23 Sivan 5768
June 26th 2008
Activism for the Land of Israel
1. Letter to Dr. Luchins and OU Leadership by Buddy Macy. Must read article by Caroline Glick.
2. Heart wrenching appeal from Tsfat.
3. More Heart wrenching news Subject: Gush Katif Families Face Yet Another Eviction
4. CJHSLA Calls on Congress to Investigate Why State Department's Arabic TV Network is Spreading Pro-Terrorist Propaganda
5. Israel's Illegitimate and Criminal Government: Paul Eidelberg
Meeting for Brooklyn activists, Monday night at 8:30pm in Flatbush. For more info call 718-510-2364
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Shalom Gentlemen,
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1213794285097&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government's liquidation sale of Israel's strategic assets opened officially this week. Iran's proxies have pounced on the merchandise. Please click on the link above to read the entire article.
2. Heart wrenching appeal from Tsfat.
(Dear Friends: Please read the urgent appeal below. If you can send a donation, that would be appreciated. Most importantly, you can help us by sharing this email with newspapers, bulletins, mailing lists, etc. Please ask your friends and organizations help to broadcast this information. This would be of immeasurable help to us. Thank you.)
IMAGINATION
Imagination is fun but it's not reality. The volunteers at Lev U'Neshama in Tzfat, Israel want our imagined situations to become reality. We would like to imagine, and have it actualized, that every day, every Tzfat mother had the ability to prepare nutritious meals for her family because the family had sufficient funds to purchase food. Sadly the reality is starkly otherwise. About half of our population has difficulty buying their family's basic food needs.
A Tzfat grandmother was grateful for her food delivery that came in time for her to fill the request of a visiting grandson who asked for an apple. Imagine not having an apple in the house nor anything else to offer him.
A young mother reached into her vegetable bin and there was nothing there with which to make a salad for dinner and little else in the cupboards. The next day her food delivery arrived and her children were so excited to find the boxes at their door, that they called their mother at work to tell her the good news. Imagine the happiness at dinner that night that included a fresh vegetable salad.
Another young mother said that the food deliveries always seem to come at the time when she had nothing in the cupboards and that the food assistance not only brought nourishment but it brought peace into her home. Imagine the strife that was averted between husband and wife and their frustration of not having sufficient food to quell the hunger of their young, growing children.
For the past six years, donations from compassionate supporters around the world have funded Lev U'Neshama's Food Fund. Presently we are assisting 144 needy families (over 1,100 individuals from children to the aged) with a monthly food box consisting mainly of fruits and vegetables. Lev U'Neshama has helped thousands of people through its various programs but now our Food Fund - our main focus - is in danger of closing.
Donations from abroad have dramatically dropped due to stressed economies. We have only sufficient funds for two more months, (July and August). This means that families will be at risk. In some families, both parents are working - but salaries may be many months in arrears. In others only one parent works while many others are not able to find any employment. We don't want to imagine their disappointment if our food program is cancelled but this will be a reality unless donations are received. Donations don't have to be large (although that would be appreciated), but lots of small ones add up, too. At the present exchange rate, it costs $30 to sponsor one family for one month. Lev U'Neshama's monthly grocery bill for these 144 families is $4,320. Please take a moment to imagine that your cupboards are empty and there is nothing to give your family.
Please help in any way that you can to make certain that these families, who must, unfortunately, depend on all of us, will continue to receive food assistance.
Lev U'Neshama is a non-profit organization and all our programs are carried out by volunteers. This means that all donations go to the designated project. Unlike other charity organizations that do their work in Tzfat for the benefit of families based on a specific affiliation, Lev U'Neshama stands alone in helping all Jewish families in Tzfat, regardless of their level of observance or affiliation with any religious group.
Donors in the US and Canada can receive tax receipts. Here is how.
In the USA: Make your check payable to: To Save A Life. Then send the check to: To Save A Life 16405 Equestrian Lane, Rockville, MD. 20855. Please indicate that your donation is for Lev U'Neshama, Tzfat. By using the following website, you can make a credit card donation. (www.tsal.org)
In Canada: Make your check payable to: B'nai Torah Charity Fund. Then send the check and a note indicating that the donation is for Lev U'Neshama, Tzfat to: Congregation B'nai Torah, 465 Patricia Avenue, Willowdale, Ontario M2R 2N1
(Either of the above organizations will send you a receipt and Lev U'Neshama will send a thank you letter when your donation is received.)
If you don't need a tax receipt, make your check payable to Lev U'Neshama and send it to: Lev U'Neshama, c/o Smolensky, PO Box 6432, Tzfat 13229 Israel. Checks are exchanged for shekels and put to work immediately. For more information about Lev U'Neshama, please visit our website: www.levuneshama.org
Thank you for helping make it a reality that desperate families in Tzfat will continue to receive much needed assistance.
With best wishes and appreciation,
Rabbi Yisroel Rottenberg, Director
Rena Dvorkin Cohen, Moshe and Yaffa Smolensky, Yosef and Faga Weiss, Volunteers.
3. Heart wrenching news from the former residents of Gush Katif.
Subject: Gush Katif Families Face Yet Another Eviction
To: "rafvrab@gmail.com" <rafvrab@gmail.com>
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126611
Gush Katif Families Face Yet Another Eviction
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Home construction for three expelled Gush Katif communities has begun in three locations - but many other families are now in an even worse situation than they were after the expulsion. Some of the latter, living in Kibbutz Or HaNer and nearby Miflasim, have been told they must leave by August 15.
First the good news: Eight families in Nitzan - the site of the largest concentration of families expelled by the Sharon-Mofaz government from Gush Katif nearly three years ago in the Gaza Disengagement plan - have finally begun building their new, permanent homes. Though the government promised, three years ago, speedy housing solutions for the nearly 1,700 dislocated families, including the rebuilding of the tight-knit communities in new locations, these promises remain nearly entirely unfulfilled.
Dror Vanunu of the Gush Katif Residents Committee reports that Nitzan's families hail mostly from N'vei Dekalim, the largest community in Gush Katif. About 210 of them plan, in the first stage, to rebuild their destroyed homes in the nearby established community of Nitzan, and well over another 100 plan to join them in the second stage. Work on the first handful of houses began last week.
"It's a welcome start," Vanunu told IsraelNationalNews, "but the fact is that about 25% of the families can simply not afford to build. This is because of the low compensation they received in the first place, and because of the fact that the price of building has increased greatly." He added that the construction cost index of three years ago, when the compensation rates were set, is much lower than it is now, and that a court suit demanding linkage to the current rates is being considered.
"The fact is that if the government had not dragged its feet and caused so many delays, construction could have begun earlier, when the prices were closer to what they originally were," Vanunu said.
In Yad Mordechai and Ashkelon, too, groups of former Gush Katif communities have also begun building their houses.
Other Families: Thrown Out, Nowhere to Go
However, most Gush Katif families are still out of luck, not sure where and when their permanent houses will ever be built. Some have even received yet another set of "get out" orders.
The Barda family, for instance, from the former northern Gaza community of Elei Sinai, signed an agreement with the government over three years ago - even before the Disengagement - together with many of their neighbors. Despite this, and despite the three years that have passed, no work at all has begun for their new houses. Not only that, but the Bardas and other families have been told that they must leave the temporary house in which they currently live.
As if that was not enough, they have also been informed that the agreement they signed to build their homes in Talmei Yafeh (5 kilometers southeast of Ashkelon, 10 kms north of Sderot) has expired, as it was signed three years ago!
The Knesset Audit Committee discussed the matter last week, called on the Israel Lands Authority to solve the problem immediately, and scheduled a follow-up meeting for two weeks from now.
One Mother's Story
Mrs. Sigal Barda, mother of three, has written up her harrowing story. Excerpts:
"We lived in Elei Sinai for 15 years, and after the expulsion, we moved with a group of other families to the temporary-housing site in Or HaNer [near Sderot]. We belonged to that [very small] group of families who, despite our absolute opposition to the Disengagement, decided to cooperate with the State and to plan ahead [i.e., consent to leave their houses with no struggle - ed.] in order to minimize the damage and speed up the rebuilding process.
"But looking backwards, we now see how naive we were to think this way, and how much fury it arouses today! We never thought for a moment that we would meet up with such difficult bureacracy and lack of understanding by the State towards law-abiding citizens whose world suddenly collapsed upon them one bright day - through no fault of their own.
"Three years later, we still live in temporary quarters with no hope in sight, struggling every day with Kassam rockets fired upon us directly from the ruins of our homes. We pray and hope that someone will wake up and decide to end our suffering. We have fulfilled our part of the agreement - but what about the State?
Kibbutz Receives House, Family Must Leave
"On Israel's 60th Independence Day, we received from the Kibbutz [Or HanNer] a letter instructing us to leave our caravilla [pre-fab home, designed to last ten years, of the kind allotted to all the expelled families - ed.] by August 15th [the 3rd anniversary of the Disengagement]. Is there no limit to the chutzpah?! I was thrown out of my house and the Kibbutz received a caravilla - and now I have to leave it, to who knows where, in favor of a Kibbutz member?! Where are we to go?!
"I am ashamed to look my children [who objected to our early agreement] in the eye. I promised them a quick rehabilitation, at the price of a quiet and passive departure from our home. But they knew then what I understand only now!
'Don't We Deserve Better?'
"Even if I wanted to rent a house independently [without the rest of my community which we are trying to sustain], the State is allotting us only 2,050 shekels a month [enough for an average apartment building residence, Vanunu said - ed.]. This, after they threw us out of our 160-square-meter (1,722 square feet) house in Elei Sinai and we now live in 90 square meters (970 sq. ft.). Don't we deserve to live, after three years, in something better than that - especially in light of the long way off we still are from our permanent home?!
"We are in total despair, disappointment, and loss of strength... We are raising a new generation, but the values on which we grew up and educated our children have not withstood the test of reality. For our children's sake, we must change things and restore their hope, and I therefore want to call your attention to the national importance in enlisting in the cause of finding ways to solve these problems - with the same 'determination and sensitivity' with which we were thrown out of our homes three years ago."
To contact the Gush Katif Residents Committee, click here.4. CJHSLA Calls on Congress to Investigate Why State Department's Arabic TV Network is Spreading Pro-Terrorist Propaganda
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5. Israel's Illegitimate and Criminal Government: Paul Eidelberg
Self-preservation is the first law of nature. Hence, the first
purpose of government is to protect the lives of its citizens. A
government that fails to protect its citizens forfeits its
legitimacy. Such a government should obviously, and of necessity, be
terminated by one means or another.
Consider the Israeli town of Sderot, once a town of 25,000 Jewish
residents. This town has been terrorized and virtually depopulated.
It has been struck by thousands of missiles launched from Gaza. The
Arabs can bomb Sderot with impunity thanks to Israel's cowardly and
evil government. This cowardly and evil government has no right to
exist. Its continued existence disgraces every Jew in Israel as well
as in the Diaspora. This cowardly and evil government encourages
terrorism throughout the world-more so when Israel's ruling elites
reward Arab terrorism with Jewish land.
That the people of Israel tolerate such a government places in
question Israel's own right to exist. Perhaps this is the arcane or
unconscious reason why we hear voices in America and Europe
questioning Israel's justification? There may be another arcane
reason.
I have in mind the criminality of Israel's government. There is no
objective justification for releasing and arming Arab terrorists.
Yet this has been the policy of Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin,
Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel
Sharon, and Ehud Olmert. This policy is criminal, immoral, and
demonstrably inane. Israeli prime ministers have released more than
7,000 terrorists, who have subsequently murdered more than 300 Jews.
Upon their release, these terrorists are exalted as heroes of Islam.
They become more zealously dedicated to terrorism, to killing more
Jews. By releasing terrorists, Israeli prime ministers have become
complicit in murder.
Let us probe deeper, and here allow me to focus on Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert. Like his six predecessors. Mr. Olmert has betrayed our
Jewish dead. Like them, he has betrayed the Jewish soldiers who died
fighting in the cause of Judaism, Zionism, Eretz Israel. Like his
predecessors, Olmert has sold his moral judgment to Arab villains.
Like his predecessors, Mr. Olmert has murdered the sense of justice.
But if justice has been murdered in Israel, does Israel have a right
to exist? This question takes priority over mere policy issues. It
is nothing less than a regime issue. Right-minded people will
accomplish nothing until they restore the sense of justice in this
country. But to do this they must arouse moral outrage. They must
condemn the prime ministers who have murdered the sense of justice.
This is no time for polite words. I am speaking of prime ministers
who have aided and abetted terrorism and who have thus become the
patrons of evil.
This is not a complicated moral issue, except for minds trapped in
and corrupted by superficial and amoral jargon like "Left" and
"Right." If, God-forbid, your loved-one is murdered by an Arab
terrorist released and armed-as many are-by the Minister of Defense
and as directed by the Prime Minister, then these two ministers have
Jewish blood on their hands. The Defense Minister may make the
excuse of Nazis: "I was only following orders or obeying the law,"
but he is still a criminal, having violated the Moral Law.
The Prime Minister may say: "I was adhering to the terms of the Oslo
or Israel-PLO agreement, and for the sake of peace." But no
agreement with a terrorist organization, and none that requires the
release of terrorists, is lawful or valid. Besides, not only does
Israeli law designate the PLO as a terrorist organization, but it was
evident from the outset that the PLO has never been committed to
peace. Its constitution makes this crystal clear: it calls for
nothing less than Israel's annihilation!
So what should thoughtful and upright people say and do when Israeli
prime ministers repeatedly mislead and betray them? What should they
say and do when their prime ministers talk peace while releasing and
arming the enemies of peace?
I invite every critic and protester of the Oslo "peace process" to
ask: "Does my criticism or protest demonstration go to the heart of
the matter, or am I merely protesting against a policy pursued by one
prime minister after another, year, after year, after year?
Does my criticism or protest demonstration expose and denounce those
who have betrayed our dead? Does it expose and excoriate those who
have released the murderers of our loved ones?
Does my criticism or protest demonstration denounce the government as
illegitimate-a criminal clique, a democratically elected despotism?
Does my criticism or protest demonstration call for regime change and
offer plans for the purpose?
Does my criticism or protest demonstration admonish our people that
justice has been murdered by seven Israeli prime ministers, and that
justice must be restored in the Land of Israel if we are not to be
expelled from this land?"
(IsraelNN.com) The High Court has turned down a petition against a parade of homosexuals to be held in Jerusalem on Thursday. The appeal was filed by activists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel.
The three-justice panel said it took into consideration that the
