January 2005
Urgent! Free Zviki Koretzki!
Why Christians leave Mideast
To Prevent an Unbridgeable Rift
Corection and Announcements
Sharon's Disengagement - Attack on Jewish Religion
Arafat's Heir
Genuine alarm
We Must Unite in our Fight
Upcoming Activities
Which Way will Abbas Go?
Who Are You, Abba Mazen
When 'free elections' means just further legitimizing terrorism
Column One: The demographic bomb is a dud
United We Stand
Jeremiah's Rebuki of those Who Betray Israel
Happy New Year to the Land of Israel!
I Don't Believe the Version of Deputy-Inspector Assaf Ravid
The Deeper Meanings of "Disengagement"
Passing the Torch from Generation to Generation
Say No to Deportation!
To Hell With Auschwitz, Give Me Israel
Sue Sharon and his accomplices
Column One: Whither Israeli democracy?
Upcoming Activities
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URGENT!! FREE ZVIKI KORETZKI!!
Dear friends,
Please read the following horrendous story and then act urgently
to help Zviki Koretzki.
a) Forward this story to all lists that you know
b) Contact the following offices with the clear and simple
message:
FREE ZVIKI KORETZKI
We cannot remain silent in face of this blatant injustice.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz fax: 972-3-697-6218;
tel: 972-3-697-5436
Ron Shechner (Aid to Shaul Mofaz) fax: 972-3-697-6328
tel: 972-3-697-5195
Bugi Yaalon, Chief of staff fax: 972- 3-569-6777
tel: 972-3-569-6601
IMPORTANT: Send your emails of support to Zviki's parents,
Malka and Yefim whose email address is: koretzki@yahoo.com
Zviki's father, despite his difficult physical condition, has started
a daily sit-in protest in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv
demanding his son's immediate release. He is there every day
from 6:30AM till 1 PM From Sunday till Thursday. It is important
to come and show support. If we do not scream right now, then
today it is Zviki, tomorrow it can be any of our boys in the army.
Ruth and Nadia Matar
**********************
Following are two articles: one by Moshe Feiglin and a letter by
Zviki's sister Sarah Koretsky.
Zviki
By Moshe Feiglin
Yefim Kortzki could not understand how he had remained alive. A
unit of the Golani Brigade, comprising 24 half-tracks and three
tanks, began the climb towards Tel Faher during the battle to
liberate the Golan Heights. The fortunate ones who reached the
approaches to the objective stormed forward and fought like
lions, exposed to the light of
day, and facing superior forces deployed in well-dug-in positions.
Fourteen commendations and two medals for bravery were
awarded for this battle. There were few survivors. Yefim's luck
ran out at the end of the Six Day War when his jeep, fitted with a
recoilless gun, encountered a mine and he was gravely wounded.
But Yefim isn't the kind of man who gives in. Despite his grave
disability he refused to accept financial aid from the Ministry of
Defense. "The country doesn't owe me anything", he explained.
He was hospitalized for more than a year. After being discharged
he immediately started working, built a wonderful family, and
continued to fight the daily war of existence with his own efforts.
Over the course of the years the effects of his serious injuries
became more marked, and he is now confined to his home, and
every movement he makes causes agonizing pains that recall for
him the terrible events of that battle.
I visit Yefim every Shabbat. A ray of hope emerged despite
the terrible pains and the nightmares of yesterday. Nine years
ago his son, Zviki, joined the IDF. Yefim passed on to his son his
Zionist ardor, his belief in the State of Israel, and in the IDF. Zviki
is really something. He is hard-working and talented, and
stunned the senior officers who encountered him. He finished an
officer's course and then advanced rapidly through progressive
ranks, leaving a trail of reports of excellence in his wake. As a
young officer he filled a number of positions usually given to
people several ranks above him.
In everything he did he introduced improvements and well
liked by those both above and below him. Zviki saw his future in
the army. He joined the ranks of the regular army and was
scheduled to start a course of studies about two years ago. When
Yefim saw Zviki this made his day. But Zviki was too good for the
State of Israel.
One Shabbat, when the battalion commander took a vacation, he
left Zviki in command of the battalion. Zviki was patrolling with a
single jeep when he suddenly received a message. In the Arab
village of Nazlat Zid a car bomb was being prepared to make an
attack on Hadera. This was at the peak of the terrorist attacks, the
distance from the village to the target was short, and there was
no time to organize additional forces. Just Zviki, his driver, and
an additional soldier, blocked the path of the car bomb intended
to attack Hadera. Zviki didn't hesitate and entered the village.
It was Shabbat. There were no people in the area apart from
the residents of the village. So why was there a demonstration
blocking his path? Obviously, this apparently spontaneous
demonstration was intended to delay him and thus permit the car
bomb to leave for its destination. Zviki got out of the jeep and
called on the demonstrators to leave the place. Naturally, noone
obeyed him. He fired in the air and this still had no effect. Time
was pressing so Zviki did something that was customary at that
time. He took careful aim and fired at a brick wall in a nearby
house. He clearly saw the place that his bullet had hit. Now the
demonstration dispersed and Zviki rushed to patrol the village.
The car bomb was no longer there, and thank G-d had been
caught in a nearby village.
When Zviki left the village he saw that a crowd had
gathered. The villagers pointed to an injured person in a vehicle.
They claimed that he had been hit by a bullet. Zviki helped as
best as he could and brought the vehicle with the wounded
person to a nearby medical unit.
As a result of pressure applied by the Betzelem
organization, Zviki was brought to trial. The prosecution had no
real proof. The body of the injured person had been taken away
by the Arabs and buried a long time earlier, and noone could
prove that he had been killed by a bullet. It is quite likely that as
in other similar cases, local Arabs had killed the person and used
the body for propaganda purposes. But why should the military
court concern itself with such explanations, when precedents
have already been established by the Supreme Court, and Leftist
media person Ilana Dayan is breathing down its neck? A
windowframe, without the glass, was produced as proof that
Zviki's bullet had exploded it. (It's worth mentioning that a bullet
from an M16 rifle, as used by Zviki, leaves a hole, but the rest of
the glass remains intact.) Zviki request to return to the village
and locate the place where his bullet hit the wall was rejected.
Two very difficult years ensued for Zviki and his parents.
They had spent all their money on lawyers and appeals. Nothing
was of any avail. Even his final request to receive a pardon from
the CGS was rejected. He was reduced in rank, the studies
promised him were cancelled, and this morning Zviki entered the
military prison where he will serve his six months sentence. This
is the prize given by the State of Israel to a devoted, talented
officer who gave nine years to serving in the IDF, years in which
a person builds his future. For his courage in facing alone an
incited crowd, and terrorists planning to perpetrate an attack on
Hadera, the State of Israel should have awarded Zviki a medal.
But this is not what happens in the Israeli era of reversal of
values. Zviki, an excellent officer wearing a kippah, from Karnei
Shomron, was just the prey the establishment was waiting for. I
have visited Yefim every Shabbat for many years. Over the last
two years I have seen how his world has collapsed around him in
ruins. He is incapable of understanding how the same State in
which he believed and for which he gave everything, can do such
a thing to him.
I tried to explain to Yefim that it isn't the State. Someone has
stolen the State from us, but one day it will be liberated. But
Yefim doesn't want to hear this, and is sinking into depression.
I have avoided publicizing the affair until now. Zviki has
been taken captive by people who have covered their eyes with a
red sheet. I didn't want them to know of the connection, but it's
now all over. Zviki is in jail and Yefim is more broken in spirit
than in body. This man with a broken body, who lives on drugs
against pain that would have killed a normal person, is starting
tomorrow a sole demonstration opposite the entrance to the
General Staff HQ in Tel Aviv. He intends to sit there in the rain
and cold, and I fear for his life.
And Zviki? Thank G-d, Zviki is beginning to understand
what his father is unable to accept. "You must appeal to the
Supreme Court", one of the lawyers tried to persuade him. But
Zviki had already understood that he had been caught in the
claws of the monster. He now recognizes what he is up against.
"What's the point?", he replied, "It will only mean that in another
two years I'll be in the same situation, but with bigger debts".
Zviki will be released in another six months. He will be an
asset for any entrepreneur. He will study and work industriously,
and faithfully, and will be better than others. "In another two
years", I said to Yefim, "you and your wife will thank the court for
finding Zviki guilty You will thank the CGS and the other
spineless officers who turned their backs on him. You will thank
them, because without them Zviki would have stayed in the army
and wouldn't have realized even part of his capabilities."
We shall in the end release the State from its captivity, and
it will then need first-rate people like Zviki. It will thank them
when it is released from its captivity.
************************
Letter written by Zviki's sister Sarah to the Chief of staff, Moshe
Yaalo
To Mr. Moshe Ya'alon
My name is Sarah Koretsky, and I am turning to you via the
newspaper since all of our efforts to receive fair treatment from
you have been ignored. The My brother, IDF Captain Tzvi
Koretsky, was informed of a major terrorist warning
approximately two years ago, regarding a car bomb with three
suicide terrorists on their way to a Jewish target. My brother was
ordered by his commanders to locate the vehicle and to stop it at
all costs. I have no doubt that my brother would sacrifice
everything, (as he sacrificed now), even his life, in order to stop
the terrorists -- because he was the sole defense standing
between them and innocent citizens of the State of Israel. My
brother entered the village in his jeep, and found himself
surrounded by a violent mob. The angry mob assailed him with
every object they could find to throw at him, including stones and
Molotov cocktails. Since, there was no way for him to continue
through the street, he announced repeatedly, in Hebrew and
Arabic, for the mob to cease and desist. Since his request was
ignored, and the announcements from the Israeli army helicopter
above were disregarded, he shot warning shots in the air.
Those didn't help either, and just strengthened the attacker's
resolve against him. He therefore shot towards a wall (just as a
tank commander did, a number of months later, killing 7 local
residents via this action, including a number of children, and by
which his officer was recently commended by you). No proof has
been shown during his two year trial, regarding the wounded
youth who sat in his home (in the living room, according to the
youth's father's testimony) and died afterwards from his wounds
The medic who treated a youth at the city checkpoint testified
later that it was impossible to ascertain that the cause of death
resulted from shrapnel; and no autopsy was every performed. My
brother was found guilty of negligent manslaughter because he
didn't choose the correct wall.
Why am I writing to you? After all, this story is certainly familiar
to you. I want to tell you about the person who is behind this
story, my brother Tzviki. Surely you have read his files that are
filled with certificates and letters of commendation from his
superior officers; if not, I would not be surprised.
Tzvi and I grew up with three other siblings and we were raised
from childhood to give and volunteer. My mother, Malka,
immigrated to Israel from Belgium when she was 19 years old,
out of ideological motivation, and left behind her family and a
secure future. My father, Yafim, is a wounded Israeli IDF veteran
with 101 percent disability who was seriously wounded,
physically and emotionally, in the Six Day War, at the bloody
battle of Tel Faher. I don't need to tell you how hard it is to grow
up with a crippled father. And, in this context, Tzviki was more to
us than a big brother; he accompanied us on our youth group
and school trips, he attended our school parties, took us on trips
throughout the country, and always called or came to visit us and
take care of whatever was needed. He "raised" us as best he
could. It's already been 17 years that we have lived in the
settlement of Ginot Shomron, out of belief in our right to this
land. I can tell you today that the majority of the people do not
deserve to walk upon her. Tzviki is to us, an example to emulate
and admire, always there to help and pay attention, to understand
that there is always something else to do even when no one asks.
My brother enlisted in the IDF in 1995 and enrolled in the tanks
unit, where of course he finished basic training with honors. He
continued to advance up the ladder of achievement with honors -
- as he always did more than was expected of him. He was an
admired commander and once told the story of how his soldiers
came to sleep by him when they couldn't make it home. All of his
certificates of excellence are displayed proudly in our living
room. For years my father collected his certificates and medals of
distinction like a proud commander. My brother sacrificed 9
years in the army and was supposed to be on leave this year to
learn in the "Ofek" program, after which he would return to serve
another four years; obviously these plans have been cancelled.
I was not drafted to the army, and during the time that the trial
began against Tzvi, I understood that my place was not in this
kind of army. Despite this, I decided that I would still serve my
country for two years, the same as any woman soldier, and I am
serving my second year as an educational tour guide in the
development town of Yerucham. It is my desire to turn to you
without anger, yet I know it was in your
power to change the verdict that befell Tzviki, or at least to
prevent degrading him when he unjustly entered prison. I will not
appeal to you with name-calling such as "coward or weak-
hearted", yet it is my wish that you know that after the lights of
the media are turned off, that you have to face yourself, alone,
and think about how you could send away an innocent man; one
whose every witness testified to his innocence, whose many
letters of commendation and evaluation from his superior
commanders you received. Both of us know about the many
instances of far greater destruction and bloodshed that have
taken place in this terrible war.
I am not saying that you should judge the 1739 soldiers and
imprison them all -- how would our army look? But it is up to you
to understand that the attention given to this case and the
excessive determination to convict Zviki at all costs (in order to
satisfy one cause or another) is not clear to me at all.
I might be just a girl of 19, and maybe I don't understand
everything, but the lack of virtue and the travesty of justice that
was done in the case against my brother are not that complicated
to understand. And you know it. Imagine a crippled father who
sits this winter to demonstrate against the Defense Ministry,
against the injustice towards his innocent son, after he sacrificed
everything he had and his children and for this country.
Imagine a mother, who is berating herself for raising her children
to be "suckers" ("fryerim") who would give everything for others,
even if it cost them their future. Imagine an elderly grandmother
whose grandchildren are her entire world, who we dare not even
tell her that her grandson is now sitting in prison. Imagine a new,
eight month old baby, and a loving spouse, who have to go to
sleep at night and wake up every morning for the next two
months without their loved one. Imagine all this, and tell me how
you sleep at night, because I don't anymore I will not beg before
you like perhaps my parents did in the past or Tzvi's
commanders; but I will ask of you to be ethical and to take
responsibility. This case is familiar to you; don't be afraid of
anything, you can still change the decree; don't let us down. I call
on all soldiers of the Israeli army, children my age: there has
never been and there will never be someone who will back you
up in your military actions, there will be no problem accusing you
of things that you didn't do. Don't ever do more than what is
asked of you. Nothing is worth the destruction of your lives and
the destruction of your families.
I am calling on all citizens of the State of Israel: I have no great
faith in the judicial and political systems of Israel, nor do I place
much hope in this letter, but we, as a people, have the strength to
bring justice to light, or at least to change something in this
apparatus that we call our government. We will not sacrifice our
soldiers when there is no one to support them, we will not risk
their lives; we will not let them die or worse than that, be living
dead. By the way, Moshe Ya'alon, the release of an innocent man
from prison is an
even greater photo-op than bestowing a rank on a 90 year-old
woman.
Sarah Koretsky
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Why Christians leave Mideast
By Joseph Farah, Editor, WorldNetDaily.com
Just before Christmas, the New York Times figured out a way to
blame Israel for the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem.
This is called journalistic gymnastics.
The story by Greg Myre began:
"In the town where Christians believe Christ was born, the
Christians are leaving. Four years of violence, an economic free
fall and the Israeli separation barrier have all contributed to the
hardships facing Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, one of the
largest concentrations of Christians in the region."
There you have it. Why are the Christians leaving Bethlehem? At
least partly, according to the New York Times, because of the
Israeli security fence.
Now, ask yourself a question: Why would the security fence
disproportionately affect Christians? If the security fence were
contributing to the exodus, it should be causing an exodus of
Muslims as well, right?
Why is the New York Times lying?
Because, for the life of this reporter and his editors back home,
they can't think of a single legitimate way to blame Israel for the
Christian exodus.
In fact, if you read between the lines, as patrons of this column
are expected to do, you will notice that the New York Times
actually gives away the reason for the exodus. But it requires
background knowledge of the situation. It requires context not
provided in the story.
Before I give you that context, let me say this is a real problem.
Sometimes often the New York Times creates problems out of
whole cloth. Not this time. As the story points out, Bethlehem,
once a majority Christian town, now only claims 21,500 of the
60,000 Arab residents about 35 percent.
They haven't left for no good reason. They have left for very good
reasons. In fact, knowing the conditions these Christians face
today, it's surprising there are still 21,500 there.
But does it have anything to do with the Israeli security fence?
No.
Four years ago, when this exodus began, the Israelis had not
even started construction of the security fence. But the New York
Times story correctly shows that's when the mass exodus began.
"Bethlehem was more than 90 percent Christian until the middle
of the last century," the story continues. "Then the Arab-Israeli
war of 1948, begun by Arab states in response to the founding of
Israel, brought an influx of Muslim refugees to the Bethlehem
area and signaled the start of a demographic shift. But what
began as a steady emigration of Christians accelerated into a
relative flood with the onset of violence four years ago."
Here's a key paragraph buried in this story:
"In the early days of the uprising, Muslim gunmen in the
Bethlehem area took hilltop positions in Beit Jala, which is
predominantly Christian. That afforded them a clear firing line at
the southernmost part of Jerusalem. When the Israeli military
responded, Beit Jala residents found themselves on the front
lines of the conflict, and occasionally among its casualties."
Muslim terrorists have intentionally placed Christians in the
crossfire between them and Israel. They did that when they
seized the Church of the Nativity, nearly destroying it, defecating
in the hallways, smashing statues and stealing precious objects.
The Israelis, for their part, negotiated an end to the standoff
rather than destroy the church that represents so much to the
Christian world.
If the Israelis contributed in any way to the exodus of Christians
it was by withdrawing from Bethlehem and the so-called
"Palestinian territories" in the West Bank. Since they left, the
Palestinian Authority has waged a jihad against the Christian
community, raping women, extorting businessmen, lynching
"collaborators" and seizing homes.
That's why the Christians have left and continue to leave. They
enjoyed life while their towns were under the control of Israel.
Once they were turned over to the terrorists, there wasn't much
left to keep them in the areas in which their families lived for
generations.
That's the story the New York Times, the "newspaper of record,"
dares not tell.
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TO PREVENT AN UNBRIDGEABLE RIFT
by Boris Shusteff
On April 26, speaking in Jerusalem at the International Bible
Quiz, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said, This year_s theme
for the Quiz was the verse from the Book of Psalms, Forever will
Your kindness be built. This verse may be viewed as a wish,
however I suggest we call it a binding decree: not by itself will
our world be based on a foundation of kindness, and it will not by
itself turn into a world in which there is attentiveness and
consideration for the poor and the weak, for the stranger and the
invalid, for the elderly and the widow. We are the ones who must
add this principle of kindness to our world, into the society in
which we live._
Beautiful words, one should applaud them. Lack of kindness as
well as lack of unity among the Jews are two major components
that Israel desperately needs. Actually Sharon mentioned his
concern about the lack of unity among the Jews more than three
years ago in the interview with Avi Shavit on April 12, 2001 when
he said, _Years ago, I would watch when a group of Palestinian
workers would sit down to eat in a circle and each of them would
take out what he brought from home and place it in the center of
the circle, and then, with restraint, one would take from here and
another from there, and they all sat together. While as for our
people, each of them would sit by himself and eat his food
alone._
Based on Sharon_s understanding of the core problem that
plagues the Jewish people one could have expected that he
would take it into consideration while searching for a cure.
Certainly if the drug used in the course of treatment is harmful
for the patient it should not be used. Alas, as many political
leaders before him, Sharon literally pays just lip service to his
many pronouncements and makes political decisions without
properly evaluating what harm they will bring to the society in a
long run. Six weeks after his Bible Quiz speech, on June 6,
apparently forgetting about his _binding decree_ and planned
attempts _to turn Israel into the world of kindness,_ Sharon
shoved his decision to expel all Jews from their Gaza
communities down the throats of his ministers.
Ignoring his own appeal to _attentiveness and consideration for
the poor and weak, for the invalid, elderly and widow_ happily
living in communities, the majority of which were established 20-
30 years ago on land from which not a single Arab was expelled,
Sharon not only gave the signal for destroying the flourishing life
of Jewish communities, but have mercilessly open the slowly
healing wound of shaky unity in the country. For more than three
difficult years Israeli Jews withstood the brutal terrorist war
conducted against them by the Palestinian Arabs. The Jews of
Gush Katif and Hadera, Tel Aviv and Haifa, Karnei Shomron and
Netania were one people attacked by one enemy. Not anymore.
Sharon_s decision to expel Jews from Gaza and four settlements
in northern Samaria, and we are not arguing here whether it has
political merits or not, has drastically increased the already
existing divide within the Jewish state, making the _settlers_
pariahs of society, and guaranteeing that a substantial fraction of
Israelis will forever harbor toward them not kindness, but enmity
and resentment.
As a result, the number of vitriolic articles in the Israeli press
pouring loathing upon the _settlers_ has increased exponentially.
Especially troubling is the fact that today, not only the regular
settler-haters spew venom upon their fellow Jews, but that
usually more respectful authors have joined their chorus as well.
Certainly one should not be surprised reading Gideon Levy_s
diatribe in Ha_aretz, in which he writes: _To those who are calling
for empathy toward these settlers, we must say they do not
deserve empathy since they never showed consideration for the
feelings of others. There is not and never has been in the history
of the state such a destructive and immoral enterprise as the
settlement enterprise._ And of course one should not be
astonished when Uri Avnery echoes Levy by saying about the
settlement policy that _for over a quarter of a century Israeli
society has allowed a cancer to grow unchecked._
However, one should be shocked when similar writing is penned
by Avi Shavit, who wrote in the same newspaper, _For a long
time, there was justification for showing understanding toward
the settlers. There was justification for talking with them, carrying
on a dialogue with them. Not any more. &It is either Israelis or
settlers._ Sharon said in his Bible Quiz speech: _We must act
according to the decree of the Prophet Isaiah, which combines
human compassion with mutual responsibility, for _when you
see a naked person, clothe him; and do not hide yourself from
your kin.__ Contrary to his own words Sharon hid himself from
his own kin.
Not long ago himself praising the settlers of Gaza he made a 180-
degree turn. He did not conduct any sensible dialogue in the
Israeli society in order to determine how the country should live
further if the decision would be taken to uproot the Jews from
their homes. He did not allow people to think what will happen to
the Jewish state if it rejects the basic tenet on which it was build
_ the settlement enterprise. He simply made a decision and like
bulldozer went with it ahead. Of course it is not from compassion
that Sharon decided to establish a special unit of some 2,000
soldiers to carry out the mission of removing the Jews from their
homes. Israeli newspapers shared with their readers the
information that this _special unit will carry out the forceful
evacuation of settlers. The unit_s soldiers will be specially
trained for the operation. It will function as a wing of the police
force, and will train only for the mission of evacuation._
On December 26, Yediot Aharanot in the article entitled _Police
Prepare for Forced Evacuation_ wrote that, The police would like
to purchase equipment that will be used by the Israel Police and
Border Police troops who take part in the evacuation of the
settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria&. The
equipment in question includes hundreds of new batons, dozens
of horses and a number of vehicles fitted with water cannons._
Do not we understand the nightmare that is hidden in the words
_specially trained for evacuation_ and _forced evacuation_?
What had happened to our hearts? How did we manage to reach
the day that the Israeli press is writing as a matter of fact that the
Jews will be _specially trained_ to brutally deal with other Jews
and a deafening silence meets these pronouncements?
Especially since the Israeli soldiers are instructed to walk on
eggshells when they deal with their enemies.
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz in his speech given at
Berkeley University on April 29, 2004 told about a hearing of the
Ethics Committee of the Israeli Army that he recently attended:
_The Ethics professor, member of the Committee, said the Israeli
government has the right to balance and to value the life of its
own soldiers over enemy civilians. However, the Israeli general
participating in the hearing disagreed and said the Israeli soldiers
must die to save the lives of civilians even if they are enemy
civilians._ Does it mean that the soldiers in special units that will
be trained to forcefully expel their brethren will be taught to die if
the Jewish civilians employ force for defense of their homes,
family members, and their own protection? Did we forget the dark
pages of our history when other Jews under other circumstances
were also trained to _resettle_ their brethren? Actually the
situation in Israel today is eerily reminiscent of the last months of
Warsaw ghetto, as they are described in the diary of Emmanuel
Ringelblum. Even Sharon_s policy of exploiting the divide among
Israelis is not new. Ringenblum wrote about it,
__Divide and rule_- [the German strategy] poisons relations
between Jews and Poles and makes any help from that [Polish
quarter] impossible. [The Germans] fooled the populace about
[the meaning of] resettlement. &[The Germans] set the
Warsawers against the refugees. Supposedly the resettlement
was to free Warsaw of its _nonproductive elements._
Disturbingly, the word _resettlement_ used by Ringenblum is
exactly the word that Sharon uses today in order to describe his
intended eviction of the Jews. Moreover, Sharon_s strategy leads
towards poisoning relations between the _settlers_ and the rest
of Israeli society.
At the same time the Israeli press tends to present the _settlers_
as unproductive parasites. Gideon Levy asked in Ha_aretz, _For
what exactly should we be compensating the settlers who will be
evacuated from Gaza? For the damage they caused the state for
decades? For the scandalous economic price of their living in
Gaza? For the blood needlessly spilled over them?_
The parallels with the Warsaw Ghetto are frightening.
Ringenblum wrote in his diary that the Germans _closed the
ghetto borders, stopped anyone from bringing in produce, and
thus starved the Jews out _ brought the Ghetto to the point
where for a loaf of bread thousands reported voluntarily for
resettlement._ Sharon_s policy is also directed towards stifling
the normal life of Gaza_s Jews. He also wants the Jews to leave
their homes voluntarily and shamelessly promises them
hundreds of thousands of dollars if they abandon their houses of
their own volition.
Regarding the forceful evacuation of those who intend to remain
in their houses, in the hope that Jews will not expel Jews from
Jewish land, the Israeli press writes that it _will be declared a
_closed military zone__ two weeks before the last _time window
in order to make it easier for the army to remove any settlers still
remaining._ And the laws are prepared according to which the
settlers refusing voluntary evacuation and resisting security
forces will not only forfeit the right to compensation but will go to
jail, as well.
One can rest assured that the special forces used to evict the
Jews will not demonstrate mercy to those they will be instructed
to evict. We should recall how brutal the Jewish police was to
their brethren in Warsaw ghetto, when they sent them to death
camps, in order to understand that the similar expulsion of
different Jews from _only_ their homes will be a mere nuisance.
Ringenblum wrote about the abominable behavior of the Jewish
police,
They reached the height of viciousness during the resettlement.
They said not a single word of protest against this revolting
assignment to lead their own brothers to the slaughter. The
police were psychologically prepared for the dirty work and
executed it thoroughly. &Merciless and violent, they beat those
who tried to resist. They weren_t content simply to overcome the
resistance, but with the utmost severity punished the _criminals_
who refused to go to their death voluntarily._
One might argue that it is wrong to compare the eviction of Jews
from Gaza communities with the eviction of Warsaw Jews to
death camps. True, in the present case, Gazan Jews will be
deprived not of their lives, but only of their property, livelihood
and lifestyle. Thus only their souls will be killed and not their
bodies. However, this is not the point. What must be emphasized
here is the catastrophic absence of unity and kindness among
the Jews toward their own, at a critical junction of their history.
By condemning Gaza Jews to expulsion the Israeli Prime Minister
not only widens the divide among the Jews and shuts the door to
kindness within Israeli society but also invites unnecessary
enmity and hatred. It is hard to be a Prime Minister of any
country; it is hundred times harder to be a Prime Minister in a
Jewish state. Burden of several thousand years of history makes
it a must for any Jewish leader to take into account the lessons
of the past. Knowing that the unity for the Jews is the most
precious treasure one must be especially careful in not
destroying it. If eviction of Gaza Jews could lead towards
unbridgeable rift and unforgivable enmity between the Jews it
must not happen. What good will it be to strive for an ephemeral
peace with the Arabs if the price for this will be war between the
Jews?
Boris Shusteff is an engineer. He is also a research associate
with the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.
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CORRECTION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
In our previous email, we had an error, and gave out the wrong
email address for Zviki's parents. Here is the correct email
address for Malka and Yefim Koretzki
koretzki@yahoo.com
A delegation of Women in Green went yesterday to Tel Aviv to
show support to the family. We urge you all to send emails and
show them that they are not alone. For the past two weeks,
Zviki's parents had a daily sit-in in front of the Defense Ministry.
They will not have the sit-in next week but they urge us to
continue the fax campaign. Zviki's parents told us that the fax
campaign really has an impact and request all of us to continue
to send faxes to the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, and
the Chief of Staff. with the very simple message;
FREE ZVIKI KORETZKI NOW!
We received some additional fax numbers- (as youknow, every
Minister has more than one fax) please send your fax to all
numbers- the more faxes-the better:
Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon- fax 972-3- 5696777 or
972-3-5696785
Prime minister Ariel Sharon fax 972-2-5664838
Defense minister Shaul Mofaz fax 972-3-6976218
2) Women in Green would like to thank Zeev Boim, Shaul Mofaz's
deputy, who was honest enough and said that "if thousands of
soldiers indeed will refuse the order to uproot settlers, then the
IDF will not be able to carry out the disengagement". That is
exactly what Women in Green, together with other extra-
parliamentary groups, are working on! Signing up tens of
thousands of soldiers who already now are committing
themselves not to give a hand to the crime of the uprooting Jews
from their homes. Nor do these soldiers agree to hand over parts
of our homeland to the enemy.
But, as succesful as we are, signing up soldiers every Sunday
morning, that alone is not enough. We are calling upon all those
who live in Israel to volunteer to go from door to door, each one
in the area he lives in, and sign up people on the petition.
Contact us by email or phone- give us your name, full adress and
phone number and we will send you by mail copies of the
Petition, stickers and leaflets of information for the soldiers. You
will then, be able to go from house to house in your
neighborhood, signing up soldiers in reserve or active duty.
When a few Petitions are filled up with signatures-fax them to
us. We will then add those signatures to the many thousands we
already have. Those who cannot join us actively, can always
help us financially by sending a donation and thus enabling us to
print more material needed for this campaign.
3) A new judicial forum has been formed by a group of activists
and lawyers called "Haforum Hamishpat lemaan Erets Yisrael".
They have contacted Women in Green and asked us to pass on
their information to all concerned.The purpose of this group will
be to help all those who might be arrested in the different
upcoming demonstrations against Sharon's Deportation Plan.
The Forum will activate lawyers who will help the people
arrested. in addition, this Forum will press charges against
policemen who act illegally during those demonstrations.
Anybody who wants to help this Forum (photographers, lawyers,
volunteers) can contact Nahi Eyal 052-476-7060 The Forum has
already published its first flyer [in Hebrew] called "What to do
and what to say when arrested at a demonstration".Anybody who
wants us to email him that Hebrew flyer- merely contact us at
nmatar@netvision.net.il. Women in Green is having that
important flyer translated into English , and we will send it out to
all who request it as soon as we have it available.
4) The Yesha Council has set up a tent-city in front of the
Knesset for at least the next two weeks. Every day hundreds from
different communities and cities spend the day at the tent city, to
demonstrate, and pass out information etc. Women in Green
urge everyone to contact our office to ascertain when you can
devote the day at the tent city. We will gladly provide you with
stickers and Petitions to sign up people. With G-d's help we will
succeed!
6) We wish to reimind you to sign our Pettition against Sharon's
Disengagement Plan. Go to our Website
(www.womeningreen.org) and vote and tell your friends and
relatives to do likewise. They can also contact our office by fax
with their name and address, if for any reason they do not have
an email address. With G-d's help, we are that close to
victory!
Jerusalem, January 4, 2004
Ruth and Nadia Matar
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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
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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
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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-
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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 da