEWS, SIR, GAVE TO THE
JEWS, SIR!
SIR, I SAY AGAIN, THE ASIAN TSUNAMI IS NOTHING
COMPARED TO THE CATASTROPHE HEADING AMERICA’S WAY
UNLESS WE COME TO OUR SENSES VIS-A-VIS THE HOLY
BIBLE, WHICH SIR, YOU PROFESS TO BELIEVE AND READ
EVERY DAY.
SIR, ABOUT 300 A.D., THEOLOGIANS MISTAKENLY
INTERPRETED BIBLICAL FACT USHERING IN AN AWFUL LIBEL
WHICH HAS LED TO HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
AND PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS.
THIS “”REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY”” ERROR LED TO THE JEWS
BEING PERSECUTED FROM THE 3RD CENTURY TO THE 11TH &
12TH CENTURIES; IT CAUSED THE JEWS TO BE BLAMED FOR
THE BLACK PLAGUE IN THE 14TH CENTURY; THE SPANISH
INQUISITION OF THE 15TH CENTURY; THE PERSECUTION OF
THE JEW IN EUROPE FROM THE 15TH TO 19TH CENTURIES;
AND AS THE FOUNDATION OF ADOLPH’S ACTIVITIES & THE
HOLOCAUST.
THE VATICAN, THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, THE
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, ALL, ARE ONCE AGAIN
EMBRACING THIS SAME BIBLICAL ERROR; SAYING SINCE THE
JEWS REJECTED CHRIST, THAT TODAY’S CHURCH
SUPPLANTS ISRAEL AS GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE; AND ALL OF
THAT NOTWITHSTANDING THE CLEAR, PLAIN TEACHING OF
ROMANS 9, 10 AND 11 IN OUR HOLY BIBLE.
MR. PRESIDENT, 63% OF AMERICAN CHURCH MEMBERS
ATTEND CHURCHES LED BY THIS ERROR. AS A CHRISTIAN,
YOUR MIDDLE EAST PEACE EFFORTS HAVE BEEN GREATLY
AFFECTED BY THIS BIBLICAL ERROR.
SIR, WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO CALL UPON THE JEWS TO
LEAVE THE LAND ALMIGHTY GOD GAVE TO ABRAHAM, ISAAC
AND JACOB AND THEIR DESCENDANTS THROUGH AN
EVERLASTING COVENANT.
PLEASE SIR, HEED THE EARNEST BESEECHING OF THIS
HUMBLE SERVANT OF THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL.
YOUR FRIEND AND SERVANT,
JIM VINEYARD
BAPTIST PASTOR OKLAHOMA CITY
* * *
In addition, I am bringing to your attention a letter from an
Evangelical Christian couple, Ken and Mary Ann Krueger, also
addressed to President George W. Bush, which Women in Green
are publishing as a paid ad in the local Jerusalem Post and also
in the International Jerusalem Post.
An Open Letter to President George W. Bush
Dear Mr. President:
Have you gotten the message yet? We pray always for you to
have wisdom from God. But we must admit you really get us
worried at times. We know God honors our prayers, so the only
thing we can think when we read how you are still pushing Israel
into a land-for-peace deal is that you are not hearing God. Please
stop and hear God on this.
Palestine wants to push Israel into the ocean. They do not want
peace, they want the Land of Israel!! This tiny piece of land that
God gave to Israel. Even though they are surrounded by Arab
nations big enough to house them all. Have you ever gone to the
Arab towns and seen how they have turned them into slums, with
graffiti everywhere? How dry and barren it is? Then you cross
the border to Israel and it is lush and green. The Israeli people till
and work the soil and they are blessed by God through Abraham.
The Arabs (sons of Ishmael) are jealous and covet the Israeli
land. Just as Ishmael hated Isaac, the Arabs hate Israelis.
We Christians are getting very concerned about all of this. We
voted for you and have not seen you do one thing to help our
good friend, Israel. This is what Christians care about and this is
why we voted for you. You said in a statement on National News
that you think you earned political capital in this election and you
are going to spend it. Well, we Christians also think we have
earned some political capital as well, since we are the ones who
put you in the White House.
Mr. President we are now calling in our markers, and we want to
spend them on helping Israel!! Please let your voters know what
is going on here. We deserve to know, Mr. President.
Respectfully,
Ken & Mary Ann Krueger (Evangelical Christians)
Springfield, IL. 62704, USA
* * *
The situation in Israel is worsening daily. In today’s Jerusalem
Post, January 13, 2005, on the front page, there is an article
discussing the powers given to Shimon Peres, the new Vice
Premier of today’s Israeli government. The following is a quote
from this article:
“”Peres has already been given responsibility for the Negev and
Galilee development authorities. He will also be in charge of the
implementation of the Disengagement Plan AND RAISING FUNDS
FOR THE PLAN INTERNATIONALLY. [R. M.: emphasis is mine.]””
Just imagine that the man who brought us the disastrous Oslo
Accords, who is responsible for the death of more than a
thousand Jews, and tens of thousands maimed for life, is now a
powerful number II in the Sharon government, and is going to our
enemies worldwide, to collect funds for the transfer of Jews from
their homes in their own Homeland.
Dear Friends: I have the strong feeling that this is the endgame,
and that it is essential that we unite and act together, before it is
too late. If you want to express your support for Pastor Vineyard,
his email address is .
It is very important, dear readers, that you express your feelings
to President Bush. Send him a fax at 202-456-2461, or a letter by
snail mail at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20500.
In addition, call his office at 202-456-1414. Emails are not as
effective, as they’re not printed out, and therefore your opinion
may not be fully brought to the President’s attention.
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
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UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
The last two weeks we have witnessed an increase in incitement
by the Prime Minister and his entourage against the heroic
pioneers and their supporters. In order to justify the
government’s acts of violence and crimes against them and us –
they are spreading lies and blood libels against the best element
in our society, claiming we are violent and dangerous. Minister
Olmert even called to “”cut their hands off’- speaking about those
who oppose Sharon’s expulsion plan. All this should not scare
us. At the contrary – it should strengthen us for we see Sharon is
in total panic. He realizes he is incapable of implementing this
plan. The majority of the people in Israel oppose his plan more
and more. The campaign that scares the government the most is
our successful campaign signing up soldiers saying they will not
give a hand to the crime of the uprooting. Thousands of soldiers
continue to sign, despite the witch hunt by the government.
Women in Green is proud to be part of THE campaign that will,
please G-d, prevent Sharon from implementing his evil decree.
Join Women in Green in all our upcoming activities!
1) Sunday, January 16,2005
9:30am- at the entrance to the Jerusalem Central Bus station-
signing up soldiers and reservists on the “”I will not give a hand to
the patently illegal order of uprooting Jews and handing over our
homeland to the enemy”” petition.
(If the weather is stormy and raining- the signing up will be
cancelled)
2) TU BISHVAT Tuesday January 25, 2005
Join Women in Green on an exciting morning of tree planting and
chizuk to the outpost of Maon, in the southern Hebron hills,
where 6 wonderful young families live in tents and work the land.
Leaving the Laromme hotel in a BP bus at 9:00am. Return
approximately 1:00pm.
Fee- 45 NIS which includes the busfare and part of buying trees.
Call to reserve seats on the bus: Anita 050-5-777254 or Nadia
050-5-500834
3) Zviki Koretzki’s parents have set up a website-
It is now mostly in Hebrew- the English will be put up soon, too.
(Reminder: Zviki is that officer sitting in jail instead of having
received a medal for his military action against Arab terrorists
who were planning to send a suicide car into one of Israel’s major
cities.)
4) In Case You Are Arrested!
As promised- Women in Green has, as a public service,
translated into English, the sheet written by the “”Legal Center
(Moked Hamishpati””) detailing what to do in case one is arrested
at the many upcoming demonstrations against Sharon’s criminal
expulsion plan.
“”First Aid”” Sheet for Those Arrested during Demonstrations and
Protests against the Disengagement Plan:
We are entering a period of demonstrations and other protest
activities, during the course of which arrests will most likely be
made.
The Legal Center has assumed responsibility for providing
detainees with legal and logistic support. This “”first aid”” sheet
contains guidelines that should be studied carefully.
The Legal Center hot line (manned 24 hours a day): 0505-502111
Preparations before the demonstration:
It is advisable to come to the demonstration with the following
items:
– a camera (which we recommend passing to a friend, in the event
you are arrested)
– paper and pen (which we recommend keeping, to record
everything from the time of your arrest to your release)
– cell phone (that will be confiscated as soon as you are officially
under arrest, but very useful before and after detention)
– enter the Legal Center hot line number into the memory of your
telephone
– Arrestee Card (attached), with a brief summary of the advice on
this sheet
The Arrest:
Being arrested is not a disaster. It is part of the price of the
struggle for the Land of Israel, and not such a steep price –
maybe not very pleasant, but not so terrible. (Arrests usually
have media impact that actually aids the struggle.)
Resisting arrest: only “”passive resistance”” to arrest is permitted.
In other words, you don’t have to make things easy for the police,
but you are not to attack them or to use violence against them; if
you do so, you will only garner further charges. The general rule:
even if a police officer acts with you in an illegal manner – refrain
from a physical confrontation with him. Try to document the
event (details of the police officer, names of additional witnesses,
injuries you sustained, etc.) for filing a complaint afterwards.
If your friend is arrested: if you see your friend being arrested,
report this to the Legal Center hot line. It is important to
remember our priorities: the demonstration is what is most
important. It is inadvisable to interrupt the demonstration to
interfere with, or attempt to prevent an arrest. Your friend will not
be left on his own, the Legal Center emergency team will take
care of him.
The arrest of minors: the arrest of children under the age of 12 is
illegal. If you see such an arrest, immediately inform the
policeman or officer that this is a child under legal age, who must
be released immediately. At the same time, inform the Legal
Center hot line.
“”Detention”” [ikuv] or “”arrest”” [ma’atzar]: If you are not expressly
told that you are “”under arrest”” [atzur], then you are only
“”detained”” [me’ukav]. Detention can last no longer than 3 hours,
after which time, in accordance with the law, you (usually) will be
released.
Making use of the “”minute before””: as long as you are not
explicitly told that you are “”under arrest”” [atzur], you should be
able to continue using your cell phone. It is important to make
use of these precious minutes in order to call the Legal Center
hot line, and deliver a detailed message about your condition,
and the condition of others who were seized together with you.
Message about arrest: every arrestee is entitled to 2 telephone
calls, one to his family, and one to a lawyer. (The police often
“”forget”” this right, and they should be reminded!) In order to
receive legal aid, it is recommended to call the Legal Center hot
line.
It is important to know: from the moment you are arrested, you
have legal backing!
Medical examination and recording of physical injuries: if you
were injured by violence during your arrest – demand, first of all,
to be examined by a doctor. Make sure that all the injuries you
suffered are documented (in writing and in photographs), and
that this is included in your case file [tik ha-chakirah]. Demand a
copy for yourself, as well. In any instance of refusal, record with
whom you spoke and his response. (If it is not possible to record
this in writing, try to remember, and ask your friends to
remember.)
Behavior during the arrest: we recommend keeping in good
spirits, don’t be pressured, and try to find pleasant ways to pass
the time. It is important to transmit the message that arrests will
not break us.
Attacks by police during the course of the arrest: do not consent
to be attacked, neither physically nor verbally. In any case of
such an attack, demand the details of the attacking policeman,
from the policeman himself or from his commanders (refusal by a
policeman to give his details also is an offense).
Police behavior (general): it is important that the police
understand that your presence at the police station is liable to be
harmful for them: you will be able to collect the names of
policemen without name tags, policemen who smoke in the
station (a public place), curse, engage in improper behavior, and
the like.
The Interrogation
The following advice is meant for “”fresh”” interrogatees, who lack
legal experience and/or knowledge. If you are already
“”experienced”” in this area, use the experience you have gained.
When you are about to be interrogated, remember 4 rules:
1) you are obligated to give your details (name and identity card
number)
2) you have the right to remain silent during the interrogation
3) you have the right to consult an attorney
4) the interrogator is more experienced and more sophisticated
than you are
The giving of details: the giving of identifying details (name and
ID number) is obligatory and legal, and it is recommended to do
so fully, in order not to accumulate an additional offense.
Notwithstanding, it is recommended not to add anything beyond
these minimal details.
The interrogation itself: our advice is to state only a single
sentence during the interrogation:
“”This is a political investigation, and therefore I have nothing
further to say.””
The following is an explanation and further details concerning
this recommendation:
– make use of the right to remain silent: during the course of the
interrogation, it is recommended not to give any version of the
events. Anyone being interrogated has the right to remain silent,
and it is recommended to take full advantage of this right. You
should know: according to the law, you are not required to aid
the interrogation. Therefore, do not be frightened by the
investigator’s threats that refraining from cooperating with him is
liable to harm you. This is simply not true.
– give a reason for your silence: it is highly recommended to give
a reason, in principle, for your silence (such as: “”This is a
political investigation””) so that your silence will not be
interpreted to your detriment. After giving this reason, it is
recommended to be silent.
– don’t be a “”wise guy””: despite the common jokes about
policemen, it is important to recall: the investigator is usually
more sophisticated than you are. Therefore, if you have no legal
experience or knowledge – don’t try to be a “”wise guy.”” It is better
to simply remain silent.
Complains against the police: if you have a complaint against the
conduct of the police during the course of the demonstration or
the arrest – it is recommended not to file it during the course of
the interrogation, even if the investigator suggests that you do
so. The names of the policemen, the names of witnesses, and
the like, are to be recorded, and given over to the Legal Center
hot line, in order to file an orderly complaint.
Photographing and fingerprinting: the police always demand this
of the arrestee, but the law permits you to refuse. It is
recommended to oppose this demand, at least until you receive
other instructions from a lawyer. Give a reason for your
opposition: “”I will consult with the Legal Center [Ha-Moked ha-
Mishpati].””
Release from Arrest
During the release stage, and the preparation for release, your
cell phone will (probably) once again be available to you, and you
will be able to call us directly for advice.
Release on bail: release on bail, without any restrictions, is
essentially a formal procedure, and it is recommended to consent
to this, to sign, and be released (in order to return to the
struggle). Pay attention: read carefully everything that you sign,
and make sure that all the sections in the bail form are filled
before you sign (to prevent the police from filling them in
afterwards).
Release with restrictions: expulsion from the area of the event /
from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza / house arrest, etc. – it is
recommended to oppose this and not sign, at least until receiving
advice to the contrary from a lawyer.give a reason for your
opposition: “”I will consult with the Legal Center [Ha-Moked ha-
Mishpati].””
The court session: don’t be frightened by the threats of the
police, that “”if you don’t sign, you will be taken to court.”” The
lawyers of the Legal Center will come to represent you there, and
will act for your release.
If you are informed of a court session, demand that the police
also inform your attorney, and give them the telephone number
of the Legal Center hot line.
Documentation after the arrest: if you are released, inform the
Legal Center hot line (to remove you from the list of people on
whose behalf it is working). Devote time and care to recording
the injuries you suffered (go to a doctor, be photographed,
collect the names of witnesses, etc.), and give this material, in an
orderly fashion, to the Legal Center.
Arrest Card-cut out and keep in your wallet
You’ve been arrested? Remember:
– immediately inform the Legal Center hot line, and consult with
the Legal Center about any questions you have.
– refrain from a physical confrontation with the police. Document
any injury they cause you.
– retain the right to remain silent, but give a reason for your
silence:
“”This is a political investigation, and I have nothing further to
add.””
– oppose being photographed and fingerprinted.
– oppose release on condition of expulsion.
– document any medical injury.
Complaints are to be filed with the Legal Center, and not with the
police.
The Legal Center hot line number: 0505-502111
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*******************************************************
WHICH WAY WILL ABBAS GO?
by Daniel Pipes
There’s some puzzlement about Mahmoud Abbas, the new
chairman of the Palestinian Authority. Does he accept Israel’s
existence or want to destroy it? Matthew Kalman of Canada’s
Globe and Mail discerns “”an apparent campaign flip-flop”” in this
regard. A Jewish Exponent story is titled “”He Wants It Both
Ways: Palestinian front-runner: Anti-terror, but pro-‘return’.”” An
Australia Broadcast Corporation title acknowledges its
mystification, writing that “”Abbas’s election tactics confuse
analysts.””
The press dwells on the same apparent contradiction:
One moment Mr. Abbas demands that Palestinian Arab terrorists
stop their attacks on Israel and the next he (literally) embraces
them, calling them “”heroes fighting for freedom.”” Also, he talks
of both stopping the violence and of the “”right of return”” for more
than 4 million Palestinian Arabs to Israel, a well-known way of
calling indirectly for the elimination of the Jewish state. What
gives? Actually, there is no contradiction. By insisting on a “”right
of return,”” Mr. Abbas signals that he, like Yasser Arafat and most
Palestinians, intends to undo the events of 1948; that he rejects
the very legitimacy of a Jewish state, and will strive for its
disappearance. But he differs from Arafat in being able to
imagine more than one way of achieving this goal.
No matter what the circumstances, Arafat persisted, from 1965 to
2004, in his reliance on terrorism. He never took seriously his
many agreements with Israel, seeing these rather as a means to
enhance his ability to murder Israelis. Arafat’s diplomacy
culminated in September 2000 with the unleashing of his terror
war against Israel; then, no matter how evident its failure, it went
on until his death in November 2004. In contrast, Mr. Abbas
publicly recognized in September 2002 that terror had come to
harm Palestinian Arabs more than Israel. Intended to prompt
demoralization and flight from Israel, this tactic in fact brought
together a hitherto fractured body politic, while nearly destroying
the Palestinian Authority and prostrating its population. Mr.
Abbas correctly concluded that “”it was a mistake to use arms
during the intifada and to carry out attacks inside Israel.””
Mr. Abbas shows tactical flexibility. Unlike Arafat, who could
never let go of the terrorist tool that had brought him wealth,
power, and glory, Mr. Abbas sees the situation more cogently. If
stopping the violence against Israel best serves his goal of
eliminating the sovereign Jewish state, that is his program. He
no more accepts what he so charmingly the other day called the
“”Zionist enemy”” than Arafat did (or Hamas, or Palestinian Islamic
Jihad), but he is open to a multiplicity of means to destroy it. As
he announced after his electoral victory this week, “”the lesser
jihad is over and the greater jihad is ahead.”” The form of jihad
must change from violent to nonviolent, but the jihad continues.
And count the many ways to undo the Jewish state: nuclear
weaponry, invading armies, mega-terrorism, plain old terrorism,
Palestinian demographic fertility, the “”right of return,”” or
confusing Israelis to the point that post-Zionist leftists cause the
population unilaterally to crumple and accept a dhimmi
(subservient) status within “”Palestine.””
For an instructive parallel to Mr. Abbas’ having concluded that
violence is inappropriate, consider Stalin in the decade before
World War II. Aware of his weakness, he announced in 1930 an
intention for the Soviet Union to be a good international citizen:
Our policy is a policy of peace and of increasing trade
connections with all countries. A result of this policy is an
improvement in our relations with a number of countries, and the
conclusion of a number of agreements for trade, technical
assistance, and so forth. We shall continue to pursue this policy
of peace with all our might and with all the means at our disposal.
We do not want a single foot of foreign territory.
These were not empty words. Stalin did largely keep to this
program – until 1939, when he felt strongly enough to go on the
offensive, at which point he initiated an unparalleled half-
century’s campaign of aggression, which ended only with the
Soviet state’s collapse. For Mr. Abbas, it is 1930. He understands
the need to cool things down. As someone who can realistically
appraise circumstances and quietly respond to them, he is
potentially a far more formidable enemy to Israel than the one-
note, blindly violent, and flamboyantly evil Arafat.
*******************************************************
Who Are You, Abba Mazen
by Yoram Ettinger, Ynet OpEd, Jan. 14, 2005
The stronger the flow of Israeli and Western greetings to the
office of Abu Mazen, the weaker is the prospect for the rise of a
moderate Palestinian leadership, and the slimmer is the chance
for peace.
The US did not embrace bin Laden’s and Saddam’s confidants
and deputies. The US demanded – and rightly so – the
dismantling of the entire terror regimes in Kabul and Baghdad as
a prerequisite for a new chapter in Afghanistan’s and Iraq’s
international relations. The elimination of rogue regimes has also
been a pre-condition for the willingness of moderate elements to
stick their neck out and enter the political arena.
A condition qua-non for fresh start in the attitude toward the
Palestinians, must be the uprooting of the “”old regime””, which
has earned the notoriety of role-model of hijacking, international
terrorism, inter-Arab treachery, systematic and brutal violation of
commitments, corruption, human rights violations, hate-
education and idolizing homicide bombers. The persistence of
the old Palestinian regime precludes the possibility that
moderate Palestinian elements would rise to power.
Abu Mazen has been Arafat’s effective #2 since the departure of
Abu Jihad and Abu Iyaad. Abu Mazen has been recognized as
Arafat’s #2 since the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accord. Along with
Abu Ala`, Abu Mazen has been an intimate of Arafat since the
1950s. Abu Mazen did not emerge in the 2005 election from his
underground hiding or from exile overseas. Abu Mazen
campaigned as the top loyalist of Arafat, who was at his side
during the rough days at the Ramalla’s Muqaata. During the
1950s, Abu Mazen starred – with Arafat and Abu Ala` – in the
Palestinian cell of Cairo’s Muslim Brotherhood (the mentor of
Hamas!). There he acquired the skills and connections, which
have facilitated him engineering a series of understandings with
Hamas since 1993. According to the understandings, the
strategic common denominator between the Palestinian
Authority and Hamas (Israel’s elimination via the “”claim of
return””) supersedes their tactical disagreements. Therefore, Abu
Mazen does not proceed to eliminate Hamas, but rather attempts
to integrate it. Therefore, Abu Mazen disagreed sometimes with
Arafat tactically, but never disputed the strategy of Arafat, the
founding father of the step-by-step policy to destroy the Jewish
state.
In 1959, Abu Mazen was a prominent member in the newly
established Fatah terror organization in Kuwait, which was the
safe haven for Arafat, Abu Mazen, Abu Ala` and their colleagues,
who had to flee Egypt for subversive activities. In 1964 he joined
Arafat in the Syrian safe haven, but had to flee in 1966 along with
his leader, following the murder – by Fatah – of Syrian
intelligence officers. In 1970, Abu Mazen played a central role in
the attempted PLO coup against King Hussein, and during the
1970s he was a member of the PLO leadership, which fueled a
series of civil wars in Lebanon and tried to topple the Beirut
regime.
In 1972, Abu Mazen was responsible for raising the funds,
required for the Munich Massacre of 11 Israeli athletes. He
acquired much of his subversive skills at the KGB headquarters
in Moscow, where he received (at Moscow University) his Ph.D.
on Holocaust Denial. No Western society would tolerate a
holocaust denier holding a prominent position, but Abu Mazen
has been accorded respect…
Since 1993, Abu Mazen has been the second most important
Palestinian, forging the nature of the Palestinian society in
general and its hate-education in particular (in PA schools and
kindergartens, mosques and media), which has served as the
manufacturing-line of Palestinian homicide bombers. Abu Mazen
has been a master of double-talking and fork-tonguing. He has
misled Israeli and Western policy-makers and public opinion-
molders by leveraging his non-Arafat appearance: well shaved
face, trendy ties, grandpa-like looks and a seemingly moderate
rhetoric (when addressing Westerners).
Israeli and Western movers and shakers have been inclined to
sacrifice a 50 year old track record on the altar of the wishful
thinking, which has sanctified Oslo and its offshoots (Hebron and
Wye Accords, Road Map and Disengagement). A US
colloquialism states: “”Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice
shame on me.”” Abu Mazen and his colleagues have fooled Israel
and the US since 1993. Are Israel and the US intent upon earning
the dubious title of “”Suckers of the globe””?!
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*******************************************************
When ‘free elections’ means just further legitimizing terrorism
By Cal Thomas, http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Those Palestinians who truly wish to live in peace with Israel and
have something they can call a state of their own are about to be
disappointed again
Four elections, spanning just three months in three regions of
the world, will shape events in this new year and probably for
many years to come.
The American election in November returned George W. Bush to
the presidency for another four years, ensuring his policy of
liberating Iraq will continue.
The Ukrainian “”re-election,”” necessitated by massive fraud
during the first one, produced a majority for Viktor Yushchenko
as Ukraine’s next president. Eleven years after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, Ukraine can now look forward to real freedom. As
Yushchenko said during his campaign, Ukraine was
“”independent, but not free.””
The Iraq election, scheduled for Jan. 30, is part of a Middle East
double feature with significant implications, not only for Iraqis,
but the entire region. If the election can be held with the
assurance that most who want to vote are able to do so and
whoever wins the presidency can survive political intrigues and
assassination attempts, the effect will be profound and possibly
transforming for Iraq and her neighbors. Millions will be given
hope only freedom brings.
That leaves the election for a new Palestinian leader to replace
Yasser Arafat. Unlike the other three elections, which have been,
or will be, based on a principle that people should be free to
select the leaders of their choice, the Palestinian election will be
something quite different.
Yoram Ettinger, a consultant on Middle East and U.S. affairs to
Israeli Cabinet ministers, writes, “”Elections do not become free
through rhetoric, even when the rhetoric is uttered by leaders of
respectable nations and by media and academia stars.””
What does he mean? He elaborates: “”Free elections are the
byproduct of a society where citizens accord certain rights to
their government. Free elections cannot be a byproduct of
societies where regimes accord certain rights to their subjects,
eliminate their opponents and brainwash their population with
hate education.””
Those Palestinians who truly wish to live in peace with Israel and
have something they can call a state of their own are about to be
disappointed again. That’s because no matter who is elected to
replace Arafat, the Palestinian objective of eliminating Israel and
exterminating the Jewish people will not change.
During his recent visit to Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair
linked progress toward a Palestinian state to the renunciation of
terror by the PLO leadership. President Bush has said the same
thing. That is not going to happen as long as the current regime
remains in power, no matter who is elected.
Much of the “”free world”” is likely to pronounce the Palestinian
election legitimate, because the world wants a “”peace partner”” it
can use to badger Israel into making further concessions. The
world has ignored all of Israel’s previous concessions, including
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new pledge to pull “”settlers”” out of
Gaza by February, instead of later this summer as he had
previously promised.
A preview of the coming Palestinian election can be found by
flashing back to a previous one in 1996. That election was
supervised by international and Israeli observers. It was labeled
“”free and democratic”” by such global figures as then-President
Bill Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter, and then-Israeli
Prime Minister Shimon Peres, as well as the United Nations,
European leaders, The New York Times, CNN and the three
American broadcast networks.
Thus, the terrorists received not only an extreme makeover in
much of the world’s eyes, but an upgrade in their diplomatic
status. That election changed nothing. The 11-year-old terror
campaign continues.
As Ettinger writes, a prerequisite to free elections and peaceful
coexistence “”is the uprooting of the regime, which has been
responsible for the deterioration of the Palestinian society.””
None of those running for Palestinian leader, indeed, none of
those in the Palestinian leadership, have given any indication of
repudiating Arafat’s strategy of terror until the singular goal of
eliminating Israel is achieved.
Freedom is celebrated in U.S. elections and it appears to be on
the march in Ukraine and possibly Iraq, but the Palestinian
election will produce more of the same. Three out of four good
elections would still be a good thing, but the world should not
deceive itself that what happens in the Palestinian election will
produce a change in policy or direction.
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*******************************************************
Column One: The demographic bomb is a dud
By Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post
For the past generation, Israel has found itself engaged in post-
modern warfare. Whereas Arab armies have proved themselves
in five wars to be no match for the IDF on the battlefield, our
enemies over the last 20 years, since the IDF withdrawal from
most of Lebanon, have found that the most effective means of
fighting Israel is on the post-modern battlefield.
The most conspicuous component of the post-modern battlefield
is terrorism. Terrorist foot soldiers of the post-modern army sow
fear and revulsion in the heart of the target population in order to
induce a sense of helplessness. In the face of photographs of the
charred remains of babies being pulled from bombed-out cafes
and buses, the mighty Israeli army suddenly seems small and
impotent.
While terrorism is the outward face of the post-modern
aggressor, social psychology is perhaps his greatest weapon. If
the target population can be manipulated to view itself as the
aggressor, if it can be brought to view its position as untenable,
then it will sue for peace and surrender. So it was that Kadoura
Fares, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one of
the heads of Fatah who signed Yossi Beilin’s Geneva Accords,
said in an interview with the pan-Arab London-based newspaper
Al-Hayat in October 2003 that the Palestinian aim in signing the
accords was to “”foment a piercing public and political debate in
Israel.””
While Hamas has placed its emphasis mainly on the terrorist
aspect of the post-modern battlefield, the PLO has placed an
equal emphasis on the psychological component of the war. In
fact, it could be said in retrospect that the greatest single victory
the PLO has scored in its 46-year-old war with Israel was the
publication of a single report in 1997. That report, “”Demographic
Indicators of the Palestinian Territory, 1997-2015,”” is based on a
census carried out by the PA’s Central Bureau of Statistics
(PCBS) in 1997. It projects that the Arab population west of the
Jordan River will by 2015 outnumber the Jewish population.
These numbers were immediately adopted by such prominent
Israeli demographers as the University of Haifa’s Arnon Soffer
and the Hebrew University’s Sergio Della Pergola, who have both
warned that by 2020 Jews will make up between 40 and 46
percent of the overall population of Israel and the territories. The
Palestinian projections, which place the Arab population of
Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip at 3.83 million and the Israeli
Arab population at 1.33 million for a total of 5.16 million Arabs
west of the Jordan River, put Israel with its 5.24 million Jews at
the precipice of demographic parity with the Arabs.
Largely in reaction to these statistics, which were bandied about
by everyone from politicians to diplomats to defense officials,
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided a year ago to adopt the
Labor Party’s campaign platform and withdraw the IDF from Gaza
and northern Samaria and forcibly remove the Jews living in
those areas from their homes. In his interview with Yediot
Aharonot in December 2003, which was the curtain raiser for
Sharon’s announcement of his policy shift later that month, Vice
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: “”Above all hovers the cloud of
demographics. It will come down on us not in the end of days,
but in just another few years. We are approaching a point where
more and more Palestinians will say: ‘There is no place for two
states between the Jordan and the sea. All we want is the right to
vote. The day they get it we will lose everything.””
BUT WHAT if the numbers are wrong? What if the doomsday
scenarios we hear on a daily basis, arguing that Israel is about to
be overrun by the Arab womb, are all based on fraudulent data –
part of an ingenious Palestinian plan to psychologically
manipulate Israel into capitulating?
This week a team of American and Israeli researchers presented
a study of the Palestinian population statistics at the American
Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
The team, led by American businessman Bennett Zimmerman
and Israeli strategic consultant Yoram Ettinger, compared the
PCBS data to birth and death records published annually by the
PA’s Health Ministry; to immigration and emigration data from
Israel’s Border Police at the international crossing points into the
Palestinian Authority and at Ben-Gurion Airport, and to internal
migration records of Palestinians from the territories into Israel
recorded by the Israeli Interior Ministry.
The researchers also compared Palestinian population data from
the PCBS to voting records compiled by the Palestinian Central
Elections Commission before the 1996 Palestinian elections and
this week’s Palestinian elections, as well as to the Israeli Civil
Administration’s population survey of Palestinians carried out in
the 1990s before the transfer of authority over Palestinian
population records to the PA.
The PCBS forecast was further compared to Palestinian
population surveys carried out by UNRWA and the Israeli Central
Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) in the mid-1990s, and to World Bank
Palestinian population studies. All of the team’s comparative
analyses led to the conclusion that the Palestinian population
forecasts upon which Israel is basing its current policy of
withdrawal and uprooting of Israeli communities in the territories
are faulty in the extreme.
The PCBS count includes the 230,000 Arab residents of
Jerusalem. Yet these Arabs are already counted by the ICBS as
part of Israel’s population, which means that they are counted
twice.
The PCBS numbers also project Palestinian natural growth as 4
to 5 percent per year, among the highest in the world and
significantly higher than the natural population growth of Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Yet Palestinian Ministry of Health
records published annually since 1996 show that Palestinian
natural growth rates in Judea, Samaria and Gaza average around
3 percent. In 2002, the Palestinian Ministry of Health retroactively
raised its numbers and yet even the doctored figures never
extended beyond 3.7 percent. The original data show a steady
pattern of decrease in natural growth leading to a natural growth
rate in 2003 of just 2.6 percent.
Indeed, the total fertility rate of Palestinian women has been
trending downward in recent years. Palestinian women in Judea
and Samaria averaged 4.1 children in 1999 and 3.4 in 2003.
Palestinian women in Gaza averaged 5 children each in 1999 and
4.7 in 2003. The multi-year average of Israel’s compound growth
rate from 1990-2004 is 2.5 percent. And even as Israel’s growth
rate went down to 1.7 percent between 2000 and 2004, a similar
decline occurred among Palestinians in Gaza, where growth
decreased from 3.9 percent to 3.0 percent, and Palestinians in
Judea and Samaria, where growth declined from 2.7 percent to
1.8 percent.
The PCBS also projected a net population increase of 1.5 percent
per year as a result of immigration from abroad. But the study’s
authors found that except for 1994, when the bulk of the
Palestinian leadership and their families entered the areas from
abroad, emigration from the Palestinian areas has outstripped
immigration every year.
Aside from this, the PCBS numbers include some 200,000
Palestinians who live abroad. This fact was corroborated by an
October 14 press release by the Palestinian Central Elections
Commission which stated that “”200,000 eligible voters are living
abroad.”” The number of Palestinians living abroad constitutes 13
percent of the Palestinians counted in 1997 and forms the basis
of the projections of that population’s growth in spite of the fact
that they don’t live in the territories.
The report also shows that while the Israeli Interior Ministry
announced in November 2003 that in the preceding decade some
150,000 residents of the Palestinian Authority had legally moved
to Israel (including Jerusalem), these 150,000 residents remain
on the Palestinian population rolls. Parenthetically, this internal
migration is largely responsible for the anomalous 3.1 percent
annual growth in the Israeli Arab population. Absent this internal
migration, the Israeli Arab natural growth rate is 2.1% – that is,
below the Israeli Jewish growth rate.
The study presents three separate scenarios for calculating the
actual Palestinian population in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza
Strip. Its authors prove that the first scenario, based on the PCBS
numbers, minus the double counted Jerusalem Arabs and minus
the internal migrations, is not statistically plausible. Yet even this
scenario places the Palestinian population at 3.06 million, or
770,000 less than the number that currently informs Israeli
decision makers.
The average of the last two scenarios, which corrected for the
Palestinians living abroad and were based on base populations
comprised of ICBS Palestinian population survey projections
from the 1990s and Palestinian voting records in 1996 and 2004,
brought the final projected number of Palestinians in Gaza, Judea
and Samaria to 2.42 million – nearly a third less than the 3.83
million figure currently being used.
The study, which has been accepted by prominent American
demographers Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt and Murray Feshbach,
shows that contrary to common wisdom, the Jewish majority
west of the Jordan River has remained stable since 1967. In 1967
Jews made up 64.1 percent of the overall population and in 2004
they made up 59.5 percent. Inside Israel proper, including
Jerusalem, Jews make up 80 percent of the population.
While reading the report, the inescapable sense is that something
has gone very wrong within Israeli society. The numbers are so
clear. The data have always been readily available. And yet, like
bats attracted to the darkness of a cave, we preferred the
manipulative lies of the PA to the truth.
The entire 117-page report can be accessed on-line at
www.pademographics.com. Given that it shows that the
government’s current policies are based in large part on an
uncritical acceptance of fraudulent data whose purpose was to
demoralize us into capitulating to our post-modern foe, hopefully
Olmert and Sharon will take a look at it.
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United We Stand
by Paula R. Stern
A recent conversation I had with a friend brought home, again,
the successes and the failures of modern-day Israel. As a secular
Jew living in the center of the country, he explained, he has
absolutely nothing in common with the Jews who live in Hebron,
Beit Haggai, the Gaza Strip, etc. When pressed, he agreed that
they shared a use of common words, not even a language, really.
Simply that they used the same words to form sentences.
This is an Israeli-born, highly-educated man who has served,
again and again, in the Israeli army, has traveled all over the
country, loving to camp out alone among the stars, walk through
crowded markets and simply be in Israel. There is nothing
“”wrong”” with this man, and so there must be something wrong
with those of us who call ourselves “”right-wing”” and “”non-
secular””.
There is the American phrase, “”United we stand, divided we fall.””
This is something our enemies understand and something we
continue to ignore. Jews have, almost from the beginning of our
nation thousands of years ago, had an intense sense of the
collective. We are one people, no matter where we are, and so it
is natural that the Israeli team in Asia searched for Jews from
Belgium, France, the United States, and helped find and bring
home a little 18-month-old baby for burial in Jerusalem. He is one
of ours, no matter where he was born. The collective Jewish
heart mourns for him and seeks to comfort his parents.
But when a Jew from Tel Aviv feels that he has nothing in
common with a Jew in Hebron, so long as one Israeli in Netanya
can say he shares nothing with an Israeli from Gush Katif, we all
fall. And when the Jew in Hebron and the Israeli in Gush Katif
becomes something foreign, something expendable, the entire
nation suffers.
This separation is largely the success of the “”Rabin camp””, who
long ago pointed their fingers in disdain at “”those settlers.”” They
were so effective, the terminology became part of everyday
conversation. International media loved it. No longer did they
have to talk about dead Jews, or even murdered Israelis. Now it
was “”the settlers””. When a woman and her teenage son were
murdered, CNN referred to the deaths of “”two settlers.””
So clean, so easy to fail to identify with those who are different.
They weren’t murdered, only “”killed””. They weren’t Israelis, only
“”settlers””. We didn’t lose one of ours, the Israeli heart consoles
itself, we lost “”a settler””, which, by definition, suddenly became
someone who chose to live in a place and get themselves
murdered – I mean killed, of course. Sure, the Palestinians
exploded the bomb, but who told “”those people”” to live there?
The current government is no less at fault, though they often
replace “”settler”” with “”those Feiglinites,”” and those “”on the
fringe,”” or “”extreme right””. So clean, so much easier for the
Israeli heart. This is the success of the Palestinians, who
understand better than we do, that a divided Israel is an easier
target. Attack a bus in Afula and the entire nation mourns. Target
a bus in Kfar Darom, even a school bus, and people say, “”Well,
why were they there?”” This is the failure of Israeli society.
This is how we have arrived at a situation in which a Jew living in
the center of the country feels anger when an Israeli in Gush Katif
is murdered – but that anger is directed as much (if not more) at
the Israeli, rather than the terrorists. United we stand, divided we
fall. We must reacquaint ourselves with them, until “”they”” return
to be “”us.””
To those on the Right:
If you are a settler in Gaza, it is time to understand the thinking of
the Jews in Tel Aviv. You must make him understand why it is
right for you to stay and wrong for you to go. You cannot afford
to dismiss them as secular, or say they don’t have a strong
enough connection with this land. They love Israel, just as you do
and just as I do. From that mutual love, you must make them
understand why you should not be uprooted in exchange for
guarantees of continued attacks, more rockets, more attempted
infiltrations. It is your job to explain why your homes are just as
much a part of Israel as those in Ramat Aviv Gimmel and
elsewhere, and why our soldiers should be defending you to the
maximum of their ability. You must accept that they are a part of
you and you are a part of them.
To those on the Left:
If you are an Israeli living in Tel Aviv, you must understand that
you are a settler, too. We all came to settle the land of Israel, in
this generation, in the last one, or in some generation thousands
of years ago. You must accept in your mind and in your heart that
when a Jew chooses to live in Hebron, despite the dangers, that
does not mean he deserves, expects, or will accept this as a
death sentence for himself or for his children. You must feel the
pain of the Jews in Gaza, who have sacrificed so much to live in a
place they believe helps defend your home, as well as theirs. You
must accept that they love Israel, just as you do. And you must
know that they love their children, just as you do. There is
nothing that they will not do to save their children and for the
sake of their children.
It is not wrong to live in Gaza, and they do not deserve to have
their children murdered because that is where they have chosen
to live. Our government put them there, encouraged them,
supported them and now seeks to abandon them. You must
accept that they are a part of you and you are a part of them.
To all of us:
Palestinians do not have the right to terrorize. They do not have
the right to launch rockets at our homes, blow up buses on which
our children ride. It is a morally, ethically, religiously despicable
action. It is murder in its most callous form and until they stop,
we must tell them, they will not be rewarded. We cannot control
what they do, so says Ariel Sharon, but we can control what we
do, and what we can do is understand the feelings and thinking
of those who live there (and here).
It is our people in Gush Katif and in Hebron. It is our homes, our
children, our lives under fire and under attack. The Palestinians
have squandered peace offering after peace offering, and they
will soon squander another. To withdraw in the face of rocket
attacks is lunacy in the extreme. To surrender land so that the
Palestinians can attack from that much closer is absurd.
Would you give up your home to save your children? The Jews of
Gaza, Judea and the Samaria would. But stop for a moment and
look at your home, wherever you live. How long have you lived
there? Two years? Five years? Some Israelis have lived in Gush
Katif for more than 30 years. Would you leave your home simply
because the government says, “”Let’s try this experiment today?””
Will the Israelis living in Gaza and Shomron agree to leave the
communities they have built, the neighbors they love, the only
home most of their children have ever known? The question is
not will they, the question is for what? For their children? Yes,
they will voluntarily leave their homes and all that they have built
to ensure the safety of their children.
But will their children be safe if they move them to Jerusalem, to
Afula, to Netanya? Do you believe your children are really safe?
Do you send your children on buses without any concerns? To a
cafe? To the mall? Hundreds of children in these “”safe”” places
have been murdered and orphaned. So long as the Palestinians
are determined to use violence, their children, our children, your
children are not safe in Tel Aviv or in Gaza.
The Palestinian terror groups have promised to continue
shooting rockets. The incoming government has already stated
that it would not disarm militants, nor actively work against terror
organizations. More than 5,000 rockets have already been
launched against us, and this too will not stop.
As we seek to force the transfer of Jews out of Gaza, uproot
thousands of people from their homes and bring Kassam rockets
that much closer, we would do well to understand the other side.
We are not giving Gaza up for peace and security, as Sharon
once promised. We would be wise to listen to Abu Mazen’s post-
election promise, in which he predicted that the “”little jihad had
ended, and now the big jihad is beginning.”” The only question is
from where that big jihad will be launched.
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JEREMIAH’S REBUKE OF THOSE WHO BETRAY ISRAEL
LETTER FROM RUTH MATAR (WOMEN IN GREEN) JERUSALEM
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Dear Friends,
Thank you for the many replies you sent me, agreeing with the
Letters Pastor Vineyard and Ken and Mary Krueger wrote to
President George W. Bush.
One of the messages I received came from the Brandeis District
of the Zionist Organization of America. I am reproducing this
message here in full:
In every generation they arise to destroy us…
We were deported and slaughtered by the Persians.
We were deported and slaughtered by the Romans.
We were deported and slaughtered by the Inquisition.
We were deported and slaughtered by the Tzars.
We were deported and slaughtered by the Nazis and their
collaborators.
And then we were deported and slaughtered by the Arabs.
Through all this, Jews lived and died hoping to reestablish a
nation
in Eretz Yisrael. We finally did and we prevailed against our
foreign
enemies. Now, incredibly, it is Jews who would deport their
own, imprison them in concentration camps and abandon the
land to those who would destroy it.
Such betrayers of Israel once earned the wrath of Jeremiah:
“”YE DEFIED MY LAND,
AND MADE MY HERITAGE AN ABOMINATION.
AND THEY THAT HANDLE THE LAW KNEW ME NOT,
AND THE RULERS TRANSGRESSED AGAINST ME.””
That Jews would deport Jews, that the cowardly would
imprison the brave, is truly an abomination.
Yet the voice of our people is muted, as it was during the
Holocaust.
We have leaned nothing from history.
When our leaders do speak, they deny our heritage.
Jeremiah’s rebuke of Israel and those Jews who acquiesce in its
betrayal is, all too timely today:
“”an everlasting shame, which shall not be forgotten.””
George K. Bernstein
President
***
Amazing how relevant the Prophet Jeremiah’s words are, even
today!
It is vitally important that each one of you contact President
George W. Bush to inform him that Sharon’s Gaza and Samaria
Disengagement Plan – (Deportation of Jews Plan) – is an
abomination. Also, remind him that “”Those who bless Israel will
be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.””
Contact information for President Bush:
Fax: 202-456-2461
Mailing Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington,
DC 20500
Tel.: 202-456-1414
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
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Happy New Year to the Land of Israel!
By Ariel Natan Pasko
It’s New Years again, and Jews are celebrating. This past Tishrei,
in the Hebrew calendar (usually around Sept.-Oct.), Jews the
world over celebrated the anniversary of the creation of the world
culminating in the creation of humanity, commonly known as
Rosh HaShannah, the Day of Judgment and coronation of the G-
D of Israel as “”King of the kings of kings””. Now, Jews are
celebrating another New Year, Tu B’Shvat (the 15th of the Hebrew
month of Shvat), which marks the New Year for trees.
Tu B’Shvat falls in the winter (this year January 25th, 2005), when
most of the winter rains have fallen and the fruits are just
beginning to ripen. There’s a famous Israeli song that begins
“”HaShekaydia porachat…The Almond trees are blossoming…””
and they really do this time of year, I’ve checked before in the
Jerusalem forest. Judaism as described in the Torah and further
explained through millennia of rabbinical discussion, is highly
land centered, there are numerous agricultural laws relating to
the Land of Israel.
By the way, Rosh HaShannah in Tishrei also relates to agriculture
and the Land of Israel, for example it establishes the Sabbatical
year.Plowing and planting (as described in Leviticus 25:2-5), are
forbidden beginning from the first of Tishrei, in the seventh year
of the Sabbatical
cycle. On the first of Tishrei, in the fiftieth year (the Jubilee year),
following seven cycles of Sabbatical years, all tenured land is
returned to its original owners. It starts the financial year for the
purpose of figuring tithes of vegetables and grains. One tenth of
a farmer’s produce from that particular year, which begins and
ends with the first of Tishrei, had to be given to the Levit! es and
priests in Jerusalem, at the Holy Temple when it stood.
Tu B’Shvat is significant in that it establishes the age of trees for
the purpose of “”orlah,”” (the biblical prohibition against eating
fruit that is grown during the first three years after a tree is
planted) and defines the agricultural year for the purpose of
tithing fruit, something that was of great significance in Temple
times and will be again when the Jewish People rebuild their Holy
Temple in Jerusalem. Tu B’Shvat is a mini-holiday on the Jewish
calendar when it is customary to plant trees in Israel (the Zionist-
Green Revolution has repopulated the land with millions of acres
of trees since the late 19th century), to stress environmental
awareness, and to eat fruits that are specific to the Land of Israel,
like dates, figs, grapes, olives, and pomegranates.
I occasionally get feedback letters or comments posted to my
articles,arguing that t! he “”Palestinians”” have as much right to
the land as the Jews. Well obviously from a biblical perspective
that is utter nonsense. Arabs come from the Arabian Peninsula,
and invaded the Middle East and North Africa long after the world
“”knew”” that the place of the Jewish People was the Land of
Israel. G-D gave it to them, and forever (check your bible).
The story of the Jewish People (Judaism) unfolds through
history; the promise of the land to the Patriarchs, Egyptian
slavery, the Exodus, the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, and the
return of the Jewish People to the “”Promised Land””. Many know
the Jews are called the Chosen”” people, but do you realize that
the Land of Israel is the “”Chosen”” land. Jewish history is unique.
Go ahead and rant at me if you want, but it’s true, go check it out.
“”Our religion is uni-national and our nation is uni-religious,”” to
quote the former prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. And
the Jewish People’s relationship to its homeland is also unique…
Sometimes, when attacked by leftists or Arabs, or Muslims, or
atheists, I’ve been told, “”but you Jews haven’t lived there for
hundreds of years, what gives you the right to…”” There are lots of
refutations of this; that Jews were forcibly exiled from their land,
that some Jews always lived on the land, that Jews always
claimed it was theirs throughout their bitter exile, that Jews
several times attempted military re-conquests; and that Jews for
nearly 2,000 years dreamed of the day that they would return en
mass and resettle it, rebuild it, and liberate it from foreign
occupation. But, I can only truly answer that; the Jewish People
have a unique and unbreakable relationship to the Land of Israel,
that wasn’t established by us, but by G-D himself, only Jews can
really feel it (it’s on a soul level). Others connection to their
homeland isn’t the same.
As the first Chief Rabbi of the renewed Jewish settlement in the
Land of Israel in the early 20th century, Rabbi Abraham Isaac
Kook, wrote in the beginning of his book, Orot (Lights): “”The
Land of Israel is not something peripheral [to Judaism], it is not
an external acquisition or national asset, it is not a means to
collective solidarity [national unity], nor even to strengthen the
nation’s physical or spiritual existence. The Land of Israel is an
independent unit bound by the bond-of-life and a living
attachment to the Jewish People, connected to them through a
deep inner uniqueness, with the nation’s existence.””
He then explains, “”Therefore, it is impossible to comprehend,
understand or appreciate the essence of this inner unique
sanctity and holiness of the Land of Israel, and to reveal and
actualize the depth of love for her [by the Jewish People] through
any form of human conceptualization, or rational human
understanding, but only by the “”Spirit of G-D”” that is in the soul
of the Jewish People and acts on the nation as a whole.””
Rabbi Kook continues, “”The view, that the Land of Israel is only
an external, peripheral value serving as a cohesive force, even
when it comes to reinforce the Jewish idea in the Diaspora…The
Judaism [Jews] in the Diaspora will only be strengthened
through a deep involvement with the Land of Israel. Only through
their longing for the Land of Israel, ill exilic Judaism receive its
inherent qualities and essential characteristics. Yearning for
Salvation, is the force that preserves Exilic Judaism, it gives the
Jews of the Diaspora the power to continue, whereas the
Judaism of the Land of Israel, is the very Salvation itself.”” Living
in the Land of Israel and keeping G-D’s Torah is the very
redemption, for the individual Jew. National salvation awaits the
Messiah’s coming…
It doesn’t matter if a Jew was born in Russia, Poland, Morocco,
France, Argentina, or America, the Land of Israel is his
“”inheritance”” through his fathers, from G-D. Christians and
Muslims know that. Honest Muslims, like Sheikh Abdul Hadi
Palazzi, the secretary-general of the Italian Muslim Association
will tell you so. The Jewish People’s love for the Land of Israel
knows no bounds of time or space, it is implanted in their souls,
and the stronger a Jews’ Jewish identity is, his practice of
Judaism and adherence to G-D’s Torah and Mitzvot
(commandments), that love will burn like a raging inferno able to
purify everything.
I direct your attention to the valiant Jewish “”settlers”” in Judea,
Samaria (the West Bank) and especially Gaza, where they are
being rocketed and motor attacked daily (over 5250 times at last
count). Those brave pioneers have withstood for several years,
the most hideous outrages, that a sick suicidal society (the
“”Palestinians””) could throw at them. Their love for the land of
Israel, their connection to her, is eternal and unbreakable.
So, when I sit down to my Tu B’Shvat Seder (a meal with Land of
Israel fruits, and a ritual order), like a Passover Seder, I’ll be
connecting to my “”roots””. As it says, “”For man is [like] the tree of
the field”” (Deut. 20:19), i.e. people need trees. And, wishing the
Land of Israel, a Happy New Year!
Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has
a Master’s Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis.
Pasko is a Member of the Board of Directors and a research
associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.His
articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank
websites, in newspapers, and can be read at:
www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko
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I Don’t Believe the Version of Deputy-Inspector Assaf Ravid
I read the Wednesday, January 19, 2005, Maariv article about the
Border Police officer, Deputy-Inspector Assaf Ravid. He claims,
in an article that made waves in the country, that “”a settler
pushed me and turned me into a cripple.”” I read the details and
immediately understood that this is simply an additional chapter
in the campaign to persecute the settler public of Judea, Samaria,
and Gaza. Yes, that is correct – I do not believe the incredulous
version of that Police officer.
I do not believe that during the evacuation of a caravan in Yitzhar,
“”a settler pushed him and turned him into a cripple.”” He himself
admits in the article, “”I began lifting people, to enable the
bulldozer to advance.”” In other words, Jews who tried to
physically block the bulldozer’s progress, were sitting on the
ground, and he forcibly “”lifted”” them, to allow the bulldozer to
continue. The question that Maariv did not bother to ask Ravid:
After he “”lifted”” the people, where did he throw them? Where did
he toss them down? How many people had their backs broken by
the force employed by Deputy-Inspector Assaf Ravid and his
men? No one is interested in this – for they are settlers, and not
only that, settlers from Yitzhar. Who cares about them, anyway?
The article continues:
“”‘We stood on a meter and a half high terrace. I was at the edge,
and I tried with all my strength to keep anyone from falling down,
both soldiers and settlers.’ Assaf’s memory stops at this point.
Even today, 8 months later, he can’t reconstruct those moments.
‘I know only that I woke up, paralyzed, in Beilinson Hospital.’ The
settler who Assaf claims pushed and turned him into a cripple
has not been located to this day.””
Is this not ludicrous?
Come on, who are they trying to fool here? The police arrest
protesters all the time – usually for no crime at all. And now, a
settler who presumably “”pushed a police officer and turned him
into a cripple”” wasn’t arrested on the spot? Who believes such
nonsense? It is clear to anyone who read the story that Ravid,
who stood on the edge of the terrace and was busy “”lifting
people”” forcibly and brutally – slipped and fell. Unfortunately, he
fell on his back and was crippled as a result.
A sad story, we wish him a speedy recovery, but why blame the
settlers? The reason is clear: in the run-up to Sharon’s
deportation plan, someone decided that the story should be
altered a bit to suit the campaign of persecuting the settler
public, in order to spread a blood libel about them, that they are
“”violent and dangerous.”” Only in this manner could Government
Minister Olmert justify his call to “”break the legs and chop off the
hands”” of settlers who would dare oppose the deportation plan.
The “”alteration”” and distortion of the truth by the police in order
to convict demonstrators is nothing new. But when these are
demonstrators from the national camp, it is always the fabricated
police version that is believed. As someone who has
unremittingly demonstrated with Women in Green, ever since the
Oslo accords (that is, for twelve years), and as someone who has
personally suffered from police persecution, from police
brutality, and from the lies of policemen in court, I can personally
attest to this.
How can I forget Micky Levi, who in 1994 was still Deputy
Commander of the Jerusalem District of the Police? He brutally
shoved me to the ground, even though I was in a legal and quiet
protest vigil on the sidewalk near the Supreme Court, and,
together with other policemen forcibly lifted me by my arms and
legs, with my back hitting the ground, and dragged me to a police
car. When I filed a complaint about an illegal arrest and police
brutality, a charge was filed against me of assaulting a police
officer! Micky Levi and other police officers appeared in court,
and unabashedly testified that I had attacked Levi! And when we
finally were fortunate enough to obtain a videocassette from
Channel 2 that proved, beyond any doubt, that it was Micky Levi,
specifically, who attacked me – the police retracted its
accusations and dropped the case. The fact that Levi perjured
himself in open court in no way interfered with his subsequent
promotion.
And how can I forget the police officer Ovadiah Kalimi, who broke
my ribs when I and my fellow Women in Green members
attempted to conduct a legal protest vigil on the sidewalk
opposite Binyanei Haumah (the Jerusalem International
Convention Center) during Clinton’s visit? He broke my ribs, and,
once again, a charge sheet was opened against me: that it was I
who had attacked him!
Not to mention, of course, the community service that I have
been performing, for more than a year now, and the criminal
conviction and the suspended sentence I received, all because
the judge decided to believe the false version of the police. I was
accused of throwing cookies at an Arab vehicle. However, no
Arab ever filed a complaint against me. It was actually the police,
by shoving the demonstrators, who caused the cookies in my
hand to fly through the air, with some apparently landing on the
windshield of an Arab car. But of what importance is the truth? It
is more important for the police to inform the media that “”the co-
chairperson of Women in Green, Nadia Matar, was arrested when
she threw objects at Arab vehicles””.
The police acted in the same manner after the murder by Arab
killers of the Kahana couple. A group from Women in Green,
protesting against the government’s inaction, entered the parking
lot of the Prime Minister’s Office, sat on the ground, and blocked
the entrance to the office. The media announced that the Women
in Green are causing a disturbance at the entrance to the Prime
Minister’s Office, and that they even injured two policemen! I
requested information regarding those two policemen who
presumably had been injured by our actions – and only hours
later did we learn that this had never happened. But the damage
had already been done – the Israeli public heard on the radio that
Women in Green had injured two policemen. No correction or
apology was ever issued.
These are only a few examples of the lies spread by the police,
aided by the media, with the clear goal of advancing their shared
interest: smearing the most nonviolent population in the country:
the settler public of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and their
supporters – trying to transform them into monsters. I am certain
that everyone active on behalf of Eretz Israel could add scores of
similar stories.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of complaints have been filed with
the Department of Investigation of Police by national camp
activists against policemen who have beaten them, inflicting
bruises on all parts of their bodies, shoved them, thrown them to
the ground, and who knows what other brutality was committed –
with the consent of the governments since the signing of the
Oslo Accords – in order to stop completely legal demonstrations.
None of these episodes has ever been, or ever will be, on the
front page of Maariv or of any other newspaper which follows the
government line.
And now, on the eve of the “”disengagement”” plan, more than
ever, the name of the game is “”accuse and besmirch the
settlers.”” Lies and half-truths are disseminated to the Israel
public so that it will no longer be sympathetic to the settlers. The
completely fictitious story of the “”attempt to steal a weapon”” in
Yitzhar; the story of the running over of a medical officer; the tale
of Assaf Ravid, who is crippled “”because of the settlers;”” the
fantastic story of the so-called “”willingness of settlers to shoot at
IDF soldiers”” – all are part of the persecution campaign and the
attempt to delegitimize the settlers of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
This, of course, is infuriating, but it should encourage us. The
renewed “”Saison”” campaign conducted by the ruling leftist junta
against the national camp shows the extent to which the Prime
Minister and the band of Oslo criminals around him are
panicking. They have totally lost their cool. They see that they
simply cannot carry out their malicious plans. A majority of the
people of Israel opposes the uprooting of settlements and the
handing over of portions of the homeland to the murderous Arab
enemy. Thousands of soldiers continue to sign on the petition
saying they will not give a hand to the patently illegal order of
uprooting Jews and abandoning parts of our G-d given Land to
the enemy. Tens of thousands of citizens are signing that on the
fateful day they will come and defend Gush Katif and northern
Samaria with their bodies. The overwhelming majority of the
settlers themselves refuse to accept compensation, and state
“”We will never leave Judea, Samaria, and Gaza!””
All that remains for Ariel Sharon is to attempt and slander the
settler public of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and their supporters,
with the aim of intimidating the Israeli public and convincing it
that “”harsh measures must be taken against the settlers, to break
their bones and chop off their hands.”” This is what the authors of
the “”Protocols of the Elders of Zion”” did when they spread lies
and blood libels against the Jews, as justification for the
campaign of persecution and pogroms against them.
But the majority of the people of Israel are not stupid and will not
buy these stories. The majority of the people of Israel know that it
is not the settlers who are violent, but those in the government
offices who plan to send soldiers and police to uproot, deport,
destroy, devastate, chop off hands, break bones, and who knows
what else. Perhaps they even plan to fire a second “”holy
cannon,”” as the Ben Gurion-led government did in 1948, when
they fired at the Altalena, and murdered 16 fellow Jews, mainly
young Holocaust survivors. The Altalena carried badly needed
weapons for Israel.
The Altalena massacre, brought about by the Ben Gurion
government, might have caused a civil war in 1948, if Menachem
Begin had not refused to retaliate. Unfortunately, today, the
Sharon government is using the Leftist media to make people
believe that the “”settlers”” are planning a civil war. In this regard,
it is important to remember what Eliyahu Golomb, of the Labor
Movement, the Head of the Haganah, said in a personal
conversation with Menachem Begin in Tel Aviv in 1944:
“”It is not important whether we fire the first bullet in a civil war.
We control the propaganda apparatus. And we will direct the
writer of history. You will always be the ones who initiate the civil
war.””
(As quoted by Yaakov Meridor in Arukah ha-Derekh le-Herut [The
Way to Freedom Is Long] [Jerusalem, 1950]; and by Yitzhak Ben-
Zvi, Shnot Zaam, Yemei Tehilah [Years of Rage, Days of Glory],
chap. 8, p. 254).
For the information of everyone participating in the witch hunt
against the national camp: All this will be of no avail to you.
You will not succeed in intimidating us.
You will not cause us to lose hope.
You will not succeed in silencing us.
To the contrary, “”But the more they were oppressed, the more
they increased and spread out”” (Exodus 1:12)!
With God’s help, we shall overcome!
Nadia Matar
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******************************************************
The Deeper Meanings of “”Disengagement””
by Professor Louis Rene Beres
“”All people, Jews or gentiles, who dare not defend themselves
when they know they are in the right, who submit to punishment
not because of what they have done but because of who they are,
are already dead by their own decision; and whether or not they
survive physically depends on chance. If circumstances are not
favorable, they end up in gas chambers…..”” — Bruno Bettelheim,
Freud’s Vienna And Other Essays.
Bettelheim, like the Greek poet Homer, understands that the force
that does not kill – that does not kill just yet – can turn a human
being into stone, into a thing, while still alive. Merely hanging
ominously over the head of the vulnerable creature, it can choose
to kill at any moment, poised portentously to destroy breath in
what it has “”graciously”” allowed, if only for a few more moments,
to breathe; this force mocks the fragile life it intends to consume.
The singular human being that stands helplessly before this
force has effectively become a corpse before any lethal assault is
even launched.
Israel, still manipulated and assaulted by an intermittent stream
of barbarous Palestinian terror, is in the process of becoming
this pitiable individual writ large. Called upon again and again by
our “”civilized”” world to negotiate with ritualistic murderers and
child-sacrificers, the Jewish State under Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon will soon face a very basic choice. It can accept an
immutably genocidal Palestinian state carved out of its own still-
living national body, or, instead, it can affirm its sacred post-
Holocaust obligation to endure and reaffirm its enduring Torah
obligation to “”choose life.””
Should the Sharon Government accept the former, and continue
with its announced “”disengagement”” policy of unilateral
territorial surrender (a policy linked to an imagined “”Two-State
Solution””), Israel would already lie defeated.
Prime Minister Sharon plans to “”disengage”” from 21 Gaza
settlements and from four settlements in Samaria beginning in
July. Yet, in his latest annual report to the Knesset Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee, Shin Bet intelligence director Avi
Dichter underscored the manifest perils of Jewish evacuation
and surrender. His strategic argument, straightforward and
essentially unassailable, was that Gaza-based Palestinian
terrorists – newly unencumbered by any Israeli military presence –
will quickly transform southern Israel into a second South
Lebanon. He added that handing northern Samaria to Palestinian
control could result in the creation of a second Gaza.
Even today, even after Oslo and the “”Road Map””, and the election
of a Palestinian “”president””, the official Palestinian Authority (PA)
map of “”Palestine”” still includes all of Israel. There are no two
states on the PA maps, only one. There is no plan for coexistence
with Israel in PA doctrine, only continuation of the longstanding
Arab/Islamic “”phased plan”” for Palestinian “”liberation””. There is
no Arab state on this bleeding planet that genuinely accepts a
Jewish State in the Dar Al-Islam, in the “”world of Islam””. Not one.
What sort of peace can Israel negotiate with a “”partner”” whose
only real question is, “”How long before we can get the Jews to
die?”” And how shall Israel navigate such a problematic peace in
a world where the traditional forms of anti-Semitism are now
being reinvigorated by newer fashions of Arab/Islamic Jew killing
– fashions that call openly for the maiming and mutilation of
Jewish children with nary a hint of condemnation from “”civilized””
countries?
Shall Israel complain? No problem, it can always find
authoritative comfort in the United Nations and its International
Court of “”Justice””. Shall it be allowed to erect a fence to protect
its children from being torn apart and burned alive? Certainly not,
since the lives of Israel’s Jewish children are loudly declared to
be less valuable than the olive trees of inconvenienced
Palestinian farmers. So it has already been written in the ICJ’s
July 9, 2004 advisory opinion on Israel’s security fence.
One might expect that Israel, after all the horror it has suffered at
the hands of Arab terrorists, would betray itself no longer. When
Priam enters the tent of Achilles, stops, clasps Achilles’ knees
and kisses his hands, he has already reduced himself to a
hapless and unworthy victim, one to be disposed of without
ceremony and in very short order. Realizing this, a gracious
Achilles takes the old man’s arm, pushing him away. As long as
he is clasping Achilles’ knees, Priam is an inert object. Only by
lifting him up off his knees can Achilles restore him to a position
of self-respect and to a living manhood.
Here Israel and Priam part company. Israel’s frenzied enemies,
twisted by Jihad, will never act in the honorable manner of
Achilles. Their aim is not the high-minded revitalization of a
respected adversary, but rather the “”liquidation”” (still the term
favored in the Arab world) of an inert object by genocide and war.
The Iliad reveals certain important lessons for Jerusalem; it
should be read with this in mind.
For whatever reasons, Israel has now come to accept a deformed
view of itself that was spawned not in Jerusalem or Hebron, but
in Cairo, London, Damascus, Paris, Baghdad, Washington,
Teheran, Hamburg, Jericho and Gaza. Degraded and debased,
this is the view not of a strong and powerful Jewish people,
determined to remain alive in its own land, but of a conspicuous
corpse-in-waiting, brought home from a two-thousand year exile
only to make its present-day slaughter even easier to inflict. It
goes without saying that large majorities of courageous Israelis
have always fought bitterly against such an intolerable view –
against the delusionary vision of Israel’s “”Peace Camp”” and the
Sharon plan – but this view is currently the official national image
nonetheless.
After Auschwitz, after Belsen, after Warsaw, after Lodz, there
can’t be any more intolerable expression of Jewish self-deception
than an Israel that has learned to “”live with terror.”” To suggest
otherwise, after every blown-up bus or school or restaurant, to
say that life in Israel must return to “”normal””, is not normal. It is
inexcusable and unspeakably abnormal.
Writing several years ago about Israel under the Oslo Accords,
the Israeli novelist Aharon Megged noted: “”We have witnessed a
phenomenon that probably has no parallel in history; an
emotional and moral identification by the majority of Israel’s
intelligentsia with people openly committed to our annihilation.””
This identification has taken poisonous root in a succession of
Israeli governments that have stubbornly refused to understand
their enemies, even while the streets of Israel’s cities have been
transformed by primal Palestinian killers from civilian
thoroughfares to sacrificial altars. Today, there are even Jewish
scholars who advocate Israel’s unilateral nuclear disarmament,
arguing in prestigious American journals that Israel can negotiate
true peace only by first agreeing to a “”nuclear weapon-free zone””
in the Middle East.
There is a way out of this humiliating, fateful and delusionary
condition, but it must go far beyond the standard suggestions of
policy and leadership changes. Replacing Ariel Sharon will not
be enough. Israel requires a way that demands, more than
anything else, an upright posture for the nation, an appropriately
heroic posture that precludes clasping the enemy’s knees and
kissing his hands. It is a way of dignity, not of supplication. It is a
way of open, full and unapologetic warfare against evil, of
standing firm for Jewish lands, of choosing boldly and faithfully
to stay alive, of avoiding not only death at the bloodied hands of
inflamed enemies, but also avoiding a shameless and distinctly
un-Jewish death-in-life.
Louis Rene Beres (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) is Professor of
Political Science and International Law at Purdue University.
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*******************************************************
Passing the Torch from Generation to Generation
by Gary M. Cooperberg
As the week of mourning came to an end, I found myself bereft of
two parents who only six months ago seemed so very much
alive. There are events in life which cause us to pause and
recognize the passing of time. Weddings and births are clearly
such milestones in life, but we usually choose not to think about
funerals. Death is something which frightens and saddens us, yet
it is as natural and normal as birth. Of course premature death is
certainly a tragedy, but to die after having lived a long and
productive life should be an event to celebrate.
My parents chose to leave the USA and came to live in Israel
twenty seven years ago. Both were under the age of sixty at the
time. It was an unusual decision which most of their friends and
neighbors could not understand. Deep in their hearts they knew
that only in the Jewish State could their lives be complete. They
celebrated Israel every day that they lived here. And they were
an inspiration to us, as we followed their example about four
years later.
My mother succumbed to lung cancer and died in her sleep on
the day preceding the holiday of succot. As such the traditional
seven day mourning period was cancelled owing to the
commandment to rejoice. As long as my father was alive, it felt as
if my mother was still with us.
Then, less than four months later, my father passed away at
home in his sleep early on Friday morning. Again, the most bitter
time of mourning was taken from me as we immediately entered
Shabbat where mourning is forbidden. The following week
enabled me to properly mourn both my
parents and to more fully accept the difficult change in our lives.
The past four months with my father were well spent. He
explained to me that, although he felt that he had a full life and
was completely ready to be with my mother, he had no intention
of hurrying the process. He was very sick and knew that there
wasn’t much time left for him. It was a carefully weighed decision
which saw him reject the warnings of his doctors and opt to have
a minor operation which offered him a slim hope to alleviate his
breathing problems. Were the operation to succeed, he would
hopefully have had the strength to visit his children,
grandchildren and great grandchildren. Were it to fail, he would
be with his beloved wife. To him it was a win win situation and he
eagerly anticipated it, no matter what the outcome.
His faith in G-d and courage to take such a difficult decision
brought him the reward of the avoidance of suffering in the
hospital. He died peacefully and serenely at home in his bed
before he could have the operation. A man of faith until the very
end my father always told me that he felt that G-d was with him
through every step of his life. Clearly this continued even with his
death.
Now, as I recite the mourners’ kaddish during the daily prayers
over the coming year, both my parents will be with me. I can only
pray that their memory and example will give me the strength to
continue on the path that they tread. Both my parents were very
worried about the increase in antisemitism all over the world and
were very pleased with my efforts with Project Shofar to
encourage aliyah. With G-d’s help I will continue to travel around
the USA and other places in the world to sound the alarm to my
fellow Jews.
*******************************************************
SAY NO TO DEPORTATION!
LETTER FROM RUTH MATAR (WOMEN IN GREEN) JERUSALEM
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Dear Friends,
There is a rapidly growing strong opposition on the part of the
Israeli public to Sharon’s dictatorial Disengagement Plan. Please
don’t believe those supposedly accurate opinion polls that “”65%
of the Israeli public”” want their fellow Jews violently evicted from
their homes. These polls, you will notice, are never attributed to
any reliable pollster by name. Most likely, they were taken in one
of the many bars or pubs on Sheinkin Street in Tel Aviv!
There is also much discussion about “”democracy””, and that any
opposition to disengagement is undemocratic, both on the part
of the Sharon government, and unfortunately, on the part of the
American government as well.
It is not made quite clear how it is “”undemocratic”” not to want to
be forcibly evicted from one’s home.
Reading today’s newspaper is like a very painful punch in the
solar plexus. We can’t help but feel as if the train has already left
the station, is gathering speed, and hurtling toward the abyss.
There are two articles in today’s (January 27, 2005) Jerusalem
Post, which add to this worrisome picture.
One article is entitled “”PM: New Anti-Semites Hate Jews Who
Fight Back””.
Sharon was speaking at the Knesset commemoration for the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz – Birkenau
concentration camp. “”Israel provides a safe haven for Jews””
Sharon said, adding that “”we can trust no one but ourselves.
This phenomenon of Jews defending themselves is an
‘anathema’ to the new anti-Semites.””
Beautiful words, but not in touch with reality. Israel no longer
provides a “”safe haven for Jews””. Ariel Sharon promised the
electorate security, but during his watch, more Jews have been
murdered by Arab terrorists than during the watch of any other
Israeli Prime Minister.
Today, Ariel Sharon, against the wishes of the Israeli public, and
diametrically opposed to the platform on which he was elected, is
planning to give up Jewish covenant Land. Sharon running away
with his tail between his legs is not making Israel more beloved.
On the contrary, anti-Semitism has grown worldwide by leaps
and bounds, and is endangering Jews in the Diaspora as well.
On the other hand, when the Jews defended themselves during
the 1967 Six Day War against overwhelming odds, Israel enjoyed
worldwide admiration and popularity.
A second article, even more upsetting, is found on the front page
of today’s Jerusalem Post. This article is entitled: “”Pull Out
Costs Included in New U.S. Aid Package””.
“”The US and Israel are in preliminary discussions on an aid
package that would include money to help Israel cover costs
associated with its disengagement plan, Israeli officials said
Wednesday.””
Amazing! Israel’s government kept saying that the Gaza and
Samaria disengagement was going to be much more difficult
than the abandonment of Yamit, since the US government
refused to fund this new evil plan of Sharon as well. (By the way,
the Yamit tragedy, even though it took place while Menachem
Begin was Prime Minister, was to a great part engineered by
Sharon. In fact, before his election as Prime Minister he
confessed that the Yamit evacuation was the one thing which
took place in his career that he regretted.)
The question many Israelis and Americans would like to have the
answer to is, what costs is the United States particularly
interested in covering at this time?
Does America want to cover the cost of the building of additional
prisons capable of holding thousands of objectors to the
Disengagement Plan?
Is America going to fund the large amount of money to purchase
protective gear for the evacuating forces? (But not for the little
children, fathers and mothers, who are the objective of this
violent evacuation.)
Is America going to fund the preparations of special training
camps to train police, soldiers and other forces to deal with Jews
who in any way resist expulsion.
Is America funding shelters in the Negev desert for the Jews who
are being transferred from one of the most beautiful parts of
Israel? In fact, there is a persistent rumor that when, G-d forbid,
the PLO gets its hands on the Gush Katif coastal strip, Saudi
Arabia will acquire this area and build a luxurious vacation spot
with gambling casinos, hotels, beaches etc. to surpass even the
splendor of the French Riviera.
Is America going to fund Sharon’s gruesome plan to dig up the
bones from the Jewish graves in Gush Katif, because the Arabs
demand that even the soil of this Jewish Land be Judenrein?
WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BECOME DISCOURAGED! Yes, the
train may have left the station but with
G-d’s help, we will defeat Sharon’s disengagement plan. It is up
to us, Jewish and Christian Zionists alike, to fight this evil plan
together. We are fortunate to have a powerful friend fighting with
us, a Christian Zionist, Jim Vineyard, a Baptist Pastor in
Oklahoma City. He gets up early in the morning and writes an
Open Letter to President Bush and sometimes to Prime Minister
Sharon, as well. He does this every day, without fail.
I am including the following Open Letter to President Bush and
Prime Minister Sharon dated January 24, for you to read very
carefully. I think it is the most thoughtful, important and powerful
letter on this subject I have yet come across.
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH AND PRIME MINISTER
SHARON:
SAY NO TO DEPORTATION!
Greetings to you, Sirs, from Oklahoma City and from the
Christian-Zionist organization, “”Yedidim of Israel.””
Sirs, the statistics recently released say 12 million evangelicals
who did not vote in 2000 voted in 2004 to provide Mr. Bush’s re-
election. Statistics also reveal there are 40 million people in
America who call themselves born-again Christians. These are
folks who give testimony that they have trusted the Savior.
Mr. Bush, you give testimony that you have trusted the Savior.
Sir, we Christian-Zionists owe the Jews an enormous debt. We
owe them for the Savior, for our Bible tells us that He was of the
lineage of David. You and I believe the Messiah has already
come. The Jews do not believe that He has come. However, that
is beside the point for our concern relative to this issue; for as
Bible believers, we Christian-Zionists must urge our President,
who says he is born-again, to do exactly what the Bible tells
everyone to do who has that testimony relative to the children of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Next, Sir, we owe them for the Holy Bible which the Jews
received, transcribed, preserved, and then passed on to us “”hell-
deserving sinners.”” Sir, even our first President, Mr. George
Washington, obeyed the Holy Bible, when it came to relations to
the Jews, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Because we owe the Jews, Sir, and because we know the Holy
Bible, as Dr. J. Frank Norris, pastor of First Baptist Church, Fort
Worth, Texas, wrote President Harry Truman in 1948, we best
heed the warning of Joel 3:2: I will also gather all nations, and
will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will
plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel,
whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my
land. Sirs, the word parted in Joel 3:2 means divided. America is
not going to come out on the winning side if we have anything to
do with “”parting”” or “”dividing”” the little land of Israel, which God
Almighty gave to the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not
to the sons of Ishmael and Esau. All one has to do to know this is
to read their Bible. There are many, many Scriptures teaching
this. In Zechariah 12, the Holy Bible teaches how God Almighty
says He will make Jerusalem a “”burdensome stone”” for all the
nations which oppose her. When God first spoke to Abraham
about the Jews as a people (He was a Gentile who became the
father of the Jews.), God told him: And I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee . . . (Genesis12:3,
Genesis 27:29, and Numbers 34:9).
America has to be very careful about this Road Map to Peace
Plan which is going to be the cause of Jews deporting Jews from
their homes in the Gush Katif and the Shomron.
We know that the vision is for two states, Israel and Palestine,
living side by side in peace and security, with new Palestinian
leadership that rejects terror, and for all leaders in the Middle
East to reject terror and meet their responsibilities for building a
peaceful and prosperous region. This entails security and peace
for Israel, a viable and democratic Palestinian state, and a just
and comprehensive peace for the entire region. Israel is by far
America’s most effective and giving ally in the world. Their
military and computer technology – lasers and their pioneering
medical technology – keep America safe and bring the promise of
restored health and length of days to scores of millions of
people. Yet our government is not only showing indifference to
these contributions to our good but is pushing hard for the
“”deportation of Jews”” from their homes in Gaza and Shomron.
This is “”ethnic cleansing”” of the worst sort; it is “”Krystalnacht””
all over again. The result will be a “”protected terror base”” for
which the Islamic so-called “”Palestinians”” will reign mayhem on
the Israelis. While all this is happening, a seventeen-member
delegation from the port city of Long Beach, California, is in
Israel learning how to beef up local security, giving the ongoing
terror situation launched by the 9/11 terrorists attacks. We are
learning from the Israelis, but at the same time, our “”Road Map
Plan”” is tying their hands behind their backs.
Mr. Bush, do you want history to write about you like it did
Neville Chamberlain?
Let me mention several things:
First, let us look at Israeli security.
America has been very concerned with “”homeland security””
since the 9-11 attacks and the Congressional hearings on that
subject. But, Sirs, what about the little nation of Israel?
The Arab world is presently made up of 22 countries containing
nearly 5 million square miles and 144 million people. The wider
Islamic world contains 44 countries with more than 1 billion
people. These Islamic states comprise an area 672 times the size
of Israel. The state of Israel with about 5 million Jews, would fit
two times into our Lake Michigan. The Sinai Desert, which Israel
conquered from Egypt, then ceded back to Egypt after the 1979
Treaty in exchange for vague and still unfilled promises of
friendship, is of itself three times larger than all of Israel.
What we see is that “”Road Map-Disengagement-Deportation of
Jews by Jews”” is a large segment of what will turn into a major
strategic defeat for Israel, just as their withdrawal from Lebanon
did. The Jews know that absconding from Lebanon was a
strategic disaster. It served as the inspiration and the model for
subsequent terrorism in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
If Israel now leaves Gaza with their tails stuck between their legs
(and that is exactly how the so-called Palestinians will see it) and
if they dismantle the settlements in the Gush Katif and Shomron,
then, Sirs, the nation of Israel will become the first democratic
country to be defeated by terrorism. Israel, with American
backing, will return to the pre-1967 borders, and that will all be
under so-called “”Palestinian”” fire – and that will “”unilaterally”” be
without any kind of Arab agreement.
Since we are talking about the so-called “”Palestinian”” people, let
us look at the facts regarding these so-called “”Palestinians.””
Prior to the 1967 Six Day War, no such people ever existed in the
history of mankind. Suddenly, at the end of the Six Day War, all
those Arabs – Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians, etc – who were in
what is called the West Bank and Gaza, suddenly became
“”Palestinians.”” This is the greatest fraud of the 20th Century.
There has never been a “”Palestinian”” people. There has never
been nor is there presently a “”Palestinian”” language. These
people are Arabs whose origin is in the Arab countries
surrounding the little nation of Israel. Mr. Yasser Arafat, the
inventor of using airplanes as a “”terrorist weapon,”” won the
hearts of the leftist news media by being able to portray the so-
called “”Palestinians”” as “”David”” and the military might of Israel
as “”Goliath.”” It is all a hoax. It is all a fraud. It is not politically
correct even in 2005, but it is the truth.
If America or Israel is to be on the victorious side in this Islamic
Terrorism War, then truth is going to have to matter to us. In this
regard, we must face up to the truth. To deport Jews from land
that God Almighty gave to them, according to the Holy Bible, and
that they won fair and square in the Soviet-initiated (Recently
released documents from the Soviet Union show this very
plainly.), Soviet-supplied Arab armies, is unthinkable. We must
face the truth in this matter.
Mr. Bush, you are a well-to-do boy from West Texas. I am just a
poor-boy from the Panhandle. But, this short, fat, bald-headed
preacher has enough “”Panhandle sense”” to see that this move
will signify the success of terrorism and guarantee its
continuation within Israel by Israeli Arabs, many of whom are
already involved. We will cause the Jews to be surrounded by
“”terrorist-protected bases”” whose sole aim is “”terrorism to
destroy Israel.””
Then, the story of how Islamic terrorism defeated a strong,
democratic country will spread all over the globe, which will
cause the “”haters of Jews and America”” to get in line for their
next whack upon us, causing problems everywhere and severely
weakening America’s opportunities for success in Iraq, where our
boys are dying daily.
Mr. Bush, we are not ceding territory to the Islamic terrorists in
Afghanistan or Iraq. Why should we be for the Jews doing that in
Israel? It just does not make sense, Sir!!!
Second, let us look at the immorality and illegality of “”Jews
deporting Jews.””
I was in Israel a few days ago when 40,000 of the settlers were
there in front of the Knesset in opposition to the “”Deportation””
Plan. I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that a state evicting
people from their homes is managing to elude the laws
protecting honor and freedom, judgment of the high court of
justice, and of the media and public opinion. Israeli society will
be stripped of all of the morals it once held dear.
In a film that we cooperated with the Ariel Center for Policy
Research and had made while I was in Israel, several interviews
were made with Israelis who are to be “”deported”” from their
homes. We are attempting to get as many of the 7,640 churches
as we possibly can aligned with us in “”Yedidim of Israel”” to show
this film in their church and then on television.
Sirs, my old Texas dad used to say, “”Jimmy, talk is cheap; it
takes money to buy whiskey.””
However, as I listen to these chosen ones of God, the ones God
says plainly are “”the apple of His eye,”” His “”precious ones,”” I do
not think they are speaking “”cheaply.”” What I expect is that the
“”deportation”” scheme is going to be one of the “”ugliest scenes””
unfolding for 2005. These folks probably will not go peaceably
and quietly. Mr. Bush, I could just see you giving Gray County,
Texas, to the Muslims. You would have more than you could say
grace over on your hands. If the Deportation Plan proceeds as is
now planned, I will make two predictions: First, Mr. Sharon, you
will be voted out of office before your time is up. Second, Mr.
Bush, you will cause a Democrat to be elected in 2008; and if
something does not happen it might just be Hillary Clinton. Your
12 million who bailed you out in 2004 might not show up.
I visited the town of Sderot in November 2004 with twelve other
preachers from our Oklahoma Baptist College. Ella Abukasis, age
17, was killed there last week by the same Islamic so-called
“”Palestinians”” that we believe will make peace with the Israelis.
Despite the inconvenient hour last Friday, some 2,000 friends and
relatives escorted Ella’s body to its final resting place. (Unless we
force the Israelis to give them Sderot, like Newe Deqalim and the
other twenty-four communities in Gaza and Shomron, then they
will have to dig up her grave and take her body with them.) Ella
gave her life to save her little brother, Tamir Yaakov. Sderot
Mayor Eli Moyal told the crowd, “”Your pain is our pain.”” It is
about time, Mr. Bush, that the “”pain”” of the Israelis become the
pain of the Americans.
Your friend and servant,
Jim Vineyard
A Baptist Pastor in Oklahoma City
* * *
The DVD which Pastor Vineyard mentions in his letter has
interviews made with Israelis who are to be “”deported”” from their
homes. This is powerful stuff! As Pastor Vineyard says, he
doesn’t want to profit from the troubles of the Jews, so he’s only
charging $10 for a copy. In the words of Pastor Vineyard “”The
deportation scheme will be one of the ‘ugliest scenes’ unfolding
for 2005, because these folks probably will not go peaceably and
quietly.””
Time is short! Get your copy of the DVD and encourage your
friends to get a copy as well. Plan a social evening in your home,
and invite people in your community to view the DVD as well.
Also arrange that Synagogues and Churches feature a viewing of
this tape together with a discussion program. To purchase a
copy of this DVD, email .
It is most important, dear friends, that after viewing this DVD, you
express your feelings to President Bush. Send him a fax at 202-
456-2461, or a letter by snail mail at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20500. In addition, call his office at 202-456-
1414. As I previously mentioned, emails are not as effective, as
they’re not printed out, and therefore your opinion may not be
fully brought to the President’s attention. Also contact your
Senators and Congressman.
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
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To Hell With Auschwitz, Give Me Israel
By Ariel Natan Pasko
To hell with Auschwitz, and damn those people who invoke it’s
memory, but ignore the injustices being done to the Jewish
People today. A certain radical rabbi used to say, “”I’d rather be a
live Jew that everyone hates, then a dead Jew that everyone
mourns over.”” Today, they mourn over Auschwitz, but are
working hard to take away from the Jewish People its most basic
national right, its homeland, Israel. Though most countries (about
150 out of 191 member nations) voted in favor of holding the 60th
anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz (Jan.
27th) at the UN, the General Assembly was less than half full, and
Jordan was the only Arab country that remained during
Holocaust memorial speeches by UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom.
The UN Secretary-General spoke first, saying, “”The evil which
murdered 6,000,000 Jews in the death camps still threatens us
today.”” He referred to more recent genocides, but then explained
the “”tragedy of the Jewish people was unique. Two thirds of all
Europe’s Jews, including one and a half million children, were
murdered. An entire civilization, which had contributed far
beyond its numbers to the cultural and intellectual riches of
Europe and the world, was uprooted, destroyed, laid waste.”” The
only representative of an Arab country to speak, was Jordan’s UN
ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein. Yet, he took
advantage of the occasion to attack Israel’s alleged mistreatment
of the “”Palestinians,”” rather than to express solidarity with the
sufferings of the Jewish People at the Holocaust
commemoration. Referring to “”one people dominat[ing] another,
denying] the latter many of its most basic rights, and so, with the
passage of time, also degrading] it as a people.””
What took the UN 60 years to discuss the Holocaust? Why did a
major UN anti-racism conference a couple years ago in Durban,
South Africa, ignore Anti-Semitism? Why did the UN declare,
“”Zionism is Racism”” between 1975 and 1991, when the UN itself
approved the creation of the State of Israel? Which was the
culmination of the Zionist movement’s efforts to liberate the
Jewish People’s homeland from foreign occupation. Who cares
what the UN, the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia) and the rest of
the world thinks…they’re a bunch of liars, hypocrites, and
accomplices to murder. Has the past emorialization of the
Holocaust prevented any mass murder in the last 60 years?
The same hypocrites, who cry today about Auschwitz, watched
as Cambodia and Rwanda happened, and now stand on the
sidelines, while Arabs in Darfur, Sudan, slaughter black Africans
(see my article “”There They Go Again, Those Arab Racists””). That
includes Kofi Annan. Jews too can get caught up in this duplicity.
Recently, some Jewish Gazans adopted an orange Star of David,
as a symbol of protest against Ariel Sharon’s planned expulsion
of Jews from Gaza. Well, you can’t imagine how fast they got
jumped on. It was a true media frenzy, leftists of all colors, Yad
V’Shem (Israel’s National Holocaust Museum), a few survivors of
the Holocaust (although other survivors in Gaza put on the
orange star), and even some assorted “”right-wing”” supporters of
the “”settlers”” all complained that such a symbol (mimicking the
Nazi’s use of yellow stars to identify Jews) was too sacrosanct to
be used for “”political”” purposes. Before that, a “”right-wing””
activist got into trouble writing a public letter comparing the head
of the Transfer Authority, Yonaton Bassi, who is in charge of
organizing the “”settlers”” that the Israeli government wants to
throw out of their communities, to the “”Judenrat”” (the Holocaust-
era Jewish committees that helped the Nazis organize Jews).
People across the Israeli political spectrum criticized her for the
comparison, with the usual assortment of leftists calling for a
police investigation, with which they obliged. But an important
point must be made here. The Holocaust, i.e. the mass murder of
about six million Jewish men, women and children during World
War II by the Nazis and their helpers, didn’t happen overnight. It
began by the demonization of Jews (for centuries throughout
Europe) and in Nazi Germany in particular. It moved on to the
deligitimization of fellow German citizens just because they were
Jews, depriving them of home, study, occupation, and business.
When the Nazis occupied other countries, mass expulsion of
Jews from their homes began. They were moved to “”Ghettos,””
then later deported to labor camps and murder camps. In other
words, it was implemented in phases.
Those in Israel, who don’t like the comparisons to the Holocaust
or use of Holocaust-era symbols or language, should act very
carefully not to encourage the comparison. Stop the late night
surprise expulsions of “”illegal”” outposts. Stop the brutalizing of
Jews by the police, who protest expulsion policies. Stop the
demonizing of “”settlers””. Stop acting like that NOW! The
demonization of Jews has been taking place in the Islamic world
for some time now, and the deligitimization of the Jewish
People’s national political rights (the State of Israel) has followed.
Anti-Semitism (or better called Judeo-pathic behavior),
masquerading as anti-Zionism is rife again today in Europe,
among international leftist circles globally, and in the
Arab/Islamic world. I guess the “”political capital”” of the Holocaust
has run out, today they barely mourn over dead Jews (except for
our newly found friends at the UN). Some even plan the next
massacre. While much of the world supports the enemies of
Israel (the “”Palestinians”” for example), “”for the sake of peace”” no
less, Ariel Sharon and his helpers have demonized the “”settlers,””
deligitimizing them and their communities in the process. The
democratic exercise of free speech, to voice opposition to
Sharon’s expulsion plans, has been labeled “”extreme right-wing””
behavior, and gone beyond some imaginary “”red line””. Plans to
expel over 8,000 Jews from their homes are underway, and
numerous “”leaks”” from high-ranking government officials (like
Olmert and Peres) have stated that this is just phase one. Even
the discredited former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak (who is
planning his political comeback), is still bantying about the
Clinton plan, that the late mass murderer Yasser Arafat rejected.
That plan, would require the expulsion of about another 50,000 to
80,000 Jews from Judea and Samaria. So, expulsion of Jews from
their homes and communities is high on the Israeli political
agenda, as they maneuver to make nice with the “”Palestinians””.
How could this be? How could Israel’s right to exist be
questioned,while Jew-hatred is flourishing in all quarters, and
Jews are being persecuted in their own homeland?
The words of Shimon Peres, just after losing to Binyamin
Netanyahu in 1996 (during an interview in the left-leaning Israeli
newspaper Haaretz) reveals a lot. When asked, “”What happened
in these elections?”” Peres answered, “”We lost.”” The interviewer
then asked, “”Who is we?”” Peres replied, “”We, that is the
Israelis.”” The interviewer clarified, “”And who won?”” Peres said,
“”All those who do not have an Israeli mentality.”” Then, the
interviewer asked, “”And who are they?”” Peres answ! ered, “”Call it
the Jews.”” So, back in 1996, Shimon Peres already differentiated
between, the “”religious,”” the “”settlers,”” and the “”nationalists,”” as
“”The Jews”” who rejected his “”Oslo Dreams,”” and those
cosmopolitans willing to compromise on their identity and
homeland, “”The Israelis””. Sharon is just taking it one step further.
Peres could only dream his Oslo dreams of peace with the
enemies of the Jewish People, and the forced expulsions of the
Jews from their homes. But now, Sharon, through his Gaza
Expulsion Plan, is
working to implement Peres’ dream. While Jews as a whole and
Israel in particular are under fierce attack globally (both
politically and through terrorism), many Jews are also under
attack locally in Israel (not only from Kassam rockets and
suicidal-genocidal terrorists), but by “”The Israelis””. “”The Israelis””
(like Peres and Sharon) prefer to die and be memorialized by the
world, rather than confront the world’s ire while defending
themselves against “”Palestinian”” terror. “”The Israelis”” are
working hard to destroy “”The Jews””lives in Gaza, Samaria and
Judea, trying to please the world, rather than sticking to the
eternal G-D given truth (that the Land of Israel belongs
exclusively to the Jewish People). “”
The Israelis”” are trying to uproot the Jewish People’s millennia-
old love for its homeland. It seems not only has the rest of the
world not learned the lessons of the Holocaust, but also “”The
Israelis”” haven’t either. “”Never Again”” as used by international
do-gooders has become an empty slogan. It hasn’t prevented
new genocides, and it hasn’t prevented the rise of virulent
Judeopathy either. “”The Israelis”” are just a couple steps behind,
hardly preventing attacks against Jews by “”Palestinians,”” always
worried what the world will say, and now, planning their own
expulsion program. To hell with Auschwitz…and the past, give !
me life, strength, the glorious future of the Jewish People, and
my homeland, the Land of Israel.
Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has
a Master’s Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis.
His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-
tank websites,and in newspapers.
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Sue Sharon and his accomplices
By Adina Kutnicki January 12, 2005
Imagine these glaring headlines: “”Bush Unleashes Terror
Prisoners, Empties Guantanamo as Gesture to Osama””; “”Bush
Satisfied With 100% Effort from Osama to Halt Terror Attacks —
Results Irrelevant””.
If the above headlines sound too farfetched, you have not been
reading Israeli newspapers, nor listening to Israeli newscasts. As
Israel’s war with the Arab “”Palestinians”” enters its fifth year, the
following urgent question needs to be asked and answered
immediately: why in heavens name isn’t there a collective roar
from the Israeli public when headlines continually blare that
Sharon “”contemplates”” (doublespeak for “”intends””) new prisoner
releases?
Let all sane and rational people digest these salient points. Are
unsuccessful murderers, due to incompetence or happenstance,
“”A OK”” to unleash on the public? And is the ONLY thing required
of Abbas to receive this most magnanimous “”gesture”” to exert
“”100% effort””? Does it mean that if Abbas speaks in forked,
elegant English to his western audiences (but truthfully to his
Arab audience), that is all which is required of him? If he repeats
ad infinitum that he is trying his very, very best to rein in the
terrorists — but can’t/won’t stop the bombers, the shooters and
the rocket launchers from killing — that Sharon and his gang will
STILL release CAPTURED terrorists? Has Sharon gone mad?
As a non-mental health professional, I am not in the position to
give a qualified psychiatric diagnosis to Sharon’s inner demons.
However, it is an open secret that politicians cynically abuse their
elected mandates in pursuit of self-interested goals. This is
despicable, but unfortunately not a new phenomenon, especially
in the realm of dirty Israeli politics. The mere fact that Sharon’s
two closest confidants are Weissglas and Peres speaks volumes
as to the corruption of this government. Both are “”in bed”” with
PA/PLO financial ventures. One is rightfully be judged by the
company they keep, whether in or out of politics.
Let all lovers of Jewish Israel stop repeating the tired mantras —
Sharon is a war hero! He would never lead his people astray! He
must know things that he just can’t say. What he sees from there
we can’t see from here. This is all for our collective benefit.
Nonsense. Of course, Sharon has information to which the
average Israeli is not privy. All leaders in government do.
However, every signal, overt or otherwise, oozing from Sharon
should lead one’s inner voice to the conclusion that he is now
beating to his own drummer. Whether he is going back to his
leftist roots, to keep himself or his sons out of prison, or
changing horses for other reasons is irrelevant. All that matters
is this: he is leading Israel down the road to ruin.
There are some issues in life not worth fighting over because of
the time and energy required to expend. However, the abuses by
the current government, mainly orchestrated by Sharon (with
Peres pulling strings in the background) demands that the Israeli
public exert all measures of civil disobedience and democratic
means available to topple the present government.
Sharon is not only Israel’s Prime Minister, he is its Commander-
In-Chief. He has abrogated his most important mandate to the
people — to protect them from enemies near and far. This
government has been by every rational standard failing to protect
its citizens. Every other disastrous decision of this government
emanates from this dereliction of this sacred duty. Imagine on a
smaller scale a General purposefully leading his troops into an
enemy trap. Upon capture, this General would be first put up for
court martial, and then tarred and feathered by its citizens.
What can the public-at-large do at this very dangerous juncture in
Israel’s history? Top flight civil and criminal lawyers should be
flooding the courts with massive Class Action lawsuits. While
there is a very strong case against him for violating generally
accepted democratic norms/principles, the crux of the lawsuits
should address his failure to protect. In any normal country such
a leader would be ousted immediately, and brought to trial. Each
and every elected government official who facilitated Sharon’s
dereliction should be named as co-defendants.
This is not at all farfetched or unworkable. It has become a legal
tactic by many groups/people infected by the cancer of Islamic
terrorism to sue and hold responsible foreign governments,
banks and assorted others for their crimes against humanity. The
inherent immorality of unleashing CAPTURED terrorists is
beyond dispute throughout the civilized world.
The first logical step in correcting this grave injustice is to first
sue Israel’s governmental leaders, for in effect, aiding and
abetting terrorists. Can anyone honestly argue that this isn’t
EXACTLY what the Sharon government is doing?
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Upcoming Activities
On Sunday, January 30, 2005 at 9:30 A.M., Women in Green will
be at the Binyanai HaUma, across from the Central Bus Station in
Jerusalem, signing up those who do not agree to remove their
fellow Jews from their homes in the Promised Land, destroy their
communities in Gush Katif and Northern Shomron, and uproot
the graves of their beloved ones. Because last week the Military
Police made it difficult for those in uniform to sign our Petition,
we have decided to change the location and meet instead at the
Binyanai HaUma across from the Central Bus Station.
Come join us in this holy endeavor, which fulfills the promise
HaShem made to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob –
and prevents the turning over of this Holy Land to our Arab
enemies.
Then, in the evening of that same Sunday, we are joining the
Yesha Council demo outside the Knesset. Women in Green will
be meeting at 7:30 P.M. on Ruppin Street across from the Israel
Museum, next to the big clock. We will be carrying our own signs
which say: “”The People Have Decided. Sharon is bad for the
Jews!”” Join us, and show your displeasure with Sharon, and his
disastrous Disengagement Plan.
Jerusalem, January 30, 2005 Ruth and Nadia Matar