January 31, 2008

The State of the Union is Against the State of Israel



January 30, 2008...

In his State of the Union address Sunday, US President George Bush announced that he would midwife an Arab state of Palestine into existence inside the Land of Israel and inside the State of Israel before the end of 2008.

Bush waxed poetic – we would more correctly say “delusional” - about the “palestinian” leader Mahmoud Abbas, describing this unrepentant murdering terrorist as a “man of peace”. Bush repeatedly referred not to the State of Israel, but to “the Holy Land”. Against everything he professes to believe as an Evangelical Christian, he is now attempting to destroy the holiness of the Land of Israel.

Both in Israel and America, Jews trusted Bush. In Israel, some Rabbis and many “Land of Israel” activists threw the full weight of their support behind him when he was a candidate. How times have changed. It didn't faze Bush to sit in Ramallah with Abbas below a picture of the murderer of the most Jews since Hitler, Yasser Arafat.

What happened to Bush? Wasn’t he the “best friend” that Israel ever had in the White House? As it turns out, George W. hasn’t flip-flopped at all with his views on Israel. In fact, in the Bush family, when it comes to Israel the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was involved with money laundering for the Nazis.

Bush’s father, George Sr., formed a coalition of “freedom-loving” nations to defeat Iraq and restore the Kuwaiti royalty to their thrones. Yet even to this day, Kuwait refuses to permit Jews to even fly on their national airline. George Sr. pressured Israel not to respond to 39 Iraqi scud missiles, and after the war he embraced Jordan’s Hussein (who supported Saddam Hussein), withheld loan guarantees from Israel, and pushed Israel to go to the Madrid conference which started this suicidal “peace” process, and propped up Arafat (who also supported Saddam Hussein).

Bush Sr. makes money every day as a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia in Washington. Let’s not forget his heavy investments in Middle Eastern oil companies. He had James “F--- the Jews, they don’t vote for us” Baker as his key advisor and co-investor in oil. Bush Jr. now has Condi Rice as his key advisor. She’s a perfect replacement for Baker, as she also has deep oil ties. Her ties are to Chevron. It is of great note that Chevron has significant trade interests with Iran. Of course, Bush Jr. also dusts off James Baker whenever he needs to add a little "gravitas" to his anti-Israel policies.

Now, Bush Jr. is trying to finish what his grandfather began and his father continued, attempting to both get rich and serve up Israel for ultimate sacrifice to the direct descendants of the Nazis. We must remember here that Arafat and Abbas’ mentor, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, was a close ally of Hitler. In addition to being responsible for instigating the murderous Arab riots against Jews in Israel during the 20s and 30s, Husseini found the time to set up Muslim SS Divisions and drew up plans with the Nazis to build another Auschwitz in Israel when the Germans arrived there.

Today people call the Iranian leader Achmadinejad the new Hitler. This week Achmadinejad told the world that it should prepare for the day - which he stated will come soon - when Israel does not exist. Bush reacts to this madman by declaring that Israel is on its own against the soon-to-be nuclear Iran.

Bush is counting on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to carry out his mission to destroy Israel. Bush so desires to fulfill this plan that he went so far as to interfere in Israeli politics by asking government officials to forget that Olmert is at best corrupt and inept in order to keep Olmert in office.

Olmert and so many of his predecessors have no foundation in Jewish values. They see the United States as their new Golden Calf. Therefore, they bow to the Bush roadmap which offers Israel as a bargaining chip for its own interests. And Bush knows this well.

Manhigut Yehudit only puts our faith in our Creator. The lesson for Jews everywhere is that we must put our faith only in The Jewish People, in our Holy Land of Israel in its entirety, and in G-d. Doing this will hasten our redemption. Anything else will hasten our destruction.

Tova Abadi
Media Spokesperson
tova@jewishisrael.org

The Manhigut Yehudit website is www.jewishisrael.org


Manhigut Yehudit is the largest faction inside the Likud party, and strives to Turn the State of the Jews into The Jewish State.

January 28, 2008

Hamas heading to Sinai



The 1979 Egyptian/Israeli Peace Treaty is based on having a demilitarized, non-threatening Sinai between the two countries.

Israel is not allowed to move its forces into the Sinai, and Cairo is not permitted to move additional Egyptian forces into the area. The "Multinational Force and Observers" patrols the Sinai, ensuring that the terms of the Peace Agreement are not violated by either of the two countries.

What has now happened is that, under the smoke screen cover story of the "humanitarian crisis", the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists have broken out of Gaza and moved to establish their beachheads and footholds in Sinai. Egypt, Israel, and the MFO units are now threatened by dangers that the terms of the Peace Agreement never envisioned... and to which the Peace Agreement would seem to prevent their responding.

I wonder when the main stream media will discover the real story?

What's your guess?

January 27, 2008

Replace the Green Line with Manhigut Yehudit's "Red Line"



January 27, 2008...
The Manhigut Yehudit "red line" is clear. The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people and is NOT negotiable. Our entire Land is our red line. Only when we will have leadership that is belief-based and true to it's ideology will we be in a position to restore our pride to ourselves and in turn will regain the respect of the nations.

Current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the fact that our "outposts" in Israel have not been destroyed "a disgrace." If Olmert had his way, many of our beautiful cities in Israel would not exist, as most of them began as outposts. It is called "settling" the land. The Jews living in Tel Aviv are just as much settlers as Jews in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, Hebron and the former settlers of Gaza.. Our right to settle every inch of the Land of Israel is G-D given.

The "outpost" city of Migron was founded in March, 2002 on a vacant hilltop overlooking the highway leading from Jerusalem to Beit El and Shilo. Four days ago Olmert and his Defense Minister Barak announced that they intend to destroy Migron in just six months. Moshe Feiglin, President of Manhigut Yehudit commented: “The Defense Minister’s commitment will not materialize because in six months from now, the Olmert government will not exist.”

Migron will grow into a beautiful city and will be standing in Israel long after Ehud Olmert is relegated to the dustbin of history.



###


Tova Abadi
Media Liaison
917-301-0997 (cell)
tova@jewishisrael.org

January 26, 2008

Israeli highschoolers believe another Holocaust possible


By Noah Klinger

Most Israeli high school students—a staggering 82% in fact—believe that the Holocaust could happen again, finds a new survey conducted prior to International Holocaust Day, to be held Monday January 27th.

The aforementioned, in-depth survey was conducted among high school students, students in schools of education and IDF officers and soldiers by the Massuah Institute for the Study of the Holocaust

The survey examined, among other topics, respondents’ attitudes towards Holocaust survivors, a topic of much recent media debate in Israel. The great majority of respondents, 74%, felt that survivors were entirely helpless. Only 26% said they believed that survivors had managed to rebuild their lives in Israel.

How do Israeli pupils learn about the Holocaust? Most high schoolers, 54%, stated that they learned about the Holocaust through a school expedition to Poland. Eighteen percent of students learned about the Holocaust through documentary films, and only 12% indicated that they learned about the Holocaust through their regular history classes.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, first designated by the UN general assembly in 2005, will be marked at the organization’s headquarters with a long series of commemorative events: The Israel Post, along with Communications Minister Ariel Atias, will unveil a specially designed stamp commemorating the Holocaust at the UN General Assembly, and the Holocaust Museum in Manhattan will hold a special memorial ceremony attended by scores of prominent politicians and dignitaries.

Later on Monday, the day’s key memorial ceremony will be held at UN headquarters, and will include music by the Israeli Symphony Orchestra presided over by Zuben Mehta. The guest of honor at this special concert will be US Congressman and Holocaust survivor Tom (Thomas) Lantos.

Also as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the UN will also unveil a special exhibition on Muslims that saved Jewish victims during the Holocaust. The exhibition will be officially launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Israel will also commemorate International Holocaust Day, which marks the official liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, with a series of ceremonies and special events attended by numerous dignitaries.

Zvi Zinger and Yaniv Halili contributed to this article

January 24, 2008

Glued to Gaza




It is clear now that the entire purpose of the "Disengagement" was to fulfill the leftist desire to drive the Jews out of Yesha (Judea & Samaria). But while it is easy for Israel to expel its own citizens, it cannot disconnect from its enemies.

Egypt supplies Gaza with approximately 50 tons of explosives every month (according to the head of Israel's General Security Service) as well as an unknown amount of guns, ammunition, missiles and more. For its part, Israel provides Gaza with everything else it needs to destroy our country; electricity, fuel, water (the Gazans polluted the ground water resources, so now they turn to Israel for water) and all the needs of the hostile population. Nobody asks why Egypt cannot provide Gaza with electricity. Nobody asks why it is Israel's responsibility to maintain its mortal enemies.

Nobody asks these questions because deep down, official Israel believes the Arab propaganda and has taken responsibility for its "crime," or in other words, its existence.

Those Israelis who have fled their Jewish identity actually believe that there is no justification for Israel's existence. They understand that they are living on borrowed time, agree with Ahmad Tibi, who was here before them and will be here long after they disappear -- and beg for a crumb of recognition for the "enlightened" world. Try to explain that to the children of Sderot.

Proposed Bill: Disconnect from Gaza


The following is the letter sent this week to all the Likud Knesset members explaining Manhigut Yehudit's proposed bill to disconnect from Gaza.

While the city of Sderot and the entire western Negev have been abandoned to continuous missile fire, Israel's government continues to attend to the welfare of the residents of the Gaza Strip. The residents of the Gaza Strip elected the Hamas leadership and they are enemies of the Jewish Nation and the State of Israel. This situation has not elicited a response from the opposition. Its silence serves to deepen the public's feelings of despair and helplessness.

The Opposition can work together to significantly help the residents of Sderot. The attached proposed bill is a viable tool with which to restore quiet to the residents of Sderot and its surroundings. This proposal is likely to be accepted by a majority of Knesset members, who will not want to create the perception that they care for the welfare of the residents of Gaza while Israel's citizen are abandoned.

We urge you to do all in your power to have this proposal passed into law as soon as possible. It is important for Sderot's children to know that someone cares for them more than for the children of Gaza.

With Blessings,


Moshe Feiglin Michael Fuah

Proposed Bill: Disconnect from Gaza

1. The State of Israel will have no interaction with Gaza that may assist it in any way.

2. It is forbidden for any Israeli official, corporation, company or citizen to transfer merchandise or goods of any kind, including electricity, information or medical aid to Gaza.

3. The State of Israel will unilaterally close all the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

4. A. Despite clauses 1-3, the government may allow those actions forbidden in the aforementioned clauses as long as the decision to do so will take place after at least ninety days in which no terror attacks or shooting of any kind have been directed from the Gaza Strip to Israel.
B. The government decision as per clause 4A will be valid for no more than 14 days. The government may lengthen the validity of the decision for additional time periods of 14 days at most as long as the condition in clause 4A of this law is met.

5. Breach of this law either directly or by oversight will be punishable by three years in prison.

6. This proposal will become valid five days after it is legislated in the Knesset and will be publicized and registered by that time.

January 22, 2008

Empowering Our Enemies


After suggesting to negotiate the return of Jewish body parts back to Israel it goes without saying that Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah deserves to immediately meet his 72 virgins.

The question is not how could Nasrallah behave so barbarically. The real question is what allowed for despots like Nasrallah or Arafat or Abbas or Haniyeh to openly suggest now or previously that Israel would consider such a horrific proposition?

How does Israel’s “friend” George Bush term Jews living in our own ancient homeland "an occupation", and how does his toady Condoleeza Rice declare Jewish construction in Jerusalem illegal?

Who empowered all of these enemies of Israel?

It is the past and current leadership of Israel which have been and are completely devoid of Jewish values. It is leadership in Israel that has no red lines when it comes to eliminating Israel’s Jewish identity and risking Jewish sovereignty.

It is the Oslo co-conspirators Yitzhak Rabin, Yossi Beilin, Chaim Ramon, Yossi Sarid, et al, and the Oslo-continuers Ehud Olmert, Bibi Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon and so many others who all had some part in reviving the murderer Arafat and/or pushing Israel along this suicidal plan of slicing up and giving away our land.

Let us not forget Shimon Peres the enemy empowerer who so famously claimed that he doesn’t hold the PLO to its Oslo obligations because “they’re only Arabs”.

Israel must not underestimate, take for granted or empower her enemies. Israel's enemies can clearly discern the direct correlation between the amount of land Israel cedes and the amount of Jews who die.

There is only one group in the Israeli political arena that trumpets the message of Jewish Pride loud and clear. It is Manhigut Yehudit. Our land is not negotiable. Our Jewish souls and our Jewish identity are not negotiable. We will not release Jew-murderers under any circumstances. Jerusalem is ours and so are Hebron, Judea, Samaria and Gaza and all of the Land of Israel.

When Manhigut Yehudit is in power in Israel, our enemies will know that if they harm a Jew - whether captive or not - then they will be destroyed.

Tova Abadi
Media Liaison
tova@jewishisrael.org

Lights On, Nobody Home - Gaza

Today's headlines include the LA Times's "Gaza dark amid Israeli blockade" and The Guardian's "Gaza plunged into darkness as Israeli fuel blockade takes effect". Similar headlines appear in many media outlets. You could be forgiven for thinking that Israel has cut off the entire electricity supply to the Gaza Strip.

Despite ongoing Qassam attacks from the territory, Israel has not switched off the electricity. In fact, Hamas itself shut down Gaza's only power station after inviting the media to watch it do so.
The mainstream media ultimately assisted Hamas in creating the impression of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The fact is Israel has restricted fuel supplies in response to the terrorism emanating from Gaza but continues to provide the Palestinians with electricity.

The Times of London omits this vital fact altogether in a story headlined "Darkness falls on Gaza as Israel takes revenge for rocket attacks". AFP, while quoting Israeli officials, also omitted the facts leaving readers with the impression that Israel is simply denying responsibility.

While Gazans are undoubtedly suffering, the dark picture painted by the mainstream media is different from the reality. As the Israel's Foreign Ministry notes, the supply of electricity to Gaza from the Israel and the Egyptian power grids (124 Megawatts and 17 Megawatts respectively) has continued uninterrupted. These 141 Megawatts of power represents about three quarters of Gaza's electricity needs.

Israel Electric Company workers' committee chairman Miko Zarfati goes further:
"This is Palestinian spin. No one has stopped electricity to the Strip,"Zarfati told Ynet. He claimed that his employees worked day and night in a power plant in Ashkelon while putting themselves in danger of being hit by Qassam rockets falling in the area.

The Gaza power plant only produces 30% of the electricity consumed in the Strip while Israel supplies the rest.

"It is simply offensive and arrogant for them to claim that there is shortage," Zarfati said....
"The situation is totally absurd. We're continuing to supply them electricity despite the (demand) overload for electricity in Israel and despite the fact that Israeli residents and Electric Company workers that are being sent to Gaza Vicinity communities are under threat from Qassam rockets," Zarfati railed. Ha'aretz also reports that despite the blackout in Gaza City, southern and central Gaza - which receive electricity from Israel and Egypt directly - were not affected by the shutdown.
Hamas manipulation of the media is evident in an AP story that reported "Children marched through dark streets holding candles, an angry Hamas TV announcer shouted at the camera "We are being killed, we are starving!"

Please correct the stories from The Times and AFP by writing to letters@thetimes.co.uk and http://www.afp.com/english/afp/?pid=contact respectively.

Also write to your local media outlets if you feel that they are not giving sufficient context and information to this story.

January 17, 2008

Justice, Israeli Style....

Seven young Jewish girls are in jail until the end of proceedings against them.
They were arrested because they were in one of the new outposts in Israel --a place that, according to Israeli law, is off limits to Jews.
Arrested nearly three weeks ago, the girls refuse to recognize the authority of the court and demand to be judged by Jewish law instead of Israeli law. On the surface, the 'crime' that these girls committed is not reason to keep them behind bars. But they have not been released from prison because they refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the court.
With untainted youthful logic, these girls realized that from their prison cells, they are at the forefront of the struggle for the Land of Israel. To judge by the reaction of the justice system, the girls are right. They have precisely identified the Archimedes point that supports all the forces opposed to the return of the Nation of Israel to the entire Land of Israel. The justice system has lost control of itself and is dealing with the girls with a mixture of hysteria and vindictiveness, ignoring their basic human rights and conjuring up comparisons to dictatorial regimes.
The girls, aged 12 to 14, have not been allowed to speak with their parents. They claim that they have been subjugated to humiliating body searches and sleep deprivation --methods usually reserved for terrorists. According to the laws on the books, there are many crimes worse than refusal to recognize the court. But these 12-14 year old girls frighten the bullies in judge's cloaks more than murderers or drug dealers. Their refusal to recognize the court makes it plain for all to see that Israel's current court system is morally bankrupt. This is the same system that authorized the Eviction Compensation Law, negating even basic civil and human rights from the settlers of Gush Katif simply because they were Jewish. This is the same system that negated the rights of those who demonstrated against the eviction from Gush Katif, brought them to trial in groups (!) and completely ignored all of their civil rights. This is the same system that time and again has given the legal seal of approval for the tyrannical actions taken by the government.
Many citizens -- from both Right and Left -- have questioned the legitimacy of the judicial system. The system itself has no way to counter those theoretical accusations. But the girls have put the theoretical claims of illegitimacy into practice. And the judicial system has turned on them with all its vengeful power. These young girls have taken the struggle against Israel's tyranny onto their narrow shoulders. They are fighting for their beliefs and for the freedom of Israel's Jewish majority.
There is no doubt that they will ultimately win. The Nation of Israel can be proud of them.

Bush's misplaced faith in Palestinian-Israeli accord

Cal Thomas Syndicated columnist

During his recent trip to Israel, President Bush visited several places that re-affirmed his faith, including Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee. Then exhibiting far greater faith than believing Jesus could walk on water, he asserted that ''peace'' could be had between Israel, the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors. One exhibition of faith has some historic roots and witnesses; the other is rooted in fantasy.

Since 1937, there have been 18 formal attempts by commissions, conferences, resolutions, summits and other gatherings to persuade the Jewish lamb to lie down with the Arab lion. All have failed. This latest attempt by President Bush, like those of presidents before him, will also fail, no matter the level of rhetoric or pressure on Israel to ''do more.'' As Hillel Halkin writes in the January issue of Commentary magazine, ''When time after time a problem cannot be resolved, it is reasonable to suspect that it may be unresolvable, at least in the manner in which it is conceived.''

That manner of false conception is that the Palestinian side, in conjunction with Arab and Muslim states, will stop trying to destroy Israel if a new state is created in the region. From such a state, enhanced by a ''right of return'' that would flood Israel with enemies of Zionism and encourage those committed to Israel's destruction that the end of the Jewish state is at hand, would come the final days of Israel's modern existence.

As the president's visit neared, one might have expected the Palestinians, were they interested in peace, to at least tone down anti-Israel rants. According to Palestinian Media Watch, the government-controlled television station instead ''intensified its rhetoric calling for the destruction of Israel by advocating the 'liberation' of Haifa, Tiberias, Acre and Tel Aviv,'' cities that do not figure in the debate over Israeli ''occupation'' of Palestinian land.

Amidst all of this, President Bush suggested more Israeli concessions to the Palestinians might have to be part of a peace agreement (such as dismantling homes on land claimed by Palestinians), while promising a monitoring process that supposedly would police any agreement. The monitors would not be given enforcement powers. The fallacy of such a monitoring process can be seen in previous agreements, which required the Palestinian side to cease terror, stop using television to incite violence against Jews, reform textbooks that teach hatred of Jews and Christians and respect a ceiling in the number of Palestinian police allowed to carry weapons.

The Palestinian government has failed to comply with a single agreement. Rather than acknowledge they are waist deep in the ''Big Muddy,'' the big fools in the Bush administration say to ''push on.''

There is not a credible statement, action, sermon or policy utterance by anyone in the Arab-Muslim-Palestinian world that gives any hope for a repeal of their expressed goal to destroy Israel and ''liberate'' Arab land. Honest enemies will say that includes land ''occupied,'' beginning in 1948, when Israel became a state at the behest of the United Nations.
Instead of a credible plan for countering global jihadists and Palestinian ''liberation- ists'' committed to Israel's (and America's) destruction, the Bush administration continues to practice a faith rooted in self-deception. If, after all of Israel's concessions, her enemies have failed to take a single step toward peace, what makes anyone think that more concessions will turn a one-way street into a two-lane thoroughfare?

Even if a deal is concluded, the best that can be expected from the Palestinian side is a temporary lull in the violence followed by the creation of a pretext for more violence and demands for new concessions.

President Bush repeated a familiar line in Israel that he believes God's gift of freedom is to every person, not just Americans. If that is so, why don't those in oppressed Arab and Muslim states overthrow their dictatorial leaders?

Instead of stepping into this unresolvable (by America) breach, it may be time to step back, let the parties fight it out and - as in Northern Ireland - reach a peace agreement on their own, after both sides are exhausted and sick of fighting.

January 16, 2008

Israel's Dopey Leadership...


Shas needs to leave Government to get new PM

Please call or fax Shas coalition and tell them they must quit now to have new elections.
All out war in Gaza seems to be starting right now. Now or Never we need real leadership!


Avigdor Lieberman claims:

Israeli Arabs pose a danger to Israeli society, and that any discussions for future peace agreements must include the transfer of those Arabs to PLO control. "From our point of view, the concept of land for peace is out of the question," said Lieberman. "The principle must be exchanges of territory and population."

Lieberman accused Israeli Arab leaders of presenting more of a threat to Israel than PLO Arabs, stating "Our problem is not with the Palestinians, it is with Israeli Arabs," he said. "[Israeli Arab MKs] Ahmed Tibi and Mohammed Barakeh are more dangerous than [Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled] Meshaal and [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, because they operate from within."


While this is better than the current Olmert lead Government...is this the answer?

Perhaps a Manhigut Yehudit (Likud) lead Government with Lieberman the MK in charge of removing these Arabs.

Someone somewhere needs to get GW Bush to propose dividing Jordan and creating their "state" in a portion of the land given to these Arabs by the UN Mandate!

Orange camp is growing

Free Pollard!!!

Lieberman Quits Government

(IsraelNN.com) Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) party head Avigdor Lieberman announced at a Wednesday morning press conference that his party is quitting the government.

Lieberman informed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Wednesday that he would resign his position as Minister for Strategic Affairs and lead his party out of the ruling coalition to protest the begin of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority over so-called "core issues": Jerusalem, final status borders and the influx of descendants of Arabs who left their homes during Israel's 1948 War of Independence.

Addressing a press conference at the Knesset, Lieberman praised Olmert for being forthright and open with him whenever they differed on issues, but said Yisrael Beiteinu had set clear red lines for remaining in the coalition.

"On October 27, 2007, a month before the Annapolis Conference, we published our red lines for staying in the government. We were absolutely clear about what it would take to keep our party in the government.

"I met with the prime minister two days before he left for the conference, and 10 days ago I reiterated our red lines yet again: If the government opens negotiations on core issues with the Palestinian Authority, we would leave the government," he said.

Land-for-Peace Equals Failure

Lieberman said the land-for-peace formula that has governed Israeli negotiations for nearly 20 years has been a dramatic failure, and stressed that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria have nothing to do with the Arab world's ongoing rejection of Israel as a Jewish country. "There was also terrorism, there was also a conflict before 1967 [when Israel liberated Judea and Samaria], and before 1948 [the establishment of the State of Israel]. Anyone who chooses to ignore that fact brings destruction to the Jewish state," he said.

He said Israel must discard the land-for-peace formula in favor of population exchange with the Palestinian Authority, and said that 55 percent of Israelis support the idea.

Lieberman's announcement reduced Olmert's coalition from 78 to 67 members, and left all eyes on the 12-seat Shas Party. Shas Chairman Eli Yishai told IsraelNationalNews last week that his party would follow Lieberman's lead out of the government if negotiations began on core issues, but a party spokesman told Voice of Israel government radio following the announcement that the party would not be dependent on Yisrael Beiteinu to make it's decisions.

"For us, the only pressure comes from the Jerusalem issue," he said. "If the Israeli government makes clear that it will make concessions in Jerusalem, then Shas will be out. Until that time, there is no reason for us to leave the government. We must keep our eyes open, and keep a finger on the pulse of what's going on, and put the brakes on any concessions in Jerusalem."

The Shas party is a Sephardic hareidi-religious party most of whose voters are against any territorial concessions but whose leadership does not rule out the land-for-peace formula. The party maintains popular support for its stated goals of "returning the crown of the Torah to its former glory", and repairing the alleged continued economic and social discrimination against the Sephardic population of Israel.

Anticipating Lieberman's departure, Olmert began negotiations with the United Torah Judaism party last week. In addition, commentators predicted that Olmert may try to add the left-wing Meretz-Yahad Party (five members) to bolster the coalition. Olmert would need both to replace Yisrael Beiteinu, but both groups would be insufficient to secure the government's future if Shas bolts.

January 15, 2008

The Difference

It was a hot July day during the summer of 1866. The children of Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, five-year-old Sholom DovBer and his brother Zalman Aharon, had just come home from cheder and were playing in the garden which adjoined their home.

In the garden stood a trellis overgrown with vines and greenery which offered protection from the heat of the sun. It was set up as a study, with a place for books etc., and Rabbi Shmuel would sit there on the hot summer days.

The children were debating the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew. Zalman Aharon, the elder by a year and four months, argued that the Jews are a "wise and understanding people" who could, and do, study lots of Torah, both its 'revealed part' and its mystical secrets, and pray with devotion and 'd'vaikus', attachment to G-d.

Said the young Sholom DovBer: But this is true only of those Jews who learn and pray. What of Jews who are unable to study and who do not pray with d'vaikus? What is their specialness over a non-Jew?

Zalman Aharon did not know what to reply.

The children's sister, Devorah Leah, ran to tell their father of their argument. Rabbi Shmuel called them to the trellis, and sent the young Sholom DovBer to summon Ben-Zion, a servant in the Rebbe's home.

Ben-Zion was a simple Jew who read Hebrew with many mispronunciations and barely understood the easy words of the prayers. Every day he would recite the entire book of Psalms, pray with the congregation, and make sure to be present in the synagogue when Ein Yaakov was studied.

When the servant arrived, the Rebbe asked him: "Ben-Zion, did you eat?"
Ben-Zion: "Yes".
The Rebbe: "Did you eat well?"
Ben-Zion: "What's well? Thank G-d, I was sated."
The Rebbe: "And why do you eat?"
Ben-Zion: "So that I may live"
The Rebbe: "But why live?"
Ben-Zion: "To be a Jew and do what G-d wants." The servant sighed.
The Rebbe: "You may go. Send me Ivan the coachman."
Ivan was a gentile who had grown up among Jews from early childhood and spoke a perfect Yiddish.

When the coachman arrived, the Rebbe asked him: "Did you eat today?"

"Yes".
"Did you eat well?"
"Yes"
"And why do you eat?"
"So that I may live"
"But why live?"
"To take a swig of vodka and have a bite to eat," replied the coachman.

"You may go," said the Rebbe.

Tu B'Shvat (Jan 22) Planting new fruit trees in Israel

But this year is "Shmittah" (Sabbatical year) in Israel.

According to the Torah, all tree plantings are strictly forbidden.
So what's going to happen this year on Tu B'Shevat???

This Tu B'Shvat you can continue to support and strengthen the Land of Israel! In keeping 100% within the strict guidelines of Halacha (Jewish law) - we have set up a unique way to "plant" trees this Tu B'Shvat. Please read, get involved and pass this email to your friends. Tu B'Shvat is coming VERY soon!

1) In keeping with the custom of Tu B'Shvat: Order and pay for your new fruit trees now. (Before Jan. 22)

2) All money that is collected will be given NOW to Israeli farmers who live in Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) and who keep the Shmittah laws. This money will be a great help to them since they are not engaged in any form of commerce this entire year. (Imagine if you had no salary for a whole year!!!)

3) The actual new fruit trees will be planted after Rosh Hashanah (Oct 2nd) - when it is permissible to do so. All orders received now will be FIRST IN LINE to be planted when the Shmittah ends.

4) A personalized, full-color certificate will be mailed to you listing the date - after Rosh Hashanah - when your trees will be planted. This certificate will be mailed to you NOW.

In summary:Order & pay for the trees now, have them placed on "reserve", get the money to the farmers now (who desperately need it), plant after Rosh Hashanah and get a beautiful personalized certificate suitable for framing!

In this unique way you have: · kept the Mitzvah of Tu B'Shvat · planted new fruit trees in Israel · and have a share with your brothers in the special Mitzvah of Shmittah.
CLICK HERE http://www.thisisourland.org/plant.html to participate in this unique program. Hurry, all orders must be received by Tu B'Shevat (Jan 22).

This entire program has been organized, directed and sponsored by: Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett, Founders of Manhigut Yehudit and Zo Artzeinu.

January 14, 2008

A Pipe Dream by Paul Eidelberg

The question arises:

When will the big brass in the Israel Defense Forces overcome the lie about Israeli democracy and “dismiss” prime minister Ehud Olmert?

How can the general staff stomach a prime minister who has ordered Israeli soldiers not to destroy the enemy, the Palestinian Authority, but to fight FOR that terrorist organization?

Doesn’t any general understand that the government, though democratically elected, has forfeited its legitimacy by the simple fact it has failed to fulfill the first and foremost object of government, namely, to protect the lives of its citizens?

Is the general staff mentally retarded? Have the big brass no courage, no sense of honor, no concern for the lives of their own soldiers? Do they ever ask themselves: Can the spineless government of Israel sink any lower? Consider the enormity of this wretched government. It has used the IDF to expel 8,000 Jewish women, men, and children from their homes, for example, in Gush Katif. But now this supine and shameless government, at the command of a foreign power (the USA) wants the IDF to fight for Fatah, a terrorist organization, to prevent its succumbing to Hamas, another terrorist organization.

Jewish soldiers will thus become the enemies of their own people.

Let me project the, next logical stage of this degradation of the so-called Jewish state. To fulfill the ignoble legacy of George W. Bush—the creation of a Palestinian state—the IDF will expel perhaps as many as 250,000 Jews residing in Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish people. But to accomplish this fiendish treason, the IDF will be ordered to use violence against Jews that resist. Jews are going to be maimed and murdered (God forbid) by Jewish soldiers. Amona is nothing compared to what the democratically elected dictatorship of Ehud Olmert will do for President Bush’s legacy—and rest assured, all will be done in the name or mantra of democracy.

Do not expect heroism from any member of the Knesset, because ALL of them have a personal interest in preserving the existing political system which is making more and more of the Land of Israel Judenrein.

This noisome political system is what assures the political longevity of Israeli politicians. Just ask the 50-year advent of Israel’s current president.

Not even the Jewish Leadership (Manhigut Yehudit) movement publicly and emphatically exposes the devious and mendacious character of Israel’s existing system of government—stating, without equivocation, that Israel is a democratically elected despotism. What can we then expect from an MK who, while he calls for civil disobedience against the Olmert regime, offers no criticism of the system that made this regime possible? A system, I have shown, that has actually disenfranchised the Jewish people, as even David Ben-Gurion admits in his Memoirs.

But let us probe deeper. If Moshe Rabbenu is the paradigm of Jewish leadership, then anyone who lusts to become Israel’s prime minister is not qualified for the job.

That’s why I have urged the formation of a small team of people representing diverse professions and sections of Israeli society to RECRUIT a person possessing the wherewithal to galvanize the nation on behalf of a program that will empower the people and preserve Israel’s national and territorial integrity.

It seems this is a pipe dream.

Which may also be said of the idea that the big brass in the IDF will do what the Knesset should have done when Olmert botched the Second War in Lebanon.

GW Bush Promotes a Palestinian "Right of Return"


by Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com
January 14, 2008
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5373

The Palestinian "right of return" entered the lexicon of American policymakers in December 2006, when the Iraq Study Group Report urged the U.S. government to support Israel-Palestinian negotiations that addresses what it termed a "key final status issue." That recommendation came as a mild shock, given that the "right of return" to Israel is transparently a code phrase to overwhelm Israel demographically, thereby undoing Zionism and the Jewish state, and so never before a goal of official Washington.

A year later, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino adopted the term, though without much notice. Out of seemingly nowhere, she informed journalists at a press briefing on November 28, 2007 that "The right of return issue is a part of the road map and it's going to be one of the issues that the Israelis and the Palestinians have to talk about during … negotiations.

"Indeed, on schedule, "right of return" emerged as a motif before and during George W. Bush's recent trip to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, when he mentioned it three times publicly:

January 4: In an interview with Israel's Channel 2, Bush announced himself "optimistic that we can have the outlines of a state defined. In other words, negotiations on borders and right of return and these different issues can be settled."

January 9: At a joint press conference with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, he referred to the core issues of the conflict as "territory and right of return and Jerusalem."

January 10: In a parallel joint press conference with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, he stated that the two-state idea "really doesn't have much bearing until borders are defined, right of return issues resolved, Jerusalem is understood, … [and] the common security measures will be in place."

In a different setting, also on January 10, Bush, somewhat elusively, stated his belief that "we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms, including compensation, to resolve the refugee issue." Is the "right of return" to be one of those new international mechanisms?

Comments:

(1) Despite the major shift in policy implied by the U.S. government adopting the "right of return," the media has largely missed the story, as "The Lurker" documents in "Censoring Bush's call for Palestinian ‘right of return'." In particular, the Jerusalem Post reported on this reference, then posted a second story denying it.

(2) When the Iraq Study Group Report first appeared, analysts puzzled over the "right of return" mention, as one person close to the process explained: "It's hard to know whether that language got in there because of carelessness – I know there were many revisions up to the very last minute – or whether it was a deliberate attempt to fuse something to the Bush rhetoric which wasn't there before." Retrospectively, it appears that the reference was indeed intentional – and quite successful in its purpose. "The Lurker" concludes, perhaps correctly, that James A. Baker, III, lead author of the Iraq Study Group Report, "has once again become a major factor in setting U.S. Middle East policy."

(3) This is only one of several problematic statements from the Bush administration, such as the president's morally equivalent reference to "terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis" or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's calling the Arab-Israeli conflict the central issue of the Middle East and seeing Palestinians as analogous to Southern blacks.

(4) Bush prefaced his January 10 comment by asserting, "I'm the only president that's really articulated a two-state solution so far," and he is right. Put differently, he is the only U.S. president to promote a "Palestine" and now to call for a Palestinian "right of return." More broadly, throughout his presidency, Bush has marched to his own drummer on the Arab-Israeli issue, offering novel and personal solutions to a century-old problem and throwing out the rulebook on Arab-Israeli diplomacy.

(5) One can only guess how often Bush raised the "right of return" in his private conversations with Israelis and Palestinians, and with what intensity and pressure.

(6) Looking ahead, to the last year of the Bush presidency, quoting myself: "should the Israelis resist a joint U.S.-Palestinian position, I see a possible crisis in U.S.-Israel relations of unprecedented proportions." I am not predicting this will happen but noting that the pieces are all in place for such a development.

(7) Although Bush is "seen by many Israelis as the best friend the Jewish state has had in the White House," I have long doubted that characterization, and now more so than ever.

LA Times - Anti Semitic Cartoon...1/6/08

A Cartoon endorsed by the LA Times (of Uncle Sam bound in “Mogen David” shackles), appeared in the Opinion Section of the LA Times last Sunday, January 6.
It is an atrocity that cannot be ignored.
Just like a city that allows the first wall of graffiti to go up and stay up, the next thing you know the entire place is graffiti-ridden and overrun.

The United States is one of the few places left for the Jewish people that is safe for them to be... Jewish. This must not go ignored! The artist, Ed Hall (www.halltoons.com), refused to comment when a message was sent to his site earlier this week. Interestingly, he has his most recent cartoons posted on his site, except this one.

This cartoon is the latest wave, which no longer hides behind “Israeli Flag Burning” and instead blatantly incorporates the very symbol of the entire Jewish nation as that which is crippling the United States!

Israel's false friends

U.S. presidential candidates aren't doing the Jewish state any favors by offering unconditional support.

Once again, as the presidential campaign season gets underway, the leading candidates are going to enormous lengths to demonstrate their devotion to the state of Israel and their steadfast commitment to its "special relationship" with the United States.

Each of the main contenders emphatically favors giving Israel extraordinary material and diplomatic support -- continuing the more than $3 billion in foreign aid each year to a country whose per capita income is now 29th in the world. They also believe that this aid should be given unconditionally. None of them criticizes Israel's conduct, even when its actions threaten U.S. interests, are at odds with American values or even when they are harmful to Israel itself. In short, the candidates believe that the U.S. should support Israel no matter what it does.
Such pandering is hardly surprising, because contenders for high office routinely court special interest groups, and Israel's staunchest supporters -- the Israel lobby, as we have termed it -- expect it. Politicians do not want to offend Jewish Americans or "Christian Zionists," two groups that are deeply engaged in the political process. Candidates fear, with some justification, that even well-intentioned criticism of Israel's policies may lead these groups to turn against them and back their opponents instead.

If this happened, trouble would arise on many fronts. Israel's friends in the media would take aim at the candidate, and campaign contributions from pro-Israel individuals and political action committees would go elsewhere. Moreover, most Jewish voters live in states with many electoral votes, which increases their weight in close elections (remember Florida in 2000?), and a candidate seen as insufficiently committed to Israel would lose some of their support. And no Republican would want to alienate the pro-Israel subset of the Christian evangelical movement, which is a significant part of the GOP base.

Indeed, even suggesting that the U.S. adopt a more impartial stance toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can get a candidate into serious trouble. When Howard Dean proposed during the 2004 campaign that the United States take a more "evenhanded" role in the peace process, he was severely criticized by prominent Democrats, and a rival for the nomination, Sen. Joe Lieberman, accused him of "selling Israel down the river" and said Dean's comments were "irresponsible."

Word quickly spread in the American Jewish community that Dean was hostile to Israel, even though his campaign co-chair was a former president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Dean had been strongly pro-Israel throughout his career. The candidates in the 2008 election surely want to avoid Dean's fate, so they are all trying to prove that they are Israel's best friend.

These candidates, however, are no friends of Israel. They are facilitating its pursuit of self-destructive policies that no true friend would favor.

The key issue here is the future of Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel conquered in 1967 and still controls. Israel faces a stark choice regarding these territories, which are home to roughly 3.8 million Palestinians. It can opt for a two-state solution, turning over almost all of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians and allowing them to create a viable state on those lands in return for a comprehensive peace agreement designed to allow Israel to live securely within its pre-1967 borders (with some minor modifications). Or it can retain control of the territories it occupies or surrounds, building more settlements and bypass roads and confining the Palestinians to a handful of impoverished enclaves in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel would control the borders around those enclaves and the air above them, thus severely restricting the Palestinians' freedom of movement.

But if Israel chooses this second option, it will lead to an apartheid state. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said as much when he recently proclaimed that if "the two-state solution collapses," Israel will "face a South African-style struggle." He went so far as to argue that "as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished." Similarly, Israel's deputy prime minister, Haim Ramon, said earlier this month that "the occupation is a threat to the existence of the state of Israel." Other Israelis, as well as Jimmy Carter and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have warned that continuing the occupation will turn Israel into an apartheid state. Nevertheless, Israel continues to expand its settlements on the West Bank while the plight of the Palestinians worsens.

Given this grim situation, one would expect the presidential candidates, who claim to care deeply about Israel, to be sounding the alarm and energetically championing a two-state solution. One would expect them to have encouraged President Bush to put significant pressure on both the Israelis and the Palestinians at the recent Annapolis conference and to keep the pressure on when he visits the region this week. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently observed, settling this conflict is also in America's interest, not to mention the Palestinians'.
One would certainly expect Hillary Clinton to be leading the charge here. After all, she wisely and bravely called for establishing a Palestinian state "that is on the same footing as other states" in 1998, when it was still politically incorrect to use the words "Palestinian state" openly. Moreover, her husband not only championed a two-state solution as president but he laid out the famous "Clinton parameters" in December 2000, which outline the only realistic deal for ending the conflict.

But what is Clinton saying now that she is a candidate? She said hardly anything about pushing the peace process forward at Annapolis, and remained silent when Rice criticized Israel's subsequent announcement that it planned to build more than 300 new housing units in East Jerusalem. More important, both she and GOP aspirant Rudy Giuliani recently proclaimed that Jerusalem must remain undivided, a position that is at odds with the Clinton parameters and virtually guarantees that there will be no Palestinian state.
Sen. Clinton's behavior is hardly unusual among the candidates for president. Barack Obama, who expressed some sympathy for the Palestinians before he set his sights on the White House, now has little to say about their plight, and he too said little about what should have been done at Annapolis to facilitate peace. The other major contenders are ardent in their declarations of support for Israel, and none of them apparently sees a two-state solution as so urgent that they should press both sides to reach an agreement. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. national security advisor and now a senior advisor to Obama, noted, "The presidential candidates don't see any payoff in addressing the Israel-Palestinian issue." But they do see a significant political payoff in backing Israel to the hilt, even when it is pursuing a policy -- colonizing the West Bank -- that is morally and strategically bankrupt.

In short, the presidential candidates are no friends of Israel. They are like most U.S. politicians, who reflexively mouth pro-Israel platitudes while continuing to endorse and subsidize policies that are in fact harmful to the Jewish state. A genuine friend would tell Israel that it was acting foolishly, and would do whatever he or she could to get Israel to change its misguided behavior. And that will require challenging the special interest groups whose hard-line views have been obstacles to peace for many years.

As former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami argued in 2006, the American presidents who have made the greatest contribution to peace -- Carter and George H.W. Bush -- succeeded because they were "ready to confront Israel head-on and overlook the sensibilities of her friends in America." If the Democratic and Republican contenders were true friends of Israel, they would be warning it about the danger of becoming an apartheid state, just as Carter did.
Moreover, they would be calling for an end to the occupation and the creation of a viable Palestinian state. And they would be calling for the United States to act as an honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians so that Washington could pressure both sides to accept a solution based on the Clinton parameters. Implementing a final-status agreement will be difficult and take a number of years, but it is imperative that the two sides formally agree on the solution and then implement it in ways that protect each side.

But Israel's false friends cannot say any of these things, or even discuss the issue honestly. Why? Because they fear that speaking the truth would incur the wrath of the hard-liners who dominate the main organizations in the Israel lobby. So Israel will end up controlling Gaza and the West Bank for the foreseeable future, turning itself into an apartheid state in the process. And all of this will be done with the backing of its so-called friends, including the current presidential candidates. With friends like them, who needs enemies?

John J. Mearsheimer is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Stephen M. Walt is a professor of international affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. They are the authors of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," published last year by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

January 11, 2008

Former chief rabbi warns Bush against 'activity that would harm Israel'

By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent

Former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu warned U.S. President George W. Bush in a circular against "activity that would harm Israel."

Eliyahu explains in the circular, "The Jewish people will remember forever all those who do it harm."

Eliyahu addressed Bush as "a man who believes in the Bible," and quoted a biblical promise to give the Land of Israel to the People of Israel.

"Plans being published today counter God's word. They include giving the place of the Temple to those who use the Lord's name in vain as they kill women and children," Eliyahu wrote.

Eliyahu closes the circular by asking Bush to utilize his visit here "to strengthen the Jewish people and act to remove the threat on Sderot."

Sanhedrin to Bush: Declare that Israel belongs to Jews

Koby Nahshoni
01.08.08, 14:53

On the eve of US President George W. Bush's visit to Israel, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, the president of the Sanhedrin, has prepared a small greeting card for the leader in which he requests that president declare the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews, free convicted US spy Jonathan Pollard and encourage US Jews to move to Israel.

The letter is to be passed onto the American president by a "very senior person" that is set to meet with him during the visit.

The letter opens with praise for Bush as the "president of the West" and is followed by a list of demands including to declare "in front of the world that the Land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by the Creator."

The American president is requested to seize the opportunity of his visit to Israel to make a proclamation similar to proclamations, Steinsaltz claims, made by Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE as well as Englishman Lord James Balfour in 1917: to recognize the right of the Jewish people over the Land of Israel.

Steinsaltz also asks that the American president work to settle Jews in "every corner of the Land of Israel" and push America Jews to make aliyah.

"I will urge the Jews in my country and hold the corners of their garments to bring them to the Land of Israel and settle them there and to erect the Temple of God in Jerusalem and to push foreigners away from it."

'Don't trust the Israeli government'

According to the signatories, it is the job of foreign nations to strengthen the Jewish people for the benefit of mankind and world peace. They also wrote that foreign nations are forbidden from relying on decisions made by the Israeli government because they stem from a lack of faith in God and the Torah.

"No Israeli government and no Jewish representatives can change even the calligraphical ornament of the letter Yud in God's covenant or in the holy Torah," they wrote.

Steinsaltz calls on President Bush to release former US Naval Intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard who is currently serving a life sentence for spying for Israel.

The Sanhedrin president closed his letter by telling President Bush that "it is in your hands to be remembered as having an eternal life or to be etched in (history) as an eternal disgrace."

The letter was signed by rabbis associated with the recent attempt to revive the Sanhedrin, the ancient Jewish court of law, as well as people members of the Temple Institute who wrote: "Loyal representatives of the Jewish people, in the name of God, ruler of the universe."

January 10, 2008

Bush Should Divide Jordan!

The displaced Jordanians have a home in Jordan.
Jordan will not accept them.
They refuse to attempt to occupy their own land.
They continue to squat on Jewish land.

It is time for GW to begin to divide Jordan and create a new Jordanian State for the these displaced Arabs in their UN given land!

Rightists flood King David hotel with faxes in protest of Bush visit


Letters addressed to US president urge him to release Pollard and refrain from advancing Israeli territorial concessions in Jerusalem as part of peace agreement with Palestinians
Roi Mandel Published: 01.10.08, 17:03 / Israel News

The King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which is hosting US President George W. Bush and his entourage, has been flooded with faxes sent by right-wing activists protesting the negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state and a possible agreement on certain territorial concessions in the capital.

Important Guest Palestinians indifferent to Bush visit / Ali Waked Ramallah residents unmoved by important guest visiting their city. Sharing complaints about traffic and insult to Arafat's memory, most say they believe visit will do no good. 'My grandmother, who can't read or write, can also talk about the need for a vision and state of our own,' Palestinian waiter tells Ynet Full Story

The faxes also urged the Americans to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

On Wednesday rightists were asked to send their letters directly to president Bush through the hotel's fax number, which was posted on the internet.

Hotel staff passed the letters on to the American delegation.

"I asked President Bush to free Pollard," Ilana Atiya told Ynet, "I wrote to him that there was no point in having dinner with Minister Rafi Eitan – who sent Pollard on his mission (during his days as a Mossad handler) – while Jonathan is still imprisoned. All Pollard did was send us information that was vital to our security; this information should have been sent to Israel by the American government in accordance with the pact signed between the countries."
Atiya sent a second letter asking Bush "to refrain from advancing Jerusalem's division and not place Israel at the center of all the Mideast's problems.

"I told Bush that if Jerusalem were to be divided, my neighbors and I will be attacked with suicide bombers and missiles," she said.

Gazan Welcome For Bush: American School Bombed

by Ezra HaLevi (IsraelNN.com)

Arab terrorists bombed the American school in Gaza Thursday, apparently in response to US President George W. Bush’s demands that the PA give up terrorism.

Three men reportedly fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at the second floor of the school Thursday morning, shortly before students arrived for classes.

The school’s security guards were told to leave the premises prior to the attack. They complied and the school’s art facility was destroyed.

The American-funded school is located near the village of Beit Lahiya. Most of its American teachers left Gaza when Hamas came to power, fearing attack. The students at the school come from wealthy families and classes take place in English. Many will study at American universities after graduation.

This is the second time this year that the school has been attacked. Last April, the facility was set on fire by arsonists and earlier an American guest and two teachers at the school were kidnapped and later released.

The school’s principle Ribhi Salem pleaded with local terrorists not to attack the school, saying it is fully licensed by the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority in Gaza and is not associated with the American government beyond receiving funding from the US State Department. "The school's staff and students are all Palestinians, and it is licensed by the Ministry of Education,” Salem said. “Its mission is purely educational with nothing to do with politics."
The school’s web site declares: “We are all extremely proud to be a part of the vision for the future of Palestine.”

Classes were cancelled as a result of the attack.

January 7, 2008

Jerusalem belongs to the Jews by history, religion and law

By Ted Belman

Jews all over the world are rallying to save Jerusalem as the united and undivided capital of Israel. Their efforts will reach an apex during the visit by Bush next week. But the fight for Jerusalem has been going on as a result of Annapolis which wants it divided and the fight will continue after Bush leaves.

Abbas demands that Israel abandon all the land seized by Israel in ‘67 including all built up settlements thereon which Israel incorporated into Jerusalem. Olmert wants to divide the city based on Jewish areas vs Arab areas. An agreement is nowhere in site, thank G-d.

It is important to understand what the law, such as it is, provides.

In Jerusalem IS a Jewish issue (http://www.israpundit.com/2007/?p=6617 ) I described Israel’s legal claim to Jerusalem and advised that the proper legal disposition is by referendum among the residents of Jerusalem allowing them to decide. Not only the Jewish residents, who outnumber the Arab residents by a ratio of 2:1, will vote to keep it in Israel but all polls indicate the Arab residents will too.

But it is also important to understand what Jerusalem means to the Jews and Judaism and what it means to Muslims and Islam.

Daniel Pipes, in a seminal article written in 2001, titled The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem, fully sets out the the differences in the claim of the Muslims and that of the Jews.

After setting out the meaning of Jerusalem to Judaism which needs no elucidation here, he compares it to Islam.

It is not the place to which they pray, is not once mentioned by name in prayers, and it is connected to no mundane events in Muhammad’s life. The city never served as capital of a sovereign Muslim state, and it never became a cultural or scholarly center. Little of political import by Muslims was initiated there.

One comparison makes this point most clearly: Jerusalem appears in the Jewish Bible 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times, or 823 times in all. The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion 7 times. In contrast, the columnist Moshe Kohn notes, Jerusalem and Zion appear as frequently in the Qur’an “as they do in the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita, the Taoist Tao-Te Ching, the Buddhist Dhamapada and the Zoroastrian Zend Avesta”—which is to say, not once.2

That being so, he asks,

Why did two surveys of American Muslims find Jerusalem their most pressing foreign policy issue?

6and answers, Because of politics. An historical survey shows that the stature of the city, and the emotions surrounding it, inevitably rises for Muslims when Jerusalem has political significance. Conversely, when the utility of Jerusalem expires, so does its status and the passions about it. This pattern first emerged during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad in the early seventh century. Since then, it has been repeated on five occasions: in the late seventh century, in the twelfth century Countercrusade, in the thirteenth century Crusades, during the era of British rule (1917-48), and since Israel took the city in 1967. The consistency that emerges in such a long period provides an important perspective on the current confrontation.

It is also because of religion but not as you might expect. Bat Ye’or, the author of Eurabia and Dhimmitude, advises,

“Once a region has been conquered for Islam, it is always Islamic and must be re-conquered from the infidel, regardless of the passage of time.”

This is the core of the entire conflict and this is what drives the Muslims.

It is safe to say that if Jerusalem came under the control of the Muslims/Arabs, it would once again be downgraded in importance because it can’t be allowed to challenge the importance of Mecca.

Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. The Jews will fight to keep it, all of it.

January 4, 2008

Will my Grandchildren Be Jewish?

By Aron Moss

Question:

I fear for the future of the Jewish people. When I look at my family and where they are headed it is not very promising. My grandfather was a rabbi, but I am not sure my grandchildren will even be Jewish. What is the secret to keeping Judaism alive?

Answer:

I have yet to meet a Jew who doesn't proudly claim, "My grandfather was a rabbi." It seems that three generations ago everyone was a rabbi.

What they really mean is that their grandfather was an observant Jew. He probably had a beard, prayed every day, and was knowledgeable in Torah. He may have been a cobbler or merchant or baker, but he was a committed Jew.

Anyone who identifies as Jewish today only need go back three or four generations to find observant Jews in their family. And from there an unbroken chain of Jewish living that goes back more than three thousand years. Not that everyone has always been observant. There were plenty of unobservant Jews. But we don't know their grandchildren. They have been lost to the Jewish community.

Jewishness without Jewish observance cannot last more than a couple of generations. Unless they return to living Jewishly, the children of unobservant Jews will stop being Jewish altogether and assimilate. A family of unobservant Jews will lose one or the other - either the Jewishness, or the unobservance. You can't have both.

This is not a new phenomenon. Throughout Jewish history there have been individuals and groups who tried to keep a Jewish identity without Jewish practice. It has never worked. A vague Jewish ethnic feeling, devoid of any spiritual purpose and with no compelling message that is relevant to life, cannot last long. Only proud and authentic Judaism, that offers relevance and meaning, direction and inspiration, will stand the test of time.

In the times of the Chanukah story, a small band of faithful Jews stood up against the vast majority of Jews who subscribed to Hellenism, the Greek way of life. We celebrate Chanukah today because we descend from those faithful few.

The solution to Jewish continuity is no secret, it's obvious. Living breathing Judaism produces living breathing Jews. Do for your grandchildren what your grandfather did for you - be a living example of what it means to live a vibrant Jewish life. They don't need their grandfather to be a rabbi, but they need him to be a proud and practicing Jew.

- Rabbi Aron Moss teaches Kabbalah, Talmud and practical Judaism in Sydney, Australia

American Friends of Likud....

What political party in Israel do you support? You can join the American Friends of Likud-

Dedicated to educating the public about Israel and events taking place in the Middle East, and raising a general awareness of Zionism. AFL provides a solid partnership of public support for the State of Israel, its citizens, and its democratically elected officials.
While American Friends of Likud maintains close links to Israel's Likud party, we remain an independent democratic movement. AFL takes an active role in the World Zionist Congress, joining our World Likud movement in representing the American voice of Likud in Israel. We are also partners with the Jewish Agency for Israel and members of the American Zionist Movement and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.

The Likud includes many factions and Mahigut Yehudit is one of them!

Who is Mahigut Yehudit?

Simply Jews - Manhigut Yehudit wants to turn the State of Jews in to the Jewish State!
With no added definitions. We do not call ourselves Orthodox, Conservative or Reform -- neither "right-wing" nor "left-wing."

Like the overwhelming majority of Jews, we believe in God, Who has brought us back to our Jewish home --the Holy Land of Israel. In Israel, the natural predisposition of the Jewish People to illuminate the world with God's light is brought to perfection, enabling us to perform our task in the most consummate way.

The natural predisposition of the Jewish People is to illuminate the world. Our aim is to create a genuinely Jewish consciousness in the Land of Israel, motivated by the awareness that our faith and our country are intrinsically woven together. An Israeli society predicated on Jewish faith -- the Torah -- is an ethical and loving society whose ultimate goal is to illuminate the entire world with God's benevolence.

The Modern State of Israel in Crisis

The Zionist movement, which founded the modern State of Israel, was a product of the millennia of longing for return to the Land of Israel. However, it was also a product of the times in which it was born. Basing itself on secular 19th century Western values, Zionism came to fill the need for a safe haven for the Jews of the world. Miraculously, the Zionist movement succeeded in building the complete infrastructure of a modern state -- replete with a strong army, high tech, immigration absorption etc. out of the wilderness.

In its essence, though, the secular Zionism on which Israel was built negates holiness. In doing so, it has stripped itself of the tools necessary to reflect the Jewishness of Israel and its ultimate holy purpose.

The very Zionist ideology that built the modern state of Israel has now turned against itself. We are now witnessing a complete unraveling of the fabric of Israeli society. The very Zionist ideology that built the modern state of Israel has now turned against itself as it seeks to counter its Biblical roots and Divine purpose. This self-destructive bent is the ultimate conclusion of the secular ideology upon which Zionism is based.

The Essential Question: Is Israel a State of Jews -- or a Jewish State?

Until now Israel has been a state of the Jews. It is vital to our future to transform Israel into a Jewish state. Israel's elected officials must lead the country with policies based exclusively on Jewish identity, values and ethics.

An Alternative

In 1994, Moshe Feiglin began the Zo Artzeinu ("This is Our Land") protest movement that opposed the self-destructive Oslo Accords with a massive civil disobedience campaign.

It became clear, though, that it was not enough to protest; we had to offer a fundamental alternative -- a new strategic objective -- in place of the process of collapse that gave rise to the Oslo Accords. Such an alternative would need to be based on both an alternative ideology that would inspire the nation and possess the means for implementation.

Belief-Based Leadership Only leadership motivated by an authentically Jewish vision will be capable of meeting all the challenges. There is only one way to truly imbue the State of Israel with the meaning it deserves and needs: to promote an alternative leadership for the State of Israel that is based on Jewish belief. Only leadership motivated by an authentically Jewish vision will be capable of meeting all the challenges currently facing the State of Israel and the Jewish People. Only leadership of this kind will be capable of reinvigorating the State of Israel and the Jewish People and leading it towards the realization of the vision of the prophets.

Leadership of the Likud

In 1998, Manhigut Yehudit (The Jewish Leadership Movement) was established as the successor to Zo Artzeinu.

Our aim is to enlist thousands of believing members in the Likud -- Israel's central ruling political party -- and to elect a party leader who will be motivated by Jewish ideals and values. As the Likud's candidate for Prime Minister, this candidate would be the natural leader of the national camp and would be elected as the Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

Our weapon is our ideology. What began as a dream has become a reality. Already today, Manhigut Yehudit (The Jewish Leadership Movement) has the largest bloc inside the Likud's Central Committee. In a very short time we became known as the group which "does not come with a price tag." Our weapon is our ideology and tens of thousands of supporters have already joined our ranks. Many Israelis throughout the political spectrum believe that we are the future of Israel's political life and the path we have chosen is correct and viable.

January 3, 2008

Muslim Populations - Eurabia

Muslim Populations in European Cities - Daniel Pipes


Which European cities have the highest percentages of Muslim residents.
The "Islam in Europe" blog compiled the following statistics, with sources marked by an asterisk and some edits by me.

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2007/11/muslim-population-in-european-cities.html


Marseilles - 25 percent (200,000 of 800,000) (*)

Malmö - ~25 percent (67,000 of 270,000) (*)

Amsterdam - 24 percent (180,000 of 750,000) (*)

Stockholm - 20 percent (>155,000 of 771,038) (*)

Brussels - ~20 percent (some say 33 percent) (*)

Moscow - 16 percent-20 percent (2 million of 10-12 milllion) (*)

London - 17 percent (1.3 million of 7.5 million) (*)

Luton - 14.6 percent (26,963) (*)

Birmingham 14.3 percent (139,771) (*)

The Hague - 14.2 percent ( 67,896 of 475,580) (*)

Utrecht - 13.2 percent (38,300 of 289,000) (*)

Rotterdam - 13 percent (80,000 of 600,000) (*)

Copenhagen - 12.6 percent (63,000 of 500,000) (*)

Leicester - 11 percent (>30,000 of 280,000) (*)

Aarhus - ~10 percent (*)

Zaan district (Netherlands) - 8.8 percent (*)

Paris - 7.38 percent (155,000 of 2.1 million) (*)

Antwerp- 6.7 percent (>30,000 of >450,000) (*)

Hamburg - 6.4 percent (>110,000 of 1.73 million) (*)

Berlin - 5.9 percent (~200,000 of 3.40 million) (*)



Comments:



(1) It is striking to note that many of the continent's largest cities – London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow – also have its largest Muslim populations; also, the capital cities are disproportionately represented. Also noteworthy is how, other than Marseilles, they are all northerly.



(2) The above numbers do not indicate rates of growth; given the proportionately higher influx into Sweden than other countries, I'd put my money on Malmö or Stockholm being the first west European city with a Muslim majority, with Moscow as a wild card, given that Russian demographic dynamics are so different. (November 23, 2007)

Bageling by Jessica Levine Kupferberg

It all started when my friend Doodie Miller-- who wears a kippah -- was back in college and suffering through a tedious lecture. As the professor droned on, a previously-unknown young woman leaned over and whispered in his ear:

"This class is as boring as my Zayde's seder."

You see, the woman knew that she did not "look" Jewish, nor did she wear any identifying signs like a Star of David. So foregoing the awkward declaration, "I'm Jewish," the girl devised a more nuanced -- and frankly, cuter -- way of heralding her heritage.

This incident launched a hypothesis which would henceforth be known as the Bagel Theory.
The Bagel Theory stands for the principle that we Jews, regardless of how observant or affiliated we are, have a powerful need to connect with one another.

The Bagel Theory stands for the principle that we Jews, regardless of how observant or affiliated we are, have a powerful need to connect with one another. To that end, we find ways to "bagel" each other -- basically, to "out" ourselves to fellow Jews.

There are two ways to bagel. The brave or simply unimaginative will tell you straight out that they are Jewish (a plain bagel). But the more creative will concoct subtler and even sublime ways to let you know that they, too, are in the know. (These bagels are often the best; like their doughy counterparts, cultural bagels are more flavorful when there is more to chew on.)

Bageled at Boggle

I suspect that Jews have been bageling even before real bagels were invented. And while my husband and I may not have invented bageling, we do seem to have a steady diet of bagel encounters.

An early bagel favorite occurred when my kippah-wearing husband and I were dating, and we spent a Saturday evening at a funky coffee house with friends. We engaged in a few boisterous rounds of Boggle, the game where you must quickly make words out of jumbled lettered cubes. Observing our fun, a couple of college students at a nearby table asked if they could play too. After we rattled the tray and furiously scribbled our words, it was time to read our lists aloud. One of the students, who sported a rasta hat and goatee, proudly listed the word "yad." Unsuspecting, we inquired, "What's a yad?" He said with a smirk, "You know, that pointer you read the Torah with." Yes, we were bageled at Boggle.

On our honeymoon in Rome, we were standing at the top of the Spanish steps next to a middle-aged couple holding a map. The husband piped up in an obvious voice, "I wonder where the synagogue is." My husband and I exchanged a knowing look at this classic Roman bagel and proceeded to strike up a conversation with this lovely couple from Chicago. After we took them to the synagogue, they asked to join us at the kosher pizza shop. As we savored the cheeseless arugula and shaved beef pizza -- to this day the best pizza I have ever had -- this non-religious couple marveled at traveling kosher and declared they would do so in the future. A satisfying bagel to be sure.

Holy Bagel

In the years since, our bagel encounters have become precious souvenirs, yiddishe knick-knacks from our family adventures in smaller Jewish communities. Like the time the little boy at the Coffee Bean in Pasadena, California, walked up to my husband, pulled out a mezuzah from around his neck, smiled and ran away. (A non-verbal bagel!) Or our day trip to the pier in San Clemente, California when an impish girl in cornrows and bikini scampered over to say "Good Shabbos."

We have been bageled waiting at airline ticket counters, in elevators, at the supermarket checkout. And I myself have been known to bagel when the situation calls for it, like the time I asked the chassid seated a few rows up on an airplane if I could borrow a siddur.

On a recent trip abroad, however, we did not get bageled even once. That was in Israel where, thankfully, there is just no need.
We bagel in a quest to feel whole.

Ultimately, why do we feel this need to bagel? Does it stem from our shared patriarchs, our pedigree of discrimination and isolation, a common love of latkes or just the human predisposition to be cliquey? I maintain it is something more. Our sages say that all Jews were originally one interconnected soul which stood in unison at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. Now scattered across the Earth, as we encounter each other's Jewish souls, we recognize and reconnect with a piece of our divine selves. The bagel may have a hole, but we bagel in a quest to feel whole.

So the next time a sweaty stranger at the gym says to you, "I haven't been this thirsty since Yom Kippur," smile. You've just been bageled -- adding another link in the Jewish circle of connection.

January 2, 2008

Something terrible is happening to Israel.

Yarzheit 2007- speech by Meir Jolowitz

There is a war being fought, and the people of Israel don’t even know it.
And we ask the question:
Does anyone notice? Does anybody care?
**
It happened only a few years ago.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak invited Yasir Arafat, a mass murderer,
into his home in the exclusive community of Kochav Yair, on Erev Shabbat.
The mass murderer placed a kiss on the forehead of the Prime Minister’s daughter –
an act that Barak said melted her: “She was so deeply moved – she was so excited.”
Did Ehud Barak – today in charge of Israel’s defense –
ever invite to Kochav Yair, on Erev Shabbat,
one of the young Jewish soldiers that he once commanded – perhaps one who lost a limb
fighting against those mass murderers?
And this past Sukkot, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert invites as his guest,
to his sukkah, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen),
Arafat’s deputy for 40 years, financier of the Munich Massacre,
and a Holocaust denier who still praises Arab terrorists as martyrs of a holy war.
And make no mistake about it –
Israel’s next prime minister will invite into his home, Marwan Boughouti,
who is presently in an Israeli prison, serving 5 lifetime sentences for terrorism against the Jewish people.

You can count on it - The Israeli prime minister will prostate himself
before this mass murderer and petition for peace.
Something terrible is indeed happening to Israel.
**
Last month, President George Bush invited 90 Muslim leaders to a White House dinner to mark the end of the fast of Ramadan.
Bush opined that the United States has a proud history of standing with Muslims
and "mainstream citizens across the broader Middle East."
Those invited to the White House were Bush’s moderate Muslims.
Referring to the extremists who conduct the unyielding war against western civilization, Bush stated:
“You don't represent Muslims, you do not represent Islam – and you will not succeed."
*
Dear George. They do; they do; and they are.
**
There is something that all of us here today have to understand.
As long as we are right; as long as we are brave; and as long as we proclaim the truth –
we shall remain the minority within a minority.
Tragically – the truth is not self evident, and nor is there a guarantee that it shall prevail.
But, there is one thing we were all taught by Rabbi Meir Kahane – that we must fight the fight nonetheless. that God rewards us for trying, not for succeeding.
**
Truth be told, there are two wars being waged today.
Arab versus Jew, and Jew versus Jew. And, inevitably, these two conflicts intersect.
The issue is not only “Will there be peace?” but “Will Israel remain a Jewish state?”
The battleground that will determine the winner is not only the narrow nine-mile wide waistline that defines Israel’s vulnerability, but more importantly, the battleground of ideas where the Arabs, for a generation, have been joined by leftist Jewish and Israeli allies, with whom they together endeavor to negate the Jewish character of the state.
This second war front is directed at Israel by the “so-called” progressive forces of a liberal-leaning world, led by scholars, academicians, writers, and other cultural elitists, many of them Jews.

It is an effort to see Israel cease to be a “Jewish” state, to be replaced, they envision, with a universal, or democratic one.
Of course, this is nothing but a euphemism for the elimination of the Jewish State.
And nobody seems to care.
**
Two decades ago, Rabbi Kahane warned the people of Israel –
“You will either get Kahane, or you will get Arafat.”
Remarkably – in Israel today – the yellow shirt, bearing the Kach emblem, is banned. Not so, the colors of the PLO. Israeli police arrest, and Israeli courts summarily convict Jewish citizens who shout at a soccer match “Kahane tzadak (Kahane was right);
while they ignore Arab parliamentarians sitting in Israel’s Knesset who openly praise Israel’s declared enemies
and call for the Arab intafada to burn Jewish towns.

And while the Jews fight the Jews, the Arabs, and the oil-thirsty world that aligns itself with them,
wait in the wings, while step by step, censure by censure, measure by measure, Israel becomes less Jewish, and frighteningly, less at ease with its own right to exist.
And the so-called leaders of Israel look everywhere – or anywhere – for partners to make peace. The Israeli government today convinces itself that it can make peace
with the very organization whose Charter still calls for Israel’s elimination.
**
If nothing else, let’s be blunt: In meeting and negotiating with these terrorists, Israel is cooperating in its own murder.
**
Rabbi Kahane once wrote, the words which perhaps more than any other, explain this march of madness... “Not all Jews are heroes, and there are those who grow weary of the long struggle,
and the longer wait. And weariness carries with it weakness.
Weakness of the body, and weakness of the spirit.
Weakness that persuades the Jew to believe,
that which just yesterday, he knew to be nonsense.
Weakness that prepares the ground for the Jew to believe in madness,
and in illusions.”
**
Is it simply an illusion, or worse, is it self-delusion?
1oo years ago, T.S. Eliot wrote:
“…humankind/ Cannot bear very much reality.”
The unbearable reality is that Israel’s yearning for peace is shared neither by the Arab world in general, nor by the Palestinians in particular.
It seems imperative that we understand this simple fact … that the Arab objection is not to “anything Israel has done, or failed to do”, but to the very fact that it exists at all.
For as long as Israel has existed as a sovereign state – for 60 years –
it has been the subject of attack in almost every international arena.
After more than half a century of independence, Israel is still considered an illegitimate state – by enough nations, George Will once remarked in quoting Abba Eban, that they could muster enough support in the United Nations to adopt a resolution confirming that the earth is flat.
**
In the fashion of 1984, we do indeed live in an Orwellian world.
Freedom is slavery. Justice is injustice. Jewish settlement is occupation.
Zionism is racism, And war is peace. Yes, in the language of George Orwell, Arab murderers are peacemakers, And Yasir Arafat is a Nobel Peace Laureate.

We would do well to remember the words of Isaiah:
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil”

Those who champion the rights of the Arabs – these self-appointed purveyors of a twisted moral code that preaches a “turn the other check” philosophy are no less the enemy.
Consider this quote, attributed to the Zionist leader Berl Katznelson, on May 1, 1936:
“Is there another people on earth whose sons are so emotionally and mentally twisted
that they consider everything their nation does despicable and hateful,
while every murder, rape and robbery committed by their enemies
fills their hearts with admiration and awe?”
Katznelson would turn in his grave to know that the sovereign state of Israel has mastered the art of self-hatred.
**
Today, in a world gone mad, We are no longer the good guys, and Arab murderers are no longer the enemy.
“We are both at fault” Yithak Rabin suggested, before he went on to meet his Maker (who, I am certain, told him otherwise).
Needless to say, such mindless exercises in “moral equivalence” are obscene, and mock the whole Zionist enterprise.
Understand something.
What the British Mandate, when it occupied Eretz Yisrael, could not do with its commissions, its sanctions, and its blockades; What the Arab nations in four major wars, and subsequent wars of attrition, could not accomplish – …The Jewish political, cultural, educational and intellectual voices seem to have succeeded in accomplishing – …To bring Zionism to its knees.
**
Yes, there are two wars being fought in the Middle East today:
One is characterized by the thousands of rockets that have fallen on Israeli towns,
by the suicide bombers that have invaded our streets,
and by the establishment of a nuclear capability within reach of the heart of Zion.
The other was launched at Oslo, officially in 1993, although planned long before, after Menachem Begin agreed to retreat from Jewish lands in exchange for the promise of peace.
This is a war called “peace”.
It is a war that Israel is losing. It is very much a war over Israel’s legitimacy. It is a battle being waged by Islam and aided by the post-Zionists… and so-called friends of Israel.
Only utopians or real fools fail to understand that Israel is in fact losing.
Every day. In the classroom. In the media.
In the courts. In the hearts and minds of its own citizens.
We are losing because of a policy that is bereft of ideology … in a nation without a statesman, and without a national leader.

FEW NOTICE, AND EVEN FEWER CARE.
**
During the past generation, we have been witnesses to the
intellectual/cultural/&educational collapse of Zionism.
It is a retreat that has been especially accelerated during the past decade.
The American journalist Charles Krauthammer has observed – correctly – that the most improbable story of the 20th Century is the return of the Jews to sovereignty in their original homeland.
After 2000 years of exile. After Two thousand years of powerlessness.
In 1948, the Jewish nation realized a dream that only one hundred years ago – at the founding of the modern Zionist movement – seemed at best delusional.

Krauthammer wrote:
“The only thing more improbable is this:
That after only 50 years of independence, the Jews of Israel would tire of it,
lose faith in the enterprise, and forfeit their redemption.” This is the peace of Oslo.
The Road Map. The Withdrawal from Gaza. And… the surrender of Jerusalem, which is being planned, even as I speak.

My friends, we have been living a lie. There is no peace process.

There is a pathetic and pathological retreat from everything that our nation once found noble and worth fighting for.
**
At the turn of the last century, those few Jews who championed the cause of a sovereign Jewish state, were labeled by both Jew and non-Jew alike, as being “lunatics.”
At the turn of this century, with a Jewish state that has been extant for nearly 60 years, we have Jews, both in Israel and elsewhere, labeling those who still believe in the Zionist enterprise, those who believe as the early Zionists did – in Jewish labor, and in settling the land – as “lunatics.”
It has been said –
We live in a world that would have us believe that every people is entitled to a homeland of their own, save the Jews, who are expected to coexist peacefully in the homelands of those who brought upon them inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, ghettos, forced baptisms, quota systems, and the final unspeakable horror – the Holocaust – and worse,
…the world’s terrifying disinterest in it.
Incidentally, at the turn of the last century, on January 1, 1900, the three leading newspapers in the world – the New York Times, The London Times, and Le Monde – uniformly predicted that economic prosperity, made possible by scientific technology and democracy, would produce an era of universal peace in the twentieth century.
Tell that to six million Jewish souls.
Today, those same newspapers, and millions of their readers, have joined world leaders calling for Israel
to make further concessions in search of another “peace in our time.”
**
A few words about the Arab/Israel conflict.
The Israelis are “ an exhausted people, confused and without direction.”
They are, some knowingly, and others almost blindly, actively engaged in the destruction of their own national spirit.
In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, having drawn from the experiences of the Yom Kippur War five years earlier, came to the conclusion that Israel could not be beaten militarily, in a single stroke – in a war of annihilation.
Sadat launched a “peace offensive” choosing instead to weaken Israel through a process of attrition – “salami tactics” –
until which time, with a weakened Israel, he could pursue the real objective: peace without Israel.
In the ensuing years, through Camp David, and a peace treaty signed on Jimmy Carter’s White House lawn, he achieved what the Arabs could never achieve through war.
A vanquished Israel.
Israel surrendered even as it celebrated. And loudest to celebrate were the post-Zionists.
In every sense, Sadat was an innovator.
You see, it took the other Arab leaders another fifteen years to understand what he did. That Israel can be coaxed to commit suicide.
Through a series of gradual and incremental surrenders, Israel’s retreat has been supported by the United Nations, the United States, and most disturbingly, the Jews themselves.
The peace process, founded upon a series of false assumptions and unreasonable expectations, has always been an Arab Trojan horse leading Israel towards certain disaster.
It’s as simple as it is foolish: Israel will give, the Arabs will take.
**
Adopting a tactic that Norman Podhoretz called “at once brilliant and evil” – the Arabs have exploited every casualty of a war that they themselves manufactured.
In analyzing Israel, in a piece that appeared in Commentary, titled “Death of an Illusion,” Podhoretz stated: “the virus of self-hatred has spread in recent years, sapping the national morale and the old-time national resolve.”
**
The Arabs, dangling a carrot called peace, while still seeking the eradication of Israel, are in full control.
It is a propaganda triumph, William Safire correctly claimed, that wears down Israel’s will. The results – an Israel broken in spirit, and broken in morale.
Remarkably, seemingly intelligent Jews display little common sense.
And, even less courage.
**
In 1924, the prolific Jewish writer, Maurice Samuels, wrote a book entitled You Gentiles.
Daring to call Jews a “separate & holy people” he concluded his book with the following admonition:
“I console myself with the thought that if this book offends by its assertiveness,
God knows that the infinite tactfulness of thousands of other Jews seems to have offended no less.
Whatever we do we are damned – and I would rather be damned standing up, than lying down.”
My mentor was a rabbi who was in fact damned – damned standing up, but never lying down.
Two generations after Maurice Samuels’ unabashed opinions,
Rabbi Kahane wrote:
“The real prisoners are the ones who walk the streets daily, knowing that they should do a certain thing, and are afraid to do it. They are serving life sentences. If a person believes in something, and does it – he is never in prison – he is always free.”
Never, then, was there a freer man than Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Rabbi Kahane, for two decades warned us, through word and through deed, of the impending catastrophes, if we chose to follow Washington, and if we place our trust in princes, who would, when the final showdown came, to use the language of Pierre Van Passan: “evaporate like snow on a summer day’s sun”
The Rabbi understood:
There was peace only through strength.
Not because they loved us, but because they could be made to respect us…
**
He would often remind us that the Jew needed to stand on 2 legs – the religious, and the nationalistic.
Those who stood on only one, he argued, were crippled.
And never had one man stood taller … on both legs..

Bold, brazen, and never bashful, Rabbi Kahane commanded the ability to engage in intellectual discourse that made even the most erudite opponent shrink before him;
And, he could shift gears effortlessly, and communicate, masterfully, with the young and disenfranchised.
Yes, the Jewish establishment had every reason to fear him.
But, the more they tried to silence him, the louder he seemed to get.And the louder he got... the more he rippled the pond.
**
Today… there is no one to ripple that pond.
The Jews are a people that behave, as Jabotinsky fore-warned over 70 years ago ago, as if they are chloroformed.
**
Consider the following:
On January 30, 1996 – several years after signing his peace treaty with Israel, and having been invited many times as an honored guest to the White House – Yasir Arafat, the Nobel Peace Laureate, addressed 40 Arab diplomats at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, and delivered a lecture that he entitled “The Impending Total Collapse of Israel.”
He said:
“We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem…
We, of the PLO will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps.
Within five years we will have six to seven million Arabs living in the West Bank and in Jerusalem…
You understand that we plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State…
I have no use for Jews; they are, and remain Jews.”
**
And our response?
We invite these terrorists into our homes on Erev Shabbat –
And with Jewish blood still fresh on our soil,
they are invited to visit our Prime Minister’s sukkah.
We march on – an act of madness.
We offer them a state – at the expense of ours.
It is a policy guided by an illusion,
that is driven by an un-forgivable self-delusion.
**
Something terrible is happening to Israel. Is anyone listening? Does anyone really care?

**
Many years ago, my father, a survivor of thirteen concentration camps, sat me down on his knee and said:
“Do the right thing. Decent people will stand by you… the others…really don’t count.”
*
Rabbi Meir Kahane – more than any man of our generation – stood up and did the right thing.
Be proud that you stood beside him.
***
Dear friends –
Seventeen years ago, when the sun set before its scheduled time, we lost the most noble Jew of our generation.
Courageous & Committed.
Dedicated & Daring.
Audacious and intrepid.
Often brazen.
Always controversial.
Never apologetic.
Unencumbered by the need to appease unappeasable opponents, he was painfully truthful.
He was – a true Torah Jew.
**
Tragically, it seems that we really didn’t deserve him,
and must now fend for ourselves.
**
Today, at a pivotal moment of Jewish history, we are leaderless.
The Jewish people are wandering …without a guide and without direction,
… in a desert of our own creation.
**
The struggle continues. And it continues without the voice, or the hand, of the most noble and courageous Jew of our generation.
And, it seems so much harder today to say: “Od lo avda tikvateynu.”
Our hope, is not yet lost.