Media Releases - July 1999
July 1999
July 4, 1999 Hasbara/Information
July 21, 1999 The Transfer of Jews - An Illegal and Immoral Act
July 22, 1999 In Search Of A Jewish Leader!
July 27, 1999 The Test of the People
July 27, 1999 Tisha B’Av’s Meaning — A Media Taboo!

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Jerusalem, July 4, 1999

                        Hasbara/Information

Here included is the translation of one of the topics discussed by
Nadia on her one-hour weekly Hebrew radio show on arutz 7,
Thursday morning between 10:00 and 11:00 am Israel time.
The show can be heard live on www.a7.org
———————————————————————

The Correct Informational Effort for the Struggle over the Golan
and Judea, Samaria, and Gaza

 In a very surprising manner - or perhaps not so surprisingly - the
 Golan Heights appear on Ehud Barak’s menu as the first course in his
 attempt to satisfy the big Arab wolf. As Haggai Huberman writes
 this week in Ha-Tzofeh:
If I were an inhabitant of the Golan, I would be worried today, on the
eve of the formation of the Barak government, much more that I would
be troubled as a resident of Samaria. Even without being a Golan
resident, the future policy of the new government on the subject of
the Golan cannot be treated with such complacency. Ehud Barak never
concealed his preference to begin the Syrian track even before he
continues along the Palestinian track, and it would seem that he is
likely to direct his diplomatic activity accordingly. (end of quote)

 Dr. Aaron Lerner of the IMRA agency wrote an article that appeared
in the Jerusalem Post on June 30, 1999, entitled: “The Battle for the
 Golan.” The article begins with the following sentence: “While only a
 minority of Israelis […] support full withdrawal from the Golan, it
 would be naive to assume that Ehud Barak can’t dramatically shift
 public opinion. Is the Golan lobby, the Golan Residents’ Committee
 (GRC), up to the challenge?” Dr. Lerner asks.

 Dr. Lerner then addresses the messages that were used by the Golan
 residents in the past in order to persuade the Israeli public that
 keeping the Golan is essential for the existence of the State of
 Israel. Dr. Lerner states, “While there certainly is a place to study
 the impact of past messages relating to the water resources,
 settlements and the beautiful open spaces of the Golan, these
 messages are vulnerable,” because Ehud Barak can produce a response
 to them. “The threat of water shortages can be allayed by grand
 desalination schemes, support for residents undermined by focusing on
 seemingly extravagant relocation compensation programs and the need
 for open spaces offset by the promise of cheap vacation opportunities
 in neighboring countries.”

 The main issue, according to Dr. Lerner, is therefore to convince the
 Israeli public that the Golan cannot be abandoned for security
 reasons. The Golan Residents’ Committee must persuade the public in
 Israel that Hafez Assad is not someone to be relied upon, and that
 abandonment, even in full, of the Golan will not bring peace with
 Syria. He then brings several examples, such as the Grapes of Wrath
 understandings that Assad did not honor. Dr. Lerner concludes his
 article by asking: “Can the GRC and their supporters handle the job?
 Only time will tell. One thing is certain: If the campaign fails, the
 personal loss to the Golan residents will be nothing compared to the
 loss of the entire nation.” (end of quote)

 Although I hold my friend Dr. Lerner in great esteem, I see
things differently. We have already seen that an informational
campaign based primarily on “security-oriented” reasons and arguments
 failed, in a major way. For what was the response of the national
camp to the Oslo accords - agreements that are supposed to hand over
the majority of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to the Arabs? –
they attempted to prove and persuade the Israeli public that Arafat
is not someone to be relied upon. That his intentions are very bad,
and that the abandonment of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza would endanger
the rest of the small State of Israel. And though all those facts are
correct and easily proven, this informational campaign  basically
failed: the major part of the public in Israel bought all the answers
and excuses of the left, especially after a presumably right-wing
government,  continued with the same agreements; and
today, we in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza find ourselves in a situation
in which a large part of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza has already been
surrendered, and another part is about to be handed over, Heaven
forbid.

 In contrast, what is the propaganda line of Hafez Assad? Assad does
 not adopt a security-oriented line. He does not say: I must receive
 the Golan, because without the Golan my country is in danger. No,
 Assad uses much more persuasive propaganda, and we must learn from
 him. He says, quite simply: The Golan is mine, and this is
 nonnegotiable. Period.

 When did we hear an Israeli leader utter such a sentence? People do
 not set out to battle - for security-oriented reasons. People go to
battle for what belongs to them. There are always answers of one type
or another to security-oriented arguments. The Golan Residents’
Committee will say, “The Golan is the eyes of the country,” the left
will respond, “We will position there American forces and the most
sophisticated equipment, and they too will protect the north of the
country.” The right-winger will say that Assad is a murderer and that
he cannot be relied upon - the leftist will respond that he relies
upon the IDF, and if Assad were to attack, we’ll shove the army down
their throats … and so on and on.

 A nation fights for its homeland when it feels that this piece of
 land belongs to it, and that no one else has any rights to it -
 period. Obviously, we cannot totally ignore the security-oriented
 informational line, but that is not enough . We must mainly reach
the situation in which the Israeli public will say: “We oppose the
handing over of the Golan because the Golan belongs to us - the
people of Israel.”

 Even though our right to Tel Aviv is less self-understood than our
 right to Hebron, Shechem, and Jerusalem, all the leftists sense that
 Tel Aviv belongs to them, without reservations, and believe me, they
 will fight for Tel Aviv with all their bodies and souls. We have to
 reach the situation in which the Israeli public will feel about
 Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and the Golan as the leftist feels about
 Tel Aviv: “This is ours, and there is nothing to talk about.”

 Such an informational line will explain and recall to the public our
 ties to these places. There are people who think, for example, that
 the people of Israel has no historical connection with the Golan.
 Haggai Huberman reminds us, in the same Ha-Tzofeh article I mentioned
 previously (and I quote):
The people of Israel’s emotional and historical tie to the Golan is no
less firm than that to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The history of the
Golan is replete with Jewish symbols. On display in the archaeological
museum in Katzrin are a wealth of finds attesting to the flourishing
Jewish settlement in the Golan in the time of the Mishnah and Talmud,
which had begun there during the reign of Herod. Albeit there are no
tombs of patriarchs in the Golan, but not a few historical tombs of
the heroes of Gamla are located there. There was also Jewish-Zionist
settlement activity in the Golan. Two settlement attempts were made in
the Golan since the beginning of the renewed Jewish settlement in
Eretz Israel, one in Ramatania, and the other in Susita, both of which
were called “Bnei Yehudah.” This settlement activity of “Bnei Yehudah”
in the Golan lasted for 23 years, a longer period of time than the
Syrian control of the Heights; only the current Jewish settlement on
the Golan is longer than it. (end of quote)

 It is still not too late - a correct informational campaign will
 save, not only the Golan, but also the rest of Judea, Samaria, and
 Gaza and, in the final analysis, the State of Israel. We are not
 ashamed to declare that we are fighting for the Golan and for Judea,
 Samaria, and Gaza because … they belong to us and only to us, to
 the people of Israel as is stated in Bereishit chapter 13, verse 15:
“…for I give all the land that you see to you and your offspring
forever…”

 Nadia Matar

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Jerusalem, July 21, 1999

           The Transfer of Jews - An Illegal and Immoral Act

 Yisrael Harel wrote an article entitled “Gamla WILL Fall a Second
Time” in Haaretz about three weeks ago. In this article he asks how
could the idea of the evacuation of the Golan Heights, a place that
is so precious to the entire people of Israel, have become an idea so
accepted and expected. How could it come about that the idea of
Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel is transitory? He also asks how the
NRP (the National Religious Party) could join a government whose head
has already proclaimed, not only the handing over of the entire Golan
to the Syrians (for Barak promised to leave Lebanon within a year,
and for some reason, this means the evacuation of the Golan Heights),
but also the assembling of the Jews of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza
within settlement blocs (I prefer to call this a return to the
ghettos), with the majority of the territory of Judea, Samaria, and
Gaza being transferred to the PLO Authority. He ends his article on
an extremely pessimistic note, stating that even though the Jews of
the Golan have promised that Gamla will not fall again, the rest of
the country’s inhabitants will bring it down, and even without a
struggle.

 I personally have not yet lost hope that we have the ability to
fight and prevent the realization of this apocalyptic vision of
Yisrael Harel. What we must do is not only to prepare for a struggle
against the evacuation itself if and when, Heaven forbid, it will be
implemented; what we must begin today is the struggle against the
very raising of the idea, against the thought of even the possibility
of the evacuation/transfer of Jews from their homes. Before I
continue to explain myself, I would like to cite a passage that I
found in the book by Aliza Weissmann, The Evacuation, a book that
documents the uprooting of the settlements in the Yamit region. Aliza
Weissmann was born in France, grew up in the Hashomer Hatzair
movement, and was among the first settlers in the Yamit region. In
Nisan 5742 (April 1982) the government of Israel evacuated its forces
and citizens from the Sinai district, within the context of the
“peace” treaty with Egypt. The book begins with a passage from the
diary of Col. (Res.) Ze’ev Drori, a member of Kibbutz Hatzerim, the
commander of the Givati Brigade at the time of the Yamit evacuation.
He writes:

 From the Diary of Col. (Res.) Ze’ev Drori, member of
Kibbutz Hatzerim the commander of the Givati Brigade at the time of
the Yamit evacuation

[…] Even if we entered the boiling upheaval wholeheartedly, and with
a clear mind, it was impossible not to wipe away a tear, it was
impossible not to offer up a prayer, for the welfare of the people of
Israel.
 The visions that revealed themselves were painful: human, real pain.
 In that morning hour, understanding and being right, soberness and
 hard-heartedness could not withstand the sight of the great tractors
 going forth on the commandment of destruction. Like monsters not from
 this world they set out among the patches of morning fog, with
 deafening sound, and like predators they charged the buildings and
 began gouging away at their walls. Floor after floor, house after
 house, split open and collapsed soundlessly, as if they had
 surrendered to their bitter fate. […] In opposition to the order
 that forbade soldiers from making contact with the inhabitants of
 this place before the evacuation, in order to prevent emotional
 involvement, I, on my authority, ordered those under me to enter the
 houses of the families and to talk with them. I am convinced that the
 closeness and the ties of acquaintance and friendship that were
 forged between the soldiers and the inhabitants aided greatly during
 the evacuation. […] I demanded that the soldiers demonstrate love
 and restraint vis-a-vis the residents. I demanded that they
 understand that many of the permanent inhabitants were not capable of
 detaching themselves from their homes, since they believed, until the
 last moment, that there would be no evacuation. There were some who
 did not accept compensation and who knew nothing about their future;
 many were ground down by the wheels of the Israeli bureaucracy and
 suffered from a lack of proper treatment, from the nonprovision of
 suitable solutions, and from the offering of sham solutions. Many
 families came to the day of evacuation in a very difficult, almost
 irremediable, emotional state. They collapsed emotionally,
 economically, and socially. […] Although I accepted, in principle,
 the government decision, I regarded the demonstration by the
 ”Movement to Stop the Withdrawal” as obligatory. The thought that,
 without these people, it would be possible to evacuate a region of
 Eretz Israel, quietly and without protest, is enough to drive one
 insane.[…] If I had been in the Yamit region, if I had built my
 house there, planted trees, had my children - I would act like them:
 I would not be evacuated willingly. Was it possible otherwise?
 […]On one of the last days I conducted a tour in a jeep among the
 ruins of the city. I saw a large group of Bedouin looting the only
 building that remained intact, the synagogue building, tearing from
 it whatever they could put their hands on. When I fired several shots
 in the air they scattered, and so I managed to save from being looted
 the mezuzah of the synagogue. When the time will come, I will give it
 to a place worthy of it. […] On the Shabbat after the evacuation
 operation I remained in the synagogue with a few hundred soldiers and
 opponents of the evacuation, who received special permission for
 this. I underwent an unforgettable experience that Shabbat, an
 exciting experience, that sent chills up my spine. We spent the
 entire Shabbat in the synagogue: we ate there, we heard Torah lessons
 […], but mainly, we danced and wept, wept and danced, arm in arm.
 The following day was the last one. In the presence of the heaps of
 ruins all around, there was no room left for even a glimmer of hope.
 […] The time is the morning. Jews stand in prayer in the synagogue,
 wrapped in their talitot and with closed eyes. The soldiers stood
 facing them: either hesitant or afraid to disturb them during the
 time of prayer.  No, they were not religious, but all of us are sons
 of the Jewish people. The order was given, and the soldiers slowly
 enter the synagogue. They take out the chairs, take apart the Torah
 ark, and bring the Torah scrolls outside. The public prayer hangs,
 suspended, in the empty space: “Avinu Malkeinu - Our Father, our
 King.” […] The prayer, and the ceremony of taking our leave from
 Yamit, have come to an end. A line of Jews enwrapped in talitot and
 carrying the national colors comes forth from the synagogue
 courtyard. The Torah scrolls are borne in front. Hundreds of
 civilians and soldiers walk and cry, walk and sing: “I believe in the
 coming of the Messiah.” Their voice oscillates between weeping and
 chanting, and the line advances, between the heaps of ruins, in the
 direction of the gate. Is this a scene from a movie? Is this a
 chapter from the memories of the sad past of the Jewish people? Who
 was it who gave us the historic command, to expel Jewish believers
 from a synagogue while they are still praying? And I, where will I
 turn?
April 25, 1982

 I am always affected emotionally by reading Drori’s description, but
 then I use my mind and I begin to ask myself: It is very nice and
 moving that he writes like this … but in the end, he and hundreds
 of soldiers DID evacuate the Jews of Yamit, took them out of their
 homes, dismantled and destroyed the houses, the roads, everything.
 How can Colonel Drori and all the others sleep at night? And
 actually, is it important that he cried - in the end he evacuated
 them.

 I am not interested in his pity. I want to reach a situation in which
 no one will dare to think about implementing an evacuation order.

 In my humble opinion, what we must do now in order to prevent further
 evacuations and the further destruction of settlements is to begin
 and pass along the clear message that what happened in Yamit was not
 only a tragic error, it was a moral, historical, and illegal crime
 which cannot be repeated.

 Many times I am asked the question: What will you do if a majority in
 the Israeli Knesset will decide to evacuate settlements? Will you
 accept and honor this democratic decision? The answer to this
 question is: No! No! No! A decision to evacuate settlements is
 clearly illegal, and I will not accept it, even if 90 MK’s vote in
 favor.

 This question reminds me of a story I heard once, I think from the
 lawyer Eliakim Haetzni: three people are on a small boat in the
 middle of the ocean. They are lost, they have not eaten for many
 days, and then two of them decide, in a “democratic” decision of two
 against one, that in order to survive they will kill and eat this
 one. Will the victim sit quietly and say, “Alright, this is a
 democratic decision … come and devour me!”

 We must set out on an information offensive that will explain that
 even the thought and the raising of the idea of evacuating Jews from
 their homes is an illegal, immoral, and even anti-Semitic thought. If
 a non-Jewish leader in Europe would give the order to evacuate Jews
 from Paris, or from Moscow, or from London, we would all demonstrate
 against him and define him as an anti-Semite. A Prime Minister in
 Israel who would order the evacuation of Jews from their homes would
 not be any different from that European leader.

 We must reach the state of affairs in which the soldiers of the
 Israel Defense Forces will not conceive of fulfilling an order to
 evacuate Jews, just as they would not fulfill any other illegal and
 immoral order.

 Ehud Barak promised to conduct a referendum concerning the fateful
 questions that are on the agenda. Therefore correct informational
 work is so important, so that when the day will come, the people of
 Israel will vote against the handing over of parts of Eretz Israel to
 the enemy and the evacuation of Jews from their homes. Everyone can
 contribute to this information offensive: you are standing in the
 grocery store and waiting in line to pay, and the person standing
 before you says, as he flips through the newspaper: “Oy, what can we
 do, we have to hand over the Golan, there simply isn’t any other
 alternative, it’s such a pity….” Attack him (verbally, of course!)
 and in a loud voice, so that the entire grocery store will hear, say
 to him, “Tell me, buddy, aren’t you ashamed! How can you even
 conceive of evacuating Jews from their homes? What is this? The
 leader of a foreign country in Europe who would order the evacuation
 of Jews would be called an anti-Semite - and you calmly accept a
 Jewish government’s doing something like this? You should be ashamed
 of yourself! This is our country, this is our homeland, and the
 transfer of Jews is something that is illegal and immoral!”

 Believe me, not only will that person be quiet, you will receive the
 sympathy and backing of the majority of the store. Anyone who learns
 some psychology knows that someone who demonstrates a position of
 self-confidence and clearly delivers his message, without doubts,
 without “But,” “Well,” “Yes-no,” not only will he be believed more,
 in this manner he will convince those surrounding him of the
 rightness of his way.

 We must therefore declare, forcefully and clearly, that we will
 neither accept nor obey any order to evacuate Jews. We will relate to
 such thoughts and orders as illegal and immoral orders, with all that
 this implies.

 Such a declaration of our unyielding position, and showing the
 seriousness of our words, will force any government to think twice
 before it will dare to uproot Jewish settlements from the soil of
 Eretz Israel.

 In the words of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook, of blessed
 memory, the first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel, in his book Orot:
“Eretz Israel is not something external, an external acquisition of
the nation, only a means to the goal of comprehensive organization -
Eretz Israel is the salvation itself.”

 Nadia Matar

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Jerusalem, July 22, 1999
 
                    In Search Of A Jewish Leader!
 
       Ehud Barak’s dilemma is simply that he has been chosen by the
electorate to lead a Jewish State, but completely lacks any understanding
of what it means to be Jewish leader.  He is the typical secular Israeli,
unable to identify with Jewish thought, religion, and  tradition.
Moreover, he does not inspire.  He is incapable of expressing his love of
this Land, and because of his ignorance of his rich heritage, has no pride
in being a Jew.  Ehud Barak’s  election campaign was cleverly engineered by
Clinton’s public relations men., which led to his winning the position of
Prime Minister.  They stressed the need for One Israel united behind Barak.
Unfortunately, Barak’s first few weeks in office, has done little to dispel
the notion that he is cut from the same indistinguishable cloth of his
Labor Party predecessors.

          To begin with he has a fundamental flaw, he does not believe in
the God of Israel.  The God of Israel has been the common bond of the
Jewish People throughout their long and ancient existence.  Barak
apparently feels he has no need of this “prop” to unite our People behind
him.  It is quite revealing that his itinerary during his relatively long
recent stay in America, did not include his attending any synagogue.  It
reveals his thinking that the basis of uniting behind Ehud Barak will not
depend on the religious tradition of his forefathers. All available
evidence points to the fact that there is little else that will unite the
Jews of the Diaspora with the Jews in Israel.

          His strategy of “buying” the religious parties with monies they
desperately need for their educational programs and their party structure,
is obvious.  Innovated by Ben Gurion, this has long been Labor’s device of
staying in control.  Barak, who claims to be an admirer of Ben Gurion,  has
adopted this tried and true formula.

         The handwriting is on the wall for all but the blind to see,
Barak has ability and experience in defending our Country from attack.  He
however, totally lacks the ability or inclination to be a Jewish leader of
the nation of Israel. Any government of his will not be inclined to promote
or be loyal to our Jewish Heritage.  His appointment of Yossi Sarid as
Education Minister is an indication of Barak’s barren secular leanings.
Another Meretz appointee, Ron Cohen as Industry Minister, is advocating
that Yesha industries should be dried up, which indicates what lies ahead.
Woe to the religious and nationalist oriented people that continues to
associate with a government which will not be loyal to its Jewish roots.
They are as much to blame as if they themselves initiated Barak’s expected
policies.  Barak’s views not only lack Jewish content, but threaten the
very survival of a Jewish State.

 Ruth and Nadia Matar

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Jerusalem, July 27, 1999

                      The Test of the People

The following is the translation of the speech delivered by Nadia
Matar in Hebrew on the evening of Tisha B’ Av, at the mass march
around the walls of the Old City.

 To refresh my memory I once again opened the history books that
 portray the events that led to the destruction of the Second Temple.
 Chills ran up and down my spine, not only because of the harsh
 descriptions of the destruction, the ruin, and the murder of hundreds
 of thousands of Jews. Rather, I could not help but compare those evil
 days to the present. It is horrifying to think how similar are the
 depictions of the processes that led to the national tragedy -  to
those of today.

 The Jews dwelled then in their land - threatened by enemy forces who
 sought to destroy them. Instead of uniting against the Roman enemy
 who was closing in on them, the Jews bicker and fight one another.
 Certain Jews (the most famous of whom is Josephus) betray their
 people and go over to the enemy, who naturally receives them with
 open arms, and turns them into their spokesmen and agents.

 The Roman enemy is in no hurry to attack, because it prefers to let
 the Jews weaken themselves in a civil war. The goal of the Roman foe
 is obviously the conquest of Jerusalem and the Temple, but the way to
 Jerusalem leads first through the Golan Heights. And so Gamla falls
 first. The loss of the Golan weakens the spirit of the Jews. From
 there the Roman enemy proceeds to the next stage and conquers
 Galilee, all the cities of Judah, Hebron, and the southern Ephraim
 hill country…. And only then - after the Golan region and the
 region of Judah are no longer in Jewish hands, only then do the
 Romans march against Jerusalem, conquer it, and on the ninth day of
 Av burn the Temple.

 Our enemies today learned the lesson, and understood that in order to
 conquer Jerusalem, one must first conquer the Golan and Judea,
 Samaria, and Gaza. And today as well, frighteningly enough, the Golan
 and then Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, in this order, are once again on
 the agenda as a gratuitous present that is to be handed over to the
 enemy.

 The difficult message of today, the Ninth of Av 5759, is that we are
 liable to be once again on the road to destruction, Heaven forbid.
The optimistic message, however, is that this time we have the
ability to prevent and stop this disaster.

 The condition for preventing an additional catastrophe is that we
 must finally learn the lesson, to understand and to internalize the
 true reasons that led to the destruction. We must remember that the
 Holy One, blessed be He, decreed that the Ninth of Av would be a day
 of destruction and endless lamenting - not because of the sin of the
 Golden Calf, but rather, because of the sin of the spies. The ten
 spies - among the leaders and notables from among the people -
 slandered the Land, spread despair and fear among the people, said
 that it was a country that devours its inhabitants, and the people -
 instead of rising up against them and joining Caleb son of Jephunneh
 and Joshua son of Nun,- the people failed, and believed its spoiled
 leaders: “The whole community broke into loud cries, and the people
 wept that night” (Numbers 14:1). That night was the night of Tisha
B’Av. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: You wept for
nothing, I will establish this night for you as endless lamenting.

 Today as well, our leaders spread despair and fear among the people.
 This crime is especially grave at present. The ten spies slandered
 Eretz Israel when they still remained in the wilderness. Today, thank
 the Lord, the Land is in our hands, it is good, growing, and
 flourishing. And despite this, our leaders attempt to forcefully hand
 over the Land to the enemy.

 The question is: whether this time we - the people - will fail once
 again, or whether this time we will unite and fight? Will we follow
 our political leaders, as in the wilderness generation, and be lost
 for our sins? Will we permit them to brainwash us with their
 perverted ideology - the ideology of the enemy? Will we let them hand
 over to the enemy the Golan, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and Jerusalem?
 Will we remain silent when the government of Israel realizes the
 statements by the anti-Semites that for money the Jews are willing to
 sell, not only their mother, but also their motherland? This is the
 test of the people of Israel today.

 Tonight, as every year, we are repeating the ancient practice of a
 march around the walls of the Old City on the eve of the Ninth of Av.
 This march symbolizes the unity of the people for the unity and
 integrity of Jerusalem and Eretz Israel. Together, religious and
 secular, native-born Israelis, new immigrants, and tourists, we will
 encircle the walls of the Old City and thereby proclaim to the world
 and to our leaders our willingness to fight for the Golan, for Judea,
 Samaria, and Gaza, for Jerusalem, and for the Temple Mount.

 It is said: whoever mourns for Jerusalem merits and sees it in its
 rejoicing. The Malbim explains: “merits and sees,” and not “will
 merit to see” - for whoever mourns for Jerusalem, by his very
 mourning and within the sorrow merits and sees it, immediately, in
 its rejoicing, because the mourning itself introduces the hope in
 one’s heart that our Land will once again come to life. Even in time
 of mourning, one must anticipate rejoicing.

 Many people mourn at present for the situation in which our country
 finds itself, and for the corruption of our leaders. It is
 specifically this mourning and despair that must infuse us with the
 hope that it is in our power to change this state of affairs. A firm
 stand by the people of Israel against the transfer of Jews, against
 the handing over of parts of Eretz Israel to the enemy, and for true
 unity, unity around the three pillars of our people: the people of
 Israel, the Torah of Israel, and the Land of Israel - all this will,
 with God’s help, prevent an additional Destruction, heaven forbid.
 May it be His will that we all merit to see the rejoicing of
 Jerusalem, and the return home of our MIA’s Ron Arad, Yehudah Katz,
Tzvi Feldman, and Zechariah Baumel, and the release of Jonathan
Pollard and the thirteen Jews imprisoned in Iran.

 Nadia Matar,

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Jerusalem, July 27, 1999                       

                     Tisha B’Av’s Meaning — A Media Taboo!
 
Nowadays, it is exceptional for the media to report in a favorable way any
news that relates to enhancing pride in Jewish tradition; likewise,
anything that advances the unity of our People, patriotic or national
feelings, or Zionist aspirations is “taboo.”  It is therefore not
surprising that there was virtually no media coverage of the annual Tisha
B’Av Walk around the Old City Walls last Wednesday night in Jerusalem, even
though such a Walk was merely continuing an old established Jerusalem Custom.

As one of the news editors of the “Jerusalem Post” put it: ” they were not
sending a reporter because the event  was not newsworthy.”  What makes the
media’s conduct more perplexing is that more than ten thousand Jews came to
the annual event, and it was clear from past walks that such a turnout was
anticipated. On the other hand, “heavy” media coverage,( including a large
picture), was given to a Tel Aviv Tisha B’Av “happening” at Rabin Square,
where less than 150 people attended.

However, it was quite a moving experience for the 3,000 Jews who came to
Independence Park to hear the outstanding traditional reading of the
Biblical Book of Lamentations (Eicha).  Before the annual Walk commenced,
they heard the learned expert on Jewish Customs, Professor Daniel Sperber,
describe to them the history of the ancient Jerusalem custom of the Walk
around the Old City Walls.  They were inspired by Nadia Matar, co-leader of
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women In Green), who addressed them.  Her
organization, as a public service, sponsored and arranged for the entire
evening’s excellent program which was done in keeping with the spirit, mood
and meaning of Tisha B’Av for all of us today.  Rav Israel Ariel, head of
the Temple Museum in the Old City, concluded with incisive words of Torah
related to our generation’s lack of belief in what God requires of us,
where such lack of faith repeatedly has caused us to sustain tragedies in
the past.

The Walk then commenced.  Many joined after attending their local
synagogue, where they previously heard the reading of “Eicha.”  The Walk
proved to be a great way to unify our People.  Religious and non-religious,
new immigrants, tourists and veteran Israelis, all walked together.  Under
ample police protection, the Walk passed through a neighborhood of Eastern
Jerusalem where Arabs presently are located, and therefore, for security
reasons, is rarely visited by Jews.  Well over 10,000 observed this ancient
Jerusalem Custom of their forefathers to walk around the Gates of the Walls
of the Old City in a peaceful, orderly and quiet procession.  The
participants passed the Jaffa Gate, the New Gate, the Damascus Gate,
Herod’s or Flower Gate, Lions’ Gate, the sealed Golden Gate, and ended
their Walk at the Dung Gate.

Since that latter gate is nearest to the Western Wall, many chose to go
there, and found 50,000 visitors already present.  (Throughout the night of
Tisha B’Av, a half-million Jews usually make their way to the “Wall.”)  The
Western Wall is in fact an historic remnant of the destroyed Second Temple.
The Walkers recalled and shared common Jewish tragedies which had befallen
their People, and their cherished Jerusalem on this day.  All in all, it
was a significant night to remember!

 Ruth and Nadia Matar