IDF Chief snubbed in Washington - a message to Israel

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From: Jay Ticker <JTicker@nyhomes.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Subject: Fwd: IDF Chief snubbed in Washington - a message to Israel
To: Robin Ticker <faigerayzel@gmail.com>


An Alarm Bell...

>>> <imra@netvision.net.il> 3/29/2009 1:28 AM >>>
IDF Chief snubbed in Washington - a message to Israel
Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona U.S. Air Force (Retired) March 25,
2009
http://francona.blogspot.com:80/2009/03/idf-chief-snubbed-in-washington-message.html


The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gabi
Ashkenazi,
visited Washington, DC, last week to meet with senior American
officials to
discuss what Israel believes is the growing Iranian threat to his
country.
In light of President Obama's attempts to reach out to the mullahs in
Tehran - the most recent a Nowruz (Persian new year) video message -
the IDF
chief brought new intelligence on Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

Both American and Israeli intelligence establishments believe that Iran
is
intent on developing nuclear weapons. The difference between the two
assessments is how soon Iran will achieve that capability. The Israelis

believe the Iranians are on the verge of developing a nuclear warhead
for
its ballistic missiles - missiles that can easily reach anywhere in
Israel.

Press reports described Ashkenazi's reception in Washington as
"extraordinarily cool" - he did not meet with any of the Obama Cabinet,

including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. He also was unable to
schedule
a meeting with his counterpart, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Mike Mullen. Add to that list Director of National Intelligence

Admiral Dennis Blair.

This is almost unheard of. The United States and Israel have close
military
and intelligence ties. It is quite normal for the IDF chief to meet
with
defense and intelligence officers. Keep in mind that in Israel, the
defense
establishment is the senior intelligence authority, making Ashkenazi
not
only Admiral Mullen's counterpart, but Admiral Blair's as well.
Meetings
such as those that did not happen are commonplace, at least they were.

What has changed? Obviously, we have a new administration whose foreign

policy is somewhat changed. The unavailability of virtually any senior

official is telling. This administration appears to have determined
that
forging a new relationship with Iran may come at the expense of the
close
relationship with Israel that goes back decades.

The only meeting with a senior American official was with National
Security
Advisor General James Jones. However, the meeting was focused on U.S.
demands that Israel lift some military restrictions on the West Bank
and in
the Gaza Strip. Jones was not there to listen to anything about what
Israeli
leaders considers an "existential" threat to the Jewish state.

The IDF spokesman tried to soften the blow with this emailed
explanation,
"The schedule for the United States visit of the IDF Chief of the
General
Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, was preplanned according to requests
made by
American officials. Any meetings that were canceled were substituted
with
telephone conference calls." An IDF internet site claimed that
Ashkenazi
returned to Israel to participate in talks revolving around the
negotiations
for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Conference calls? I'm not buying it. This treatment of General
Ashkenazi is
a not-so-subtle message to the Israelis: the situation has changed and
you
may be on your own in dealing with the Iranians.

How else can the Israelis interpret it? Obama has made several
overtures to
the Iranians - a terrorist country (unless you ask Janet Napolitano,
then it
is a "state sponsor of human-caused disasters") according to the State

Department - all of which have been rebuffed. Obama advisors are urging
the
President to talk to not only the Taliban (a terrorist organization),
but
also Hizballah and Hamas (also terrorist organizations). As one analyst

(that would be me) puts it, "We are trying to talk to the exact people
we
should be trying to kill."

Rather than dissuading the Israelis from a military strike on Iran's
nuclear
facilities, the Obama Administration's refusal to talk to senior
Israeli
military and intelligence officials may actually hasten the action they
seek
to stop. If Israel cannot get some assurance of support from the United

States, it will feel compelled to act unilaterally.

Mr. President, you are talking to the wrong people.
====
Since retiring from the Air Force, Lt Col Francona has written Ally to

Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace, and
consulted
with government and private firms.  FROM 2003 to 2008, he was a media
analyst on Middle East political-military events for NBC News, and
appeared
regularly on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, MSNBC, CNBC, Hardball,
Countdown, and others.

The colonel has a bachelors degree in government and the Arabic
language,
and a masters degree in international relations with a concentration in

Middle East studies.  His decorations include the Defense Distinguished

Service Medal, the Bronze Star, and nine Air Medals, as well as
campaign
awards for service in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and the Balkans.  The

colonel was awarded the Central Intelligence Agency Seal Medallion for
his
service with that agency.  In 2006, Lt Col Francona was inducted into
the
Defense Language Institute Hall of Fame.


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Sanhedrin:on Pope Benedictus XVI scheduled visit to Israel. Warning Issued Not to Sign With Vatican

bs"d

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130676

Warning Issued Not to Sign With Vatican    

by Hillel Fendel    Nisan 5, 5769, 30 March 09 12:37

 

(IsraelNN.com) Pope Benedictus XVI is scheduled to arrive in Israel six weeks from now, and concern is growing over possibly irreversible Israeli concessions to the Church.

For more than ten years, Israel and the Vatican have been negotiating a diplomatic agreement regarding their tax dispute over Catholic Church properties in Israel, as well as other issues over which they disagree. Though public details are sparse to nil, Foreign Ministry officials say major progress has been made – leading many to fear that the Church will be granted a political and religious foothold in the Holy Land.

Though Church officials hope the agreement will be completed before the Pope's arrival in May, this is not certain. Israeli Foreign Ministry's Bahij Mansour, who heads its religious affairs section, said two weeks ago, "We are 85-90% there."

Mansour also said that most issues still in dispute would be resolved in a meeting in April. Different reports say the meeting will take place either April 7 or April 23 - before and after Passover, respectively - and is to involve relatively high-level officials from both the Vatican and Israel's Foreign Ministry.

The Sanhedrin, a body of 71 rabbis that is attempting to renew the ancient tradition of Judaism's most authoritative court, has written a public letter to Israel's leading officials, warning that any agreement regarding the transfer of national, historic, and/or religious Jewish assets to the Catholic Church will be null and void and will not be recognized by Jewish authorities.

Striving for Internationalized Jerusalem
In February 2000, the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement calling for an internationally guaranteed special status for Jerusalem. During his visit that year, Pope John Paul II announced in Bethlehem that the Vatican had always recognized "Palestinian national rights to a homeland." Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Dean of Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim, said at the time that the Pope's goal was simply to obtain a foothold in Jerusalem for the Church.

The Sanhedrin, which sees itself as a "vehicle to bring about Jewish unity and civil justice, to help repair some of the deepest rifts in our society, and to provide an active, exemplary and unified Torah leadership," warns President Shimon Peres and incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the Church's religious agenda hiding behind diplomatic agreements.

The letter states as follows [subheadings added]:

The State of Israel grants freedom of worship to every religion – except to Jews on their most sacred spot, the Temple Mount. They do not have the right to pray there, nor even minimal religious rights. The State thus contravenes the purpose for which it exists, and undermines its own foundations.

On the other hand, the State of Israel goes out of its way to transfer diplomatic, religious and spiritual assets to foreigners.

Over the course of many years, contacts have been underway and promises of various agreements have been made regarding what the Catholic Church sees as its property or wishes were its property, in Mt. Zion, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, and elsewhere. There are those who came up with the idea of the Holy Crescent [an area around the Old City to the north and east, newly known as the Holy Crescent - ed.] -- the main purpose of which is to rid the Temple Mount and the Old City of exclusive Jewish sovereignty.

The Goal: Sever Jerusalem from Jewish People
Ever since the Israeli army liberated the entire city of Jerusalem in 1967, the members of other faiths and nations have not accepted the Jewish People's sovereignty and return to its eternal capital, the place in which its Temple for the G-d of Israel and G-d's kingdom will be established.

In recent years, the Vatican – acting on behalf of Catholic theology – signed a series of secret agreements, behind the public's back, with various elements in the State of Israel, bereft of respect for the spiritual and political essence of the Jewish Nation. The essence of these agreements is the transfer of ownership over national Jewish property in Jerusalem to the hands of foreigners, and the instigation of processes to destabilize the Jewish People's ownership over its sacred sites – primarily, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the entire Old City of Jerusalem.

Giving these and other sites to the Vatican and international elements will lead to their detachment from the State's territorial area.

The State of Israel is bound to the document of acquisition [known as] the Bible, which was the basis for the Jewish People's claim to its Land when it established the State of Israel. The State must therefore actualize Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem, the City of G-d, the city of kingship, the capital of Israel, the heart of the world. It must guarantee the right of worship for Jews on the Temple Mount…

Standing Up For Israel's Honor
It should be noted that in 1964, when Pope Paul VI visited Israel, the third President of Israel, Mr. Zalman Shazar, read to him the verse in Micah stating that though other nations might follow other gods, "we will walk in the Name of our L-rd G-d forever." The Chief Rabbis at the time similarly stood up for Israel's honor by refusing to meet with him at all, after he refused to meet with them in their Jerusalem office. [During his visit, Paul VI did not acknowledge Israel's existence or visit its key sites, did not mention its name, and refused to meet with the Chief Rabbi in Jerusalem. He later addressed a thank you note to the Israeli president, who lived in Jerusalem, by writing, "Mr. Salman Shazar of Tel Aviv." - ed.]

Public Opposition Worked
In 2000, when Pope John Paul II visited Jerusalem, various elements tried to promote foreign sovereignty on the Temple Mount at the expense of Israel's sovereignty there. They attempted to enable the visit to the Jews' holiest site in the world without official Israeli presence - but public opposition thwarted these efforts.

All official and religious elements in Israel must prevent the signing of an agreement that deviates from the spirit of this document, and express their objections to the Catholic restorationist tendencies whose goal are the neutralization of Israel's sovereign powers and the Jewish People's status in its Holy Land, the Land of Israel.

We expect you to show maximum alertness to the matter of Jerusalem as the holiday of Passover approaches, so that our right hand not be forgotten… Please, clarify your positions to your countrymen and the entire world. Show honor to the G-d of your forefathers, your city, and your nation, without flattery to foreigners who wish to minimize our national image…

The Sanhedrin asserts that the representatives of the State of Israel can represent the Jewish Nation as long as they act in accordance with its traditions and laws – and are not authorized to transfer the ownership, or authority over, lands and properties in the Land of Israel to any foreign religious or political element.

Agreement Will Be Null and Void
Therefore, any agreements made by such representatives with the Vatican as a theological political body, in opposition to the spiritual essence of the Nation of Israel, have no validity. They are all null and void, the Vatican should not believe that property promised to them by these contracts will remain in its hands.

Churches in Israel - The Result of Forced Exile
It should be remembered that the Vatican, as the leading Christian Church, is responsible for the legacy of Rome – the conqueror of Jerusalem, the exiler of its Jews, the destroyer of its land. All the churches that exists today in the Land of Israel are the result of the Jewish destruction 1,900 years ago, the elimination of the Jews from their land, and the exile that Christianity wishes to boast will be eternal. This, in addition to the priceless material and spiritual treasures found in the basements of the Vatican [such as the utensils of the destroyed Holy Temple - ed.], as well as the countless synagogues throughout the world that were confiscated by the Vatican and its representatives and not returned.

It is gravely forbidden to validate such agreements, as determined by the State's criminal law code.

Warning: Religious War
Continued flattery to the Church on the basis of illegal agreements is liable to end, Heaven forbid, in destructive religious wars all over the globe.

Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau has said that Pope Pius XII refused several requests by then-Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog to meet with him before and during the Holocaust to discuss how the Church could help save Jewish lives. After the war, too, Chief Rabbi Herzog asked for the Pope's assistance in locating Jewish orphans who were cared for by Catholic families, and again, the Pope refused.

Fwd: TZC-Newsletter-March-27-09 Vayikra - Print and read on Shabbos - SIGN PETITION TO OU

bs"d

Please sign and circulate the following petition  to the OU initiated by Yosef Rabin

Yosef: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/n2p/petition.html

and please print out and read the Toronto Zionist Council newsletter for this Shabbos Parshat Vayikra!

Shabbat Shalom

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: TZC <tzc@torzc.org>
Date: Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Subject: TZC-Newsletter-March-27-09
To: Yossi Winter <cooljoe@torzc.org>

SHABAT SHALOM!

Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah Call for Prayer while homes in Yesha are being destroyed

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We are familiar with the call of our Rabbanim to say Kapitlech of Tehillim for our Jewish Brethren who find themselves under attack from our enemies.  Hashem wants our tefilla but does not need empty words.  If one allows a murderer to enter his home with the knowledge that this is indeed a murderer and then prays to Hashem to protect the inhabitants of his home, then his prayer is thrown back in his face.

I was listening to Radio10 in Boro Park and the Rav on the radio told the following story.  

A King passed a field and saw an old man planting a fig tree.  He asked the old man "Why do you bother if you will most probably not reap the benefits".  The old man replied, just like my parents planted for me, I will plant for my children and if by the grace of G-d I will enjoy from its fruits then I will bring you some of the produce.

Years passed and G-d gave him years and he was able to pick a bushels of sweet luscious fruit to bring to the King.  He arrives at the King's court and the guards asks him the purpose of his visit.  He explained that he had promised the King to return with these fruits.  They allowed him to enter.  The King rewarded him with an exchange of Gold for the figs.  The Kings servants asked him, why do you honor this old man so?  The king replied, of G-d has honored him so, then I will not honor him?

One of the women residents nearby saw that the old man brought in bushes of figs and returned with bushels of gold.  She told her husband, "The king must love figs!  Let's also bring the King some delicious figs and we will be rewarded in kind with gold".  So the dutiful husband listened to his wife.  He came to court and the guards asked him the purpose of his visit.  He explained that he has a special gift for the king.  The allowed him to enter and presented his gift to the King.  The king asked him why he brought him the figs. The man answered that they noticed that the King must truly love the figs since he repaid the old man with gold.  The King's anger flared at this man.  And do you think that the king does not have enough figs and that he needs your present.  He commanded his soldiers to stone the man with the juicy figs that he brought.

The analogy is as follows.  There are activists that have been working days and nights to proclaim our entitlement to the Land of Israel and settle the Land.  Yet they have not been successful to stop the rockets from flying and from being attacked because the Majority of the Jewish People do not have the same love of the Land and desire to keep her.  The majority is willing to negotiate the Land away to our enemies and join in coalitions with others parties that are willing to give away our precious Land to our enemies. 

To this relatively small group of activists who are Moser Nefesh, Hashem desires their prayers.  However, the prayers of those that sit by and do nothing while the Land is being negotiated away and 10,000 Jews of Gush Katif were thrown out of their homes and these religious parties actually partnered with the gov't that voted and implemented this decree shame on them.  Why is it barely reported in newspapers like Hamodia and Yated,  when their fellow Jew like the Federman Family and the Tor family in Kiryat Arba were mercilessly literally ejected in the middle of the night with their bli ayin hara 11 children and thrown out of their homes and their home totally destroyed?  There is a point when prayer actually is used against you and is judged as an abomination.

Today Rabbi Yudin spoke on JMINTHEAM.  He spoke of the purpose of Korban which is to bring us close to Hashem.  It shows that we are subservient to G-d's will.  Rabbi Yudin gave the example of Shaul.  Hashem commanded Shaul to destroy Amalek including the sheep.  Shaul used his own logic to do otherwise. Shmuel saw Shaul and asked him, what is the sound of the sheep.  Shaul replied, these sheep which were fat and of extremely high caliber were to be used as sacrifices to G-d.   Shaul disobeyed G-d's command and chose rather go listen to his own logic and his own conclusion of what is best to do for G-d.  Shmuel Hanavi chastised Shaul and the Kingdom was torn from his family.

Rabbi Yudin gave the following story to illustrate.  

A king sent his trusted servent to a fellow neighboring country and told him "do not enter into any wager with the neighboring king".  The Trusted servant did as he was told.  When he was ready to leave, the king told him, I'll give you a million dollars to prove to you that you are a hunchback.  The servant thought to himself. The king ordered me not to engage in a wager with this neighboring king.  However, I know that I am not a hunchback and I will be able to bring to my king a million dollars.  He agreed.  The neighboring king asked him to take off his shirt.  They examined him back and agreed that the servant won the wager.  He received the million dollars and happily returned to his king with the money.  When he got to the king, he told him what transpired and presented the king with the million dollars. The King was angry.  He told  his servant.  Didn't I order you not to engage in any wager.  I myself made a wager with the neighboring king that if you would disrobe in front of him than I will give him 10,000,000 dollars.

The analogy is as follows:  UTJ, SHAS , Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah have their deliberations and have come to logical conclusions.  Learning Torah and Educational subsidies and money for sustaining large families with many children is beloved in G-d's eyes.  For this we can sacrifice negotiating parts of Eretz Yisroel.

 To this Hashem becomes angry and rejects their sacrifices to him because it is not subservient to G-d's will but rather a result of their own conclusions and deliberations that they convinced themselves will be pleasing in the final analysis to G-d.

The entitlement of the Land of Israel for the Nation of Israel is a given.  It can not be disputed.  IT is NOT negotiable.  We may not be Silent when others claim the Land.  Settling the Land is the one and only way to show and prove our conviction of the basic fundamental Torah truth.  All other considerations such as money for Torah institutions is a reflection of our will and not Hashem's.

Rabbi Yudin used this story to tell his listeners that April 15th, tax season is coming up.  One is not allowed to cheat on their taxes and give large amounts to tzedaka.  One can not make such cheshbonos to himself because by doing so he is not being subservient to G-ds will.  The purpose of Karbonos is to show subservience to G-d's will.  Such Tzedaka is rejected by G-d.

 




1. Start-Up Neighborhood Destroyed
by Hillel Fendel

As if to signal the possible intentions of the new government, army forces under the command of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, together with Israel Police, made their way to Kokhav HaShachar in eastern Binyamin late Thursday morning, and destroyed four buildings in the start-up outpost neighborhood of Meoz Esther.  They then redeployed further to the south, and destroyed another house in Maaleh Shlomo.

Authorities have stated that the outposts, encompassed by barren hills to the east and west, and illegal Bedouin squatter encampments encroaching to the north, is "illegal."

Among the four destroyed structures in Meoz Esther was a Torah study hall/synagogue dedicated in memory of Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kokhav HaShachar, who was murdered in the Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav massacre just over a year ago.

In addition, the homes of two families were razed to the ground, together with whatever property the soldiers did not have time to throw outside before the bulldozers began working. 

A National Battle

"Yes, we lost our home," said Dafna Ronen, who lived in one of the structures with her husband and six children, "but that is really not the main thing.  The issue here is that we have lost a battle – temporarily – in our national struggle for our holy land.  It simply cannot be that there are Jews who will not allow other Jews to settle in our land, the inheritance of our forefathers, that we have already conquered."

"Believe me," she insisted, "the loss of our private property is the least of the issues.  We can always sue them for what they damaged; they may be within their rights to destroy the dwelling, but not our private possessions.  And in terms of the neighborhood itself, we will start building anew as early as this evening, with a team of youth and others who love the land and will not let it be abandoned."

Mother Rachel Wants Full Return

"The main question is how we make sure that we show G-d that we are not giving in and are doing everything we can to keep this great gift that He gave us.  Everything is from G-d, and He wishes to see if we are unyielding, or if we'll take the easy way and say, 'It looks unrealistic, let's just wait for a more favorable government' and the like.  Our Matriarch Rachel is still sitting and weeping, because even though we have begun to return to our Land, we are sitting pretty with big homes and cars in the cities, and not going all out to return to our full Biblical borders; the verse says that she is waiting for her children to return to their borders."

Gift from Barak

The Binyamin Residents Committee said in response to the destruction, "This is apparently the gift that Barak wishes to give on the eve of his entry into the government, in an attempt to justify the move.  This is his usual modus operandi: Every time the left attacks him, he gives them a consolation prize in the form of evicting Jews."

Rabbi Dov Wolpe and Baruch Marzel, of the Our Land of Israel movement – a part of the National Union party – said the destruction of Meoz Esther is the "beginning of trouble."  They called on Shas and the Jewish Home to vote against the government they have just joined.

Proper Zionist Response

The second family living in Meoz Esther is a young couple and their toddler. The young wife/mother is one of seven children of Esther (Ettie) G'alyah, a Kokhav HaShachar resident who was murdered by terrorists in late 2002 - and for whom the outpost is named.  "There was a time when building a new Jewish locale in the Land of Israel was widely considered the proper Zionist response to terrorism," one observer said, "but at least in this case, the opposite appears to be true: Zionists take down a site that was built for that purpose."



The synagogue was the most permanent and expensive structure on the site, and was recently dedicated in a gala celebration by Rabbi Dov Lior of Hevron and others.

The Raze-and-Rebuild Cycle

This was the fourth time that Meoz Esther has been violently taken down since it was first built 16 months ago – "and each time, until today, it was on a sad day for the Jewish People," said Mrs. Ronen.  "It was first taken down on the Tenth of Tevet over a year ago, shortly after it was first built – and then we rebuilt it right away. All was quiet for a few months, but on Holocaust Day, in the spring, it was again razed, and we again built it.  Then came the 17th of Tammuz in the summer, when it was again destroyed, and right away again rebuilt.  And now, on Rosh Chodesh Nissan [the first of the month of Nissan, a minor festive day – ed – maybe they got confused – they razed it again.  But our team is already preparing the rebuilding."

The 17-year-old daughter of the Ronen family was arrested during the destruction. Police said she was suspected of having attacked them.  "This is an outright lie," said her mother. "It is not surprising that people who destroy Jewish life in the Land of Israel tell lies as well. The fact is – and many people saw it – she was standing atop our house, and soldiers or police came and shoved her into the waiting bulldozer bucket below, and that's how they took her away. Then they arrested her, claiming she attacked them."

When Digging for Fresh Water - Don't Give Up

Mrs. Ronen said the fight for the Land of Israel is a "long, hard one; we are not expecting immediate results. I think we must renew our commitment to the Land within our own circles, and wage a face-to-face campaign in the wider public specifically regarding the importance of the Land of Israel for our nation...  Rabbi Avraham Kook wrote that there will come a time when Jews will seek water in our 'national well,' but will come up with only muddy water and will begin to despair and give up.  Rabbi Kook calls upon them to be strong and to continue digging further down, and that the fresh water will yet be found – and that those who did not give up, will reap the reward.  We must not lose heart, but rather continue to fight for our national heritage, G-d's heritage."
Comment on this story

Must See UTUBE Shdema Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover - PROUD JEWS IN ERETZ YISROEL!

bs"d

Dear Fellow Activists, amv"sh

I was at this AFSI meeting of activists featuring Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar. The spirit of these women and of this cause reflects the fighting uplifiting spirit of Hebron.  Nadia was so involved in her message of activism that she had to be asked by a member of the audience to whom to write out checks.    I CAN NOT THINK OF A BETTER, MORE AUTHENTIC CAUSE FOR ERETZ YISROEL!  They can definitely use the money!

When Rob Muchnick asked her to describe the feeling of being beaten up literally and of  being arrested  for her activism Nadia showed her determination that the struggle was far beyond these temporary setbacks and that a true activist does not give up! In keeping with her humor she replied,  "If you have never been arrested then perhaps you need to work a bit harder on your activism. Having suffered back problems as a result from their activism, one time when they carried us away from the hilltop protest, they actually put a displaced disc back into place"


One never knows if an act of activism on a small scale will have major impact in the future to facilitate further settlement in Eretz Yisroel.  She and Yehudit started small scale with saving the hilltop Beit Dagan in Efrat and now  it is populated with young couples and their families.  They start facts on the ground and the rest is history!

Nadia said that Gush Katif happened because we didn't stop small decrees from being implemented. 

Shdema is their current struggle.

LINK TO LATEST MOVIE ON THE STRUGGLE FOR A JEWISH SHDEMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TXpIqPjfo

 

 

Summary of Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover's

 speaking tour in the US

 

Dear Friends,

 

Below please find Helen Freedman's summary of our talk at the Safra synagogue in New York last Wednesday. After her summary , you will find a link to our latest must see movie on the struggle for Shdema , featuring MK Arieh Eldad, Elyakim Haetzni, Caroline Glick, Moshe Peled and others.

 

Yehudit Katzover, representing "The Committee for a Jewish Shdema" and I, chair of Women in Green,  finished a full week of lectures and talks in the US under the title of "Why  grassroots activism is so important for the future of Israel".

 

We spoke in Los Angeles and New York . In both places we  talked about our plans and activities that involve a return to the Zionist values of love for the land of Israel by settling the land through agriculture and construction.

 

We pointed out that the Jewish People are in the midst of an existential struggle over the Jewish right to dwell in Zion. Enemies of Israel all over the world are trying to prevent Jews from living in Judea and Samaria, Israel's Biblical homeland . The call for a "two-state solution" i.e. for the creation of a Islamo-fascist terror State in Judea and Samaria, is a call for the destruction of the entire State of Israel. If Israel's evacuation from the Gaza strip brought Kassams and Grad missilies on Ashdod , Ashkelon and the entire Negev; it is clear that the creation of a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria would bring havoc and destruction upon Tel Aviv and Haifa and Jerusalem.

 

 And thus, what needs to be done to protect the State of Israel ,is for the Jewish People to strengthen its hold in Judea and Samaria by expanding the existing communities there, creating new ones, thereby raising the number of 300,000 Jews already living there to one million Jews.

 

We need not be apologetic about any of these plans, for Judea and Samaria are an integral part of the land of Israel and  belong to the Jewish people only. We also pointed out that the previous elections have clearly proven that the majority of the Jewish people have voted for a policy of loyalty to the land of Israel and have said a clear NO to the policies of weakness and capitulation to Arab terror, which is  a clear NO to the creation of a Palestinian State in Israel's Biblical Heartland.

 

As longtime activists we reminded our audiences that Jewish history has proven that often our political leaders need the push from the grass roots to act in the correct way. That is what happened in 1979 when a group of 13 women entered the Bet Hadassa building in Hevron and thus led to the  reinstalling  of Jewish life in Hebron. Something similar happened years later when ten women from Efrat and Gush Etzion fought for the Dagan hill saving it from being handed over to the PLO. Those are only two of many more examples of  grass-roots activities started by few that succeeded in influencing the public and the politicians who then followed in the footsteps of the activists.

 

Yehudit and I described that among the many activities we are part of, today we are, together with our fellow activists, involved in saving Shdema from falling into hostile Arab hands. Shdema is an Israeli military base that was abandoned for political reasons. Situated in area C under Israeli control ,Shdema overlooks and controls the highway connecting Southern Jerusalem to Eastern Gush Etzion.

 

Women in Green and The committee for  Shdema have been active over the past years in keeping Shdema in Jewish hands. Our goal is to establish an educational and cultural center in Shdema. The Center will offer a unique blend of spiritual and practical study programs to internalize and fulfill the Jewish and Zionist vision of settling the land of Israel. We will integrate studies of history and our Jewish heritage with "hasbara", communication skills to strengthen the love of Israel to youth and adults alike. Courses teaching practical agriculture and construction skills will promote the value of Jewish labor.

 

At the end of our talk we screened our latest  must see short movie about our struggle for Shdema. (see link below)

 

After the screening of the movie the public was invited to ask questions. One of the questions asked was: "I understand the dangers of the creation of a Palestinian State- so what should Israel do to prevent the creation of such a State?".

 

I answered that in my eyes, before anything else, the government of Israel must abolish the Oslo Agreements, and must wipe out all  terror organizations . After that we must annex Judea and Samaria. One cannot make peace with people who call for the destruction of the State of Israel and for an Islamic Jihad against all of western civilization. Let's remember that fundamentalist Islam wants to not only destroy Israel but also wants to turn Europe into Eurabia and then turn against the USA. Destroying all terror organizations by the government of Israel is thus in the interest of the entire Western World.

 

I added that we cannot differentiate between the Fatah, Hamas, Jihad or other terror groups. Mahmoud Abbas, the current leader of Fatah after Yasser Arafat, is as much of a terrorist as Haniye or Osama Bin laden. Must we remind our public that Mahmoud Abbas was the financier of the Munich massacre of the Israeli athletes; a man whose doctorate from Moscow university, consisted of outright Holocaust denial; a man who has for decades been a close aid to the mass murderer Yassir Arafat and an active figure in the terrorist PLO hierarchy. In the past few years too, the Fatah organization has committed numerous acts of terror against Israelis. Mahmoud Abbas  frequently has said that violence must be used if diplomatic pressure does not succeed in establishing a new Arab country with mass immigration of foreign Arabs into Israel.The PA continues to act as an enabler of terrorism by teaching its children to emulate terrorists and extols murderers of Jews as heroes and role models. All those terrorist leaders must be put to trial by the State of Israel and executed, I said, as the US did to Saddam Hussein and the Allied Forces did to the heads of the Nazi regime.

 

Clearly I was talking about the need to bring Abbas and other terrorists to justice for crimes against the Jewish People and humanity as the job of the government of Israel and not of any private  individual as some malicious emails are trying to claim through distortion and defamation.

 

 As the past 16 years have proven, Women in Green is a non-violent grass roots organization that promotes, through education, the love of  the Land of Israel and our Jewish Heritage.

 

Women in Green promote pride in our Jewish and Zionist values, steadfastness as to our right to our Land, and expect the government of Israel to protect the Land of Israel and the people of Israel,  by fighting a uncompromising battle against Arab terrorists and their leaders. We advocate the death sentence for terrorists convicted by the State of Israel after due process in a court of law for the following reasons:

1)    elementary justice (as practiced in many States in the US)

2)    deterrence

3)    prevention of tragic situations like the current Shalit case, where an entire country is held hostage by a terror organization. If terrorists and their leaders had been executed by the Israeli government, we would not now be subject to such blackmail by Hamas.

 

The fact that some people in Israel and the US want Israel to negotiate a suicidal "two-State solution" with Mahmoud Abbas, does not make him less of a terrorist and a murderer. The call to bring him to justice is as much a legitimate call as is the call to bring Osama Bin laden to justice.

 

Women in Green are happy that the majority of the people in Israel in the past elections have shown to believe in the same values Women in Green have been promoting for the past 16 years; values of love of the land of Israel and of our Jewish heritage.

We,extra-parliamentary activists for the land of Israel have lots of work ahead. The Israeli Left together with anti-Israeli organizations abroad, will surely try to threaten and pressure the new elected government to make concessions to the Arab enemy. It will be our duty to make sure the new government will stick to the national and Zionist values it was elected to promote.

 

To all the wonderful  friends whom we met  on our speaking tour:

it was great meeting you in person.

 

We especially want to thank our dear friend Alan Jacobs for organizing our trip to the US.

 

We also want to thank Doris Wise Montrose from the Children of the Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Los Angeles and all her wonderful friends  for organizing our talk in Los Angeles.

 

Thank you to the wonderful families who hosted us  on Shabbat.  Thank you to the families who sponsored a Kiddush in Beth Jacob.

 

Thank you to Helen and Barry Freedman from AFSI for organizing the evening in New York.

 

Below please find Helen Freedman's summary and a link to the new video on Shdema.

 

With love for Israel,

 

Nadia Matar, Women in Green

Yehudit Katzover, the Committee for a Jewish Shdema

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HILLTOP HEROINES

By Helen Freedman

 

            Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI was proud to present a dynamite duo, Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover, to an overflow audience at the Safra Synagogue in NYC on Wednesday night, March 18. Barry Freedman, AFSI's Executive Director, opened the program by reminding the over one hundred admirers of the "hilltop heroines" that the AFSI Chizuk missions, which have taken place twice a year since 1994, have provided many hundreds of people with the opportunity to meet the grassroots heroes and heroines represented by Nadia and Yehudit.

 

            Yehudit Katzover told us about her experiences as an early "settler" in Kiryat Arba/Hebron in the days before running water, paved streets, and available medical facilities; however she described the joy felt by all in just being in the promised land, fulfilling the dream. In 1979, fifty years after the 1929 Arab pogrom which emptied Hebron of its Jews, Yehudit and twelve other women, along with their 45 children, "occupied" Beit Hadassah in Hebron and remained there for one year, demanding the acceptance of the return of the Jews to Hebron . They won their battle, and today Beit Hadassah is a flourishing home to many Hebron families.

 

            Nadia Matar, co-founder of Women in Green with her mother-in-law, Ruth Matar, reminded her group of warm admirers, that the first "settlers" were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She therefore terms all "settlers" as "inheritors", those who are fully participating in realizing the biblical promise. She decried the foolishness of pursuing the "two state solution" in the face of all the evidence exposing it as a path to Israel's destruction. Instead, Nadia injected the excitement of hope and progress in describing her activities regarding the saving of Shdema. Shdema, an abandoned Israeli military base, overlooks and controls the highway connecting the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Choma to eastern Gush Etzion. It is a vitally strategic area that must remain in Israeli hands. Every Friday morning, the Committee for Shdema, along with Members of Knesset and distinguished lay people, make their presence felt at Shdema with lectures, concerts, and study groups. Their plan is to build a Land of Israel Cultural Center at Shdema. Details can be found on the website: www.womeningreen.org. Those interested in being in Shdema on Friday, May 22, 2009 , with the AFSI Chizuk mission, coming up this May 17-26, should contact Barry Freedman at: afsi@rcn.com ; 212-828-2424; 1-800-235-3658.

 

            AFSI is indebted to Rabbi Elie Abadie and Alisa Shams for their continuing hospitality in opening their synagogue to AFSI's lecture series. Get on the AFSI email list to learn about upcoming events at the Safra Synagogue: afsi@rcn.com .

 

LINK TO LATEST MOVIE ON THE STRUGGLE FOR A JEWISH SHDEMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TXpIqPjfo

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