Oooh! How angry they are! It’s really scary. "Shame!" they shout. "Revenge!" they scream. "This will not come to pass!" they promise. "The High Court of Justice discriminates!" they fume. "It has been proven that equality before the law doesn’t exist. There are people who are equal, and there are people who are less equal," they wail.

Yes, yes, the women’s organizations are pulling out all the stops. "A black day for the judicial system," they inform us. What is all this about? The judges of the High Court of Justice decided to reject the appeals by the women’s organizations against the plea bargain for former President Moshe Katzav. The judges confirmed the agreement, as part of which only minor sex crimes are attributed to Katzav.

Fourteen women’s organizations, including Kolech ("your voice"), decided that they cannot remain silent. They are going forth to battle against the plea bargain! "We are initiating a series of protest activities throughout the country," they announce. Marches, demonstrations, protests. The sky’s the limit. And they call upon the public at large to join them.

And so, I want to tell this band of women: Forget about me. I’m not coming to your demonstrations. You can come looking for me and my friends. If you find us, then we will ask you: Now you wake up? Because you are convinced that Moshe Katzav committed rape and got off lightly?

Where were you until now? Where were you when the High Court of Justice allowed the state to commit gang rape against our brothers and sisters from Gush Katif and northern Samaria? The gang rape called the "disengagement." Why didn’t you take a stand with us in the demonstrations under the slogan: "Disengagement Criminals to Trial"? Where were you when entire families were destroyed, physically, psychologically, and financially, because of the rape of the expulsion?

Where were you after the Amona pogrom, when hundreds of police officers fell like Cossacks on youth, boys and girls, and delivered murderous blows, pushed and beat them, while severely violating the modesty of Jewish girls, without being punished for this? Where were you when male police officers, against standing regulations, physically dragged off women and girls at Amona? Did you raise "your voice"? Did you participate in demonstrations and marches against the "law enforcement" system that defended the pogromist - and, yes, sexually abusive - police officers?

Where were you in the past months when dozens of infants and children, men, and women froze from the cold in the "Bet Hashalom" (Peace house) in Hebron, because of the authorities’ refusal to permit them to install windows and a normal electric system in the structure, and to repair the roof?

And if you were to answer me that you are concerned only with the topic of "sexual assault," then where were you when seven 14-year-old girls were arrested at the meahaz (outpost settlement) near Beit El for the "crime" of staying in the meahaz? Where were you during the course of almost a month while these girls - minors - were held in the Neveh Tirtzah prison, with a denial of their basic human rights and with endless abuse? Where were you when the girls’ friends and family members organized a demonstration to protest against the police in the Benjamin Police who abused the girls (again, minors) - and forcibly stripped them, sometimes even in the presence of a male police officer? In addition to violating their standard of modesty, the law regards such behavior with female minors as an extremely grave sexual offense. Why don’t you initiate a struggle to place on trial those police officers, who apparently are above the law?

Where are you today when an 18-year-old girl, Tzivya from Elon Moreh, has been imprisoned for three months - for nothing - while suffering severe abuse? Where was your cry of outrage when the rule of law system did not permit Tzivya to participate in her grandfather’s funeral a few days ago?

Ahhh … how did I forget? All the cases that I described involved settlers - and it is common knowledge that the rights of settlers, of either gender, can be trampled underfoot. They are twentieth-class citizens. You women’s organizations are not concerned with them. They don’t interest anyone. They can be trampled on, persecuted, and discriminated against by the High Court of Justice.

So here, you see. Anyone who remained silent while the High Court of Justice and the rest of the Israeli injustice system abused settlers should not cry now about being abused.

So, you hypocritical women, I and my friends will not come to demonstrate with you today. For it has been shown that, for you, too, there are people who are equal and those who are less equal.

Don’t think that I have any sympathy for Moshe Katzav. I think that he should rot in prison. I don’t know if he raped A. or not. I do know that when he was President he remained silent and did nothing to stop the crime of the rape of our brethren from Gush Katif and northern Samaria. For this alone he should have to sit in prison for the rest of his life, together with the other expulsion criminals.

And so, members of the women’s organizations who are "going forth to battle," if you want Israeli women to join you in the future, I advise you to do some soul-searching, and the earlier the better.

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow  (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
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Dear Friends,

This “Letter from Jerusalem” is, I grant you, most unusual. Incorporated here, are letters from a Baptist pastor from Oklahoma, USA, Dr. Jim Vineyard. One letter is addressed to the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, and the other, to United States President, George W. Bush.

Dr. Vineyard is a good and loyal friend of mine. More importantly, he is a great friend of the Jewish People and of Israel.

What in heaven’s name is Ruth Matar, a believing, Orthodox Jewish woman, doing working together with Baptist pastors, you may ask?

Once upon a time, I myself believed that all Baptists were enemies of the Jews!

Not so Dr. Vineyard, who heads an organization named YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL, (Friends of Israel), www.yedidimofisrael.com

I was introduced to Dr. Vineyard by common friends, I believe in the year 2005. We have been good friends and work together ever since.

Dr. Vineyard sends out numerous e-mails, both to US President George W. Bush and to Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, as political situations develop. His letters analyze the policies of both the United States and Israeli governments with regard to the Holy Land.

Dr. Vineyard’s stand with regard to Israel is crystal clear: The Holy Land belongs ONLY to the Hebrews!

I am reproducing an article published in the WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK in April of 2005. This article proves, without any doubt, that Dr. Jim Vineyard is a true and loyal friend of the Jews and Israel.

Oklahoma Pastor Jim Vineyard says he would not be able to face himself in the morning if he didn’t do all he could to stop the Gaza disengagement plan.

“I told my wife if Israel goes down the tubes, America is going to go down the tubes,” the leader of Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City said in an interview last week. “We’re going to use all the money we have to try to fight this and stop it.”

Vineyard was on Capitol Hill most of last week to try to do just that, lobbying members of Congress with a delegation of Israelis also fighting disengagement.

The Yedidim delegates include Ruth Matar, co-chair of Women in Green; Arieh Stav, director of the Ariel Center for Policy Research; and Yossi Ben-Aharon, former adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Vineyard spent Monday at President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, leading a “peaceful” rally against the Gaza plan during the president’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, before returning to Washington this week.

The leader of Yedidim of Israel, a “loose affiliation” of more than 7,600 Baptist churches nationwide dedicated to stopping the Gaza disengagement, Vineyard said he is motivated by his conviction that all of the land of Israel should be in Jewish hands­a belief that stems directly from the Bible.

The majority of Israelis may support Gaza disengagement, but Vineyard says that it doesn’t matter what they say because “G-d says the land belongs to the Jews.”

On Capitol Hill, Vineyard has been focusing on his home state legislators, urging the Oklahoma delegation to sign and circulate a letter urging Congress to help delay or stop the plan, whether by holding hearings or refusing to help fund the withdrawal.

“I don’t want a cent of my tax dollars to go to pay for the deportation of any Jews,” he said.

Vineyard bought a series of full-page advertisements in The Washington Times inveighing against disengagement this winter, which caught the eye of at least one local rabbi.

Silver Spring Jewish Center Rabbi Herzl Kranz said he is impressed that a non-Jew would care so much about the future of Israel.

Referring to a passage from Kabbalah, Kranz said that “the world rests on 36 righteous Jews and 30 righteous gentiles, and he’s one of those.”

Yedidim delegates visited Kranz’s shul [synagogue] on Shabbat.

Vineyard has visited Israel five times in the past 16 months, but said he doesn’t go to “see the sights, I see the people affected” by the disengagement.

He cannot understand why Sharon, so opposed to similar plans in the past, has turned around and is now leading the retreat from Gaza.

Sharon was a “giant as a general,” but “in my opinion, he’s a pygmy as the leader of the nation of Israel,” said Vineyard.

He sees the Gaza plan as no different from the Oslo Accords, which Vineyard said led to “a disaster for the Jews” and more than 5,000 dead on both sides.

“If I were a scientist and had a hypothesis, and the experiment [to test the hypothesis] blew up…I’d try a different hypothesis,” says Vineyard. “I would not keep experimenting with the same hypothesis.”

Similarly, he sees Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas as not much different from the late Yasser Arafat, noting his history of terrorism.

He hopes President George W. Bush reverses course on disengagement, because giving land to the Palestinians would only harm the war against Islamic terrorism that the U.S. is fighting, and eventually lead to a disaster much worse than the Sept. 11 attacks.

While he voted twice for both the president and his father, “I also love the Jews, and seek [to have] G-d’s promise to the nation of Israel fulfilled.”

Vineyard realizes that he is more upset about the Gaza plan than most American Jews. He noted, for instance that Jewish leaders in Oklahoma City have told him that the community would not oppose the position of the Israeli government.

But the self-described, “poor boy from the panhandle of Texas” said that does not matter because “I have the Bible on my side.”

“G-d says it’s [the Jews’] land, and we cannot go against what G-d said,” the 65-year-old pastor said.

If Israel does leave Gaza this summer, is there any chance it might work? Vineyard responds, “When the hogs start laying eggs and the elephants start flying.”
 

The following is Dr. Vineyard’s letter to United States President, George W. Bush, written on February 19, 2008.

February 19, 2008

DEAR PRESIDENT BUSH:

We are at 35,992 feet almost due south of Reykjavik on an easterly course with 3,407 miles left to Tel Aviv, with the outside air temperature at -75 F.  I am flying with Dr. Bryan Sharp, Dr. Cecil Ballard, Dr. Ed Bragg, and a group of other Independent Baptist Pastors on the way to Israel.

In Tel Aviv, this ole warrior will split apart from them.  They will basically be seeing the sites where our LORD walked, and I will primarily be seeing the 2008 Hebrew people.

Our New York Rabbi Friend, Tovia Singer, whom we accompanied to Israel in June 2005 with New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, is also on the plane, going to a meeting at the Regency Hotel in Jerusalem.

At the Newark Airport, Sir, I went on line, and my Secretary had e-mailed me a good number of News Articles from the worldwide situation.  Saving those on my hard drive, I now am able to read that news.

From Lebanon and Syria, I read:

Walid Jumblatt: Implacable foe of Syria and Hizballah

Syria is not waiting for its official investigation to wind up and expose the party responsible for killing HizbAllah commander and Tehran’s terror tactician in Damascus on February 13 - any more than HizbAllah, when its leaders accuse Israel.  Tehran, Syria, and HizbAllah have all threatened revenge against Israel within or outside its borders.

However, Bashar Assad’s strategists are not losing a moment to cash in on the abundant conspiracy theories surrounding the death, to plant one of its own:  Mughniyeh, they say, was killed in their capital by their Lebanese enemies.

Therefore, it is feared in Washington and Jerusalem that, while plotting revenge on Israel, HizbAllah, backed by the Syrian commando units, will launch attacks on Lebanese national intelligence and Druze targets in Beirut and Mt. Lebanon ­ they point a finger at Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Their immediate goal would be to overthrow the pro-Western, anti-Syrian government headed by Fouad Siniora and stir up a new civil war.  The door would then re-open for Syria to make a comeback to the troubled country and move troops in for the first time since they were thrown out in 2005, in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions.

Syria’s machinations give substance to Director of US National Intelligence Mike McConnell’s assertion to Fox TV Sunday, February 17, that while HizbAllah is blaming Israel, “…there’s some evidence that it may have been internal HizbAllah.  It may have been Syria.  We don’t know yet, and we’re trying to sort that out.”

“It is a serious threat, and it’s primarily against Israel,” said the US intelligence director.  “But …let me just mention about Mughniyeh… (He was) responsible for more deaths of Americans and Israelis than any other terrorist with the exception of Osama bin Laden.  So this man over time had lots of enemies.  Remember, he was a Shia, and oftentimes his targets could be Sunni as well as against Israel.”

Last week, the FBI placed counter-terror squads on alert in the US against attacks on synagogues and other potential Jewish targets.  In July 2007, McConnell referred to HizbAllah sleeper cells in the United States waiting for orders to spring into action.  Our sources report they are part of the trans-continental network which Mughniyeh himself established on behalf of HizbAllah and Tehran.

Meanwhile, in Beirut, Middle East sources report sporadic clashes already erupting in Beirut in the last few days between pro-government and pro-HizbAllah adherents.

Sunday, February 17, unidentified gunmen shot up a Lebanese army unit near the Sabra district in south Beirut, killing one person and injuring others. Barricades and manned positions have gone up ominously in the Lebanese capital and no-go zones set up between flashpoint districts.

Syrian sources promise the results of their finished inquiry will cause an earthquake in the Arab world and Middle East when they are published Saturday, February 22.

HizbAllah leader Hassan Nasrallah has scheduled another of his broadcast speeches for the same day ­ this one to mark the anniversary of his predecessor Abbas Musawi’s death in 1992, which was also attributed to Israel.

The two events are feared by US and Israeli officials to have been coordinated on the same day to flash the signal for the Syrian-HizbAllah plan to start unfolding.  It is possible that events in Israel may get a bit dicey for us Americans on this coming Saturday.

Middle East Intel Sources outline the case Syria has begun putting together to incriminate its Lebanese enemies:

1.  A large Mossad spy-cum-terror ring was allegedly uncovered in Damascus and Beirut.  Its mission was to keep tabs on Syrian commanders, HizbAllah heads and Palestinian leaders before liquidating them.

America, Sir, needs to hire the Mossad to work for us, and run our Middle East Intel ops.

2.  The ring comprised Lebanese members as well as collaborators from a key Arab intelligence body, possibly Saudi or Jordanian.  As the author of LONE SURVIVOR,” Texan Marcus Lutrell, so aptly put it, Arabs will sell their mother or sister for the right amount of cash.

Intel sources deep in Syria report that Damascus, increasingly isolated in the mainstream Arab world over Lebanon and its ties with Tehran, has no qualms about confronting Saudi Arabia and Jordan and accusing their intelligence agencies of being in league with Israel to destroy the “Arab resistance movement.”

Saudi Arabia has indicated that its chair will be empty at the forthcoming Arab League summit in Damascus at the end of March.

3.  Syria claims to have found evidence that two Lebanese intelligence agencies are involved in the Mossad ring.

One is the research branch of the Lebanese General Security Service, whose director, Captain Wissam Eid, was murdered in a car bomb attack in Beirut on January 25.  Captain Eid was deeply involved in gathering evidence for the Hariri assassination case and uncovering the Syrian leadership’s criminal involvement.

Intelligence sources note that success by a Syrian undercover team in immobilizing this service would not only deprive the Fouad government of its primary security shield, but also bring the investigation into the three-year-old assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister to a halt ­ just when the international tribunal is preparing to start work in the Netherlands.

The second clandestine Lebanese agency which Syria stigmatizes as part of the Mossad network is the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt’s private intelligence service.

Syria claims to have exposed the personal involvement of its director, Hisham Nasser e-Din.  This charge would justify the targeting of the Druze leader and his domain on Mt. Lebanon. Jumblatt, whose father was assassinated on orders of Bashar Assad’s father, is marked as the Syrian president’s most implacable Lebanese foe.

4.  The Syrian investigators are seeking to prove that Mughniyeh was killed while walking on foot from the house where he was staying in Damascus to the Mitsubishi SUV and that the vehicle was in fact rigged as a bomb car which detonated on his approach.  They further claim that more explosive devices were planted along his path in case the first one missed its mark.

This is important to support the Syrian case, because they claim to have tracked down the vehicle’s Lebanese owner and fixed the time when he entered Syria.

5.  They say the explosive was laced with 3,000 steel nails, which killed the targeted HizbAllah commander and pockmarked surrounding buildings.  I read that, Sir, and say, “Shades of the Suicide Bombers who’ve blown up a good number of Israeli busses in days gone past!”

Another News Article dated, February 18, 2008, 1:55 PM (GMT+02:00), states:

The official Iranian news agency quoted the IRGC’s commander, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari as saying Monday, February 18:  “In the near future, we will witness the destruction of Israel, the aggressor, this cancerous microbe.”

Thursday, HizbAllah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared in a broadcast speech:  “If Israel wants open war, so be it.”

 “The blood of our slain commander will lead to Israel’s demise,” he yelled at the funeral of the group’s military commander Imad Mughniyeh.  “I say for the whole world to hear that our war will extend everywhere without restraints.  The Lebanon War is not over; there is no ceasefire.”

Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki flew in especially to pay his government’s respects to the dead commander twenty-four hours after a bomb killed the man high on America’s wanted list in Damascus.

From another article, Sir, I read:

Iran and Israel Poised for Possible Military Clash over Mughniyeh’s Death!

Tehran is bent on avenging the death of its top terror tactician Imad Mughniyeh who was struck down by a bomb planted in his car in Damascus Tuesday, February 13.  Even before the high-ranking Iranian military investigation team, headed by Gen. Ghassem Soleimani, chief of the IRGC’s al Qods Brigades, began a rush job the next day, Israel was singled out as the target for punishment by Iran, HizbAllah and Syria.

Syria also launched a probe to identify the long arm which hit the shadowy master terrorist under the noses of its security services.

Some of the theories and rumors swirling around these probes were planted to muddy the waters by Iran, Syria, HizbAllah, Israel, and some Lebanese quarters.

Arab newspapers, for instance, claimed Saturday that new leads link Arab intelligence services to the crime; ex-Israeli undercover agents pointed the finger at Lebanese Christian Maronites.

An intriguing conspiracy theory emanating unexpectedly from Western sources was suggested by the veteran CNN correspondent Jim Clancy.

In his view, Mughniyeh, the consummate master of deception, may still be alive.  Others took the theory further and suggested his death may have been fabricated to provide Iran, Syria, and HizbAllah with a strong casus belli to attack Israel without further delay, and so repeat the Arabs’ Yom Kippur success 35 years ago in catching Israel unawares.

According to this line of thinking, because Iran is forging ahead with the development of a nuclear weapon which Israel has said is unacceptable, rather than wait for Israel to strike, the clerical rulers of Tehran resolved on preemptive action.

Mughniyeh’s death, real or phony, provided the motive.

Middle East intelligence sources have gleaned some facts from the early stages of the highly secretive inquiries and separated them from the theories.

1.  Tehran, Damascus, and HizbAllah are determined to inflict military-terror punishment on Israel whom they accuse of liquidating their key agent, Imad Mughniyeh.

Most Israeli government spokesmen see this attack coming in the form of a terrorist strike against an Israeli or Jewish target overseas, on the lines of the 1992 bombing attacks on the Israeli embassy and Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires which cost more than 100 lives.

Nonetheless, the army, navy, air force, and homeland defense forces are on a high state of preparedness on Israel’s northern borders.

HizbAllah announced Saturday, February 16, that it had placed 50,000 of its members on the ready for any eventuality (i.e. directives from Tehran).

Personnel at the US embassy and other institutions in Beirut were ordered to be on their guard for attacks, keep a low profile and refrain from using their cell phones.

2.  Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order for Tehran to take charge of the inquiry to identify the hand which killed Mughniyeh, according to our Iranian sources.

No time was lost in obeying him.  Wednesday, February 14, hours after the assassination, a military mission was in Damascus, led by Gen. Soleimani, whose al Qods Brigades are responsible on behalf of the IRGC for Iran-sponsored terrorist operations in Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip.

Its other members are Adm. Mohammad Fadavi, Dep. Commander of the IRGC Navy, who set up the near-clash between Iranian speedboats and US warships in the Strait of Hormuz in January; and Gen. Morteza Rezai, former chief of the IRGC intelligence branch.

3.  Iranian sources add that the appointment of Soleimani, a close crony of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to lead this sensitive mission, confirms the president’s dominance in national operational decisions, in concert with the Revolutionary Guards.  Their decisions are submitted to Khamenei for final endorsement.

Two people, therefore, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, will determine the nature and scale of Iran’s retaliation for the loss of its high-value master terrorist and strategist.

 4.  Soleimani’s preliminary report reveals that the damage was worse than first thought.  Not only was Mughniyeh killed by the bomb planted in his car but also some of his bodyguards and senior Hizballah operatives.

Syria’s secret services have fallen down completely in guarding Iranian officials and officers resident or visiting their capital.

5.  The national team directing Israel’s emergency actions was set up without publicity.  From the sources I can access, Sir, they disclose that it is headed by the Mossad chief Meir Dagan and composed of prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak, chief of staff Gaby Ashkenazi, and Shin Beit director Yuval Diskin.

The only hint of Dagan’s key role came with the announcement Friday, February 16, that his term of office as head of the Mossad had been extended for another year until the end of 2009.

Here, Sir, is a James A. Vineyard opinion, on which you can’t sell any potatoes, but I believe, as do many others who take this announcement as an indirect admission of the Mossad’s responsibility for killing the HizbAllah commander and a reward for its director.

The Iranian and Israeli teams, keeping their cards close to their chests, are tensely watching events, poised to seize control of any unforeseen situation before it gets out of hand.  Four days after Mughniyeh’s death, a military clash appears unavoidable.

Now, Mr. President, I am just a simple country bumpkin, originally from the Panhandle of your Texas, whom the Okies, out of the goodness of their heart, have allowed me to live unmolested for 31 years now in their state, adopting me officially now as an Okie.

Now presuming anything of import, Sir, I realize that I am not your “spiritual adviser.” However, Sir, as a Born-Again Christian, certainly a hell-deserving one (but realizing the Providential Hand of Almighty God reached down into my life 43 years ago last September, and set my feet on a SOLID ROCK), it is terribly asinine, with all due respect, Sir, for America to continue to be on a “25-foot check cord” to Saudi Mega Petro-Dollars!

For the time being, Sir, our troops, as we knew they would, if you just get the Political Chains off them, are doing quite well against the Islamofascists in Iraq, and even in Afghanistan, although it is a tad stickier there than in Saddam’s ole home!

Therefore, Sir, that being said, let this “simple and humble Preacher” advise by this e-mail (sent from the Beautiful Renaissance Hotel in Jerusalem, where owner Harvey Douglen and Sales Manager Gerry Budwig spoil me into thinking that really I am somebody) that America get 150% behind the Israelis in what they accomplished the other day with the Arch Terrorist of all Terrorists, and put them on the trail of Osama and all his other minions, whether they be in Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, or Afghanistan.

We, Sir, would pay the Mossad approximately $500 million, and they would clean out the top 50 Islamofascists worldwide.  Then, the war with Islam, in this clash of civilizations, which you, Condi, Jim Baker, and all the rest of the Carlyle Group “uppity ups” seem flagrantly to miss, would be leveled considerably.

Founding Father George Washington, Sir, when he was head of the Revolutionary Army, in those initial battles of that Six Years War, knew that he had to amass his men, his arms, and his efforts, in tune with the Providential Rulings of the Almighty, were this country to come out on the winning side.

Possibly, and most probably, Sir, following the advice of this country boy, who has a tad of experience internationally, would provide the same results Washington pulled off back there in the early 1780’s.

JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL

The following is Dr. Vineyard’s letter to Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert, written on February 19, 2008.

DEAR MR. PRIME MINISTER:

This morning, I arrived in Tel Aviv from Newark on Continental Flight 84, along with a group of Independent Baptist Pastors, to visit your country and to let the dear Hebrews know that, in spite of the “Condi-Carlyle-movement” to give away Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem, as you were pressured into previously giving away the Gush and the Shomron, there are Born-Again Christians who do, in fact, believe that this Land does belong “only” to the Hebrews!

From my perspective here in snowy Jerusalem at the Beautiful Renaissance Hotel, what I see is a psychologically damaged and paralyzed leadership relative to the continued Kassam and Mortar barrage on Sderot.

Sadly, Sir, I read what my good friend, Member of Knesset, Dr. Eldad, with whom, the L-d Willing, I will have supper at his house Saturday evening, had to say about the situation in Sderot.  Dr. Eldad wrote that when Sderot residents blocked traffic on the Ayalon Highway this month, he published a declaration of support which expressed the hope that the resultant traffic jams would help Tel Avivians break out of their bubble and become aware of what ties them to the troubles in Sderot.

He said that his e-mail inbox quickly filled with responses from angry, proud Tel Avivians.  They reminded him that Tel Aviv has been the site of attacks on coffee houses and public buses.  They pointed out that Sderot’s viability derives from the economic and cultural activity of Tel Aviv; that Sderot’s economy is not based on the dusty Kassam-ridden industrial zone in Sderot, but rather on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Tel Aviv’s major companies.  I cannot argue with facts.

Dr. Eldad then said that on the next day, the thoughtful face of you, Sir, PM Ehud Olmert, “visiting the Jewish Museum in Berlin peered at me from my newspaper.”  Behind you, Sir, he said one could see pictures of concentration camp survivors in striped uniforms, smiling and waving hats given them by the Red Army that freed them.

Dr. Eldad has not been to that museum because he has not been to Berlin; he vowed never to step on that impure land.  Further, though, he said he was not condemning you for being there, because to speed the construction of special submarines for our navy, it is permissible to go even to Germany.  But there you stood, Sir, in front of photos of camp survivors ­ the symbol of a common Jewish fate: haredim together with the non-religious, nationalist Betar youth movement members together with Communists, and even some who today would not be legally eligible to enter Israel under the Law of Return, but the Germans knew that they were Jews.

Out of this abyss of the common Jewish fate, Dr. Eldad stated that his PM explained to journalists what he thought about Sderot’s residents demonstrating in Tel Aviv:  "Every city has had its time to deal with the troubles they are dealing with today."

What were the Tel Avivians whom Dr. Eldad tried to shake out of their bubble trying to tell him?  What was his Prime Minister saying?

Dr. Eldad then declared, Sir, “They were saying that in Israel, everyone gets hit in his own time; at some point Kiryat Shemonah and Bet Shean, at some point Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem.  Therefore, Sderot’s residents shouldn’t come to us waving their Kassam rocket shells and blocking traffic on our Ayalon Highway.  Because more Jerusalemites and Tel Avivians were killed in the attacks on the Apropos and Sbarro’s restaurants and on the Number 5 and 18 bus lines than have been killed in Sderot from thousands of Kassam rockets.  We have already suffered, now it is your turn.”

Your statement, Sir, in Berlin, where I spent a bit of time in my young life, did not reflect a shared common burden.  It proclaimed the death of solidarity.  And, it was made in front of photographs of prisoners garbed in striped uniforms, shirts bloodied by the wild nazi animals who murdered six million.  The death of solidarity is your only hope, Sir.

Dr. Eldad states that only if you divide, Sir, can you rule.  Were the army reservists, angry at how poorly the Second Lebanon War was managed, to join with the poor residents of Dimona, and those of Sderot with those of Tel Aviv, and those of Kiryat Shemonah with those of Kiryat Arba, and the families who have lost loved ones in wars and terrorist attacks with the families abandoned to the mercy of Katyusha rockets and Kassam rockets ­ were they all to rise together now, on one day, not each city in its own time when it is beaten down, in shock, burying its dead, and insulted by having been abandoned ­ were all of them to rise in solidarity and in full awareness of the common Jewish fate, move to get rid of their Prime Minister, Sir, Dr. Eldad Emphatically states, Sir, that you would not be able to cling to your desk.

Then, Sir, on arriving at my Hotel Room, I see today’s Jerusalem Post Article, “SDEROT BURNING!”  Sir, with all due respect, the “disengagement of the Gush Hebrews from Gaza further endangered you Hebrews, by making your large civilian population subject to the only remaining outlet for Hamas’s genocidal brutality.”

The Hebrew families, Sir, on the Gaza periphery are not the property of the Israeli government, to simply be ignored at your and Ms. Livni’s whims, which will only cause them to continue to suffer for legitimate security reasons.

Mr. Prime Minister, your country and my country ­ both ­ are at war with Islamofascism worldwide in its quest to reinstall 8th Century Sharia Law.  In order to win, Sir, we are going to have to sacrifice more!  But, that sacrifice is not the tool of government declaring, “Well, we’ll let the folk in Sderot Sacrifice.”

No, Sir!  The sacrifice is on the part of us waging the war!  If, Sir, those of you who are in positions of leadership and those of us who are in positions of followership don’t get it in our heads that tomorrow will take more sacrifice than yesterday did ­ getting up earlier, staying up later, working harder ­ then, Sir, plainly put, we’re in big trouble.

We are in danger of losing more wars.  Our troops have not forgotten how to fight.  We have never had better soldiers in uniform.  But our leaders and many of our fellow Americans, as well as you Israelis, Sir, no longer grasp what war means or what it takes to win.

Thanks to those who have served in uniform, we have lived in such safety and comfort for so long that for many Americans sacrifice means little more than skipping a second trip to the buffet table.  And, it would be my opinion that things of that nature are the same here in Israel.

Two trends over the past four decades contributed to American national ignorance of the cost and necessity of victory.

First, the most privileged Americans used the Vietnam War as an excuse to break their tradition of uniformed service.  Ivy League universities once produced heroes.  Now they resist Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) representation on their campuses.

Yet, our leading universities still produce a disproportionate number of U.S. political leaders.  The men and women destined to lead us in wartime dismiss military service as a waste of their time and talents.

Delighted to pose for campaign photos with our troops (just, Sir, as you posed at the Museum in Berlin), American-elected officials in private disdain the military.  Only one serious presidential aspirant in either party is a veteran, while another presidential hopeful pays as much for a single haircut as we simple country folk took home in a month as an Army private.

Second, we have stripped in-depth U.S. history classes out of our schools.  Since the 1960s, one history course after another has been cut, while the content of those remaining focuses on social issues and our alleged misdeeds.

Dumbed-down textbooks minimize the wars that kept us free.  As a result, ignorance of the terrible price our troops had to pay for freedom in the past creates absurd expectations about our present conflicts.

When the media offer flawed or biased analyses, the public lacks the knowledge to make informed judgments.

This combination of national leadership with no military expertise and a population that has not been taught the cost of freedom leaves us with a government that does whatever seems expedient and a citizenry that believes whatever is comfortable.  Eight hour days, forty hour work-weeks, Sir, won’t win this war!

Back, Sir, prior to our Revolutionary War days, the English were involved in the French and Indian Wars, and Colonel George Washington, in 1755, in the woods in Pennsylvania, faced an extremely close brush with death.  British Gen. Edward Braddock was leading 1,400 British soldiers on the way to Ft. Duquesne, and as they crossed the Monongahela River, because Braddock would not listen to the “wise Indian fighter, Colonel Washington,” the Brits were cut to pieces by the French and Indians.

Sir, in American un-re-written history, the description of “The Bulletproof George Washington,” David Barton wrote:  “…not a musket was seen; the enemy was not visible.  The blue smoke rising up after every discharge revealed that the firing came from the trees.”

Washington, Sir, had warned Gen. Braddock of the fighting methods of the Indians, but Braddock would hear none of it; therefore, his hubris, his unwillingness to learn from Washington’s wilderness experience of fighting the Indians, cost Braddock and his officers their lives.  Tragically, Sir, every one of the officers ­ except Colonel Washington ­ was wounded or killed.  Seven hundred and fourteen Brits and Americas were either killed or wounded.  The French officers and Indians lost 3 officers and only 30 men!  Seven hundred and fourteen to 33 is not a good ratio!

Fifteen years later, Sir, an Indian Chief who fought on the side of the French that day, came into Washington’s camp, and the grand sachem addressed Washington to the following effect:

“I am a chief and ruler over my tribes.  My influence extends to the waters of the great lakes and to the far blue mountains.  I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of that great battle 15 years ago.

“It was on the day when the white man’s blood mixed with the streams of our forests that I first beheld this chief [meaning Washington]:  I called to my young men and said, mark yon tall and daring warrior!

“He is not of the ‘red-coat tribe,’ ­ he hath an Indian’s wisdom and his warriors fight as we do ­ himself alone exposed.

“Quick, let your aim be certain, and he dies.  Our rifles were leveled, rifles which, but for you, knew not how to miss ­ ’twas all in vain, a power mightier far than we, shielded him [Washington, Sir] from harm.

“He cannot die in battle.  I am old and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers in the land of shades, but ere I go, there is something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy:

“Listen!  The Great Spirit protects that man [Washington, Sir] and guides his destinies ­ he will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire!”

The savage Indian Chief ceased, his oracle delivered, his prophetic mission fulfilled, he retired to muse in silence, upon that wonder-working spirit, which his dark “Untutored mind saw oft in clouds, and heard Him in the Wind.”

Later, Sir, in December 1776, the American Revolution was about to be over, for Washington’s army had been defeated on Long Island, Manhattan and White Plains and had retreated all the way across New Jersey and were more or less huddled on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, waiting to see what was going to happen next.

They, Sir, were utterly defeated at that point.  The Congress had evacuated Philadelphia and… the entire cause was on the verge of collapsing.

But, that “Selflessly Sacrificing Leader,” now General Washington, took what was left of his army back across the Delaware River, and with the help of the Almighty, and the German Hessian mercenary garrison getting drunk on Christmas, defeated that Garrison at Trenton and so totally changed the character of our Revolutionary War ­ all because of Sacrifice.

Sacrifice, sir?  Not of his Soldiers!  No, Sir! Sacrifice of himself!  That was the spark that kept the Revolutionary War alive, for another day!

Both America, Sir, and Israel, Sir, need another day in this Islamofascist War!  And, that day will not be reached by an 8-to-5 war regimen!  No, Sir!  Your leadership, our leadership, your soldiers, our soldiers will all have to stand taller, walk straighter, and keep our eyes more ON THE LORD!

JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL

With Blessings and Love for Israel,

Ruth Matar

Women For Israel’s Tomorrow  (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
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Denial is a well-known psychological mechanism. A threatening problem is created. The individual denies the problem for a certain amount of time, but it eventually explodes in his face.

The people of Israel are in total denial regarding the problem of Israeli Arabs. After watching a video recording of a demonstration by Israeli Arabs in Haifa, I decided that the time has come to raise this issue, knowing full well that this is a subject that many people are afraid to touch.

The video recording that appears on the "Netnet" web site shows a recent demonstration in Haifa.(See link to the video at the end of the article). We see in the video scores of Arabs waving flags of Palestine and chanting anti-Israel slogans. Here are a few quotes from the report by Boaz Golan that accompanies the recording:

"The Jews who live in the German Colony in Haifa are in shock. Their ears do not want to hear, and woe to the eyes that see … Here in Haifa, under the Bahai gardens, right next to the Haifa Municipality’s Tourist Association - here, in our home, in a state that is talking about its 60th [anniversary] celebrations, right here, we live as if in a prison. Here, in our home, the Arabs are raising their heads … This infuriating demonstration lasted for days. A Palestinian demonstration against the state, against the public at large, against the Jewish people. Against me and against you. Flags of Palestine fly in the face of passersby. Gaza is here in Haifa, in our very home! Jewish drivers pass by, honk their horns, and call out to them: "Go to Gaza," but scores of Arabs continue to chant their slogans against the state, and are not afraid to shout out loud: "Beirut," "Damascus," "Palestine"! … This is how the State of Israel is … in a country in which corruption runs wild and Arabism flourishes."

The demonstration in Haifa is, of course, only one of the many examples of the dramatic rise in the nationalistic extremism of Israeli Arabs, that is expressed not only in chanting anti-Israel slogans, but also in acts and in violence against Jews. Naturally, in all these instances, the "Israeli law enforcement" system, does not lift a finger.

In Akko and in Jaffa Israeli Arabs attack Jews. No one says anything, True, a few Members of Knesset came to show their shock before the cameras. Dozens of young couples have moved to these cities, in order to strengthen the Jewish residents. This positive initiative is to be applauded, but, at the present time, there can be no doubt that this act is like giving aspirin to a cancer patient.

Recently we hear of stone throwing at Jewish vehicles by Israeli Arabs in Galilee. This hardly makes the headlines. Just imagine what the media would have done if Jews had thrown stones at Arabs! Jewish girls walking about in malls in the north where there is an Arab majority suffer sexual harassment, and take their lives in their hands if they just go shopping. Does this bother anyone? Is anyone willing to say, right out loud: "In Israel in 2008, Israeli Arabs are attacking Jews"? No, everyone remains silent and denies the problem.

Last year, dozens of Jews celebrated Yom ha-Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) in the forest of Megiddo. A group of Israeli Arabs arrived, with flags of Palestine, riding on horses, and forced the Jews to flee from the city. Except for the Arutz 7 web site, did anyone cover this subject? Not to mention that the police did not arrest even a single Arab rioter.

And what about the quiet and nonviolent Arab conquest that is being conducted in many places in Israel? Anyone who visits the Hadassah-Mount Scopus and Hadassah-Ein Karem hospitals could mistakenly think that he was in Ramallah. There are countless Arab doctors, and hundreds of Arab patients and Arab clans in the corridors. The situation is the same in the universities, the courts, and so on…

Jewish children no longer play in the Liberty Bell Garden, between the Inbal Hotel and the King David Hotel. It has been "conquered" by hundreds of Arab families, and Jewish mothers fear to bring their children there. Make no mistake. Unlike other countries, in which minorities act with respect and submission to the host country, a considerable portion of the Israeli Arabs act as if they were the lords of the land, while we Jews seem to them as causal visitors who bother them!

I ask: is this the "Jewish State" of which its founders dreamed?

The government of Israel relates to this issue from a quite interesting direction. A few days age we were informed that Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit is acting to establish a new Arab city, apparently in the Galilee. "No New Arab City Has Been Established Since the Establishment of the State," cry out the newspaper headlines in favor of a new Arab city. Truly, there is no better way to portray the Israeli government that is celebrating 60 years since the establishment of the Jewish state: a government that freezes all Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria, and even in the capital Jerusalem, and instead of this channels its resources and money into the establishment of an Arab city. I don’t know whether to cry or laugh bitterly.

The left and the Arab street, of course, are full of joy and elation. But why does the national camp remain silent? Where is the outcry? Where are the rabbis who are supposed to remind us that, on account of "show them no quarter" (Deuteronomy 7:2), we must not allow non-Jews to encamp in Israel? This means: it is forbidden to sell them a house, it is forbidden to rent them a house. And it certainly is forbidden to build them a city.

And just what is the meaning of an "Arab city"? Will they put a sign at the entrance to the city: "No Entry for Jews"? Is there actually any "Jewish city" in the State of Israel? Israeli Arabs can live in any city in Israel. Arabs live in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Jerusalem, and after the anti-Zionist ruling by Aharon Barak, Arabs also moved to Katzir and Harish.

If Jews, in contrast, would dare to buy in Umm el-Fahm, Daliyat al-Karmil, Baka el-Garbiye, or any other Arab village in Galilee or the Negev, it is clear to all that they would be subject to a pogrom, just as the Druze did to make the city of Peki’in free of Jews a few months ago.

As you remember, in late October 2007, Druze used the pretext of a new cellular antenna to riot against the Jewish families in the town. Jewish houses and cars were torched; tens of Israeli policemen were wounded; one policewoman was held hostage. The end result: all Jewish families left Pekiin and have not returned yet. (see links to articles about Pekiin riots at the end of the article).

And if we continue to be silent about this topic, what will happen in another twenty years? Will anyone relate to these questions? The left tells us that we must "separate ourselves" from Judea and Samaria in order to preserve Israel as a Jewish state. This, however, is the false propaganda of the anti-Jewish left, that dreams of the destruction of the Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, for no reason other than hatred for the settlers, and that attempts to advance its dream by spreading empty slogans. The Arabs of Judea and Samaria do not constitute a threat to the State of Israel. They are not citizens. It is specifically Israeli Arabs who threaten Israel as a Jewish state. Why is no one in our camp willing to propose a solution to the issue of Israeli Arabs in a country that wants to be a Jewish state? Rabbi Benny Elon’s Israel Initiative relates to the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, while Avigdor Leiberman’s "exchange of territories" idea should be categorically rejected, since it speaks of handing over parts of the land of Israel to Arabs.

The only one who dared to broach this subject was Rabbi Meir Kahane, of blessed memory, may G-d avenge his blood. In 1980, when he was in the Ramle prison, he wrote a book entitled They Must Go (the Hebrew title means "Stings in Your Eyes," from the verse in the book of Numbers [33:55]: "But if you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live").

Based on the Jewish halakhah, and supported by dozens of historical examples of other peoples who struggled with hostile minorities that lived in their midst, Rabbi Kahane proposed that we separate ourselves from the Arabs. Only in this way will Israel be able to survive as a Jewish state. The details of the plan and the ways to implement them are set forth in his book. Despite its having been written in 1980, it is still extremely relevant.

We can either accept or reject what Rabbi Kahane wrote, but one thing is clear: we cannot continue to ignore this question. If we continue to bury our heads in the sand, one day we will wake up after elections and hear the broadcaster announce in the news: It’s an upheaval! After Arab mayors were elected in Haifa, Beersheva, and Jerusalem a few years ago, today an Arab Prime Minister has been elected in Israel!

Mabruk and Salaam Aleikum!" And what will we do then?

True, many people are afraid to touch the issue, for fear of being accused of "racism." But we cannot lose the Jewish state out of "fear of racism." If an Israeli government minister is not accused of racism for establishing an Arab city free of Jews, and if all the members of the Sharon government, who expelled our brethren from Gush Katif and northern Samaria just because they were Jews, were not accused of racism, then I an certain that the charge of racism will not be raised against those who propose deposing the present government and replacing it with a government that will advance the idea of a truly Jewish state - which means: Jewish sovereignty over all of Eretz Yisrael and Jewish control of its future. Since the hostile Arab minority will not be pleased by this,everyone will eventually  understand that separation is the only solution:

The Jews in Eretz Yisrael, and the Arabs in the Arab countries.

———————————————————————–

Link to the video about the Arab demonstration in Haifa:
(the text is in Hebrew but one does need to speak Hebrew to understand what is going on on the video)
http://www.netnet.co.il/showart.php?art_id=853

Ynet article: Last Jewish family leaves Pekiin after riots:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3478336,00.html

Ynet article: Druze vandalize Jewish property:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3466794,00.html

Ynet article: Policewoman recounts "hell" in Pekiin:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3466059,00.html


=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow  (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org

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Dear Friends,
 
The format of this week’s article is in the form of an Open Letter to President George W. Bush.
 
It is important that you forward this letter not only to President Bush, but also to your Senators, Congressmen and any local media, as well as to your family and friends.

Please copy and e-mail and/or print the letter and send it to him at your earliest opportunity as follows:
 
REGULAR MAIL:
 
President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
USA
 
E-MAIL
president@whitehouse.gov
 
FAX:
(202) 456-2461
 
According to inside information, e-mail may easily be deleted, and is very unlikely to be read by the President. Faxes are a little bit better; however, they may end up in the waste basket without being shown to the President. The best way is to send a letter by regular mail, “registered return receipt requested”.
 
With blessings and love for Israel,
 
Ruth Matar

——————————————————————————————-

Mr. President,
 
The greatest mistake you have made during your presidency is to attempt to solve the Middle East continual crisis situation by promising the Muslim Arabs yet another state. As decreed by you, President of the United States, this state is to be carved out of Jewish Biblical Land, and is to consist of Judea and Samaria, and other parts of Israel.
 
In your June 24, 2002 policy speech, almost six years ago, you declared: “My vision is two states, living side-by-side, in peace and security.” You also stated that it is untenable for Palestinians to live in squalor and OCCUPATION.
 
Mr. President, your “vision” is, and always was, based on a faulty premise. Israel is not occupying Arab territory! On the contrary: LARGE PARTS OF ISRAEL ARE OCCUPIED BY THE ARABS.
 
The following is a short summary of Israel’s history:
 
Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., i.e. 2,000 years BEFORE the rise of Islam, and long before there was any Arab nation. Israel (Palestine) has been the homeland of the Jewish People since biblical times. It was subsequently “occupied” more than 15 times. Among its occupiers were the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Ottoman Turks. The longest occupiers of the Holy Land who ruled on and off for 400 years­between 1517-1917­were the Ottoman Turks. They were followed by the British who ruled under a Mandate of the League of Nations (later the U.N.) to renew a homeland for the Jewish People.
 
Jews had dominion over the land of Israel over 1,300 years before their expulsion by the conquering Roman Empire. Moreover, Jews have had a continuous presence in this land for over 3,300 years.
 
Therefore, the Arab claim that the country was theirs and was taken away from them by the Jews is completely false and lacks any historic basis.
 
(The above was taken from a previous open letter to you, from October 18, 2007. At that time I received masses of positive feedback from fellow Americans. http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/A-334–An-Open-Letter-to-President-George-W-Bush.html)
 
The Jewish claim to the Holy Land, however, is based on biblical references. In the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, for instance, there are several references which make it entirely clear that G-d gave the Holy Land to the Jewish People, the ancient Israelites, as an eternal inheritance.
 
In modern times, however, it has become fashionable to question the historical authenticity of the Bible. Such skepticism has even led to widespread doubt that Jews descended from the ancient Israelites.
 
Unfortunately, some people believe that the Bible is nothing but a collection of beautiful fairy tales rather than the word of G-d. For these individuals, the repeated promises in Genesis, with regard to the Land, are completely irrelevant today.
 
There was a very interesting article in the Jerusalem Post of Tuesday, Feb. 12th, 2008, entitled: “GENETICS AND THE JEWISH IDENTITY”.
 
A group of geneticists, led by an Israeli researcher, Dr. Karl Skorecki, has been studying and comparing different groups of Jews. As a result of this study, these scientists have found specific genetic markers tying modern-day Jews to the ancient Israelites.
 
For instance, the Book of Exodus specifies that the male descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, should constitute the Jewish priesthood - the kohanim - "for all time." Jewish tradition holds that the status of kohen has been faithfully passed from father to son for more than 3,300 years. In 1997, the world was amazed to learn that the old Bible story had found new and very persuasive scientific support!
 
The researchers found that the DNA of Jews from almost every corner of the Diaspora is more similar to that of other Jews than to any other population. Other groups with histories of ancient migrations do not have the same degree of continuity.
 
These studies show that the legacy of the kohen has been passed down from the original kohen, the Biblical Aaron, brother of Moses, until today, over 3,300 years.
 
Please find the entire, most fascinating article at the end of this Letter.
 
If anyone would like a visual inspiring experience of kohanim today, visit Jerusalem’s Western Wall on the holidays of Succot and Passover, to witness the sea of white prayer shawls worn by the thousands of kohanim blessing the Jewish people.
 
President Bush, if there were any other more convincing proof of the authenticity of the Bible, I can’t imagine what it could possibly be!
 
It is most interesting that modern science has succeeded in proving that today’s Jews are definitely descendants of the ancient Israelites, and to be more specific, that today’s kohanim are descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses.
 
President Bush, your attempt to divide the Holy Land and to give it to the Arab terrorist enemy is direct defiance of G-d’s will!
 
You may well be the most powerful man on earth today, but don’t forget that the G-d of Israel is, and always will be, above you.
 
Respectfully yours,
 
Ruth Matar
A Jewish American in Israel
 
P.S.
 

The Book of Exodus specifies that the male descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, should constitute the Jewish priesthood - the kohanim - "for all time." Jewish tradition holds that the status of kohen has been faithfully passed from father to son for more than 3,300 years. In 1997 the world was amazed to learn that the old Bible story had found new and very persuasive scientific support.

Seemingly out of the blue, a group of genetics researchers announced that they had evidence to support that story. The group, led by Israeli researcher Dr. Karl Skorecki, himself a kohen, reported that the evidence was in the DNA of one of the 46 chromosomes that each kohen carries. Skorecki realized that Y chromosomes, which confer male sex, are passed down, just as the status of kohen is, from father to son. And like all chromosomes, the Y always displays a pattern of mutations called a "haplotype" that varies across family groups, and therefore can be used to trace descent. Thus, any haplotypes that were on Aaron’s Y chromosome ought to appear with only minor changes in all of his descendants, including modern kohanim if they were in fact Aaron’s offspring. In other words, kohanim should share a common genetic signature.

And so they do. A distinctive haplotype, now known as the "kohen modal haplotype," was found in 45 percent-61% of Ashkenazi kohanim, 56%-69% of Sephardi kohanim and 10%-15% of other male Jews. The haplotype is estimated to be between 2,100 and 3,250 years old, a time range that includes the biblical period.

Only a decade since that study was published, it is hard to recover the surprise with which the world greeted the findings. Skepticism over the historicity of the Bible had led to widespread doubt that Jews descended from the ancient Israelites, let alone that the kohanim descended from the biblical Aaron. More recent data suggest that the percentage of kohanim with the telltale haplotype may be somewhat lower than the initial estimates. But the fidelity of transmission of kohanic identity is nonetheless remarkable.

What about the Levi’im?

The obvious next step was to ask whether the DNA of the Levi’im also shows descent from a single ancestor. According to the Bible, all Levi’im, who had a separate ritual role in the ancient Temple, descend from Jacob’s son Levi. However, Y chromosome haplotypes of the Levi’im have proven much more diverse than those of kohanim. Although a haplotype common to 52% of Ashkenazi Levi’im was found, the origins of this genetic marker appear to derive from central Asia - not the Middle East - and it is essentially absent from Levi’im of Sephardi descent.

Where did that central Asian haplotype come from? Most Jews are vaguely aware of the Khazars; their king plays the role of interlocutor in Yehuda Halevi’s 12th-century defense of Jewish doctrine, The Kuzari. The Khazars, however, were not a mere literary device. They were a real people with a major kingdom north of the Caspian Sea, and in the eighth or ninth century the Khazar leaders and some of the people converted to Judaism. After the 10th century, they disappear from history. The common ancestor of the Ashkenazi Levi’im who carry this particular haplotype lived less than 2,000 years ago. A good guess is that at roughly the time the Khazar kingdom disappeared, a very small number of closely related individuals with the tradition of being Levi’im, or perhaps only a single male, came from the general region of the Khazar kingdom to join the then-small Ashkenazi community in Europe. If this is so, it may indicate that the Khazar Jews had created a native class of Levi’im.

Jews and their neighbors: The Diaspora

Genetic researchers have not neglected more than 90% of Jews who are neither kohanim nor Levi’im. They began with good reason to suspect that a great deal of mixing had taken place during the millennia of dispersion. People had noticed, after all, that the pale-skinned redheads common in Lithuanian Jewish communities do not look much like petite, dark-haired Jews from Yemen. It was assumed that Jews were bound more by tradition than by genetic kinship, that in the distant past Jewish men had followed opportunity to some far-off city, married local girls, persuaded them to separate the meat and milk dishes and founded new Jewish communities. Moreover, it was believed non-Jewish ancestors had continued to mix into the Jewish community. The idea that the traditional story - Jews driven into exile faithfully marrying only fellow Jews - might be largely true was startling. And yet, so it seems.

There were, of course, times and places where significant numbers of people converted to Judaism. But in the centuries since the beginnings of European Jewry, the best available estimate is that a mere 0.5% of new material entered the gene pool of Ashkenazi Jews in each generation. This is part of a picture of remarkable Jewish genetic continuity emerging from research labs at a dizzying rate.

More studies have been carried out on the genetic history of the Jews than on most ethnic groups, perhaps because there are so many Jewish doctors to take advantage of the fabled willingness of Jews to participate in research. These studies not only show that almost all Jewish populations have origins in the Middle East, but that the DNA of Jews from almost every corner of the Diaspora is more similar to that of other Jews than to any other population. When compared with non-Jewish groups, the closest match is with the Muslims of Kurdistan, not with the European peoples alongside whom Ashkenazi Jews lived for centuries or the Arab neighbors of many Sephardi populations.

Other groups with histories of ancient migrations do not have the same degree of continuity. Hungarians are known to have originated on the Eurasian steppe and moved westward in a migration many centuries long, arriving in the Carpathian basin about 995 CE. They speak a language from the steppe, take pride in their history of migration and military conquest and expected that genetic research would demonstrate their central Asian origins. The evidence to date, however, has shown a varying but quite small element of central Asian ancestry in Hungarian populations, along with great similarities between Hungarians and their Slavic and German neighbors. This does not mean that the Hungarians with Slavic ancestry are not real Hungarians. Rather, Hungarian culture has been so powerfully attractive that for many centuries people of Slavic, Germanic and other ancestry elected to join the Hungarian people. Ironically, the genetic distinctiveness of the Jews in part may reflect the unattractiveness of joining a religious minority that was oppressed and impoverished through much of its history.

Jews and their neighbors: The Middle East

With Jews looking increasingly like a relatively cohesive population largely of Middle Eastern origin, the logical next question is how close a genetic relationship exists with other Middle Eastern groups. A study of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs published in 2000 by Israeli researchers revealed what the authors described as "a relatively recent common ancestry." It was greeted with euphoric proclamations that Palestinians and Jews are "brothers." A closer look at the details of the study gives reason for pause.

The researchers compared Jews and Palestinians to a sample of people from Wales. When compared with the Welsh, Jews and Palestinians did indeed look similar, as they probably would if contrasted with Trobriand Islanders. When the same research team conducted a follow-up study comparing Jews and Palestinian Arabs to Kurds, Armenians, Turks, Syrians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Beduin, they saw a very different picture. Although all Middle Eastern populations have broad similarities, "Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors."

This could mean that Jews, Kurds, Armenians and Anatolian Turks all carry the genetic markers of ancient indigenous populations of the Fertile Crescent, while Palestinian Arabs and Beduin may largely descend from the Arab conquerors, with their distinctive genetic signifiers. Genetics may eventually provide answers to such questions as what proportion of Palestinian ancestry arrived via earlier or later migrations. So far we have only partial explanations.

One of the most compelling studies compared the small Samaritan population in Israel with Druse, Palestinians and Jews from various parts of the Diaspora. The results appear to corroborate the traditional Samaritan belief that they have lived in Samaria since antiquity and are closely related to the Jews. Only four Samaritan family lineages survive, but of those four male lines, three carry the kohen modal haplotype, while the fourth, the Cohen family of priests, does not. The data indicate that the Samaritans generally married other Samaritans. Y chromosome DNA shows the Samaritan male line to have "a much greater affinity" to Jews than to the Palestinian Arabs who have surrounded them since the Arab conquest.

Studies of Jewish women

The ease of tracing male lineages with the Y chromosome accounts for the large body of research that uses exclusively male populations. However, another technique allows equivalent explorations of the female line. Every cell of our bodies contains mitochondria, small organelles that generate energy from food. Each mitochondrion harbors its own circular strand of DNA, which both sexes inherit from their mothers, and which is passed on only by women to the next generation.

The utility of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies is demonstrated by recent findings concerning one of the least known Jewish groups: the Bene Israel, descendents of 6,000 Jews "discovered" on the west coast of India by Jewish traders from Baghdad in the 1830s. They carry the kohen modal haplotype along with other Middle Eastern genetic markers, and have substantial mtDNA found only in the Indian population among whom they lived - always keeping the Sabbath - for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. From the genetic evidence, it looks as though a small group of Jews, all or mostly male, arrived on the Indian coast, married local women and built a Jewish community.

Studies of mitochondrial DNA suggest that Jewish communities were often founded by very small numbers of women. One study demonstrates that 27% of Moroccan, 41.3% of Bene Israel and 51.4% of all Georgian Jews are descended from a single female ancestor in each community. The matriarch of 41.3% of the Bene Israel came from a local Indian family. We do not know the origins of that founding mother of the Georgian Jewish community or even whether she was born to a Jewish family, only that she carried a distinctive haplotype found in an area stretching from Sicily to the Caucasus to Iraq.

The Bukharan, Persian, Ethiopian, Iraqi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities all have unusually small numbers of maternal ancestors. This could reflect communities founded by tiny numbers of Jewish women willing to travel with their husbands to far-off lands, or situations like the Bene Israel’s, where a community was founded at least in part by a small number of women who married Jewish men and lived as Jews.

A bit of light recently has been thrown on part of this picture by a study of the mtDNA of Ashkenazi women, close to half (42%) of whom are descended from one of just four matriarchs. The distinctive, complete sequence haplotypes carried by descendents of these four women are almost unknown in other populations, except occasionally in Jewish communities that trace their origin to the expulsion from Spain. The evidence indicates that these four female ancestors most probably originated in the Levant, perhaps accompanying their husbands from the Middle East to their new homes. Even Samaritan mtDNA has been examined, showing distinctive patterns about equally different from Jewish and Palestinian comparison groups, and hence with somewhat more mixing than in the male line.

Genetics of the "lost tribes"

Jews and Christians alike have an endless fascination with stories of the "lost tribes" of Israel turning up in odd parts of the world. Witness the recent enthusiasm about the Bnei Menashe in the hills of eastern India. Few such groups have been studied by geneticists, but when they are, the results can be remarkable.

Perhaps the most surprising story in Jewish genetics involves the Lemba, a Bantu-speaking people of about 50,000 living in southern East Africa. Their appearance and lifestyle are largely similar to other Bantu-speaking groups, with a few notable exceptions: They practice circumcision, have a ritualized slaughter procedure for animals, avoid eating pigs and have a strong tradition that their ancestors migrated from "Sena in the north by boat." When westerners came into contact with the Lemba and noticed the similarity of their customs to Jewish practices, they wondered whether "Sena" might be Sana in Yemen and whether the Lemba were of Jewish descent.

A British anthropologist arranged for genetic testing of members of the tribe, finding that 10% of Lemba men carry the kohen modal haplotype on their Y chromosomes. Even more impressive, the Lemba have a priestly clan whom they call the Buba. Fully 52% of Buba men who were tested bear that same marker of kohanic descent. Although mtDNA testing has not yet taken place, it seems likely that the origins of at least some portion of the tribe date back to the arrival on African shores of male Jews, and their subsequent marriage to local women. Only vestigial Jewish traditions were maintained among a population that is animist and Christian in practice. In no sense - cultural or halachic - can the Lemba be considered Jews today. But their story demonstrates the power of DNA to elucidate the probable history of many populations.

Genetics and identity

What genetic data cannot tell us is who is a Jew. The answers to that question are, variously, halachic, political and cultural. On a purely technical level, there is no genetic screen that can sort Jews from non-Jews. Population differences do not translate into reliable tests of individual lineage. What genetics can tell us is something about where our ancestors came from - no more. It cannot tell us who we are. Nor can it tell us who we want to become, as individual Jews or as a Jewish people. As new data emerge from genetics laboratories, though, we are likely to learn a great deal more about the history of our people.

–Diana Muir Appelbaum is the author of Reflections in Bullough’s Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England (University Press of New England, 2000), and is working on a book on nationalism. Paul S. Appelbaum is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law at Columbia University, and writes about the ethics of genetic testing and research.

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Dear Friends,
 
I remember coming to Israel for the very first time together with my husband, Michael. We got off the airplane and spontaneously went down on our knees and kissed the dirty tarmac of Ben Gurion airport. It was such a very emotional experience, that the surrounding environment was of no consequence. At that point we did not care if other people were staring at us.
 
Many years later I happened to attend a production of “Man of La Mancha” in New York with my oldest son, David. David is a pediatrician who lives with his family in Efrat, a community of 7,700 residents, which the Olmert government and the left like to call a “settlement”. At a certain point in the play, I felt an uncontrollable urge to cry. I turned toward David, then a father of five and an important physician in his community. To my amazement, tears were running down his face as well.
 
The song that triggered these emotions was “The Impossible Dream”. After the play we shamefacedly admitted to each other that since our Aliyah, our life in Israel had, in many ways, because of the cursed Oslo Accords, become “The Impossible Dream”!
 
I am sending you two articles by Professor Paul Eidelberg. If you worry about the political situation in Israel today, you should read these articles carefully. Both articles are an absolute MUST READ!
 
In the first article, “Confessions of a Political Scientist”, Eidelberg basically states that what is needed to save Israel from the traitors running and ruining this country- is a revolution.
 
In his second article, Professor Eidelberg worries that “if Israel should perish (God forbid), the cause of its demise will be the DEATH OF OUTRAGE.” 
 
Professor Eidelberg explains what he means by the “death of outrage”: the lack of concern on the part of the Olmert Government regarding the value of Jewish life. The government does nothing to stop the constant attacks on innocent civilians, not only in Sderot, but in the rest of the country as well.
 

 
I do not see how any self-respecting general can serve under such despicable individuals as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Both are not only liars and cowards, but their continuance in office endangers the Nation of Israel to which the officers of the general staff owe their first loyalty.
 
I do not see how any self-respecting Jewish Member of the Knesset, who also owes his or her first loyalty to the Nation, can continue to serve under the treacherous government of Ehud Olmert.
 
It redeems no Member of the Knesset merely call upon the people to engage in civil disobedience against this vile government.  Indeed, I dare say such MKs are little more than demagogues.
 
I want to see members of the Knesset who seriously oppose this villainous government to form a political bloc, RESIGN from the Knesset, and form an alternative government!
 
Revolution you say?  Precisely!  That is exactly what is needed to save Israel from the traitors running and ruining this country.
 
Please, do not talk to me about Israeli “democracy”­one of the biggest lies of the Middle East­vividly illustrated when Likud leader Ariel Sharon became Labor’s surrogate prime minister.  Yes, the Sharon who nullified the January 2003 election when he adopted Labor’s policy of “unilateral disengagement,” a policy rejected by an overwhelming majority of the electorate in that election,  Yes, when 22 other Likud MKs betrayed their supporters by voting for that criminal legislation.
 
Please, do not talk to me about “the rule of law,” certainly not since former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak established the dictum that “everything is justiciable.”
 
The litany of lies and egotists that deceive and exploit the Jews of this country is too long to enumerate and elaborate in a single article­something I have been doing for three decades in many books and countless articles.
 
No one in the Knesset­ - a haven for job-seekers - ­has the courage to undertake what is necessary to save this country.  Some of these Lilliputians stammer a brave word and pose as a nationalist.  Some attend a protest demonstration and perhaps even get manhandled by black-shirted security men.  But all relapse into political nullity, while enjoying their perks and privileges, while Jewish women, men, and children are killed or maimed or terrorized in Sderot and elsewhere in Israel, a country soaking in its own blood.
 
I have no words to describe Israel’s ruling elites.  They are not barbarians, like Arab suicide bombers.  They only facilitate and perpetuate such barbarism. Suicide? The last thing they would do is commit political suicide. Indeed, political suicide is hardly possible in Israel, not when Yossi Beilin, author of the Geneva Covenant, can return to the Knesset.  Not when the Knesset can stoop so low as to elect Shimon Peres as the president of Israel!
 
Forgive me.  I know such words are not becoming a political scientist­member of a profession that is supposed to be non-judgmental.  And yes, I know it takes no great courage to sit at computer and expose the cretins and cravens that have made a mockery of the Holocaust­the murder of Six Million Jews that made possible the rebirth of the so-called Jewish state. 
 
But I am tired of reading polite political analyses of right-minded politicians and journalists who have been saying essentially the same thing for the 31 years I have lived in this God-forsaken country.  Do not talk to me about any politician or party or party faction that does not openly call for regime change, which I deem the first sign of intellectual and moral integrity.  The second sign is action to hasten this end.
 

 

 
If Israel should perish (God forbid), the cause of its demise will be the death of outrage. 
 
We all know about the government’s virtual unconcern about Jewish life in Sderot, terrorized and half-depopulated by thousands of Arab missiles.  We also know that compounding the feckless behavior of this government is the impotence the Knesset, which tolerates Israel’s despicable prime minister.
 
But I want to go back to the premiership of his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, of whom Caroline Glick, in June 2005, wrote an article entitled “A Coward for a Prime Minister.”
 
I call the reader’s attention to another sterling journalist, George Will, to his account of the suicide bombing that occurred in Jerusalem’s Sbaro restaurant on August 9, 2001, when 15 Jews were killed and more than 100 were wounded, many maimed for life. Mr. Will first quotes a report by USA Today’s Jack Kelly, who was 30 yards away when the terrorist detonated a bomb packed with nails:
 
The blast… sent flesh flying onto second-story balconies a block away. Three men were blown 30 feet; their heads, separated from their bodies by the blast, rolled down the glass-strewn street…One woman had at least six nails embedded in her neck. Another had a nail in her left eye. Two men, one with a six-inch piece of glass in his right temple… tried to walk away… A man groaned… His legs were blown off. Blood poured from his torso… A 3-year old girl, her face covered with glass, walked among the bodies calling her mother’s name…The mother… was dead…One rabbi found a small hand against a white Subaru parked outside the restaurant.
 
Mr. Will, who is also normative (as opposed to an ethically neutral political scientist) comments:
 
As with the June bombing that killed 21 at a Tel Aviv disco, children were not collateral victims­they were the targets. Abdallah al-Shami, a senior official of Islamic Jihad, celebrated “this successful operation” against “pigs and monkeys.” That is a familiar rhetorical trope among those whom the calamitous Oslo “peace process” cast in the role of Israel’s “partners for peace.” In yet another of the constant violations of the Oslo requirement to stop anti-Jewish incitements, this was a recent broadcast from the moral cesspool that is the official television station of … [the] Palestinian Authority: “All weapons must be aimed at the Jews…whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs… We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors… Blessings to he who shot a bullet into the head of a Jew.”
 
Allow me to digress that while Israel is condemned for using “disproportionate force” against enemies committed to her destruction, none of Israel’s detractors condemn Muslims or Arabs for using disproportionate force against teenagers eating in a pizza parlor.  And what of children blown up in a school bus?
 
A physicist describes what happens when a conventional bomb is exploded in a contained space, like a school bus traveling through downtown Jerusalem: “A person sitting nearby would feel, momentarily, a shock wave slamming into his or her body, with an ‘overpressure’ of 300,000 pounds. Such a blast would crush the chest, rupture liver, spleen, heart and lungs, melt eyes, pull organs away from surrounding tissue, separate hands from arms and feet from legs.” (Toronto Star, June 19, 2002.) These are among the Arab “animosities” apologists for the Palestinians speak of when saying that Israelis­including, presumably, the school children who usually fill these buses­have brought upon themselves in the “intifada” a euphemism for Jihad.
 
But now I ask: What did the brave Sharon government do in retaliation against the outrage perpetrated in Jerusalem’s Sbaro restaurant on August 9, 2001?  It closed down Orient House, the PLO’s headquarters in eastern Jerusalem.
 
Not that the death of outrage commenced with the Sharon government.  The people of Israel were being conditioned to this terminal disease by some of Sharon’s predecessors. 
 
But now I invite readers to contrast the death of outrage in Israel today with the outrage expressed by Israel’s prophets.  Perhaps some will say, how tame were the “Confessions of a Political Scientist”?
 

–Paul Eidelberg is an internationally known political scientist, author and lecturer, and is the founder and president of The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy with offices in Jerusalem. He is also president of the Yamin Israel Party.
 
Prof. Eidelberg served in the United States Air Force where he held the rank of first lieutenant. He received his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago where he studied under Leo Strauss.
 
Before immigrating to Israel in 1976, Prof. Eidelberg wrote a trilogy on America’s founding fathers: THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION, ON THE SILENCE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, and A DISCOURSE ON STATESMANSHIP.
In 1976 he joined the faculty of Bar-Ilan University.
 
He has written several books on the Arab-Israel conflict and on Judaism. DEMOPHRENIA analyses the mentality of Israel’s ruling elites. JEWISH STATESMANSHIP: LEST ISRAEL FALL, which has been translated into Hebrew and Russian, reveals the flaws inherent in Israel’s system of governance and how they may be remedied. His latest work, A JEWISH PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, investigates the world-historical events leading to the rebirth of Israel in 1948.

 
The following article shows the refusal of the Olmert Government to display outrage in the face of terror:
 

Israel has acceded to a Palestinian Authority request not to demand the murderers of hikers David Rubin and Achikam Amichai, according to a Channel 2 report.

Rubin and Amichai were murdered last month while hiking in the Telem Stream region near Hevron. They were ambushed by four terrorists, but managed to return fire and kill two of them.
 
The two surviving murderers are Ali a-Hamid Rajeb Dandis, a clerk at Hevron’s Islamic Court and member of Fatah’s intelligence wing, and Amr Bader a-Halim Taha, a resident of the Abu-Sneineh hills opposite Hevron’s Jewish community and member of the Fatah-controlled PA security forces. The two took refuge shortly after the murders among their fellow PA security men in an apparently successful attempt to avoid arrest by the IDF.

Contrary to initial reports, the PA did not even inform Israel that the two had taken refuge at a PA facility until after the Shabak (General Security Service) filed a request that the weapons of Rubin, Amichai and their killers be handed over. At that point, assuming that Israel knew the whereabouts of the murderers anyway, the PA told the Shabak that it had the men in custody.

Now, according to the Channel 2 television expose, the Olmert government has agreed to let the murderers remain in PA custody, effectively confined to their place of employment. The IDF has operation plans ready and was poised to intercept the terrorists but the Olmert government refused to grant authorization. The terrorists are now being transferred to Jericho.

Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the decision, saying “the humiliating agreement of the Olmert-Barak government to give up on arresting the PA heads that murdered Achikam Amichai and David Rubin is yet another testimony to the weakness and loss of national honor on the part of this government. An immediate demand that the murderers be handed over must be made.”

Nachi Ayal, who directs the Land of Israel Legal Forum, said the decision constitutes an open invitation to terrorists to attack any citizen of Israel, since in exchange they will be presented with a vacation sponsored by the Palestinian Authority. “For the first time, Israel is not demanding the custody of the murderers of Israelis. We are witnessing the shirking of the most basic responsibility of a government to its citizens.”

Dear friends, according to Professor Eidelberg, in order to save Israel, we must get rid of traitors like Olmert, who are running and ruining our country.
 
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
 
Ruth Matar

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow  (Women in Green)
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Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
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Dear Friends,

As was expected after the Israeli government freed terrorists and the border between Gaza and Egypt became non-existent, Arab terrorists committed a mass attack this morning in Dimona, killing at least one Israeli and wounding many.

This happened on a morning when the government announced its intention to lighten even more the criteria to release Arab terrorists from jail. Interestingly, nobody in the Olmert government seems to care about the Jews in jail for the "crime" of loving the land of Israel. Please read below two stories of injustice happening in Israel today, even though, when reading the stories, you will think you are reading a story from Bolshevik Russia.

Some good news, too:
Women in Green is convinced that the massive letter and fax campaign from lovers of Israel all over the world is what succeeded in turning the decree of Bet Hashalom around.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has given permission to install windows in the house. BUT, let this not make us feel victorious yet. The legal department in Barak’s office has still not approved it and is making trouble. So please continue the pressure. In addition, we must remember that the main issue with the Bet Hashalom House is not the windows nor the leaky roof, but rather the fact that the government still wants to evict the residents from Bet Hashalom. In one word: pressure helps and must be increased.

REMINDER:
This coming Wednesday, February 6th, Women in Green is planning, please G-d, to go on an exciting chizuk (strengthening) trip to Eastern Gush Etzion. Very few seats are still available on the bus. Register now by calling Anita Finkelstein 0505-777-254.
Don’t miss out!!

Below are two stories related to the Israeli (In)justice system:

1) LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN

Supporting 18-Year-Old Girl Political Prisoner
and
Calling to Account Her Religious Settler Jailers

The young girls who were arrested and detained for three and a half weeks in the Neve Tirza prison were recently released.  As will be recalled, the 13 and 14-year-olds were arrested for being found in an outpost near Beit El.  When they informed police that they had done nothing wrong and would not cooperate with the (in)justice system by identifying themselves, they were made to undergo shocking humiliations and abuse by a system threatened by their refusal to be intimidated.  The girls persisted in their stance and, in the end, they prevailed and were released.

Not all of them, however.  There is another girl who is still in prison.  She asks that her name not be publicized and so I will call her T.  This girl, whose story is told below, is standing alone against the entire system, undergoing endless rounds of daily harassment and small cruelties intended to break her.

Although T. is strong, it is important that we strengthen her and show her that she is not alone.  The public is asked to send her  supporting letters.  The letters (preferably in English) can be faxed to the Honeinu organization which is representing her at  972-3-7256213. If you can’t send a fax and/or if you want to write in English, please email us your letter and we will make sure to print it and hand it over.
Email: nmatar@netvision.net.il
Honeinu will ensure that she gets them.

Below is the story of this girl together with the names of disloyal Yesha residents who are among those in the justice system who have been mistreating and persecuting the girls:

T. lives in Elon Moreh in the Shomron.  Shortly before Hanukah, Arabs entered the municipal boundaries of Elon Moreh to harvest olives with a police and army escort.  The girl and a friend of hers saw the Arabs on the land within the yishuv and yelled at them to leave.  The security forces arrested her.

She told her interrogators that she had broken no law nor engaged in any criminal behavior, and refused to sign any documents or in any way recognize their authority.  Since her arrest on the eve of Hanukah she has been imprisoned in the infamous Neve Tirza women prison!  They detained her (i.e. imprisoned her) until the end of all legal proceedings against her and indicted her on all kinds of false and fabricated charges.

Usually when a person is detained until the end of trial, the prosecutors must do everything in their power to speed up the proceedings because they are detaining someone who may well be innocent.  In this case, however, they’re doing the reverse: they’re doing everything in their power to delay and stretch out the trial.  When the trial started, instead of setting subsequent hearing dates to follow closely upon one another, they wait man weeks between every hearing.  For weeks on end, T. sits in prison, undergoing state sanctioned torments, while she awaits the next hearing.

This judicial persecution doesn’t suffice our anti-Jewish (in)justice system, this girl must also be tormented within the prison itself:

*When she first arrived at Neve Tirzah, T. refused to undergo a strip search.  ‘I’m not a criminal, you have no reason to search me,’ she correctly reasoned.  She was punished for her refusal with three days in isolation.

*When the arrested girls from the Bet El outpost arrived at Neve Tirza, they were put together with T. for a very short time.  But the prison authorities quickly severed all connection between T. and the other girls simply to distress T. and to break her.  When rabbis came to visit the Beit El girls, they were not always allowed to see T.  So that she would feel totally alone.  The other girls wanted to give T. their Telecards ­ the prisoners’ only connection to the outside world ­ but the prison authorities refused, in order to cut her off completely from the outside world.

Because the girl refuses to get up for roll call in prison (“I’m not a criminal, why should I get up for roll-call?,” she correctly reasoned.), she is punished with long stretches in isolation.  And isolation means isolation: A small cell. No electrical outlet.  Which means there’s no possibility of heating the space.  They won’t allow her books.  She had no visits from her family for the last month.  Alone.  Alone.  Day and night.  Night and day.

Afterwards they put her in the “separation” ward, which is a semi-punishment ward.  There, books are allowed, but she wasn’t allowed them.  ‘Submit a request,’ they told her.  When she submitted a request and her mother came from far away to deliver the books, they allowed her to see her mother in a room with a thick window separating them where one could talk only by telephone.  When her mother wanted to give her the books the prison authorities told her that they wouldn’t permit it.  Her mother replied, ‘I’m not moving from here until you give my daughter her books.’  After some commotion they finally gave T. her books.

These are just a few small examples of the abuse against innocent Jewish girls who are sitting in prison for only one reason: the system is A-F-R-A-I-D of Jews whose primary loyalty is to the Torah of Israel and the Land of Israel and not the system.

In contrast to the young girls who are willing to defy a system that has betrayed its purpose of promoting and protecting Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel in favor of destroying the Jewish presence in Biblical Israel, there are Yesha residents and religious residents from around the country who are aiding and abetting the persecution of the religious Zionist activists.

Just as we must support the faithful, we must censure the disloyal Jews who oppress them.  Below is a very partial listing and accounting of these collaborators:

The officer in charge of inmates  in Neve Tirzah is a settler from Talmon by the name of Yoram Shriki.  From information that the Beit El girls gave to Etty Medad of Honeinu, Shriki singled them out for harsh treatment and continues to be particularly harsh and cruel towards T.  For example: for a long time the girls weren’t allowed to use the telephone.  When they were finally allowed to call their families, the prison authorities gave each girl only a minute or a minute and a half to speak before severing the connection.  Yoram Shriki could have prevented these kinds of abuses.  Whoever knows this Yoram or whoever has acquaintances and friends in Talmon should ask for an explanation for this behavior.

We cannot remain silent when Jews who are supposedly “one of us” aid and abet the anti-Jewish (in)justice system.  Most reprehensible are the religious state prosecutors and judges living in Yesha, who allay their feelings of inferiority by proving to their Leftist masters that they can be cruel to their brothers and sisters who step out of line.

In the many trials Women in Green have undergone, we have personally experienced a good many of this type ­ unfortunately we never got their names.  As for the girls, we were told that the state prosecutor in T’s case is a man by the name of Yehuda Shaulzon from Elkana.  In another hearing, the prosecutor is a religious woman from Beit Shemesh by the name of Shir Laufer.  Whoever might know them, please ask them not to abuse innocent Jewish girls and other political prisoners whose faithfulness to the Land of Israel is being punished.

If settlers and religious Jews are going to join the mud of the Israeli judicial system, they should remember that their loyalty should be to their people, their land, and to the Torah, and not to the Leftist Bolshevik regime.  At the very minimum, these state prosecutors should end the cruel prolongation of T’s trial by setting hearings dates close together instead of stretching it out endlessly over months and months.

In conclusion, we cannot remain silent.  We must strengthen T., and call those who deprive her of her basic civil and human rights to account.  Please write to T. and send your letters to the fax number and email address provided above.

———-

2) Helping brothers Mordy and Elitzur Harel sentenced for 40 and 30 months in jail by an Arab judge in the Tel Aviv Court, for planning (!) a roadblock in protest against the expulsion from Gush Katif.

The full story: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125125Mordy is married to Chagit and together they have 5 children. In addition to moral support, the families need financial help for daily living and for legal fees to appeal the scandalous sentencing.

 

The person who is in contact with the Harel family is called Amit Halevy, resident of Kedumim. You can reach him by calling him at 972-9-792-8875 or 972-52-8119222 or you can send donations to the Honenu legal fund, mentioning that your donation is for Mordy and Elitzur Harel

The Honenu link: http://honenu.org.il/page.asp?ID=14

“You are not expected to complete the work and yet you are not free to evade it.” - Pirkei Avot

Ruth and Nadia Matar
Women in Green

===========
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow  (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.orgTo make a contribution through Paypal, go to: https://www.paypal.com
click on "Send Money" to the address wfit2@womeningreen.org

 

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Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST
February 1, 2008

In March 2006, the Israeli people elected incompetents to lead us. It only took four months for Hizbullah to make us pay a price for our mistake. In the July and August 2006 war, Israelis came to understand that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, then defense minister Amir Peretz and then IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz were together and separately the worst leaders that Israel had ever seen.

Almost from the war’s outset it was evident that Israel’s leaders were in over their heads. They acted as though there was no difference between running a war and running a political campaign against their political rivals. Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah and his Syrian and Iranian overlords could, they assumed, simply be insulted out of fighting.

The brutal reality of war confounded them.

They had decided to respond harshly to Hizbullah’s cross-border attack which left eight soldiers dead and two soldiers - Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser - missing in action. But they never actually realized that they were leading the nation to war. Indeed, through to the bitter end, they insisted that we weren’t at war at all. We were simply involved in a “campaign.”

They sent up fighter jets to bomb Hizbullah to Kingdom Come. But when the bombing failed to affect Hizbullah’s ability to attack Israel with missiles, and when the televised footage of the bombs’ destructive force squandered international support for Israel, Olmert and his colleagues lost their stomach for the fight they had never understood. They sent ground forces in willy nilly, to conduct operations with no operational logic. Then they begged America to pull their fat from the fire by negotiating a cease-fire without victory.

The public reacted to their failure with justified rage. Demoralized reservists marched on Jerusalem. The parents of soldiers killed in militarily meaningless actions took to the streets. Recognizing that their careers were on the line, Olmert and his colleagues did what any hack politicians in their positions would do. They appointed a committee and told it to take as long as it wished to decide not to call for their removal from office. The media, not wishing to see opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud win an election, supported the maneuver. And so the protests abated and the reservists and bereaved parents sat on the sidelines and waited.

When last April the Winograd Committee issued its interim report, it seemed as though Olmert’s plan was backfiring. The committee members, led by retired judge Eliahu Winograd, were dangerously close to missing his point. They actually held Olmert, Peretz and Halutz responsible for their actions. Neither Peretz nor Halutz were able to withstand the interim report which found that they - and Olmert - had failed the test of leadership. And each in turn was forced to resign.

But Olmert held on and quietly conspired against his own committee. With Olmert’s backing, the IDF’s solicitor-general Col. Orna David repeatedly petitioned the Supreme Court and secured rulings prohibiting the Winograd Committee from recommending that Olmert or anyone else be compelled to resign for their dereliction of duty.

So it should have come as no surprise to anyone that in its final report issued Wednesday the Winograd Committee failed to point its finger directly at Olmert and call for his removal from office. It should similarly surprise no one that in its continued bid to keep the Likud from power, the media ignored the report’s harsh conclusions about Olmert’s mismanagement of the war, seizing instead on the commission’s refusal to assign blame.

In truth, by demurring from placing a metaphorical gun to Olmert’s head, the Winograd Committee did the Israeli people a favor. Its members stated flatly that it is the people’s responsibility - not theirs - to decide who leads the country. And now more than ever, it is the public’s duty to protest the continued tenure of the Olmert government and force it from office.

This duty is not simply a matter of historical vindication for past wrongs. Olmert and his colleagues must be forced from office not because of their failed leadership in the 2006 war in Lebanon. They must be forced from office because of their mismanagement of this year’s war in Gaza.

In its most devastating condemnation of Olmert and his colleagues, the Winograd Committee explained that throughout the war, they never decided - and barely discussed - what sort of war they were fighting. Once the government decided to respond forcibly to Hizbullah’s cross-border raid, the commission noted that it had two clear and distinct options for proceeding. “The first was a short, painful, strong and unexpected blow on Hizbullah, primarily through standoff firepower. The second option was to bring about a significant change of the reality in the south of Lebanon with a large ground operation, including a temporary occupation of the south of Lebanon and ‘cleansing’ it of Hizbullah military infrastructure.” Unable to decide what sort of war it was waging, for 34 days the government moved from tactic to tactic, strategy to strategy, never following through with anything, never realizing that there were consequences for what it was doing. And today, it follows the same model of incompetence in Gaza.

FOR THE past two and a half years Israel has taken no effective action to end the rocket and mortar offensive against the Western Negev from Gaza. And rocket and mortar attacks have quadrupled over this period.

When Hamas seized power in Gaza in June, Israel failed to develop a strategy for dealing with the fact that an Iranian armed, trained and commanded terror group was perched on its border with Gaza and threatened to destabilize its largely undefended border with Egypt.

Still led by Olmert and Livni, who are now joined by Defense Minister Ehud Barak - the engineer of the unilateral withdrawal strategy of ceding land to terrorist groups - Israel cannot figure out what it is supposed to be doing. It has no strategic goal and so it can formulate no coherent plan.

Israel changes its mode of contending with Gaza on a near-daily basis. Sometimes it threatens to launch a ground campaign in Gaza to end the Palestinians’ mortar and rocket campaign against its citizens. Sometimes it attacks from the air and declares victory. Sometimes it threatens to stop supplying electricity and fuel to Gaza. Sometimes it threatens to stop its support for Gazan banks.

Then again, sometimes it renews its fuel and electricity supply to Gaza, lets trucks full of cash enter Gaza from Israel, allows Gazans to receive free medical treatment in Israeli hospitals and permits them to work in Israel.

Internationally, sometimes Israel threatens to retake control over Gaza’s border with Egypt. And sometimes it asks Egypt or the UN to take control of the border. Sometimes it criticizes Egypt for enabling weapons and terrorists to move into Gaza. Sometimes it praises Egypt for being a force of stability.

Sometimes the Olmert-Livni-Barak government supports Fatah’s reassertion of control over the border between Gaza and Egypt. Sometimes it admits that Fatah terrorists are full partners in the rocket and mortar campaign against Israel from Gaza; that Fatah security forces willingly integrated into Hamas’s army after Hamas seized power; and that anyway, Fatah has neither the will nor the means to defeat Hamas in Gaza or anywhere else.

In Gaza today as in Lebanon during 2006, the Olmert government’s strategic incoherence has led to public relations disasters. Today in Gaza, as in Lebanon in 2006, Israel’s inability to define its goals has made it unable to defend its actions. And so it is stands condemned as its citizens are held hostage to the vagaries of Palestinian mortars and rockets.

THE WINOGRAD Committee properly noted the government’s failure to define what it was doing in Lebanon. But it did not explain why the government failed. The source of the government’s failure in Lebanon 18 months ago and of its failure in Gaza today is its political commitment to the strategy of unilateral withdrawal from territory. Olmert’s Kadima Party and Barak’s Labor Party both have embraced this strategy. It is the centerpiece of their governing rationale.

The unilateral withdrawal strategy is predicated on a two main assumptions. First, it assumes that it is the presence of Israelis in a hostile or disputed area which causes terrorists to act. If Israel retreats, the terrorists will melt away.

Second, the unilateral withdrawal strategy assumes that Israel’s interest in defeating terrorists is not unique. In the minds of Israel’s leaders, all nations share Israel’s goal of protecting its sovereign territory and its citizenry from attack. Consequently, the unilateral withdrawal strategy assumes that if Israel withdraws from a terror-infested area like Gaza or southern Lebanon, another authority - be it Egypt or Fatah or the European Union in Gaza, or the Lebanese army or UNIFIL forces in Lebanon - will take over where it left off and fight the terrorists for it.

During the war in Lebanon and since Israel withdrew from Gaza, the guiding assumptions of the unilateral withdrawal strategy have proven false. But Israel’s leaders have refused to acknowledge reality. Rather they claim that it is reality, not their policy, that is mistaken. Their daily search for new silver bullets is a manifestation of their denial of reality.

A telling episode touched on in the Winograd Committee’s final report drives this point home. After meeting with the American negotiating team on July 28, 2006, Peretz held a consultation with his security brass.

According to the report, (p. 129), “At the outset of the meeting, the defense minister expressed his bad feeling in the aftermath of the meeting with the American team. This came after he was made to understand that a multi-national force would not enter an area [of south Lebanon] that the IDF hadn’t first ‘cleansed’ of Hizbullah forces.” Peretz could not countenance the fact that no one will take action to defend Israel that Israel itself refuses to take. And so he didn’t. And neither did Olmert or Livni. Throughout the war, Israel’s goal was for an international force to be set up to fight Hizbullah for Israel. And low and behold, UNIFIL refuses to fight.

And still today, the government refuses to recognize that suing for an international force then was a mistake. Indeed they are repeating it in Gaza.

Speaking to the media about her decision to join the protesters demanding that Olmert and Barak resign and call for new general elections, bereaved mother Elisheva Tzemach, whose son Oz was killed in the last stages of the war, explained that she demands the government’s resignation not for her dead son, but for her sons who still live. They cannot be commanded in war by Olmert and his colleagues.

Mrs. Tzemach, of course, is right. And Winograd was also right. If Israel wishes to survive in our hostile neighborhood, it is the duty of every citizen to join Mrs. Tzemach, her fellow bereaved parents and the reservists in their demand for new elections. If we remain silent now, we will deserve whatever price we are made to pay for our indifference.

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