Pidyon Shvuyim.Plan of Action to Deal with Mass Arrests of Spprters of Israel

bs"d

If you would like to help please email pidionshvuim@gmail.com and please forward to your lists. Robin

Dear Friends,

Women in Green received this important article from IsraelJustice.com

Very often, friends of Israel who reside out of Israel, contact us and ask: "what can we do to help Israel?". Below is an email giving you at least one activity all of you can be part of.

 Written by a group of Israeli citizens with American citizenship, it is an appeal for U.S constituents to join a network to call their congressman about the arrest of Jewish protesters in Israel.

 Please circulate this appeal far and wide.

 With love of Israel,

 Ruth and Nadia Matar

Women in Green

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protecting Our Children
A Plan of Action to Deal with Mass Arrests of Supporters of Israel
by IsraelJustice.com

The Threat:
----------------
    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saved by the United States from his domestic rivals in wake of the Winograd Report, is under tremendous pressure to dismantle Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Olmert has promised to help Bush in the U.S. plan to establish a Palestinian state in Judea and  Samaria by 2009. This will demand the destruction of first the so-called unauthorized outposts, followed by communities established in the early 1970s.
    The government offensive has been planned by a triumvirate of Vice Premier Haim Ramon, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter and Justice Minister Daniel Friedman. Friedman's job is crucial as he heads the effort to maintain a legal system meant to quickly stifle peaceful protest against the government plan. As a result, Friedman and his chief aide, Shai=- Nitzan, are preparing a crackdown on all dissent, including a ban on assembly, speech, movement and prayer in holy sites. The government has introduced new laws to prosecute political dissent on the Internet and cellular phones while building new prisons to handle the thousands of demonstrators expected to be arrested under the crackdown.

The Timetable:
---------------------
    Olmert has sought to delay the offensive against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria . But he has become more vulnerable than ever, given the growing threat to Israel from Iran , Syria and the Hamas regime in the Gaza
Strip, which he believes would require increased support by and coordination with Washington . Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been meeting with Israeli officials and demanding that steps be taken in early 2008 that
would lead to a Palestinian state.

The Experience:
------------------------
    The Olmert government, and its predecessor, Ariel Sharon, have singled out Jewish supporters of Israel for special punishment. The feeling is that punishing Jewish dissidents, particularly residents of Judea and Samaria as well as their supporters, generates support from the governments of the United States , the European Union as well as their clients among the Israeli Left. Olmert and Sharon have pointed to the crackdown on the Jewish residents of the territories as proof of his willingness to take political risks to satisfy the international community.
    As a result, the government has refused appeals to pardon the thousands of Jews arrested prior and during the Israeli expulsion of Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria in 2005. The prosecution has refused to close the more than 700 indictments that stem from those cases. Today, Jewish minors, particularly girls, are held for months without charges because they refuse to cooperate with authorities. In all of the cases, the defendants were not accused of violent offenses. In January, several people were grabbed off the streets of Jerusalem for talking to foreign journalists during the visit by President Bush and charged with sedition.
    Experience has shown that the politicians are either afraid of Olmert and the police. Indeed, many Knesset members are threatened by police investigations or scandal that could turn into indictments at any time. The major print media, with interests in government-controlled companies, have ignored the Jews. Even Israeli human rights organizations, financed by the European Union and U.S. foundations to defend Arabs, have refused to become
involved. Members of the organized Jewish community in the United States have feared to speak out because they do not want to be seen as opposing an Israeli government propped up by Bush.

The Proposal:
-------------------
    Some Americans in Israel -- whose children or friends have been among the detainees -- have found one pressure point on the Olmert government that actually works: telephone calls from members of Congress or their staffers
to the Israel Embassy in Washington to request information about Jewish protesters arrested in peaceful demonstrations. Within hours, these detainees have been released from Israeli police custody.
    We would like to help build a network in the United States that would expand on this success. The network of supporters of Jewish rights in Israel would demand accountability for those arrested or beaten by police in peaceful demonstrations, including attempts to pray at holy places.
    The network would have two channels: One channel would focus on grassroots support; the other on political activists who have access to members of the House and Senate. The network, designed to generate constituency complaints, would encourage members of Congress to question the Israel Embassy in Washington and perhaps even the State Department to clarify alleged human rights violations of Jews. Supporters of this initiative would not need to take any position on the future of Judea and Samaria -- merely to call on Israel to account for reports of police brutality, arrest without charges and refusal to release Jews on bail for non-violent protests.
    We are hoping to build this network so that we can stop the impending Olmert offensive against the Jews in the coming weeks. We urge you to help us establish this network or set up your own pressure group. As few as five
people per congressional district willing to telephone a member of Congress can make a difference.
    The prospect of turning to the U.S. political system to intervene is something we don't relish. But we have to face facts: Olmert, whose approval ratings have approached zero, has survived purely because of the Bush administration and its hopes that the prime minister will unilaterally withdraw from Judea and Samaria and establish a Palestinian state over the next year. Indeed, when Bush visited Israel in January, Olmert called the U.S. president "my confidante."
    Our goal is to deter Olmert from draconian measures meant to destroy the Jewish community in Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem . A network that monitors the arrests of Jews, particularly Americans, and asks members of
Congress to seek clarification could buy valuable time. It could also move American Jewish leaders to quietly warn Olmert that he cannot continue to trample on Jewish rights without a backlash from American Jews and their
supporters in Congress. Every Jew who is released is a Jew redeemed one of the most important mitzvot in the Torah. Can anything be more important?

Please send comments, suggestions or offers to be part of this network to pidionshvuim@gmail.com

 

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

Why are you keeping this girl Tsivia from Elon Moreh in Jail?

 

bs"d

 

Dear Sirs,

 

Why are you getting rid of a fly on a forehead with a sledgehammer?  This girl's "crime" was threatening to throw stones at what she felt was a provocation and danger to her own security.  It's like locking up a 4 year old kid in her room for days for "hitting and threatening" her older much stronger and armed brother who is bullying her. And here we are not even talking about an older brother that is bullying but a neighbor who is with her brother who acts mean and threatening. 

 

Your definition of justice is quite the opposite.  In addition, it's an act of bullying and cowardice.  Picking on a young girl because she dared to rightfully question the legitimacy of those who are supposed to protect her (aka IDF) who in fact demonstrates the exact opposite by bringing to her territory, strangers and aliens from a people who have shown in the past the desire to harm her people and her loved ones.  Shame on all involved!!!!  Well you and the IDF showed her all right.  You sure did a suburb job of protecting her.  Now she is convinced that your motive as well as the motive of the IDF was pure and their desire and your desire is truly to protect her and her family. 

 

This girl is being sentenced in jail without even a trial.  Another proof of a bunch of bullies masquerading as law officers and representing a corrupt judicial system.

 

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

Pidyon Shivuyim - Releasing an 18 year old girl from prison from Elon Moreh

bs"d

 

Thank you MATTOTARIM@eretz.org for sending this out. Please write a letter of protest.

 

18 year old Tsvia from Elon Moreh  has been in an Israeli prison for more than 2 1/2 months. Her story: 2 IDF reps, one Arab and one Jewish, escorted 3 Arab men into her hometown, Elon Moreh, to harvest olives. 3 girls, among them Tsvia, were shocked and angered at this disregard of Elon Moreh's safety: only 3% of Judea and Samaria is reserved for Jewish towns (although fully 15% of the total Judea/Samaria population is Jewish). So, why allow the Arab men to harvest olives right in the middle of the Jewish town, instead of finding them a land alternative outside of the slivers of land allocated to Yesha's Jews. This was not a racist concern but a safety concern -- in view of the fact that a recent Pew Research poll found fully 70% of Palestinians supportive of homicide bombings against Jews.

 

Tsvia had no-one to turn to, since the authorities (via the 2 local IDF reps) were themselve plainly siding with the 3 Arab men. She pushed and pulled at the 3 Arab men in a vain effort to get them to leave Elon Moreh. She was charged with trespassing (how does this make sense if the indictment does not even claim that the land the 3 men were given access to, is actually theirs?), with "assaulting" (pulling and pushing) the 3 men, with "frightening and insulting" the men, and -- with saying she would throw stones at them. In contrast, just this week, the Shomron Regional Council chairman Gershon Mesika told Army Radio that dozens of stoning incidents per day have been occurring lately, in which Palestinian men and boys throw rocks and cement blocks at Jewish drivers and their families. These potentially fatal attacks have NOT resulted in arrests of the Palestinian Arab perpetrators nor does the State provide  an IDF escort to the Jewish drivers – as opposed to the 2 IDF reps assigned to escort the 3 Arab men.

 

Write to the following email addresses to make the following 3 points (exactly as written here or  -- BETTER! - in your own words):

Dear Sirs, I would appreciate your prompt response to the following:

(a) It is absurd for someone to be in jail for minor offenses: When does the State plan to free Tsvia, the 18 year old girl from Elon Moreh?  

(b) It is hard for us to detect criminal intent in Tsvia's actions: It is indeed dangerous for the State of Israel to insist that Arabs can penetrate Jewish communities, so as to harvest olives right there, since the Palestinian Arab affinity for suicide bombings has been determined to be as high as 70% of the general Palestinian population. For the small number of Palestinians who are truly able to prove they own property inside otherwise Jewish communities, offer similar property elsewhere.

(c) Equality before the law: One Jewish girl talks about throwing rocks and is jailed for 2.5 months (so far). Dozens of Arab men throw rocks (not just threaten to throw -- actually throw) daily, not one of whom is ever arrested. This is not equality.

 

Write to the following senior Israeli officials and embassies (do not worry if a few of the addresses don't work): sar@justice.gov.il,sar@mops.gov.il,sar@moit.gov.il, sar@moc.gov.il, pm_heb@pmo.gov.il,rani@mops.gov.il, yhadar@mops.gov.il, shukil@justice.gov.il, menim@justice.gov.il,livnat@justice.gov.il, shain@justice.gov.il,inbalr@justice.gov.il,yehoshuas@justice.gov.il,tovas@justice.gov.il,rachelschieber@justice.gov.il,moshes@justice.gov.il,women@pmo.gov.il,

meitan@knesset.gov.il,oschneller@knesset.gov.il, rabbis@rabbinate.gov.il,rabbia@rabbinate.gov.il, bnetanyahu@knesset.gov.il, yor@knesset.gov.il,

roi.lahmanovitz@moital.gov.il, zelkin@knesset.gov.il, mgafni@KNESSET.GOV.IL, nzeev@knesset.gov.il, ithakl@knesset.gov.il,drotem@knesset.gov.il,zorlev@knesset.gov.il, nachum@nachumsegal.com, Emb-sec3@israelemb.org,ashariv@newyork.mfa.gov.il,info@philadelphia.mfa.gov.il,atlanta@israel.org,contactus@chicago.mfa.gov.il, 

consular.dep@houston.mfa.gov.il,info@miami.mfa.gov.il

 

 

Field trip to Har Eival 21 February, from Shavei Shomron. Helkat Sadeh Field School at Elon Moreh,  052-8119875 02-9973106 

Private Car Convey to Sderot, Friday morning, 22 February from TA, Haifa, Jerusalem, Modiin, Raanana, Rishon Lezion and Yad Mordechai. Do all your shopping in Sderot. Call  0526493828  0508670982  0545664981  0544905357 0528967117 

 

Call or email the Public Affairs Dept. of Agudath Yisroel of America and other rabbinical leaders (contact information below) and r e s p e c t f u l l y   ask them to speak out! 

 

* From Odelia Jacobs, E"Y activist: "I just finished speaking with Rav Kook, Chief Rabbi of Rechovot. Rav Kook told me that he met personally with Rav Elyashiv, Rav Shteinman and ... Rav Perlow and they all urged us to do our hishtadlus in tefila and actions on behalf of Eretz Yisrael. They mentioned that these are dangerous times, worse then pre-Holocaust!"

 

What has already been done: A crucial statement on behalf of Jerusalem in the Agudah convention in November: http://theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/12165/contact: "NOW, THEREFORE, the delegates to the 85th national convention of Agudath Israel of America hereby resolve that Agudath Israel of America, under the direction of its rabbinic leadership, should communicate to appropriate government officials the organization's strong belief that, for the reasons set forth above, Israel should not relinquish parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty, and the American government should not pressure the Israeli government into doing so."

 

What still needs to be done: R e s p e c t f u l l y  ask major rabbis to please end the Silence regarding Judea and Samaria and the establishment of a Terror State Chas Vechalilah right next-door to Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Ben-Gurion airport.

 

Example letter (even better – write your own):  

 

BH

Dear Distinguished Rabbonim,

 

Please consult urgently with Rav Steinman Shlita and Rav Eliyashi Shlita and other prominent Rabbanim and other Jewish leaders and organizations as to whether to publicly support Israel retaining Yehuda and the Shomron in addition to all of Jerusalem because;

 

(a)    These are all integral parts of Eretz HaKodesh as explained in the very first Rashi in the Chumash and not "occupied" lands as our enemies contend

(b) Parshas Masei inter alia says that it is G-d Himself who delineates the Holy Land's boundaries which include Yehuda and the Shomron

(c)   Abandoning Yehuda and Shomron, G-d forbid, would put the Jews in the remaining Israel in  a real and present existential danger on a much larger scale than the Jews today in Sderot, Ashkelon, etc. who are faced with daily rocket attacks. 

 (d) This is not a "political" or "Zionist" matter. It is a matter of Israel's survival and, perhaps in turn, the survival of the Jewish people. 

 (e) What is at stake goes to the essence of retaining our connection as Am Hashem to Eretz Hakodesh, a holiness we witness and experience every day and even more so now during this Shmitta year.

 

Through your efforts now, Jewish lives and deaths being literally at stake, may Hashem bless your efforts with success to reverse the evil decree "in those days at this time" and to restore to the Jews in Israel and everywhere "Orah VeSimcha VeSasson Vicar".

 

BeChavod Rav, (YOUR NAME)

 

The relevant rabbis to contact r e s p e c t f u l l y  in this connection are:
* Rabbi Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Rabbi Avi Shafran, and Rabbi Gertzulin - Public Affairs Department, Agudath Yisroel  212-797-9000 
* Rabbi Pesach Lerner at The Young Israel 212-929-1525
* Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb of the OU 212-563-4000
* Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, Chabad Headquarters  718 774.4000 / fax 718 774.2718
By email: plerner@youngisrael.org, dzwiebel@agudathisrael.org, shafran@agudathisrael.org, execthw@ou.org, hq@lubavitch.com 
Please cc or bcc all correspondence to faigerayzel@aol.com 

  

Shavei Shomon Field School Weekend: 11 - 12 April. 400 NIS/person (kids 180 NIS till age 15, 250 NIS over age 15. Call 9935133-02

 

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me

bs"d  Thank you Evelyn Haies haze@rcn.com for forwarding this email regarding the anti-Semitic climate in France today.

I received this post from a friend in NY. One of his friends is living in France and posted this to him with the request that Andy distribute it to his American friends.
 
Andy prefaces with: "Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being reported as it should. To give you an idea of what's going on in France where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about 600,000 Jews, here is an email that came from a Jew living in France.

Please read!"
 
"Will the world say nothing - again - as it did in Hitler's time? He writes, "I AM A JEW -- therefore I am forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do not hing." Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously than in France: In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center w as firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseil les; so was a Jewish school in Creteil - all recently. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails, and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus in Paris, the words "Dirty Jew" were painted. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months.
"According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the past 30 days. Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming "Jews to the gas chambers" and "Death to the Jews." A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop (and, of course, the butcher) in Toulouse, France; a Jewish couple in their 20's were beaten up by five men in Villeurbanne, France The woman was pregnant; a Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles, France . This was just in the past week.
 
 "So I call on you, whether you are a fellow Jew, a friend, or merely a person with the capacity and desire to distinguish decency from depravity, to do, at least, these three simple things:
 
"First, care enough to stay informed. Don't ever let yourself become deluded into thinking that this is not your fight. I remind you of what Pastor Neimoller said in World War II: "First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me".
 
 Second, boycott France and French products. Only the Arab countries are more toxically anti-Semitic and, unlike them, France exports more than just oil and hatred. So boycott their wines and their perfumes. Boycott their clothes and their foodstuff s. Boycott their movies. Definitely boycott their shores. If we are resolved we can exert amazing pressure and, whatever else we may know about the French, we most certainly know that they are like a cobweb in a hurricane in the face of  well-directed pressure.
 
 Third, send this along to your family, your friends, and your co-workers. Think of all of the people of good conscience that you know and let them know that you and the people that you care about  need their help.
The number one bestselling book in France is...."September 11: The Frightening Fraud," which argues that no plane ever hit the Pentagon.
Please Pass This On, Let's not let history repeat itself, thank-you for your time and consideration

Brenda H. Mitchell
Executive Assistant to the Rabbis
bmitchell@templesinaiatlanta.org
Temple Sinai
5645 Dupree Drive
Atlanta, GA 30327 

 

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

TIMETODO4ISRAEL Action Campaign - Just a few minutes of your time.

Bs"d

 

Dear Family and Friends, amv"sh

 

A few minute Action Campaign to Save Judea and Samaria.  Please take a few minutes of your time to urge the major Jewish Orthodox Organization to mobilize on behalf of Judea and Samaria, Sderot and all of Eretz Yisroel.  Please copy and paste the following letter or your own version and send it to Agudath Yisroel of America, the Young Israel, the OU and Lubavitch Headquarters that have extensive email lists of Jewish Rabbanim, Jewish Institutions and Shuls reaching HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JEWS.   Then forward this email to your family and friends.

 

This is a call for Action for the major Jewish Institutions to act with a full  force. It has come to our attention that Agudath Yisroel of America is willing to march with a "display of torches" to Washington DC upon the direction of Rav Eliashiv but  Avi Shafran says that they are waiting for the initiative and directive to come from Eretz Yisroel from Rav Eliashiv and Rav Shteinman..  That is why it is so important that we ask Rav Eliashiv and Rav Shteinman speak out loud and clear knowing that Am Yisroel is behind them!!!

 

 If you want to see how the other side is engaging their children to fight on behalf of their "cause" please watch this shocking video http://mysticalpaths.blogspot.com/2008/02/meet-future-peace-partner.html of  Arab boys ages 6-12 being trained to use the M16 rifles which is an automatic weapon capable of major destruction. 
 

Please copy and paste the following letter or change it if you have the time and desire,  and send it with your name at the bottom of the letter to

shafran@agudathisrael.org
dzwiebel@agudathisrael.org
plerner@youngisrael.org
info@ou.org
execthw@ou.org
hq@lubavitch.com

 

 

B"H

 

Dear Distinguished Rabbonim and Askanim for Eretz Yisroel,

 

Please consult urgently with Rav Eliashiv Shlita and Rav Steinman Shlita and urge them to endorse a public proclamation, a KOL KOREI regarding Eretz Yisroel , from Moetzes Gedolei  Hatorah and other distinguished Rabbanim and organizations.  The suggested content of such a  proclamation would include that  Judea and Samaria  are an integral part of Eretz Yisroel, promised exclusively to Am Yisroel as an eternal inheritance.  It is suggested to also include that the nation of Israel in turn is obligated to keep the Torah and Mitzvoth and therefore the Two State Solution as proposed by President Bush and the State Department goes against the will of the Creator of the World. 

 

Ask these Rabbinic Leaders  if they could also  please endorse a massive letter writing campaign from hundreds of thousands of Jews, men women and children,  supporting this Kol Korei.  

 

An effective letter writing campaign will ask all Yeshivas and Jewish Days schools to ask parents and assign the children a HW or class assignment to write a letter to President Bush.  

 

In addition to being sent to the President of the United States, let's have the letters scanned, copied or cc'd to a central site for the purpose of publicly displaying online all of the letters written to the President, with personal identification of the writers omitted to protect privacy. 

 

It is our understanding that Rav Eliashiv Shlita and Rav Shteinman Shlita and other prominent Rabbanim and other Jewish leaders and organizations publicly support Israel retaining Yehuda and the Shomron and all of Jerusalem and Sderot because;

 

(a)    These are all integral parts of Eretz HaKodesh as explained in the very first Rashi in the Chumash and not "occupied" lands as our enemies contend

 

(b) Parshas Masei inter alia says that it is G-d Himself who delineates the Holy Land's boundaries which include Yehuda and the Shomron

 

(c)   Abandoning Yehuda and Shomron, G-d forbid, would put the Jews in the remaining Israel in  a real and present existential danger on a much larger scale than the Jews today in Sderot, Ashkelon, etc. who are faced with daily rocket attacks. 

 

 (d) This is not a "political" or "Zionist" matter. It is a matter of Israel's survival and, perhaps in turn, the survival of the Jewish people. 

 

 (e) What is at stake goes to the essence of retaining our connection as Am Hashem to Eretz Hakodesh, a holiness we witness and experience every day and even more so now during this Shmitta year.

 

Through your efforts now, Jewish lives and deaths being literally at stake, may Hashem bless your efforts with success to reverse the evil decree "in those days at this time" and to restore to the Jews in Israel and everywhere "Orah VeSimcha VeSasson Vicar".

 

Bichvod Rav, 

  ( write your name)

 

 

 

 

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.