Letter from Nadia Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Thursday, December 21, 2006

Dear Friends,

A new wind is blowing through the national camp and this thanks to two successful activities that took place this week of Hanukka. What can I tell you…I wish all of you could have been there to witness those miracles.

RETURN TO CHOMESH

The first success was of course the return of over 1500 Jews to the destroyed community of Chomesh in the Northern Shomron. The event was organized by Komemiyut and Meginei Erets, with the active participation of all other extra-parliamentary groups, led by MK Arieh Eldad and the expelled residents of Chomesh themselves, such as Limor Har Melech-Hasson and others. I do not have enough words to pass on to you the feelings of excitement and emotion to be part of the hundreds and hundreds, men, women, youth and children, who, by foot and by car, were going up the mountains of the Shomron, through dirt roads, fields and vineyards, bypassing the enormous amount of security forces who were trying to block us from returning to Chomesh. People who had never been in Chomesh before were bewildered at the view from the mountains. “One can see the entire country from here”, they said. “This is a most strategic place, how can anyone think of abandoning this area?” they asked.

Feelings of exaltation when we finally got to Chomesh, lighting Hanukka candles and dancing - mixed with feelings of grief, sadness and anger, looking at the ruins of what once was a flourishing Jewish community and asking ourselves: “Why?”, “Why was this community, together with 24 other communities in Israel, destroyed? For what?”

But the overwhelming feeling was that of success. We made it, we came back to Chomesh, and this is only the beginning. Seeing the original residents of Chomesh crying on top of the ruins of their homes and thanking the masses for making it possible to come back, made it clear to all of us that this will not be a one-time activity but rather an activity that will be continued till we will once again see Jewish families living in Chomesh as a first step to what will, please G-d, be a mass return to all places abandoned by the Sharon government, in Northern Shomron and in Gush Katif.

To see a short video of the return to Chomesh please click on:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=117821

MARCH TO RACHEL’s TOMB

The second successful activity was the march to Rachels’ Tomb, organized by the Loyalists of Erets Israel, Women in Green, the Youth for Erets Israel and the Action Committees of Gush Etzion and Kiryat Arba. Once again feelings of success and exultation when some 200 loyalists of Erets Israel arrived to the gates of Rachel’s Tomb and a large part of that group managed to walk to the Tomb.

As you may recall, the authorities do not allow Jews to come to Rachel’s Tomb unless they drive in bullet proof cars. Why? Nobody knows. Rachel’s Tomb (Kever Rachel) does not look anymore like it used to look. Huge walls and fences have turned the place into a fortress. This is exactly what happened in the past to Joseph’s Tomb before the government abandoned it and thus we understood that all must be done, now, in order to save Kever Rachel from the fate of Kever Joseph. The same way Jews can reach the tomb of the Patriarchs (Mearat Hamachpela) in Hebron, by foot or by car, we demand the same for Kever Rachel.

Close to 200 Jews, youth and adults, from the entire country, arrived yesterday in Gilo and walked, from the tunnel road, through the fields, up to the main gate before Kever Rachel. (From the gate to the Tomb there is a narrow road, between walls and fences, of some 500 meters that as we said can only be driven in in bullet proof buses).

Huge security forces comprising army, police, yassam, and police on horses, were stationed around the main gate, preventing the marchers from entering. Thanks to a diversionary action planned ahead by the organizers who kept the forces busy at the main gate, tens of youth managed to dig an entrance under the fence, some 500 meters southwards of the main gate, to pass through and walk to Rachel’s Tomb. The activity was a huge success. Except a few who stayed at the main gate to “occupy” the security forces, tens and tens of Jews managed to reach Kever Rachel by foot.

Three people were arrested, among them Yehudit Katzover, wife of Kiryat Arba mayor Zvi Katzover. They were released later in the evening.

Only after a while did the security forces realize what was going on. They were in total shock. Once again, we managed to prove how ludicrous those so-called “security” fences and walls are. If, despite huge forces at the main gate, tens of people manage to pass the fence undisturbed some 500 meters away from the main gate, what exactly is the purpose of those fences? If tens of Jewish youth could do this so easily, what would have happened if, G-d forbid, Arab terrorists would do the same? (And that is exactly what Arabs are doing all over the country, passing under and above the “security” fence with no problem.)

Today, more than ever, we demand to stop the policy of fences and walls and demand that Jews be allowed to walk freely in each and every part of Erets Israel. As for Rachel’s Tomb, we demand that once and for all we will be allowed to walk freely to Rachel’s tomb. We call upon all of you to bombard the police with faxes and phones demanding free access to Rachel’s Tomb:

Jerusalem’s Police Chief Ilan Franco: tel 972-2-5391100 fax 972-2-5391466
Head of Israel Police: Moshe Karadi: tel 972-2-5308100 fax:972-2-5308118
Send a copy of your letters to ministers;
* Eli Yishai eyishay@knesset.gov.il fax 972-2-6662909
* Yaakov Edri yedri@knesset.gov.il fax 972-2-6753929

To read the English article on Arutz 7 please click on
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=117839
To see pictures of the march please click on the Hebrew Arutz 7 version:
http://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/157557

Lastly, what was the most poignant feeling resulting from the two successful activities this week, was the feeling that, had we had other leaders leading the national camp during the expulsion from Gush Katif and Northern Shomron, we would have probably succeeded in stopping the expulsion. The two activities this week were organized and led by the extra-parliamentary groups who have no ties to the government, not to the Yesha leadership (Moetset Yesha). Had those groups led the struggle in the summer of 2005 and not Moetset Yesha, then the gates of Kfar Maimon and of Gush Katif would have been burst, allowing the tens of thousands to come to the rescue of Gush Katif. Those leaders of Moetset Yesha who failed us must resign in order for us to be able to successfully fight the upcoming decrees and battles.

Below is an article I wrote in reaction to the news that the Yesha leaders plan on holding “democratic elections” for the national camp.

Is the Yesha Council Deceiving Us … Once Again?
by Nadia Matar

A few Shabbatot ago I read the declaration by Moetzet Yesha (the Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza), that was published in its weekly magnificent and fancy Shabbat weekly leaflet, about its intention to hold “democratic elections” for the new national leadership. Benzi Lieberman, who is leaving his post as head of Moetset Yesha, was even quoted in one newspaper as saying that it “was inconceivable that the entire leadership will be concentrated in the hands of five individuals, no matter how intelligent they might be”. In the letter that he wrote to the heads of the local councils he admits that the time has come to make changes in the Council’s structure.

Based on the quite unclear statements in their article and in the few reports that have appeared since then, it could be understood that the heads of Moetzet Yesha are finally proposing real elections, that will be open to all the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza; elections following which 120 new and fresh members of the plenum will be elected in a completely democratic fashion, and they will represent the new generation in the settlements of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in all its diversity. These 120 will elect the new executive, that will be composed of 15 leaders. Once again, according to the vague article, it could be understood (or at least hoped) that these 120 members will really be involved in deliberations and decisions, something that has not happened until now.

I was asked by the reporter Gilad Katz of Mekor Rishon to respond to these reports. He asked me, “What is your response to the report that Moetzet Yesha is planning democratic elections?” My response was unequivocal:

That depends. If this is a sincere and real move, in which everything will be open before Judea, Samaria, and Gaza residents who want to be candidates, and there will be real elections for the new leadership that will be elected by all the settlers of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, then, despite my vigorous criticism of Moetzet Yesha, for its failures in the struggle to save Gush Katif and northern Samaria, for its unwillingness to support the directive by Rabbi Schapira, shlita, to the soldiers to refuse to carry out the order of the expulsion, for its condemnation of the road blockers, for its campaign of lies, deception, and fraud in Kfar Maimon, for its dancing, the embraces, and traitorous collaboration with the expulsion forces and its inaction against the construction of the ghetto wall (the “separation” fence), despite all this, if these will be real elections, I congratulate them for this. If, on the other hand, this is just another media spin in order to play “musical chairs”, with the aim of once again enthroning the same failed leaders, then this window dressing should be denounced.

It is clear to all that Moetzet Yesha finds it very difficult to voice criticism of the leftist dictatorial governments, when it runs its own affairs in a sort of dictatorship. Five people, some, but not all, of whom were elected solely to manage their communities, for, say, gardening, construction, and transportation, are directing and leading the entire ideological struggle of the national camp, without having received a mandate for that. This simply cries out to Heaven. Therefore, elections for a new leadership, that would be independent of the government, is definitely the need of the hour, on condition that these will be genuine elections.”

A small portion of my response was published in an article on page 11 of this last Shabbat’s issue of Mekor Rishon, in an article by Gilad Katz entitled “The Pressure on Moetzet Yesha Has Yielded Results: The Leadership of the Extra-parliamentary Right Will Be Democratically Elected.”

Actually, in light of Benzi Lieberman’s statement about “the need to conduct changes in the Council’s structure,” and in light of the published reports on “new elections,” I naively thought that this move ensued from some act of repentance or breast-beating by those leaders who direct Moetzet Yesha. That, at long last, they understood that the scepter of the struggle against the government cannot be handed over to people who, by force of their being council heads, receive the budgets for their settlements from the same government they are supposed to fight against. I was greatly surprised, and disappointed, when I finally read extended details about those “elections” in the same article by Gilad Katz. If this is how things are, and if what the article describes is really true, then it seems to me that we are being deceived, big-time.

I quote:”The establishment of several complementary bodies is planned, within the context of the reorganization [of the Yesha Council].. The broadest institution will be composed of 120 members. This institution is supposed to convene once or twice a year.” Once or twice a year? Really, this is not serious. I continue to quote: “An ‘expanded executive,’ with 15-20 members, will be established underneath it, and will convene once every six weeks. The main function of the executive will be to endorse the work plans of Moetzet Yesha, and to make ongoing decisions regarding matters on the agenda. The major innovation in the expanded executive is that, for the first time, this body will be headed by someone who, by definition, ‘is not the head of a municipal authority in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.’” This sounds promising, but then come two sentences that burst the balloon of deception and the hope for real elections: “Alongside the expanded executive, Moetzet Yesha, in which all the municipal authorities heads will participate, will continue to function. […] The latter organization, that complements the other institutions, is called the ‘executive administration.’ This forum will appoint seven members - four local authority heads and three public figures. The executive administration is meant to convene on a weekly basis, and to be responsible for ongoing functioning and the implementation of the policy and decisions taken by the other institutions. […] A significant conceptional change related to the new organizational structure is the decision that at least a part of the members of the institutions will be elected by the public, although it has not yet been decided who will have the right to vote in these elections.”

We read this, and we ask the heads of Moetzet Yesha: “Tell us - just who do you think you’re fooling?” What does this mean: “at least a part of the members of the institutions will be elected by the public, although it has not yet been decided who will have the right to vote in these elections”? How would we react if the Prime Minister would utter such a sentence on the eve of elections for the Knesset and Prime Minister? Either everyone entitled to vote is invited to vote, or this entire process is just one big farce.

If the information in the article is correct, then we can sum up the “revolutionary” move by Moetzet Yesha like this: Somehow, 120 people will be found to serve as the stage props for an assembly that will convene once or twice a year, so that we will feel as if this is a “democratic process.” Those 120 people will have no influence at all. And then about 15 members will be found, who will receive some sort of “honors,” so that they will think that they are part of some “important forum” - but they, too, will not really have any influence; they will convene only once every six weeks. And all this is merely the seemingly-democratic stage prop for the continued rule of those VIPs without a mandate who belong to the real leadership, the “executive” leadership with seven members: four council heads and three public figures (What a surprise! And perhaps by chance, totally by chance, this will be Tzviki Bar-Hai and Pinhas Wallerstein as local authorities heads, and Zambish and Emily Amrusi in the “public figures” slot -[the 4 people running the Yesha Council right now. N.M.] and then there will be a majority for their votes. It will not be difficult to add three more who, too, will function as a scenic backdrop, and who will always be in a minority during votes.)

There is a well-known saying: you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

I turn to the heads of Moetzet Yesha: Save your honor. Organize real and clean elections for the leadership of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, elections open to anyone who sees himself as a candidate for the leadership of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, elections in which all the residents with the right to vote will participate and cast their ballot. At long last, after such elections we will finally be able to know what kind of leadership the residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza really want. There will be an elected leadership and an active opposition.

I personally, of course, hope that a majority of the inhabitants of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza will understand, specifically during these difficult days, the necessity of a strong leadership that will always see before it the issue of Eretz Israel (and not only their councils). Only such a leadership will be capable of saving the settlement enterprise from the sharp sword that Olmert and his fellows have placed to our neck; a leadership capable of waging a struggle; a leadership that fears neither the Arabs nor the leftists, and that does not seek to curry favor with the media; a leadership that, on the one hand, will be attentive to the mood of its public, but, on the other hand, will not be drawn after the weaklings, but will lead, and awaken the public from its slumber, and show it the correct way to save Eretz Israel. This must be a leadership of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza that will mark out the correct and uncompromising ideological direction for the entire leadership of the national camp throughout Israel, and together with it will act to bring down the present government and raise up a new generation of true Jewish leaders who are not afraid to declare: “All of Eretz Israel belongs to the people of Israel, in accordance with the Torah of Israel.”

In summation, truly democratic elections for the leadership of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, with the participation of all those entitled to vote, is the need of the hour.

This, and only this, is what the public expects from you, the members of Moetzet Yesha in order not to have to say that you are deceiving us, again.

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
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Brothers and Sisters - Rise Up Against the Decrees of Olmertiochus!

Letter from Nadia Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Thursday, December 14, 2006

Dear Friends,

My co-chair and mother-in-law, Ruth Matar, is away for two weeks. It is my honor to fill in for her weekly “Letter from Jerusalem”. Here is an article I wrote and hope all residents of Judea & Samaria and their supporters will read and pass on to others.

Shabbat Shalom,

Nadia Matar, co-chair Women in Green, resident of Efrat

* * * * *

Brothers and Sisters - Rise Up Against the Decrees of Olmertiochus!
by Nadia Matar

My precious brothers from Yesha(Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) - a year and a half after the expulsion of our brothers from Gush Katif and northern Samaria and the handing over of these parts of the homeland to the Hamas, I turn to you and ask: now that it has been proven that a Jew is indeed capable of expelling a Jew; now that it is common knowledge that Olmert and his cronies plan to appease Israel’s external enemies (Iran, Syria, Hamas, the UN, the European Union, James Baker and his associates, and more) by a return to the 1967 lines, by spreading the Chamberlainesque illusion that the destruction of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria will satisfy the enemy and ensure the existence of “little Israel” (within the Auschwitz borders, as defined by Abba Eban) - will we, the inhabitants of Judea and Samaria, accept the decree and let them carry out their evil design, or will we do everything in order to prevent this? One thing is certain: if we act correctly and in time, I have no doubts that, this time, we definitely will be able to avert the implementation of the decree.

This, however, is conditional on our initiating, right now, a stubborn struggle against all the measures that the government is promoting in the areas of Judea and Samaria in preparation for the next expulsion. At this moment, I am not talking about the construction of the ghetto fence, against which we must act, too, to prevent its continued construction (we will speak of this at length in another article). I am rather speaking of the presumably “technical” measures that are seemingly being taken “for the residents’ own good.” Everyone with any intelligence at all understands that this is not so, and it is the opposite that is true. I am speaking about the request by the security forces to mark and identify the cars of Judea and Samaria residents, claiming that this will “simplify and speed up” passage at the various checkpoints in Judea and Samaria.

To our friends outside Judea and Samaria, who are not aware of what’s been happening lately: for years there have been checkpoints at the entry to and exit from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. These simple checkpoints are manned by a few soldiers or Border Police, to check the automobiles that cross into the Green Line, and ensure that Arab terrorists do not get through. The cars pass slowly by the soldier or Border Policeman at the checkpoint. He looks, and when it appears that this is a suspicious Arab vehicle, he signals to him to enter a side lane, where he undergoes a more thorough inspection. The soldier, and rightly so, does not distinguish between Jewish cars. The purpose of the checkpoint is to catch Arab terrorists, and not to delay or seize Jews. Every Jewish car passes through effortlessly. If it is a bit more difficult at night for the soldier to determine who is a Jew and who not, he asks a few simple questions, like “Ma nishma [What’s doing]?” or “Hakol beseder [Is everything OK]?”, and from the driver’s responses he immediately knows who is a Jew and who not, who is not suspicious and who is. This is just like what happens when the police or the army set up a sudden roadblock in Tel Aviv, Haifa, or Herzliyah. This method worked quite well, without any problems or traffic jams.

Suddenly, everything’s changed. The ghetto fence is being built at dizzying speed. Some settlements are strangled within it, so they will not be able to grow and develop. The settlements on the other side of the ghetto fence are abandoned to the mercies of the Hamas. At a cost of millions of shekels, the simple checkpoints are suddenly transformed into international terminals, and with them come new “directives,” specifically, and especially, for the Jews who live in Judea and Samaria. These Jews are required to use a special lane and to identify themselves, either by means of a sticker on their automobile, or by showing their ID card. Since, however, neither of these two methods has been especially accepted by the public of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, a new idea has been invented: complicated “technological” identification, in which the driver registers with the army’s identification system, which is supposed to identify his car and the number of his cell phone, and then he receives a PIN which enables him to pass through the checkpoint (after he calls - at his expense - the computerized system). Jews who do not reside in Judea and Samaria cannot pass though the special “marked” lane, and are forced to wait and suffer in a single long line, together with Arab vehicles with yellow (that is, Israeli) license plates. For details, click on:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=117172

I ask: is there a single person who thinks that this “revolution” at the checkpoints is intended “for the Jewish residents’ own good”? It is as clear as the sun that this is a despicable plan to brand the settlers of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, just as was done in Gush Katif. It is true that, in the short run, these regulations might aid a certain public in Judea and Samaria to pass through the checkpoints (and this, too, is doubtful). But even if this is true in the short term, this arrangement is not worthwhile, because of the heavy price we will pay in the long term. We must understand that, in the long term, this entire move is intended, on the one hand, to delegitimize the Jews of Judea and Samaria, to mark them as second-class citizens who do not belong there, to mark them in anticipation of future confrontations, and to disturb their daily routine. (Are you aware of the traffic jams caused when every citizen must show an ID card? And what happens when a resident of Judea or Samaria rents a vehicle, and is without the identification sticker on the windshield? And what will be with hitchhikers? Where do they belong? They will be forbidden to ride in a vehicle with a “special technological identification”!)

And, and at the same time, this move is meant to discourage the Jews from outside Judea and Samaria from coming to the area. Family members, guests, suppliers, repairmen, and anyone desiring to visit or work in Judea and Samaria, on his way back to “little Israel,” will go through a humiliating and tortuous route, as he waits in the long line together with the other (Arab) vehicles. Who will want to come visit Judea and Samaria any more?

And so, slowly, the Machiavellian minds in the Olmert government hope to drive the majority of the settlers of Judea and Samaria to despair, who will then engage in a “willing transfer” back within the boundaries of “little Israel.” Heaven forbid.

This process can be stopped! All the rabbis, together with the leaders of the public in Judea and Samaria, the council heads, the school principals, heads of yeshivot and ulpanot (girls’ seminaries), lawyers, and other public figures, must issue an unequivocal order to all the Yesha residents and to all their supporters, not to cooperate with the new decrees. Don’t agree to mark yourselves with a sticker. Don’t consent to the demand to present an ID card at checkpoints. Don’t comply with the technological identification. Call upon all the Jews, from within and without Judea and Samaria to drive together in the lane reserved for Jews. Just as a resident of Ramat Gan is not requested to identify himself or to mark himself when he wants to drive home, so, too, a badge cannot be placed on the Yesha inhabitants . If there is a population that must be carefully checked, marked, and searched - this is the hostile population of the Arab enemy. We Jews, whether from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, or not, demand free passage at the checkpoints, as was the case until now.

If we all unite together, and are determined not to cooperate with the new decrees - we will, with G-d’s help, succeed in forcing the authorities to revoke them and accept our demands. This small victory will bring us one step closer to bringing down the Olmertiochus government, that endangers, not only the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria, but the very existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state. It is within our power.

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
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mailto:michael@womeningreen.org
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Column One: Jews Wake Up!
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST
December 8, 2006

When the history of our times is written, this week will be remembered as the week that Washington decided to let the Islamic Republic of Iran go nuclear. Hopefully it will also be remembered as the moment the Jews arose and refused to allow Iran to go nuclear.

With the publication of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group chaired by former US secretary of state James Baker III and former congressman Lee Hamilton, the debate about the war in Iraq changed. From a war for victory against Islamofascism and for democracy and freedom, the war became reduced to a conflict to be managed by appeasing the US’s sworn enemies in the interests of stability, and at the expense of America’s allies.

Baker and his associates claim that the US cannot win the war in Iraq and so the US must negotiate with its primary enemies in Iraq and throughout the world - Iran and Syria - in the hopes that they will be persuaded to hold their fire for long enough to facilitate an “honorable” American retreat from the country.

Like his unsupported assertion that the US cannot win in Iraq, Baker also asserts - in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary - that Iran and Syria share America’s “interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq.” Because of this supposed shared interest, Baker maintains that with the proper incentives, Iran and Syria can be persuaded to cooperate with a US withdrawal from Iraq ahead of the 2008 presidential primaries.

The main incentive Baker advocates offering is Israel.

Baker believes that Iran will agree to temporarily hold its fire in Iraq in exchange for US acceptance of Iran as a nuclear power and an American pledge not to topple the regime. Syria will assist the US in exchange for US pressure on Israel to hand over the Golan Heights to Syria and Judea and Samaria to Hamas.

Obviously, if implemented, the Baker-Hamilton group’s recommendations will be disastrous for Israel. Just the fact that they now form the basis for the public debate on the war is a great blow. But it isn’t only Israel that is harmed by their actions. The US too, will be imperiled if their views become administration policy.

Although Baker - and incoming Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who served on his commission until Bush announced his appointment last month - believes that there is a deal to be done that will end Iranian and Syrian aggression against the US, its vital interests and its allies, the fact of the matter is that there is no such deal. Contrary to what the Baker report argues and what Gates said in his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Iran is not analogous to the Soviet Union and the war against the global jihad is not a new cold war.

Even if the US were to somehow get them to agree to certain understandings about Iraq, there is no reason to believe that the Iranians and Syrians would keep their word. Not only would the US be approaching them as a supplicant and so emboldening them, but to date the US has never credibly threatened anything either Syria or Iran value. Indeed, through supporting negotiations between the EU and Iran, empowering the UN to deal with Iran’s nuclear program, and forcing Israel to accept a cease-fire with Hizbullah last summer that effectively gave victory to the Syrian and Iranian proxy, the US has consistently rewarded the two countries’ aggression.

Worse than that, from a US perspective, although Gates admitted Tuesday that he cannot guarantee that Iran will not attack Israel with nuclear weapons, he ignored the fact that Iran - whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad daily calls for the destruction of the US - may also attack the US with nuclear weapons.

Gates admitted in his Senate hearing that Iran is producing many bombs - not just one.

Since it is possible to destroy Israel with just one bomb, the Americans should be asking themselves what Iran needs all those other bombs for. There are senior military sources in the US who have been warning the administration to take into consideration that the day that Iran attacks Israel with a nuclear bomb, 10 cities in the US and Europe are liable to also be attacked with nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, no one is listening to these voices today.

IT IS particularly upsetting that Washington has chosen now of all times to turn its back on the war. Ahmadinejad hinted Monday that Iran has completed the nuclear fuel cycle and so has passed the point of no return on its nuclear program. He also made a statement indicating that Iran will have its nuclear arsenal up and running by March - just four months away.

Serious disagreement exists in Washington over the status of the Iranian program. Some claim that Iran is four or five years away from nuclear weapons capabilities. Others maintain that Iran has recently experienced serious technical setbacks in their uranium enrichment activities and that the North Korean nuclear bomb test in October, in which Iranian officials participated, was a failure.

But there are also engaged officials who agree with Ahmadinejad’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear progress. Those officials maintain first that the North Korean-Iranian test in October was successful and should be taken as a sign that Iran already has a nuclear arsenal. Second, they warn that the US and Israel have six months to act against Iran’s nuclear installations and to overthrow the regime or face the prospect of the annihilation of Israel and the destruction of several US cities as a result of an Iranian nuclear offensive.

Obviously, Israel cannot risk the possibility that the last group of officials is correct. And since Washington has decided to go to sleep, it is up to Israel alone to act.

WHAT MUST Israel do? First, it must plan an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities and regime command and control centers. To pave the way for such an attack, the IDF must move now to neutralize second order threats like the Palestinian rocket squads and the Syrian ballistic missile arsenals in order to limit the public’s exposure to attack during the course of or in the aftermath of an Israeli attack on Iran.
Second, Israel must work to topple the Iranian regime. As the Defense Minister’s advisor Uri Lubrani told Ha’aretz last week, the regime in Iran is far from stable today and ripe for overthrow.

The overwhelming majority of Iranians despise the regime. There are rebellious groups in every ethnic group and province in the country - Azeris, Kurds, Ahwazi Arabs, Baluchis, Turkmen and even Persians - that are actively working to destabilize the regime. Every day there are strikes of workers, women and students. Every few weeks there are reports of violent clashes between anti-regime groups and regime forces.

Recently, oil pipelines were sabotaged in the oil-rich Khuzestan province in the south where the Ahwazi Arabs are systematically persecuted by the regime. Westerners who recently visited Iran claim that Israel operating alone could overthrow the regime by extending its assistance to these people.

Thirdly, in his testimony in the Senate on Tuesday, Gates casually mentioned that Israel has nuclear weapons. In so doing, he unceremoniously removed four decades of ambiguity over Israel’s nuclear status. While his statement caused dismay in Jerusalem, perhaps Israel should see this as an opportunity.

With the threat of nuclear destruction hanging over us, it makes sense to conduct a debate about an Israeli second strike. While such a discussion will not dissuade Iran’s fanatical leaders from attacking Israel with nuclear weapons, it could influence the Iranian nation to rise up against their leaders.

Moreover, such a debate could influence other regimes in the region like Saudi Arabia which today behave as if Israel’s annihilation will have no adverse impact on them. Americans like Baker, Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and their European friends need to understand that as goes Israel so go the Persian Gulf’s oil fields. Such an understanding may influence their willingness to enable Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

Tragically, in these perilous times, we are being led by the worst, most incompetent government we have ever had.

Prime Minister Olmert’s way of dealing with the Iranian threat is to pretend that it is none of his business. During his visit to the US last month, Olmert abdicated responsibility for safeguarding Israel from nuclear destruction to President Bush. It didn’t bother him that Bush didn’t accept the responsibility. By mindlessly adhering to non-existent cease-fires with Iranian proxies in Gaza and Lebanon and squawking about peace with them, Olmert continues to behave as if this is someone else’s problem.

For her part, reacting to the possibility of national extinction, Education Minister YuliTamir this week cocked her pedagogical pistol and shot at her rear. By ordering the public schools to demarcate the 1949 armistice lines on the official maps and so wipe Israel off maps of Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights, Tamir worked to divide the nation over second order issues at a time when unity of purpose is most essential. Olmert, who refused to overturn her scandalous decree, was doubtlessly pleased with her political stunt. For two days the media devoted itself entirely to stirring up internal divisions and so ignored the threat hanging over our heads and Olmert’s refusal to deal with it.

Next Thursday, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein and former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold will hold a press conference in New York where they will call for the US to indict Ahmadinejad under the International Convention Against Genocide for his call to annihilate Israel. This is doubtlessly a welcome initiative. But it is insufficient.

In a few months, Iran may well be in possession of nuclear weapons which it will use to destroy the Jewish state. With the US withdrawing from the war and Israel in the hands of incompetents, the time has come for the Jewish people to rise up.

GUARANTEEING our survival begins with each of us deciding that we are willing to fight to survive. And today the challenge facing us is clear.

Either the Iranian regime is toppled and its nuclear installations are destroyed or Israel will be annihilated. The Jews in the Diaspora must launch mass demonstrations and demand that their governments take real action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The citizens of the State of Israel must also take to the streets. The government that led us to defeat in Lebanon this summer is leading us to a disaster of another order entirely. All citizens must demand that Olmert, his ministers and the generals in the IDF General Staff make an immediate decision. They now hold the responsibility for acting against Iran. They must either act or resign and make way for others who will.

America just abdicated its responsibility to defend itself against Iran and so left Israel high and dry. Nevertheless, the Jewish people is far from powerless. And the State of Israel also is capable of defending itself. But we must act and act immediately.

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green)
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WAKE UP, FELLOW-AMERICANS!

Letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Dear Friends,

I have a worrisome sensation in my gut, a bad feeling of deja vu. In plain English that means “been there, done that”.

On March 12, 1938, Hitler pressured his native Austria into unification with Germany. I was a nine-year-old Jewish child living with my family in Wr. Neustadt, when the Nazis took over Austria. My feelings today, as an elderly woman, are the same as when I was a nine-year-old child­feelings of helplessness and of impending doom.

Hitler had been in power in adjoining Germany since 1933. Most people soon realized Hitler’s hatred of the Jews, especially after reading his book MEIN KAMPF. However, very few people realized the extent of his psychopathic hatred of the Jews.

On the day when Hitler took control of Austria, I overheard my parents’ whispered conversation­not meant for the ears of a nine-year-old­“This is the end of everything, we must get out of here at all cost, or it will be the end of us.”

Through a series of actual miracles we escaped the fate of six million other Jews. My parents managed to find places for my brother, my sister and myself on a Kinder Transport to Sweden.

After we arrived safely in Sweden, my parents escaped “illegally” over the Italian border.

Miraculously, we were all united in the United States three years after the war ended. As a seventeen-year-old, I was proud to become a citizen of the United States.

Because of my childhood experiences, I have had an almost irrational feeling of owing a debt because my parents and siblings were saved. The rest of my family were exterminated.

By profession I am a designer and craftsman of Judaica and jewelry in Israel. One might ask why did I abandon this work which I love? Very simple! I felt I had to do this in order to protect the future of all Jewish children. That is why the name of our organization is Women for Israel’s Tomorrow.

Part of my present fulltime work as Co-Leader of Women in Green stems from my determination not to let our children experience what the Jews went through at the time of Hitler and the Nazis.

Are President Ahmadinejad of Iran and his Jihadists less dangerous than Hitler and his Nazi followers?

I think they are even more dangerous! As passionate as the Germans were in their hatred of Jews, it is a step further in fanaticism to be willing to blow oneself up in order to kill Jews! President Ahmadinejad has even said that he is willing to lose half of his own country in order to wipe Israel off the map.

In this connection, please do not forget that Israel is considered by the Arabs to be only the “Little Satan”. The final plan is to destroy the “Great Satan”, America.

Be honest with yourselves, fellow Americans! Aren’t you getting a mite uncomfortable, or even alarmed, about the subtle encroachment of Islam throughout the United States?

Something that has alarmed me personally is the controversy surrounding America’s first Muslim congressman Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota. This controversy was, no doubt, generated by Keith Ellison himself. Was his widely publicized statement that he intended to be sworn in as a Congressman with his hand on the Koran just a publicity stunt? As a lawyer and a law-maker, he must have known that NO ONE takes the oath of office in Congress with their hand on ANY religious book!

Another matter of concern about Ellison. Ellison was at the conference of the North American Imams’ Federation, which the Imams were in Minneapolis to attend.

Six Muslim Imams were kicked off the US Airways flight in Minneapolis because they acted suspiciously. After this airport incident, Ellison called for a meeting with executives of US Airways and the Metropolitan Airport Commission to discuss the Imams’ unjust removal. He threatened to bring other legislators and other community members to the meeting.

For more details, I am including in its entirety Joseph Farah’s article “Imams and Apple Pie”.

* * *

Imams and apple pie
by Joseph Farah, Worldnetdaily.com
December 2, 2006

Can you believe the six imams kicked off the US Airways flight in Minneapolis are threatening to sue?

Can you believe they’re walking around free rather than being held and investigated for “probing” on behalf of terrorists?

Can you believe most of the media coverage of this incident focuses on possible civil rights violations and inappropriate religious “profiling”?

Let’s review the facts of the case:

Several passengers on the flight complained to the crew about excessively loud “praying” by the Muslim “holy men.” They complained that they were moving around the plane. An air marshal characterized their behavior as a “[political correctness] probe.” Even before they boarded the flight, passengers and the flight crew reported the imams prayed loudly, then, once boarding began playing musical chairs – switching from their assigned seats in a configuration used by terrorists in previous incidents. Two even moved to the front of first class, while two others moved toward the middle of the plane and the last two moved toward the back – effectively giving them control of exits. They asked for seat-belt extensions, which could conceivably be used as weapons, and then threw them under their seats rather than use them. Both before boarding and after, they made a spectacle of themselves chanting about “Allah and the United States.”

What would you do if you were on that flight?

What would you do if you were part of the crew?

What would you do if you were the air marshal?

Apparently, what you would be expected to do by second-guessers not actually on the flight would be to smile and think pleasant thoughts about multiculturalism and pluralism.

We’re supposed to believe that this wasn’t planned?

We’re supposed to believe these guys didn’t know what they were doing?

We’re supposed to believe that this wasn’t a deliberate effort to test the boundaries of tolerance?

These imams are now on a national publicity tour trying to persuade us that they are as American as apple pie – that they did nothing wrong or even suspicious. Don’t buy it.

And if these imams are permitted to win a lawsuit against US Airways, say goodbye to airline security in America.

Five years after Sept. 11, 2001, political correctness appears to be a more powerful force in our country than the safety and security of American citizens.

It’s really quite unbelievable.

It’s quite clear that these six imams have an agenda beyond acceptance of their religion by Americans.

Most Americans don’t pre-judge Muslims as terrorists. But when they act like terrorists, when they don’t act like good Americans, when they clearly test our tolerance, when they “probe” our defenses, then Americans have the right and duty to treat them with the utmost suspicion.

What do you think would happen to you if you acted this way on a flight?

It seems like these activists don’t really want to be treated equally, they want to be treated in a special way – with more deference, with more understanding.

I don’t like traveling any more in this country. I don’t like it because of the extra security that is in place – much of it by necessity – because of what happened Sept. 11. I minimize my travels because of the inconvenience and hassle.

But we’re at war. And the hassles are a small price to pay to ensure we save American lives and emerge from this war victorious some day.

Americans must not succumb to the temptation to be “politically correct” by overlooking suspicious behavior. That would be a grave – if not fatal – tactical error in this war.

* * *

IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP, FELLOW-AMERICANS, TO THE DANGERS FACING, NOT ONLY ISRAEL, BUT AMERICA AS WELL!

With Blessings and Love of Israel,

Ruth Matar

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green)
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A JEWISH HERO IN OUR TIME

Letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Thursday, November 30, 2006

Dear Friends,

In the Jewish Passover Haggadah, it is written:

“And it is the same promise which helped our fathers and which aided us. For not only one tyrant has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation wicked men have risen against us to destroy us. But the Holy One, Blessed be He, delivers us from their hands.”

Also, in every generation, there were Jewish heroes with vision who were willing to sacrifice everything, even their very lives, in order to preserve G-d’s promise to the Jewish people.

One such hero in our generation is Stanley Goldfoot. During his lifetime, Stanley witnessed the rise of tyrants such as Hitler and Ahmadinijad, who are bent on destroying the Jewish people.

Sadly, our friend Stanley passed away last week, November 24, 2006, at the age of 92. His family and all his many friends not only mourn his passing, but remember with gratitude his love and devotion for Israel and the Jewish people.

Stanley Goldfoot was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the age of 18 he heard a speech about the Zionist vision by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, which appealed very strongly to him. It was all he needed to hear before packing a bag, leaving a shocked family and heading for Palestine. He joined a HaShomer HaTzair kibbutz, picking eggplants in the fields, and making floor tiles, “balatot”.

Since he arrived alone, without an entry permit, the British police soon shipped him out of the country together with another South African. In South Africa, he was drafted into the South African Army, where he learned to handle a rifle. Stanley joined the Revisionist Party (another name for Lehi).

At first opportunity, he returned to Tel Aviv to open the first “School of English” which gave him entry into the British High Society where he was privy to important information from the top echelon of the British Army. He was now able to pass this invaluable information on to other Lehi members.

Stanley Goldfoot did this with alacrity, under cover of legitimately representing English and French news. His valuable “press cards” gained him admittance everywhere!

He was active in many other activities against the British Mandatory Power, while working in Jerusalem as a respected journalist. Some of those activities were so sensitive that they were never made public.

After the rebirth of the Jewish State of Israel, he made aliyah legally in 1956. His main goal became his desire to establish a Zionist English newspaper “The Times of Israel”, which eventually appeared on the streets of Israel, New York and the West Coast of the USA. For this purpose, he even spent a year in New York to raise funds to promote his newspaper.

In the first issue of the “Times of Israel”, Stanley Goldfoot wrote his famous controversial “Letter to the World from Jerusalem”, which at the time, caused a huge stir. His article is still relevant, and I am therefore, including it in this Letter from Jerusalem.

A LETTER TO THE WORLD FROM JERUSALEM

I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to believe. I am a Jerusalemite – like yourselves, a man of flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my city, an integral part of my people.

I have a few things to get off my chest. Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you, or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not build this city; you do not live in it; you did not defend it when they came to destroy it. And we will be damned if we will let you take it away.

There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin, Moscow, London and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves – a humane moral code. Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightning. Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors, bled and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning Temple rather than surrender; and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem, they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arm wither.

For two pain filled millennia, while we were your unwelcome guests, we prayed daily to return to this city. Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: “Gather us from the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell in it as Thou promised.”

On every Yom Kippur and Passover we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem. Your inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, the ghettos into which you jammed us, your forced baptisms, your quota systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and the final unspeakable horror, the Holocaust (and worse, your terrifying disinterest in it) – all these have not broken us. They may have sapped what little moral strength you still possessed, but they forged us into steel. Do you think that you can break us now after all we have been through? Do you really believe that after Dachau and Auschwitz we are frightened by your threats of blockades and sanctions? We have been to Hell and back – a Hell of your making. What more could you possibly have in your arsenal that could scare us?

I have watched this city bombarded twice by nations calling themselves civilized. In 1948, while you looked on apathetically, I saw women and children blown to smithereens, this after we had agreed to your request to internationalize the city. It was a deadly combination that did the job: British officers, Arab gunners and American-made cannon.

And then the savage sacking of the Old City: the willful slaughter, the wanton destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the sale by a ghoulish government of tombstones for building materials for poultry runs, army camps – even latrines.

And you never said a word.

You never breathed the slightest protest when the Jordanians shut off the holiest of our holy places, the Western Wall, in violation of the pledges they had made after the war – a war they waged, incidentally, against a decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from you whenever the legionnaires in their spiked helmets casually opened fire upon our citizens from behind the walls.

Your hearts bled when Berlin came under siege. You rushed your airlift “to save the gallant Berliners.” But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged Jerusalem. You thundered against the wall which the East Germans ran through the middle of the German capital – but not one peep out of you about that other wall, the one that tore through the heart of Jerusalem.

And when the same thing happened 20 years later, and the Arabs unleashed a savage, unprovoked bombardment of the Holy City again, did any of you do anything? The only time you came to life was when the city was at last re-united. Then you wrung your hands and spoke loftily of “justice” and the need for the “Christian” quality of turning the other cheek.

The truth is – and you know it deep inside your gut – you would prefer the city to be destroyed rather than have it governed by Jews. No matter how diplomatically you phrase it, the age old prejudices seep out of every word.

If our return to the city has tied your theology in knots, perhaps you had better re-examine you catechisms. After what we have been through, we are not passively going to accommodate ourselves to the twisted idea that we are to suffer eternal homelessness until we accept your Savior.

For the first time since the year 70 there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem. For the first time since the Romans put the torch to the Temple everyone has equal rights. (You preferred to have some more equal than others.) We loathe the sword – but it was you who forced us to take it up. We crave peace – but we are not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like us to.

We are home. It has a lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wonder over the face of the globe.
We are not leaving. We have redeemed the pledge made by our forefathers: Jerusalem is being rebuilt.
Next year – and the year after, and after, and after, until the end of time – in Jerusalem!

Stanley Goldfoot
Founder Editor
The Times of Israel
August 1969

* * * * *

Stanley’s wife Helen was a real trooper and diligently worked alongside of him throughout their married life to make all his endeavors a success.

Stanley and Helen have been active members of Women for Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green) since its inception in 1993. Both of them have been a great inspiration to the efforts of our organization to educate the younger generation about the values and traditions of the Jewish people in our promised Land.

All the Women in Green will always remember Stanley Goldfoot with love and gratitude. His memory is a blessing, not just for us, but for the entire Jewish people.

With Blessings and Love for Israel,

Ruth Matar

P.S. Any messages for Helen Goldfoot can be sent to our email address,
mailto:michaele@netvision.net.il Attn: Helen Goldfoot. I will be pleased to pass them on to her.

P.P.S. I want to remind my readers that former Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir was an active member of Stanley Goldfoot’s group, Lehi. Also, Israel Eldad, father of Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad, was an active member as well. Another important Lehi member is Ezra Yakhin, author of “Elnakam”, Story of a Freedom Fighter, who lost an eye in the battle for Jerusalem. If you are interested in buying this book, get in touch with me.

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:michael@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org

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