EDITORIALS

LETTER TO ISRAELI CONSULAR OFFICIALS - MY DREAM....Bernard J. Shapiro
JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN YESHA....Bernard J. Shapiro
TO THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OF SHARON AND PERES...DAYENU -- IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH....Bernard J. Shapiro
URGENT CALL BY PROMINENT RABBIS TO WORLD JEWRY....Guest Editorial
THE SHARANSKY MOMENT?...Guest Editorial....Caroline Glick
"JEWISH HOPES DASHED"...Guest Editorial....David Basch

INCITEMENT AND SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT
A CHILLING EFFECT ON LEGITIMATE DISSENT....Evelyn Gordon
INTELLECTUAL TERRORISM STRIKES ISRAEL....Paul Eidelberg
ISRAEL SUCCUMBS TO DICTATORSHIP....Prof. Paul Eidelberg
IS ISRAEL BECOMING A FASCIST STATE?....Prof. Paul Eidelberg
A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY....Yehuda Poch
THE RIGHT TO AFFECT YOUR NEIGHBOR....Emanuel A. Winston
A POLICE STATE IN FORMATION....Emanuel A. Winston

THE GOLAN IS IN DANGER AGAIN
SHARON TO SURRENDER THE GOLAN Has Israel Fallen For The "Mubarak Gambit" Again?....Bernard J. Shapiro
WHO SAYS THE GOLAN IS SYRIAN?....Prof. Yoav Gelber

HISTORY
DISENGAGEMENT - TRACK RECORD EXAMINED....Yoram Ettinger
ISRAEL FREEING TERRORISTS AND SURRENDERING JEWISH LAND...Living Precariously In The Delirium Of Expectation....Louis Rene Beres
DEJA VU AND INNOVATION....Moshe Feiglin
CAN SHARON'S ISRAEL BE TRUSTED?....Joseph Puder
HOW ISRAEL CAN IMPROVE ITS HASBARA (PUBLIC RELATIONS)...Why It Needs To....Bernard J. Shapiro
ORWELL MEETS ALICE - LINGUISTIC DISTORTIONS: Through The Mid-East Looking Glass....Bernard J. Shapiro
ISRAELIS, UNITE! IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE!....Boris Celser

RESISTENCE POETRY

TO ISRAELI CONSULAR OFFICIALS

By Bernard J. Shapiro

I feel at the present time that I can not visit you at the consulates and embassies of Israel. This because I feel in my heart and soul that the Government of Israel no longer represents either the Jewish or Israeli people. I do however have a recurrent dream about Israel's future (taken a bit from Martin Luther King). I have written about it in several articles - usually as a Rosh Hashana prayer.

This dream keeps me faithful to Eretz Yisrael despite the current crisis. I want to share it with you. See below.

Your friend and Lover of Zion,

Bernard

MY DREAM

As I survey the fragile planet we call home, my mind makes note of the chaos, blood, and tears. The cries of a million lost souls shatter the night in a million corners of the earth. The sensitive, compassionate among them try to feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked. One by one their energies dissipate. They try to hold back the tide with a teaspoon and then see the impossibility of the task. The Jewish people are but a cosmic speck in this universe. To many Jews who feel deeply about their own people, that speck becomes the whole world. Other Jews are irrevocably tied to non-Jewish pursuits.

May we as a people open our eyes and begin to see the world as it really is. Without becoming depressed and morose, we must realize that there are powerful forces in the world that wish us ill. May we mobilize our strength to fight our enemies until they are defeated. May we not succumb to false prophets of peace. We all want peace. We pray for peace in our Sabbath services every Friday night. After thousands of years, being victims of persecution, expulsion, extermination, and discrimination, it is natural that we yearn for peace with every ounce of our bodies and souls. It is because our hunger for peace is so strong that we must be doubly cautious not to fall for a pseudo-peace. Today none of us believe Chamberlain really negotiated "peace in our time" with Hitler. Why do some Jews believe that Peres and Rabin really negotiated "peace" with Arafat, one of today's Hitlers? The Jewish people must learn the value of unity in the face of so many enemies who wish them ill.

I pray that Israelis who have fought in countless wars will understand that there is no magic cure, though they crave to be free of constant conflict. As Jews we are all involved in this historic struggle to survive. It is not our fate or that of the Israelis that we should retire from this struggle.

Immediately following the Six Day War, I prayed at the Wall for the first time. I had expected the stones to be rough and weathered after all this time, but they were smooth from 2000 years of touching and kissing. The gentle caresses of Jews over the ages had worn soft finger grooves in the hard rock. As I placed my hands on this magnificent relic of our forefathers, I felt a surge of light and energy the likes of which I had never known. In what had to have been but the flash of a second, I felt at one with Jews from all periods of history.

In an instant I saw the continuity of Jewish history and its unbreakable connection with Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel). I understood how modern Israel is the beginning of the Third Temple Period and the spiritual heir to Joshua, Saul, David, Solomon, the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba. I frequently write about the security reasons for incorporating Judea, Samaria, and Gaza into the body of Israel. There is another side to this issue and that is the spiritual-religious side. The truth, which many find inconvenient, is that the Land of Israel was promised by G-d to Abraham and his seed in perpetuity. The Land of Israel is not speculative real estate to be bartered away for seductive promises of peace. The hills and valleys of Judea and Samaria contain the collective memory of the Jewish people. It was here that the Israelites first entered the Holy Land. And it was here they fought the battles, built the towns, elected their kings and were preached to by their prophets and judges. And it was on this soil that they wrote the Holy Scriptures we call our Bible.

In my blinding flash of insight at the Wall, I also understood that Israel on its own soil was more powerful than the sum of its weapons and men. Jews who had wandered the earth powerless for two millenniums attained great power when re-united with the soil of Israel.

One thing is clear to me: the Lord has blessed Israel by re-uniting Jerusalem and bringing Judea, Samaria, and Gaza back under its control. It would be a horrendous sin against G-d and common sense for Israel to renounce this inheritance to which it is entitled. Israel holds these lands as a sacred trust for the Jewish people in perpetuity. It would not only be sinful, but also criminal, to abuse that trust by denying future generations of Jews their Holy Land -- the Land of their Fathers -- the one tiny spot on planet earth given to them by G-d.

I say to the suffering people of Israel. We are an ancient people with a glorious history. Though we suffer from weak leadership, we are greater than our leaders. Our souls are greater than the terrorists and their allies in the Palestinian Authority. We will never be defeated by their bullets and bombs. We have never submitted. We have never renounced our claim to Eretz Yisrael. We are a Holy People, despite our pain. We have vision where our leaders sometime are blind. Our courage is greater than the mean and cruel world which has oppressed us.

BEWARE THE RISEN PEOPLE

I have a vision and a dream that I must reveal as we approach these Days of Awe: In the name of G-d, the Almighty, Defender of His People, Israel, I say to my people's enemies: Beware of the thing that is coming, that will take what you would not give. That will free the people of Israel from your atrocities. I say to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: Be aware of the Risen People who will sweep the Arab scourge into the dustbin of history. Know that the Jewish soul will be set free. The spectacular victories of the Israeli army and the return to Zion demonstrated that power. But it wasn't a miracle. It was just the soul of the Jew coming to its own. It was just the Jewish soul freed at last to be itself.

And I see it coming, the Jewish soul released to be itself. I see a new proud Jewish government coming to power in Israel. A government that reclaims the Jewish Holy Places and restores Jewish sovereignty in all of Eretz Yisrael. I see Moslem control and Islamic sites removed from the Temple Mount to make it ready for Moshiach. I see the enemies of Israel, who raise up their hands to murder or injure Jews, driven from our Holy Land. I see the secular Jews of Israel and the world becoming more observant and returning to the Torah. I see religious Jews becoming more tolerant of diversity in Jewish practice.

I see a new Israeli foreign policy that grovels before no nation, no matter how powerful. I see Israel's Foreign Minister informing every nation that their embassies must be in Jerusalem. If they don't respect Israel's capital, then may have a consulate in Tel Aviv. I see the government demanding that the Vatican return all the property it has stolen from the Jewish people during the last 2000 years. Maybe they will refuse and we could always hold their property in Israel as a down payment. The Vatican has been used to dealing with obsequious groveling Jews, but now they would see proud fearless Jews. I see an Israeli government that would change its relationship with America from one of subservience to one of equal alliance.

Yes, I have a dream (apologies to MLK) that Jews will no longer debate the obvious: like whether to hold onto what is theirs or trade it away; whether to struggle for survival or to give up from fatigue. I have a dream that the Jews of the kibbutz and the Jews of YESHA will be reborn as brothers and patriots. From the Galilee to Eilat, all the people of Israel will share the same dream of a powerful independent Zionist nation. I have a dream that this strong, proud independent Israel will win the respect of all the nations of the world, including the Arabs. Instead of the contempt it has earned in recent years, Israel will again be a light unto the nations. And finally, I have a dream that this new Israel will find the peace it so dearly deserves. A peace with strength and self-respect. As I look back at 4000 years of Jewish history, I have but one urgent hope and prayer: We must make this dream a reality. There is no alternative.

May the Lord, bless the leaders of Israel with the courage to pursue peace, and the wisdom to know when it is not attainable. May the Lord bless the Jews who return to Zion and give them jobs and new friends to ease their transition into Israeli life. May the Lord bless the war-weary Israeli people with the stamina to bear up under the strain, if peace not just around the corner. May they understand that their fate may be that of endless struggle to survive in a hostile world and may they have the strength to understand that there is still no alternative (ein brera). May the people of Israel prosper and go from success to success never forgetting that their destiny lies in their might, their righteousness and their faith in HaShem.

JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN YESHA

By Bernard J. Shapiro

I plan to discuss the Right of the Jewish People to Eretz Yisrael including Judea, Samaria and Gaza -- Yesha for short. I also will discuss the strategic importance of Yesha and how the Jewish communities there contribute to Israel's security, prevent the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state next door and fulfil Biblical commandments.

GENESIS 15:17-18:

And it came to pass, That day the L-RD made a covenant with Abraham saying:

"UNTO THY SEED HAVE I GIVEN THIS LAND IN PERPETUITY ."

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DAVID BEN GURION, founding father and first Prime Minister of Israel, had this to say about territorial concessions:

"No Jew has the right to relinquish the right of the Jewish people over the whole Land of Israel. No Jewish body has such authority, not even the whole Jewish people has the authority to waive the right (to the Land of Israel) for future generations for all time." [Zionist Conference, Basle, Switzerland, 1937]

THE JEWISH RIGHT TO ERETZ YISRAEL was expressed in a letter from the Jewish leader Simon, the only survivor of the five Maccabee brothers to king Antiochus, whom they had just defeated. Antiochus demanded the return of the 'occupied territories' -- that is territories the Maccabees liberated during their recent war.

Simon writes: "We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property, but only the inheritance of our fathers, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies. Now that we have the opportunity, we are firmly holding the inheritance of our fathers."

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his book A PLACE AMONG THE NATIONS writes the following when told that Judea and Samaria are foreign "occupied" lands:

"This land, where every swing of a spade unearths remnants of the Jewish past and where every village carries the barely altered Hebrew names of old; this land, in which the Jews became a nation and over which they shed more tears than have been shed by any other people in history; this land, the loss of which resulted in an exile of the Jews such as has been suffered by no other people and the spilling of a sea of blood such as has been spilled by no other nation; this land, which never ceased to live as a distant but tangible home in the minds of Jewish children from Toledo in medieval Spain to the Warsaw ghetto in our own century; this land, for which the Jews fought with unsurpassed courage and tenacity in ancient as in modern times -- this is the "foreign land" that world leaders now demand be barred to Jews and that Israel (should) unilaterally forsake."

The answer to such absurd demands must be a resounding NO!

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The modern Jewish return to Eretz Yisrael began in 1882. Between 1882 and 1914 there were dozens of Jewish "settlements" ( I prefer the term Jewish communities both then and now). Some of the more important ones were Tel Aviv, Hadera, and Rischon Letzion,Hayelet Hashacher, Rosh Pina, Metula, Kfar Saba and Petah Tikva. Between 1921 and 1925 Jews settled throughout the Jezereel Valley. In fact, the return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael was the raison etre of the Zionist Movement and a commandment to Jews everywhere to return to Zion. This process continues today 120 years after it began.

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Unfortunately, Jews throughout history have deluded themselves about their position in society. They pursue utopian solutions (like Oslo) to complex political problems and disputes. Jews rejoiced as the enlightenment spread across Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many were eager to give up their Jewishness and become German, French, Italian, and English. In the final analysis those societies viewed them as Jews. Self-delusion came into collision with reality and left us with the stench of burning flesh in the ovens of Auschwitz. Many Russian Jews eagerly supported the communist idea of a worker's utopia with no nationalities and no religion. Reality taught them that their neighbors still considered them Jews.

The left-wing in Israel believes in a common humanity of shared values with the Arabs. In the face of all empirical evidence to the contrary they believe peace is possible. In the book Self Portrait Of A Hero: The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu (1963-1976), Jonathan Netanyahu, the fallen hero of Entebbe and brother of Benjamin, said it best: "I see with sorrow and great anger how a part of the people still clings to hopes of reaching a peaceful settlement with the Arabs. Common sense tells them, too, that the Arabs haven't abandoned their basic aim of destroying the State; but the self-delusion and self-deception that have always plagued the Jews are at work again. It's our great misfortune. They want to believe, so they believe. They want not to see, so they shut their eyes. They want not to learn from thousands of years of history, so they distort it. They want to bring about a sacrifice, and they do indeed. It would be comic, if it wasn't so tragic. What a saddening and irritating lot this Jewish people is!"

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In 1967 I traveled to Israel a few days after the Western Wall fell into Israeli hands. As I placed my hands on this magnificent relic of our forefathers, I felt a surge of light and energy the likes of which I had never known. In what had to have been but the flash of a second, I felt at one with Jews from all periods of history. At the Passover Seder we are told to thank G-d for delivering us from Egypt as though we ourselves had been brought out of bondage. At that moment in Jerusalem, this Seder message was very real for me.

In an instant I saw the continuity of Jewish history and its unbreakable connection with Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel). I understood how modern Israel is the beginning of the Third Temple Period and the spiritual heir to Joshua, Saul, David, Solomon, the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba. I frequently write about the security reasons for incorporating Judea, Samaria, and Gaza into the body of Israel. There is another side to this issue and that is the spiritual-religious side. The truth, which many find inconvenient, is that the Land of Israel was promised by G-d to Abraham and his seed in perpetuity. The Land of Israel is not speculative real estate to be bartered away for some high sounding (but false) promises of peace. The hills and valleys of Judea and Samaria contain the collective memory of the Jewish people. It was here that the Israelites first entered the Holy Land. And it was here they fought the battles, built the towns, elected their kings and were preached to by their prophets and judges. And it was on this soil that they wrote the Holy Scriptures we call our Bible.

In my blinding flash of insight at the Wall, I also understood that Israel on its own soil was more powerful than the sum of its weapons and men. Jews who had wandered the earth powerless for two millenniums attained great power when re-united with the soil of Israel. Anyone who has followed the Arab-Israeli conflict must be aware of the rising cost paid for Jewish blood. Before Israel was established, nations of the world took Jewish lives with impunity. Today, Arabs have discovered that the iron fist of Zahal (Israel Defense Forces) exacts a high price for even one Jewish life. Unfortunately, following the signing of the Oslo Agreements, Jewish blood has become cheaper.

One thing is clear to me: the L-rd has blessed Israel by re-uniting Jerusalem and bringing Judea, Samaria, and Gaza back under its control. It would be a horrendous sin against G-d and common sense for Israel to renounce this inheritance to which it is entitled. Israel holds these lands as a sacred trust for the Jewish people in perpetuity.

It would not only be sinful, but also criminal, to abuse that trust by denying future generations of Jews their Holy Land -- Land of their Fathers; the one tiny spot on planet earth given to them by G-d.

A LETTER FROM SHILOH, by Yisrael Medad

"The faith of these "settlers" who should properly be termed "revenants," people who have returned to a place after a long absence", their commitment and their determination, are intangibles that some Diaspora Jews still find difficult to grasp. To some Diaspora Jews, especially those who have traditionally championed a more liberal or leftwing approach to Zionism, the Oslo process is still strong after nine years of abject failure. For them, it seems, my community is an impediment to fulfillment of the Oslo vision of two states, one Jewish, the other devoid of Jewish communities.

To those who still champion the Oslo/Road Map/ Expulsion process, peace requires that Jews be banned from the heart of the Jewish people's historic homeland, Judea and Samaria, as they were for 19 years after Israel's 1948 War of Independence. To them, the quarter-million Jews who reside there are always "the settlers." Their communities constitute "human rights violations," they are an "illegal occupation" and must be dismantled for their vision of peace to be fulfilled.

My home in Shiloh was never occupied, to use a phrase too liberally applied, by Arabs, though there are Arab villages nearby. Calling Shiloh a "settlement" implies something foreign, intrusive and temporary, something that is purposefully and maliciously imposed. To us, however, "settling" is the most natural thing for a Jew to do: to reside where his forefathers dwelled, where his kings ruled and his prophets spoke.

No, we are not violators of justice and international law. If there is any substance to the charges of ethnic cleansing and human rights violations so frequently tossed about, it relates to what the Arab leadership and its supporters have done and continue to do. We have done our best to avoid hindering Arabs as they continue to live here and in Israel, and have founded our communities almost exclusively on unused and unpopulated hilltops. Arab terrorists and their supporters justify killing our children and women just because we live here. "

The letter ends.

================

As I write these words to you today, I must emphatically declare that the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is NO different from ethnic cleansing anywhere in the world.

The Arabs who wish to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors are welcome. They can even manage their own civil and municipal affairs.

THOSE, HOWEVER, WHO WISH TO TAKE UP THEIR BOMBS,GUNS AND KNIVES TO KILL JEWS OR THROW ROCKS TO CRUSH JEWISH SKULLS, MUST BE DESTROYED OR DRIVEN FROM ERETZ YISRAEL. Rabbinical authorities have long recognized the ultimate religious priority of saving Jewish lives. For example, the Israeli army is permitted to operate fully on Shabbat because it is necessary to save Jewish lives.

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Too many Jews are obsessed with what will satisfy the Arabs. I doubt if there is a single Palestinian or Moslem anywhere that worries about what is good for Israel or the Jewish People. We must remember the words of Hillel when he said, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am for myself alone, what am I?" Hillel's message is clear: First take care of yourself, your family and your people and then try to help others.

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Remember it took the Christian world two thousand years to accept us as human beings, and this only after the mass murder of a third of our people.

It may take the Arabs a while, maybe decades or even hundreds of years -- but we have no choice but to be patient. The fact that we want peace badly does not mean that it is attainable. To strip Israel of strategic territory like Czechoslovakia before WWII in the pursuit of a phantom illusory peace will only lead to disaster.

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In our Holy Scriptures we read about the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah, who anguished over the fact that his people believed in false prophets of peace and didn't see the dangers facing Israel, cries out in despair, "Peace, peace but there is no peace."

Midge Decter writes"For there is no such thing as making peace. Nations who are friendly do not need to do so, and nations or people who are hostile cannot do so. To cry peace, peace when there is no peace, the prophet Jeremiah taught us long a go, is not the expression of hope, not even superstition but a reckless toying with the minds and hearts of people whose very future depends on their capacity to rise every day to the harsh morning light of the truth."

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The glorious Hebrew Warriors who defeated five Arab armies in 1948, three in 1967, and two in 1973 must not surrender their Jewish homeland to evil terrorists and their Jewish collaborators, who delight in the murder of Jews, especially "settlers." The Brave Heroes of Zion must not limit themselves to fruitless negotiations. At this great time of trial and apocalyptic threat, the safeguarding of the future of the Jewish people's right to Eretz Yisrael must take precedence.

SERIOUS FLAWS IN THE OSLO/ROAD MAP/ EXPULSION PLANS AND SERIOUS REASONS TO MAINTAIN JEWISH SETTLEMENT AND CONTROL IN JUDEA, SAMARIA AND GAZA

(1) The most fundamental flaw is the renunciation of Jewish claims to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel is God-given and cannot be renounced by a transitory Israeli government. The present government has no right to deprive future generations of Jews and Israelis of their legal patrimony.

(2) PLO and other terrorist gangs are incapable of providing Israelis with the cessation of violence they so dearly crave. There are ten rejectionist PLO factions plus Hamas and other Islamic fundamentalist factions, including Mohammed Abbas's own terrorists gangs, that will continue to kill Jews.

(3) Without the presence of Israel's internal security force (Shin Bet) inside Judea, Samaria and Gaza, it will be impossible to halt terrorism or even keep it within present levels. The Israel Defense Forces maintain tremendous power but are of little importance in day-to-day terrorism, unless they are able to project their power into Yesha as Sharon has done.

(4) Arab signatures on the agreement and the PLO acceptance is of no consequence as Arabs are documented liars. Muslims are permitted to lie to to non-Muslims and break agreements with them under the Koranic law of HUDAIBIYA. Treaties and contracts with them are worthless.

(5) By virtue of these agreements, the Israeli government has validated Arab claims to the Land of Israel. Decades of fighting Arab propaganda and distortions of history are trivialized and discounted.

(6.) This agreement puts the status of Jerusalem on the negotiating table as a final status issue. Every previous government of Israel steadfastly stood by the principle of Jerusalem being non-negotiable.

(7) All of Israel's military and civilian communications could be easily monitored from the hills of Judea and Samaria. The quick mobilization of the IDF could be rendered impossible by Palestinian attacks.

(8) Israel would lose control of the Judean-Samarian mountain ridge which protects it from attack from the east. The steep slope from the Jordan River to the crest of the rige is difficult to travers and can be blocked by a relatively small force of the IDF Should a Palestine State arise the Arab population will force the Israelis out.

(9) Whether they admit it publicly or not, Israeli leaders know that this is the first step to a Palestinian terrorist state.

(10) The "Palestinian right of return" has been acknowledged for the first time by the Israelis and could result in a flood of Arabs to Judea and Samaria.

(11) The inevitable increase in Arab population will result in tremendous pressure on Israel's water supply. As Arab wells are dug in the Judean and Samarian hills, the natural mountain aquifer that supplies much of Tel Aviv and the coastal plain with water will be serious depleted. Such depletion will cause the salt water of the Mediterranean Sea to penetrate Israel's coastal strip, thus destroying all water supplies. This process can be witnessed in California, where sea water has already penetrated five miles into the coast.

(12) Some 70% of Israel's population and industry is concentrated in a small strip of coast and greater Tel Aviv. That population will be immediately threatened by morters and Kaytusha rockets. Fired singly from the hills of Judea and Samaria, and set with timers they will be virtually impossible to stop. The Israeli government plan to coordinate with the Palestinian police is akin to working with the fox to guard the henhouse. The Palestinian police are being recruited from among the terrorists who delight especially in murder and mutilation of Jewish bodies. Will they arrest and turn over a terrorist who kills Israelis and then escapes to Gaza?

(13) The Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza will no doubt be victims of ethnic cleansing. The Arabs will insist on a Jew-free country like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

(14) The air and seaports planned for Gaza will facilitate the entry of weapons and terrorists, threatening the security of Israel. The air space above Israel including Ben Gurion Airport would easily threatened. A Palestinian State could NOT be demilitarized. Look at the PA today.

(15) The proposed "safe passages" for the PA will facilitate the movement of terrorists and weapons from Gaza to Judea and Samaria.

(16) HITLER AND THE ARABS

"Hitler, Goebbels and Goering were pathological and pragmatic liars. Arafat also lied at Oslo as he fully intended to carry out his staged plan of 1974. Under this plan he would accept any part of Palestine until he could conquer the remainder. The Nazis lied so convincingly and so hugely that most statesmen from other countries could not believe that what they were hearing was a lie... One of Hitler's biggest lies was constantly to assure the world of peaceful intentions while obviously planning war. Abbas has done the same.

The only reason that the Arabs have not yet done to the Israeli Jews what Hitler did to their forefathers in Europe is that they have thus far lacked the military means and weapons of mass destruction which were at Hitler's disposal, to do so.

That the Arabs have not done so to date has not been due to any reluctance on their part, but because, this time, there has been this difference: The Jews in Europe had no army to defend them. Thank G-d, the Jews in Israel have!

May Israel be wiser in relation to this death wish of her neighbours, than the Jews in Europe were. They belittled the writings and speeches of Hitler and the Nazis and were massacred as a result. May it not happen again with Abbas!

I am sorry that I can not offer you more encouraging words. What I present is:

A HARSH REALITY

We all want peace. We pray for peace in our Sabbath services every Friday night. After thousands of years, being victims of persecution, expulsion, extermination, and discrimination, it is natural that we yearn for peace with every ounce of our bodies and souls.

It is because our hunger for peace is so strong that we must be doubly cautious not to fall for a psuedo-peace that is really the wolf of war wrapped in sheep's clothing. Today none of us believe Chamberlain really negotiated "peace in our time" with Hitler. Why do some Jews believe that Peres, Rabin and Sharon really negotiated PEACE with Arafat, one of today's Hitlers?

Israelis my age have fought in six wars and I understand their desire to be free of constant conflict. Unfortunately there is no magic cure. I wish I could write more optimistic words. Beyond the neighboring states that Israel is negotiating with now lies another ring of unmitigated hostility led by Islamic fundamentalists like those in Iran.

As Jews we are all involved in this historic struggle to survive. It is not our fate or that of the Israelis that we should retire from this struggle. The only peace the Arabs are prepared to give us is the peace of the grave.

In blood and fire was Israel born and on a hot anvil was she forged. The brave young soldiers of Israel must take a quick glance back to the crematoria of Auschwitz and then go forth to face the enemy knowing that there is still no alternative (ein briera).

Bernard J. Shapiro is the Executive Director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies and is editor of The Maccabean Online and the Freemanlist.

TO THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OF SHARON AND PERES
DAYENU -- IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH

by Bernard J. Shapiro

February 16, 2005

Dear Friends of Israel:

Like most of you, I am frustrated, angry and depressed over the actions of the Israeli government. We must, however, get over the depression and then use our anger to spur ourselves to greater action on behalf of Israel. EIN BRERA. In that spirit I offer the following chant or song to sing at demonstrations (slightly abridged from the popular song sung at Passover). Please distribute as widely as possible:

..........With Love of Israel

If you had collaborated with enemy to get elected to office,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy and not given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy, given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; and not divided the People of Israel setting brother against brother,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; and not beaten and abused women and children,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places, divided the People of Israel; beaten and abused women and children; and not suppressed our freedom of speech,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech and not endangered our water supply,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech; endangered our water supply and not released terrorist murderers into our midst,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech; endangered our water supply, released terrorist murderers into our midst and not surrendered our strategic mountains that protect us from attack,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech; endangered our water supply; released terrorist murderers into our midst; surrendered our strategic mountains; and not created a Palestinian State dedicated to the destruction of Israel,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech; endangered our water supply; released terrorist murderers into our midst; surrendered our strategic mountains; created a Palestinian State and not broken G-d's Covenant with Abraham,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech; endangered our water supply; released terrorist murderers into our midst; surrendered our strategic mountains; created a Palestinian State, broken G-d's Covenant with Abraham and not defamed religious Jews and their TORAH,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

If you had collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech; endangered our water supply; released terrorist murderers into our midst; surrendered our strategic mountains; created a Palestinian State, broken G-d's Covenant with Abraham, defamed religious Jews and their TORAH and not jeopardized Jewish rule in Jerusalem,

Dayenu -- It would have been enough to rebel against your rule

TO THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OF SHARON AND PERES:

You have done all of these things. You have collaborated with the enemy; given away our Sacred Land and Holy Places; divided the People of Israel; beaten women and children; suppressed our freedom of speech; endangered our water supply; released terrorist murders into our midst: surrendered our strategic mountains; created a Palestinian State; broken G-D's Covenant with Abraham; defamed religious Jews and their TORAH and even jeopardized Jewish rule in Jerusalem.

DAYENU! WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR RULE! BY YOUR ACTIONS YOU HAVE FORFEITED ANY CLAIM TO LEGITIMACY. DAYENU!

"FOR ZION'S SAKE I WILL NOT HOLD MY PEACE,

AND FOR JERUSALEM'S SAKE I WILL NOT REST"

URGENT CALL BY PROMINENT
JEWISH LEADERS TO WORLD JEWRY

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace

By the Grace of G-d Adar I, 5765

URGENT CALL BY MOST PROMINENT JEWISH LEADERS TO WORLD JEWRY TO DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR MEANS TO STOP THE MADNESS

An Urgent Call to All Rabbis, Jewish Communal Leaders, and Friends of Israel Throughout the World,

"For the sounding of wailing is coming from Zion: 'How have we been plundered? We have been shamed tremendously, for we have abandoned the land; our own dwellings have cast us out'" (Jeremiah 9:18)

Open your eyes and see what the government of Israel is planning to do:

Jewish communities that are more than three decades old will be destroyed;
Torah centers and yeshivos will be torn down;
Cemeteries where terror victims lie will be given over to the very hands who slew them;
Parents and grandparents, young children and flowering youth, will be driven from their homes; and
Businesses and corporations employing thousands will be closed.
A victory will be granted to terror.
Our enemies will celebrate in the streets and be encouraged to further acts of violence.
Jews throughout the land of Israel will be endangered when the bases of terror will be brought closer to their homes and thousands of terrorists will be set free. Success that our foes could never dream to achieve will be granted to them.

For what? What is being given in return? There are still terror alerts throughout Israel. Rockets and mortars are still falling on Jewish homes. Suicide bombers are still blowing themselves up in the heart of Israel murdering innocent Jews.

"Do not stand idle while the blood of your brother is endangered" (Leviticus 19:16). We must object by raising an outcry, fasting and giving charity. As in all times of difficulty an extra measure of Psalms including Chapters: 20, 83, 103 should be recited daily.

The emperor has no clothes. But the media in Israel are so slanted that they celebrate his parade through the streets while exposed.

You can help! Raise an objective voice. Speak in the name of our Torah and our Jewish tradition.

Tell the government to stop. Speak to your congressmen and senators. Let the media throughout the world know. Let an outcry be heard so that the heroes risking their lives and fortunes in Israel will take heart.

"They will contrive a scheme, but it will be foiled; conspire a plot, but it will not be realized, for G-d is with us" (Isaiah 8:10).

Signed,

Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, Rebbe of Sadigura and Member of Council of Torah Sages

Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Horowitz, Bostoner Rebbe and member of Council of Torah Sages

Hagaon Rabbi Binyomin Yehoshua Zilber, Member of Council of Torah Sages

Hagaon Rabbi Meir Mazuz, Rosh Yeshivas Kise Rachamim

Former Chief Rabbi and noted Kabbalist, Hagaon Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu

THE JERUSALEM POST - Mar. 3, 2005

THE SHARANSKY MOMENT?

By Caroline Glick

In the history of Israel's relations with the US, there has been no precedent for the influence that Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky has had on US foreign policy. While in the past Israeli leaders have worked closely with their American counterparts, no one other than Sharansky has managed to actually influence the way that American policymakers think about foreign affairs or perceive the role of the US in the world.

Today it is beyond debate that Sharansky has deeply influenced US President George W. Bush's thinking on international affairs. After reading Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy, Bush told The New York Times that Sharansky's worldview "is part of my presidential DNA." This Sharansky-inspired "presidential DNA" posits that the Arab world's conflict with Israel, like its support for global jihad, will end when the Arab world democratizes. In Sharansky's view, once Arabs are governed democratically, they will not wish to sustain the conflict.

If Sharansky and Bush are correct, then the past week has been one of the greatest weeks in the history of the Middle East. Syria's puppet government in Beirut has resigned and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is being squeezed from all directions. He has declared that he will end Syria's occupation of Lebanon and has turned over Iraqi Ba'athists to American forces in Iraq in the hope of stemming the seemingly inexorable demise of his regime. Egypt's dictator, Hosni Mubarak, under attack from Washington and from his democratic opposition -- that for once is being supported by the Western media -- has announced that he will enable other candidates to run against him in the upcoming presidential elections.

Empowered by the support they are receiving from the US, rather than declaring victory and quietly going home, democracy advocates in these countries are ratcheting up their pressure and demands. Damascus's announcement that it would withdraw its forces from Lebanon was met by a Lebanese demand that Hizbullah be dismantled.

In an interview Wednesday with Al-Jazeera, Druse opposition leader Walid Jumblatt said of Hizbullah and its claim that Israel is wrongfully controlling the so-called Shaba Farms on the Israeli-Lebanese border, "What are these [Hizbullah] fighters doing for us? They want the Shaba Farms. Let the Syrians present documentation that the farms are even part of Lebanon. The Israelis say that they were taken from Syria and we have no proof of anything. And what will happen after the Shaba situation? Will Hizbullah's people continue to walk around armed in Lebanon and serve the Syrians?"

What is happening in our neighboring lands is nothing short of a revolution. There has never before been a situation in the Arab world where so many people have been willing to stand up to their regimes and demand their freedom. Although the Arab revolution is only in its earliest phases -- and it is impossible to foresee what will transpire in the coming days, months and years -- the very fact that the Arab world has responded so dramatically to the Iraqi elections at the end of January and to Bush's call for democracy seems to be a full vindication of both Sharansky's political theory and of Bush's decision to graft it onto his genetic code.

But other events from this past week would seem to cast a pall on the excitement. On Tuesday, Israeli Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi and Muhammad Barakei, while participating in an Arab League conference in Abu Dhabi, told their colleagues not to normalize their relations with Israel. According to a report in the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, confirmed by the Ynet Web site, at the conference, held under the aegis of the Abu Dhabi Center for Strategic Research, the two told their audience that Israel was manipulating the world into believing that it was advancing the cause for peace by withdrawing from Gaza, but it was actually entrenching its control over Judea and Samaria and abandoning the cause of peace.

Tibi told Ynet, "The Sharon government is not worthy at this point of any diplomatic prize. The depth of the peace will determine the depth of normalization. And at this point there is no peace and therefore normalization can wait."

Barakei said, "I said these things in reaction to signs of normalization [between Israel and the Arab world] that is totally unjustified."

The fact that these politicians -- who owe their positions to the fact that they live in a democracy -- have called for the Arab world to continue its rejection of their own country would seem to put a damper on the notion that democracy can bring an end to Arab rejection of Israel. Indeed, as an Arab colleague remarked recently,

"The reformers in the Arab world hate Israel just as much as their leaders whom they are trying to overthrow."

It is more than likely that the anti-Semitism with which the Arab world has been inculcated for the past 100 years will not disappear even if the Arab world becomes democratically governed.

But that is not the main issue.

Sixty years after the end of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is still a potent force in Europe and yet Europeans, whose countries are now entrenched democracies, are not planning to go to war against Israel. Their national identities are not defined by their hatred of Jews or of the Jewish state.

The reason Arab anti-Semitism is so powerful a political force today is because the Arab world is ruled by dictators. These men need an external bogeyman to excuse their failure to bring freedom and prosperity to their people. If Arabs are afforded the freedom to determine how they wish to live their lives, it is likely that social anti-Semitism will not be sufficiently powerful to provoke them into going to war against Israel.

Aside from anti-Semitism's apparent incurability, the fact of the matter is that in Israel's immediate vicinity, the democratic revolution now sweeping neighboring states has been smothered. Tibi and Barakei's statements may seem out of place during this revolutionary moment, but what they represent more than anything else is the failure to apply the Bush-Sharansky Doctrine to the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinians today, four months after Yasser Arafat's death, perceive Israel as weak. In a recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 74 percent of Palestinians said that they see Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to destroy the Israeli communities in Gaza and northern Samaria as a vindication of terrorism as a national strategy. The Palestinians stated that they do not believe that Sharon would have ever presented the plan if it hadn't been for the Palestinian terror war against Israel.

It is this perception of Israeli weakness and terrorist strength that undoubtedly prompts the opportunistic likes of Tibi and Barakei to side with them against Israel. Just as every time Israel opens negotiations with the Ba'athists in Damascus, the Druse on the Golan Heights hold parades in honor of the Assads, so today, when Israel looks weak, Israeli Arabs want to make sure that the PA sees them as loyal to the cause. While they can rest assured that a democratic but weak Israel will do nothing to punish them for their treachery, they cannot risk supporting Israel as it strengthens and legitimizes the terror-supporting, quasi-tyranny next door in the PA.

Ironically,it is Israel's democratically elected leadership that has been most opposed to the notion of Arab democracy. Sharon and Vice Premier Shimon Peres have passively and actively colluded with those who reject the Bush-Sharansky Doctrine in the US State Department to ensure it remains unapplied among the Palestinians.

Sharansky wrote in his book that when he presented his ideas to Sharon, the prime minister told him that they "have no place in the Middle East." One of Sharon's advisers reportedly said that Sharon "views Sharansky's ideas with scorn." Peres, the father of the idea of replacing Israel's Civil Administration in the territories with a PLO dictatorship imported from Tunis, has spoken vacuously of the need to build an "economic democracy" -- rather than a political democracy -- among the Palestinians.

And the result of Israel's rejection of Palestinian democracy and its consequent effective abandonment by the Bush administration is the continuation of Arafat's dictatorial and terror-supporting regime in the territories. On Thursday, Yemen's news agency reported that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet with Hamas kingpin Khaled Mashal in the coming weeks.

Abbas's decision to engage rather than fight terrorists has enabled a precipitous rise in the terror threat to Israel's population centers around Judea and Samaria. During his election campaign, Abbas embraced Fatah terrorists in Jenin led by Zakariya Zubeidi. Two months ago, the IDF arrested Zubeidi's brother, Jibril, who is a member of Islamic Jihad. The arrest led to the uncovering of a Hamas factory in the Jenin area for the manufacture of Kassam rockets that Jibril and his associates had planned to fire on Afula. And Abbas plans to enlist these men into his "reformed" security services that are set to be trained and equipped by the US, Jordan, Egypt, Russia and the EU.

Israel's decision to prefer the rule of Arafat's deputy to genuine democratic transformation in the PA has paved the way for the international community's embrace of Abbas. Rather than demand an accounting for the billions of dollars in international aid that were stolen by Arafat (and by Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and their associates), in London this week the international community pledged to transfer more than a billion additional dollars to the PA.

Buoyed by this unqualified support, Abbas is now demanding that the international community drop the demand that he fight terrorists and enable the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state immediately. The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, has already accepted this position.

So in the space of one week, we see the consequences of both the Bush-Sharansky Doctrine and the appeasement-based status quo in action. While the region's war-torn, radical and terror-engendering history tells us what the ultimate consequences of the status quo will be, we have yet to harvest the fruits of the Bush-Sharansky-inspired revolution.

The main question we should be concerning ourselves with now is whether the revolution will be extended to the Palestinians or whether -- once Sharon-Peres-style appeasement is grafted onto its genetic code -- the revolution will fade away and be forgotten.

"JEWISH HOPES DASHED"

by David Basch

"JEWISH HOPES DASHED." That is the headline I saw on The Jerusalem Post web this afternoon (2/28/05) and I thought the story would be all about Sharon's surrenders to the terrorists and the betrayal of the Jewish people. Instead the article was about some silly Academy awards for motion pictures in the U.S. Israel has really changed.

Supporters of Israel will have to feel differently about her now that Sharon is really transforming Israel into Birobidzhan West, a Mediterranean version of the Russian province of Birobidzhan, designed to have been the Yiddish homeland of the Jews. In the latter, though the official language is Yiddish, it is virtually empty of Jews and its one synagogue carries Christian worship services, its Yiddish culture being only street sign deep. Will the fate of the Israeli version be similar, written up in Hebrew signs in Tel Aviv, annoucing, "pork chops for sale." When Sharon gets through, no more will be heard on the hills of Judea the sound of the Jewish groom and his bride since it will be all Arab in population and terrorist in vocation.

And don't doubt that, before Sharon is done, the Jews will go back to yearning for Jerusalem. Sure, Sharon says that he will preserve a united Jerusalem. But who is he kidding? The Arabs have not made a single compromise in their war against Israel and they won't begin deing this with giving up Jerusalem. (Jews may abandon their Judaism, but Muslims, it appears, hold fast to their Islam that forbids non Muslim rule over lands once ruled by Islam.) And the Arabs will also not start compromising on their demand to bring in 5,000,000 Arabs to downtown Israel that they call refugees. So if Sharon has undertaken his surrenders for peace, he is buying war since the Arabs will continue to fight for killer demands that spell the end of Israel, if not in an all out war, then through continuing their slow process of attrition through acts of terrorism tht has been so successful.

Sharon will have accomplished nothing for Israel. All he will have to show the weakened and divided shrinking Israeli nation he is creating is a continuing future life of blood, sweat, and tears. So why won't Israelis get wise and learn from the Arabs of Lebanon to stand up to their government? The Labanese are tired of tyranny of Syrian rule through a puppet government. Israelis should also be tired of their tyranny -- the tyranny of an elected leader and parliament that are not responsible to the people after election day and undertake programs, opposite to their promises, to surrender forever to the terrorist enemy the nation's rights, lands, history, ideals, and security. In a democracy, government should be by the consent of the governed, not the kind of government that Sharon operates in which he becomes a law unto himself in MAKING WAR ON A MAJOR SECTOR OF HIS OWN PEOPLE, illegally ethnically cleansing them from their homes, creating irreversible facts on the ground and forever plunging his nation into the shallows and miseries of defenselessness against the terrorist enemy he empowers. It is the wrong war against the wrong enemy.

With such a bill of particulars against Sharon, you ought to be able to inspire ten revolutions. It only awaits for Israel's Jews to wake up to what Sharon the tyrant is doing and take to the streets in a general strike that paralyzes the country, letting Sharon know that Israel is not his private farm and he cannot take the people's wishes for granted and reduce the future of the nation to the size of his narrow, technocratic vision.

Even the Lebanese have gotten wise to their tyrant. Why not Israelis?

*******
2/28/05
Editor
The Jerusalem Post

Dear Editor:

I think the JP editorialist kids himself ("Due Process" - 2/27/05) when he calls Sharon's policy of surrender and ethnic cleansing of Jews in Gaza an example of "due process" and democracy in action.

Sharon treacherously took his supporters for a ride through lies, manipulations, and downright bribery in order to confiscate the lands and property of others and to cede the rights and history of the Jewish people to terrorists -- a modern day King Ahab. He will have irreparably harmed the security of Israel and the unity of the Jewish people, all to prove that fire burns and terrorists murder and that the insanity of the Oslo process is endemic to the country.

Many leaders in history have wilfuly and grievously blundered, with their people paying a very heavy price, sometimes their very existence. Sharon is a crude, heavy handed, short-sighted sickening example of these.

What is to be done? Forget a referendum. The only proper response is what the Lebanese are doing to their tyrants, a general strike to paralyze the country and demonstrate the power of the opposition. If that cannot be done, then Arafat in death has won and is the Arab George Washington.

Yours,
David Basch
West Hartford, CT

=========================

David Basch is a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies and the world's authority on William Shakespeare's Jewish roots. (To see his reasearch on Shakespeare visit http://www.ziplink.net/~entropy/ .)

THE JERUSALEM POST - March 1, 2005

A CHILLING EFFECT ON LEGITIMATE DISSENT

by Evelyn Gordon

As the disengagement plan progresses, I am increasingly starting to wonder where Israel stands in Natan Sharansky's famous distinction between "free societies" and "fear societies."

Clearly, the government should not tolerate criminal behavior under the guise of political protest. But many of its initiatives seem intended not to combat genuine criminal activity but to intimidate legitimate opposition to the plan.

On Sunday, for instance, the cabinet approved Justice Minister Tzipi Livni's proposal to establish a new ministry unit, with 15 full-time lawyers, devoted solely to combating incitement and violence by disengagement opponents. Yet the Justice Ministry already deals extensively with crimes of incitement and violence; a special unit would add nothing to its existing law-enforcement capabilities. All it does is exercise a chilling effect on legitimate dissent.

First, it sends the message that anti-disengagement protests will be scrutinized far more carefully than other protests: Fifteen lawyers will do nothing else. Second, it proclaims that "borderline cases," which the ministry would usually ignore, are liable to be prosecuted where disengagement is involved, as the unit will need indictments to justify its existence.

For the average citizen, ignorant of the exact boundaries between legal and illegal dissent, both of these constitute strong incentives to simply avoid protest activity altogether.

Thirdly, however, a special unit sends the message that opposition to the disengagement is inherently less legitimate than opposition to anything else -- otherwise, why would it deserve special treatment? And indeed, Livni did not even pretend that disengagement opponents would be treated with the tolerance accorded to other protesters.

For instance, she said, one of the unit's key tasks would be prosecuting people who block roads to protest the disengagement. Yet in summer 2003, when pensioners organized by the Histadrut blocked roads almost daily for weeks to protest the Knesset's enactment of a pension reform, the ministry never even considered issuing indictments.

Another disturbing development was Prison Service Commissioner Yaakov Ganot's revelation to the Knesset last Tuesday that he has been allocated NIS 19 million to prepare 900 prison spaces for people who disrupt the disengagement. One does not build jail cells unless one expects to use them; thus the state evidently intends to jail substantial numbers of disengagement opponents.

For ordinary citizens, who prefer to avoid events where arrests are likely, that is reason enough to shun anti-disengagement activity.

Even worse, however, this decision brands disengagement opponents as a particularly violent group, for whom extra jail cells must be built: If they were mainly law-abiding citizens with only the usual lunatic fringe, existing cells would suffice. And what ordinary citizen wants to be mixed up with a violent crowd like that?

The enabling legislation for the disengagement, which proposed draconian penalties (some of which the Knesset later softened or eliminated) for actions that might hinder the plan's implementation, was similarly troubling.

NONE OF the proposed penalties were actually needed, since all the actions listed (such as interfering with a policeman in the line of duty, or entering a closed military area) were already criminal offenses. The only purpose of these articles was to send a message: Obstructing the disengagement -- illegally, but by implication also legally -- is worse than obstructing other governmental activities, and therefore merits special penalties.

Finally, there are the government's persistent efforts to paint disengagement opponents as violent lunatics with whom no normal person would want to associate. Particularly egregious are MKs' repeated complaints about "threats" (mainly from Likud Central Committee members) not to vote for them again if they support disengagement.

Since when, in a democracy, is it illegitimate for a citizen to refuse to reelect a parliamentarian with whom he disagrees on a major policy issue? Yet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly declared this month that threatening an MK's livelihood -- i.e., reelection -- is no different from sending him death threats: Both are "a grave threat to democracy"!

The government has also frequently inflated minor incidents in order to brand disengagement opponents as violent, as in the much-publicized "assaults" on Ministers Binyamin Netanyahu and Limor Livnat. These actually boiled down to nothing more than a few catcalls by protesters. In neither case was there physical contact; in Netanyahu's case the protesters were so far away that he could not even hear them. And since when -- especially in Israel's political culture -- have catcalls against politicians been beyond the pale?

Still another tactic is the use of incidents unrelated to the disengagement to tar disengagement opponents. Last week, for instance, police discovered that death threats against Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi -- which the government had decried as examples of anti-disengagement violence -- were actually written by a Bat Yam woman who has been sending similar letters to public figures every day for 14 years.

This is hardly atypical: Politicians often receive threatening letters from lunatics and, usually, simply ignore them. Recently, however, all such letters are being publicized and blamed, without evidence, on disengagement opponents in order to characterize them as violent and fanatical.

None of this will stop the serial hecklers or the lunatic letter writers. But it will deter law-abiding citizens from engaging in legitimate protest against the disengagement -- because law-abiding citizens do not like being associated with violent lunatics.

Genuine incitement or violence obviously must not be ignored: In fact, the legal system needs to treat such acts more severely than it often does. But neither the creation of special tools for use solely against disengagement opponents nor the hysterical exaggeration of "threats" against government officials in any way improves the state's ability to deal with genuine criminals.

Measures such as these serve only to discourage legitimate dissent against the disengagement -- and that is something no government in a democracy should be allowed to get away with.

INTELLECTUAL TERRORISM STRIKES ISRAEL

by Prof. Paul Eidelberg

On February 13, 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his cabinet, "Anyone who speaks or writes against the Disengagement Plan is guilty of incitement." Mr. Sharon thus went on record saying that the expression of even the slightest opposition to his highly controversial plan is a criminal offense.

The next day Likud Minister of Internal Security Gideon Ezra, in a live interview on Israel Radio, said that people who yell at ministers should be placed under administrative detention -- which means incarceration of up to six months without trial.

Also, Likud Transportation Minister Meir Shitreet (a former justice minister) told Israel Radio that Likud party members are guilty of incitement when they write letters to Likud MKs informing them that future political support for these politicians is dependent on their voting against the withdrawal / expulsion plan.

Finally, acting on a proposal of Likud Justice Minister Tsipi Livni, the cabinet approved the establishment of a special Justice Ministry unit to combat incitement and perceived disruptions to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement//expulsion plan.

The Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council criticized the establishment of the new unit, calling it the "thought police." The Council said that the purpose of the new body is to "shut the mouths of those who are opposed to the expulsion plan, and to brand them inciters. [Its purpose is to] forbid us to think differently than the government. The democratic right to protest is slowly disappearing in face of the 'sanctified' disengagement plan."

The new unit will combat anti-disengagement protests and demonstrations, and will work in coordination with the General Security Services to deter activists from engaging in mass civil disobedience. Nor is this all.

Police Chief Moshe Karadi announced the opening of an official inquiry into the activities of the speakers and participants in an anti-disengagement gathering of thousands of people at Jerusalem's International Convention Center on February 25. The protest was organized by Chabad. One of the speakers was attorney Elyakim Haetzni, a former member of the Knesset and an outspoken critic of disengagement.

It should be evident from the preceding that "intellectual terrorism" is descending on Israel -- the "only democracy" in the Middle East. Why? Why is Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan transforming Israel into a police state? Why this reign of intimidation, this suppression of freedom of expression?

The reason is this: There is simply no rational justification for Sharon's disengagement plan. Both IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon and Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter have testified before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that disengagement will lead to an increase of terrorism -- which testimony or attitude is why both of these men have been sacked. It should also be noted that Chief of IDF Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, who is retiring this summer, also testified against disengagement.

No wonder ex-Deputy IDF Intelligence Chief, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, has said: "The Israeli government has not succeeded in producing a single serious argument that can refute objections [to disengagement] and justify the grave step that it is taking."

Since the Sharon government has not and cannot justify disengagement on rational grounds, which is to say, since this government cannot persuade the public by means of logical argument and solid evidence that withdrawing from Gaza and northern Samaria and turning this land over to Arab terrorists will contribute to Israel's overall security, it must resort to intimidation and the suppression of freedom of expression and individual liberty to implement Sharon's plan.

But now let us probe a little deeper. First, notice that the intellectual terrorism descending on Israel is the work of secularists. This secular coercion -- which will be imposed primarily on religious Jews -- reveals the hypocrisy of those who declaim against religious coercion.

Second, with disengagement and its necessary accompaniment, intellectual terrorism, Israel is approaching its denouement. The veneer of democracy is being stripped away. The idol of peace is being shattered. Thanks to the Arabs, Israel will have to redefine itself. It will be Jewish or it will be nothing.

Prof. Paul Eidelberg is a member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.

ISRAEL SUCCUMBS TO DICTATORSHIP

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg
President, Foundation for Constitutional Democracy, Jerusalem

Below are various statements issued by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his cabinet ministers, as well as certain actions taken by his government, which indicate that Israel, far from being a democracy, is a democratically elected dictatorship. Let the following facts be submitted to a candid world.

(1) The central issue of the January 2003 national election in Israel was "unilateral disengagement," which involves the evacuation of some 10,000 Jews from their homes and farms in Gaza and northern Samaria and rewarding Arab terrorists with this Jewish and now flourishing land. The Labor Party campaigned for disengagement. The Likud Party, led by Mr. Sharon, campaigned against disengagement.

(2) An overwhelming majority of the public voted for parties that opposed disengagement. Indeed, the Likud won twice as many Knesset seats as Labor -- something unprecedented in Israel's history.

(3) Nevertheless, before the year ended, Prime Minister Sharon adopted Labor's pro-disengagement position!

(4) To gain cabinet approval of disengagement, Mr. Sharon fired two cabinet ministers who opposed his virtual nullification of the January 2003 national election.

(5) When the parties represented by those ministers resigned from his government, Mr. Sharon formed a new government with the Labor Party, a government that was approved by less than a majority of the Knesset.

(6) These unethical acts on the part of Mr. Sharon -- and I have mentioned only a few -- have raised the specter of civil war in Israel. It is widely feared -- and Likud Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has stoked this fear -- that disengagement will be extended to the "West Bank," hence that 200,000 more Jews will be expelled to facilitate the creation of a Palestinian state.

(7) No less than Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, IDF Chief of Staff as well as Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, head of IDF Intelligence, and Avi Dichter, director of the Shin Bet (General Security Service), have warned that disengagement will increase Arab terrorism.

(8) Ex-Deputy IDF Intelligence Chief, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror has publicly declared: "The Israeli government has not succeeded in producing a single serious argument that can refute objections [to "disengagement"] and justify the grave steps that it is taking."

(9) Nevertheless, on February 13, Prime Minister Sharon told his cabinet, "Anyone who speaks or writes against the Disengagement Plan is guilty of incitement."

(10) The next day, Likud Minister of Internal Security, Gideon Ezra, in a live interview on Israel Radio, said that people who shout at ministers should be placed under administrative detention -- which means incarceration up to six months without trial.

(11) Likud Transportation Minister Meir Shitreet told Israel Radio that Likud party members are guilty of incitement when they write letters to Likud MKs informing them that future political support for these politicians is dependent on their voting against the withdrawal/expulsion plan.

(12) MK Effi Eitam said in the Knesset: "I must tell you, Mr. Prime Minister -- and though you are not honoring us with your presence, the words will certainly reach you -- that I have served the country for many years on the battlefield, and during difficult and tense moments, but I have never heard from government elements in the State of Israel such unrestrained incitement as that which was heard from your confidantes and coalition partners... 'Break their bones!' your confidantes whispered, and the headlines blared it. Whose bones precisely do you intend to break, Mr. Prime Minister? Those of little children? Pregnant women? Civilian protestors?"

(13) Undeterred, the cabinet, on February 27, approved Likud Justice Minister Tsipi Livni's proposal to establish a new ministry unit, with 15 full-time lawyers, devoted solely to combating "incitement" and "violence" by disengagement opponents, even though such a unit would add nothing to the ministry's existing law-enforcement capabilities. All it does is discourage legitimate dissent.

(14) Henceforth anti-disengagement protests will be scrutinized far more carefully than other protests, and "borderline cases," which the ministry usually ignores, are liable to be prosecuted where disengagement is involved. This will stifle freedom of expression.

(15) Moreover, the Prison Service Commission has been allocated 19 million shekels to prepare 900 prison spaces for people who disrupt the disengagement. Such otherwise law-abiding citizens will be incarcerated as outright criminals.

(16) The Sharon government has portrayed opponents of disengagement as lunatics and fanatics with whom no normal person would want to be associated -- even though many of the opponents are lawyers, former military officers, professors, rabbis, and former cabinet ministers.

The above evidence clearly indicates that Israel is becoming a police state. There is a way to stop this fascist development. Prime Minister Sharon and his underlings fear only one thing: the loss of their democratic reputation in the United States.

Therefore, convey the above information to American congressmen and to the media. Let them express horror at what is happening in Israel and it will be immediately conveyed throughout this country. If a peaceful protest of 50,000 Lebanese citizens can force Lebanon's pro-Syrian government to resign, surely a protest of 100,000 Jews can force the Sharon government to resign, once it has been exposed both in the United States and in Israel, as a dictatorship.

==================

Prof. Paul Eidelberg is a member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.

IS ISRAEL BECOMING A FASCIST STATE?

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

February 5, 2005

What is to be done to stop Prime Minister Sharon's suppression of freedom of expression and the individual liberty of those who oppose his Disengagement/Expulsion Plan? Consider how the ugly head of fascism appeared in Israel last week.

On February 13 Sharon told his cabinet, "Anyone who speaks or writes against the Disengagement Plan is guilty of incitement." The prime minister of Israel thus went on record saying that the expression of even the slightest opposition to his highly controversial plan is a criminal offense.

The next day Likud Minister of Internal Security Gideon Ezra, in a live interview on Israel Radio, said that people like Kach activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who yell at ministers should be placed under administrative detention -- which means imprisoned without trial. Yet the same Ezra supports releasing Arab terrorists convicted of murdering Israelis.

Moreover, Knesset member Effi Eitam was expelled from the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by its Likud chairman, Yuval Shteinitz, when Eitam argued with Sharon for accusing parliamentarians of incitement because they opposed his disengagement/expulsion plan.

Also last week, Likud Transportation Minister Meir Shitreet (a former justice minister) told Israel Radio that Likud party members are guilty of incitement when they write letters to Likud MKs informing them that future political support for these politicians is dependent on their voting against the withdrawal/ expulsion plan.

The gifted Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick remarked that in Shitreet's view it's incitement for constituents to base their support for politicians on the extent to which those politicians advance their interests while in office!

Unfortunately, Ms. Glick failed to point out that, under Israel's parliamentary system, Knesset members -- and that means cabinet ministers -- are not individually elected by, or accountable to, any constituency. They are candidates on a party slate, and they do not owe their position to the voters in a constituency election. Which means that Israel, unlike almost all countries having democratic elections for the lower or only branch of the legislature, is not, and never has been, a truly representative democracy.

This "incitement craze" and all this talk about assassins are simply intended to intimidate and silence the national-religious camp, as the Left did before and after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin -- the truth about which has been hidden from the public.

In any event, Sharon is so obsessed with his disengagement plan, that he denied Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon a one-year extension of his appointment, contrary to precedent and to the utter surprise of the Knesset. Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter is also being replaced. The reason? Both men testified before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the disengagement plan would lead to an increase of terrorism.

Prof. Paul Eidelberg is a member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.

Arutz Sheva-IsraelNationalNews.com - February 27, 2005

A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY

by Yehuda Poch

Professor Arik Carmon is the president of the Israel Democracy Institute, ostensibly a non-partisan think-tank tasked with research into democracy and the democratic practices of Israel. This week, he co-signed an Open Letter to the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council, in which he called on them not to "disengage" themselves from the democratic process.

The tone and content of this letter, as discussed on Israel Radio yesterday evening (February 26), closely mirrors one of the lead arguments of the supporters of Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, which is that opponents of the plan are acting against a decision reached in a democratic fashion.

This argument is an exercise in political poison. Its sole aim is to delegitimize the Israeli Right as anti-democratic - something the Left has been trying to do, in one form or another, for many years, and something that could not be further from the truth. So, it's time for a reality check.

In January 2003, Israelis re-elected Ariel Sharon in the largest electoral landslide ever seen in Israeli history. The Likud, under his leadership, received twice as many votes as its nearest rival, the Labor party under Amram Mitzna. Mitzna had run a campaign based almost exclusively on his idea that Israel should unilaterally withdraw from the entire Gaza Strip. Sharon ran his campaign opposing that idea.

The 2003 election was not an election of personalities. Voters did not choose Mitzna or Sharon. They chose Labor or Likud. They voted for party platforms and legislative programs. There was no direct election of the prime minister, as there had been in 1996, 1999 and 2001. This was a single-ballot election for a party, and the leader of the largest party would become prime minister. Labor's platform, under Mitzna's leadership, championed disengagement. Likud's platform, under Sharon's leadership, opposed it. When Sharon won his landslide, he formed a cabinet based upon the principles of the Likud platform, including opposition to a unilateral withdrawal.

Yet, 10 short months after the election, Sharon had announced his intention to follow Labor's electoral platform, and to unilaterally withdraw Israeli presence from the Gaza strip and four communities in northern Samaria. In May 2004, in a referendum of Likud party members, the Likud reaffirmed its platform of the 2003 election, by rejecting the "Disengagement Plan" and demanding that its ministers and members of Knesset vote against it.

In June 2004, Ariel Sharon had to fire two cabinet ministers who were opposed to the Disengagement Plan in order to enable it to pass the cabinet vote. The vote was 14-7 in the end, but had Avigdor Liberman and Benny Elon remained in the cabinet for the vote, at least three Likud ministers would have changed their yes votes to no, defeating the plan. One Likud minister was later fired for continuing to oppose the plan, but he was acting in line with the Likud party membership decision of May.

Since the original cabinet vote, opponents of the plan - and even a third of its supporters - have been demanding a national referendum on the issue, whose results all have pledged to honor. This demand has been raised because the current government cannot implement the plan and continue to claim democratic legitimacy. If the electorate had wanted this plan to be implemented, they would have voted for Labor in 2003.

The supporters of the plan claim that a majority of the country's voters support the plan, and this may be true. But without a referendum, the only vote that matters is the most recent election, in which a minority of voters supported parties that were in favor of the plan.

There is nothing democratic about the Disengagement Plan. It is being implemented by a government that was elected to oppose it, in full contravention of the will of the electorate as expressed in the last election. The issue has succeeded in dividing the nation along a very dangerous fault line, and the dangers that it has exposed can only be defeated in two ways: through the full suspension of democracy, including the use of military force against large groups of the population and the assumption by the current government of dictatorial powers, or through a democratic confirmation of this government's mandate to execute its stated policy.

The letter co-signed by Professor Carmon is hypocritical, and destroys any assumption that the Israel Democracy Institute is in any way non-partisan, or that it actually understands what democracy is all about. It is solely the target of that letter, the Israeli right-wing, that has shown any interest in preserving democracy, by calling for a national referendum to enable the democratic confirmation of the government's mandate.

There has been no official determination that the electorate has changed its mind on this issue, and until there is, there is no democratic justification for the Disengagement Plan. If the Israel Democracy Institute were really interested in the preservation and development of democracy in Israel, it would be front and center championing a national referendum. By calling on the Israeli Right to abandon the idea of a referendum, the IDI is instead increasing the possibility that democracy will be short-circuited in the interests of power. And that is the definition of tyranny.

THE RIGHT TO AFFECT YOUR NEIGHBOR

by Emanuel A. Winston
Middle East analyst & commentator

The idea that the majority rules simply because there are more of them, may not be the way to decide some problems. When the majority has a prejudiced or vested interest in what it considers its own well-being, while putting the minority in danger, that's not a fair or equitable way to decide problems.

The minority does not exist, nor should it - at the pleasure of the so-called majority. The majority in Israel lives along the Mediterranean coast. These are city people mostly who generally think of themselves as Politically Left and highly Liberal. They feel insulated from hostile Arab Muslim Palestinians on Israel's borders, even though the majority of Terror attacks have occurred in the cities.

Whenever there is a Terrorist attack in downtown Tel Aviv, they think of it as an anomaly. Once the blood and body parts are mopped up and the flesh scraped off the buildings, the shock is quickly forgotten. Generally, instead of being angry at the Arab Muslim Palestinians, the source of their pain, they quickly drift over into the idea that "somehow" the mere existence of the 'settlers' provoked the killings. That, if the minority of Settlers now on the East side of the 1967 Green Line (Armistice Line) were not there, the Arab Muslim Palestinians would have no reason to attack. Ergo, they, the majority, must be right and the settlers must be 'wrong' - which is artful denial at its peak.

In an atmosphere of self-delusion, they ignore the steady hate mantra of the Muslims all over the world, be they Terrorists or the supportive civilian population, generally saying: "We will cleanse the land of Jews from the Jordan (River) to the (Mediterranean) Sea for the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as the capital only of the new State of Palestine."

So, the majority tell all those Jews who choose to live their lives on the 'liberated' side of that irrelevant Armistice Line that Abba Eban nicknamed the Auschwitz Borders, that you must leave. You must abandon homes, farms, factories and gift them to a veritable flood of hostile Arab Muslim Palestinians as a peace gesture.

To fulfill his new idea, Sharon had to enlist that part of the nation who did not live in the 'territories' nor had any investment in remaining there. That was not difficult because Sharon appealed to those called the Political Left who long ago were taught to dislike, if not hate, those Pioneers pejoratively called "Settlers".

In the earliest days of the State, the Left encouraged 'settlement' of the Land. The Arabs made one war after another, with Terror attacks in between, gambling the Land away, on the off-chance, they could themselves occupy and remove the Jews.

The Left, from the first nation builder Prime Minister David Ben Gurion onward, used the rightfully captured Land out of self-defense to create settlements (kibbutzim and moshavim) that turned into cities. They, the Left, soon forgot that a great deal of the Land that they settled on was Land rightfully owned by Jews originally and rightfully re-captured from the Arab Muslims after the various wars - all of which were started by the Arabs - not the Jews.

The Left soon became the radical Left and began to bond with their Arab Muslim aggressors on the theory that hostile Muslims could be appeased and would accept them as neighbors. The Leftist Jews started to offer Jewish owned Land (once occupied by Arab Muslims) back to their aggressors but the Land was not ever theirs to give. Thus started the demonization of Jews who live in the Territories. That dislike was compounded when it became clear that Settlers believed the Land was always theirs as promised by G-d.

This was a multiple affront to the city dwellers since most didn't believe in G-d or his Covenant gifting the Land of Israel to the Jews in perpetuity. The radical Leftists really hated the idea of G-d's Covenant. They also hated the fact that Jews could successfully work the Land as was originally planned by the Labor Zionists. While Ben Gurion believed that Labor Zionism was the way to get to a secular Israel, they soon drifted off into secular nothingness.

The questions arise:

Can the majority, to suit their self-serving needs, mandate that a large minority must leave their homes, farms, factories, schools, synagogues, businesses, infrastructure and even their cemeteries?

Can the majority do this on the theory that the Arab Muslim Palestinians will be appeased with this sacrifice?

Where in the civilized and so-called democratic nations of the world does one part of a nation gift the other part of their own nation to an adversary?

We did see it once when a catastrophic decision by the French and British authorized the gift of the Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) to Adolph Hitler on the promise that he would then be pacified and leave them alone. As we know now, it only whetted Hitler's appetite and confirmed that the gifting nations were weak and would be easy conquests.

Regrettably, we are seeing a similar replay of nations gathering in what they see as their own self-interest and gifting parts of Israel to a hateful adversary, hoping the 'gift/sacrifice' will appease the Arab Muslims and their Terrorists. Here we find the Bush Administration, the E.U., the U.N., and Russia (the Quartet collectively) are willing to repeat the Sudetenland Betrayal because they are the majority.

The Leftist Jews who now support Sharon, even though they believe that the Sharon family has behaved dishonestly regarding money, wish to gift a great deal of Jewish territory to Arab Muslim Palestinians. They accept the 'diktats' of a single person, Sharon, whose aberrant personality demands obedience in all matters.

The coastal Jews of Western Israel believe that the mountain Jews of the East must be sacrificed "for the good of the majority". As non-observant or irreligious Jews, they ignore the idea that G-d put each of us here on earth as a single person and not as chattel or pawns to some larger group to move about as in a chess game.

We cannot make a minority expendable so the majority can live better.

If I, in the minority, choose of my own free will to risk my life to save yours, that is my choice - not yours to make for me. Observant Jews believe that one life is the whole world - referendums and dictators' wishes notwithstanding.

If a majority wishes to impose its own self-serving will on a minority in a life-and-death struggle, I would feel it only proper that the minority has every right to defend itself by every means possible - and I do mean every means!

Emanuel A. Winston is a member of the Board of Directors and a Research Associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies

A POLICE STATE IN FORMATION

by Emanuel A. Winston
Middle East analyst & commentator

I have seen several reports wherein they state that Sharon has employed non-Jewish Russians as shock troops against the Jews of Gaza/Gush Katif. That includes housing, training, and supplying them with rolling stock (trucks) to haul off the Jewish resistors. Anyone with specific information, I would appreciate your response.

I do recall publishing on what I believed the Labor Left was planning with the non-Jewish Arabs of Arafat's Terrorists in the early 1980s. The objective of meetings with Arafat was to similarly eject the Jews of Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, and half of Jerusalem.

The plan was to move in phases such as making it difficult to get building permits, slowing down installation of water pipes, electricity grids, sewage lines, roads, etc. Then there was the bribery phase where Settlers were to be seduced with payments to move out. There was a period of what was to be the use of military force.

Finally, there were the "shock troops" stage, wherein the Settlers would be faced with Arafat's PLO who could make the roads so dangerous that the Settlers would be forced out. While Yitzhak Rabin is not around to testify, Shimon Peres - among others - could be called upon to testify but, of course, such investigations do not usually take place in Israel.

Whether Sharon is gathering gentile Shock Troops in advance of the Police and Army is something to be revealed. If anyone has accurate and provable information on employing Russian Gentiles living in Israel as Shock Troops to terrify the Jews of Gaza/Gush Katif, it should be made known. Using mercenaries is not unique to such Jewish tyrants as Herod was in his days.

Sharon has already poisoned much of the Police Force with orders to beat protestors, releasing all their normal inhibitions. We have reports already of beatings where ribs were broken, heads cracked, with eye and hearing disability. With disappearing files on the injured. This is the stuff that Jews were to have escaped from in Russia, Germany, France, Poland, etc. Once a KGB style Police Force takes hold, then the entire nation will suffer brutality - which Sharon, no doubt, means to be merely a brief period of a Police State tactics.

Have you ever noticed that Jews only discover they have been taken only after they have been taken? We have lost a lot of Jews because we seem to avoid seeing the problem, let alone acting in time to save ourselves. What's worse is that we feel guilty when we think to question anyone who rises to the top. Just hang on with bleeding fingers until one day you get the job. The Title doesn't make you a good person or an angel. Unless you really are but, then again you wouldn't be a problem.

Emanuel A. Winston is a member of the Board of Directors and a Research Associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.

SHARON TO SURRENDER THE GOLAN

Has Israel Fallen For The "Mubarak Gambit" Again?

By Bernard J. Shapiro

The word has gone forth from Jerusalem. Now there is no doubt, despite a multitude of denials. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already agreed to surrender the whole Golan Heights to Syrian dictator Bashir Assad. It took months of couching, but finally Syrian dictator has learned to say the word "peace." Does he mean it? The United State's State Department has announced that once peace is made with Syria, then 18 other Arab countries will make peace with Israel. The pressure to accept a withdrawal will be immense. Golan residents are beginning massive resistance, including hunger strikes and demonstrations. In 1994 Labor MK Avigdor Kahalani is organizED a faction in the Knesset to resist withdrawal from the Golan. He has tabled a bill to raise the vote necessary for approval of territorial change from a simple majority (61) to 70 Knesset members.

The time has come to clear the smoke and mirrors. There is a significant Israeli dilemma in the negotiating framework with Syria. I call this dilemma: the "Mubarak gambit." After Egyptian dictator Anwar Sadat's death, his successor Hosni Mubarak discovered that Egypt could ignore its peace treaty obligations to Israel with impunity. Sadat had signed over 50 agreements and amendments to the Camp David Accords, which spelled out in great detail normalization of relations with Israel. These included trade, tourism, science, cultural and other attributes of peaceful relations. The late Menachem Begin, of blessed memory, fully believed that his sacrifice of Sinai, with its air bases and oil, was worth the inauguration of peaceful relations with the most important country in the Arab world.

With every passing year, it became clearer to Mubarak that the Israelis were too timid to protest Egyptian violations. It also became clear that America would continue to supply aid in the billions of dollars to Egypt, despite Egypt's obvious violations of their most solemn commitments to both President Jimmy Carter and Begin.

From this experience Mubarak devised the "Mubarak gambit," which sets out the principle that an Arab country can promise Israel peace and full normalization as a negotiating tactic in order to force an Israeli withdrawal from territory. Then after the territory is recovered, the Arab country can ignore the normalization part of any agreement.

It is such a painless gambit, one would have thought that all of Israel's neighbors would have rushed to use it. In the Arab world, however, symbolism is very important and it took many years before they were ready to use this tactic. Mubarak, first convinced terrorist leader, Yassir Arafat, to try out the "Mubarak gambit." We all know what has happened, including the famous handshake on September 13, 1993. We also know that all of Arafat's promises to the Israelis, including revising the PLO Charter and stopping violence, have not been honored.

Now, after much tutoring, Assad has learned the principle. It has been with great difficulty that he even speaks about peace with Israel. While he is never very clear about his meaning of peace, one thing was clear: he has learned to use the "Mubarak gambit." We will be hearing a lot from him and State Department officials about how he has changed and now "really" wants peace. Don't believe it.

Most of you understand the strategic significance of the Golan Heights so I will concentrate on the other side of the equation. If Syria wants Israel to exchange the Golan for peace, we must ask ourselves the following: (1) Is Syria capable of giving Israel peace? (2) Is peace really possible? (3) Does Syria deserve to get the Golan Heights ? (4) Is the Golan really Israeli territory? (5) What are Syria's true intentions toward Israel?

Syrian dictators while very intelligent, are sociopaths with extreme paranoid delusions. Their brutal record of killing everyone who disagrees with them or poses even the slightest political threat bears out this analysis. In my opinion, they are incapable of living up to any peace agreement with Israel. Whether peace is possible depends upon your relative propensity to believe in fairy tales. If you believe in the real possibility of achieving utopia or nirvana; and if you believe in the tooth fairy, then peace with Syria is not only possible but desirable.

Any review of Israel's relations with Syria would indicate that the Syrians do not deserve to get the Golan. This point is rarely mentioned but is important. The bloodthirsty behavior of the Syrians, when they controlled the Golan (1948-67), makes me comfortable with depriving them of its return. When the Israeli Defense Forces conquered the Golan, we all vowed never to give it back. Nothing has changed.

Is the Golan really Israeli territory? The Golan was a part of the original League of Nations Mandate at the San Remo Conference in 1920 to Great Britain, for the purpose of establishing the Jewish National Home. In 1921, The British gave Eastern Palestine to Emir Abdullah, who named it Transjordan. Then in 1923, they gave the Golan to the French to become part of the French Mandate of Syria. In both cases, the intent of the League of Nations was violated and the area of the future Jewish state was diminished. Going back even farther, one finds reference to the Golan as an Israelite territory in the Holy Scriptures (Deut. 4:43; Josh. 20:8; I Chron. 5:56). Israeli archaeologists have also found numerous ancient synagogues on the Golan.

My final question is: What is Syria's true intention? The answer can be found in a recent meeting of ten rejectionist Palestinian terrorists groups held in Damascus . They swore with Assad's backing to prevent peace with Israel and to work for its total destruction. Syria is also involved in an unholy alliance with Iran and the Hezbollah, whose aim is to make the Middle East Judenrein (Jew-free). Does Sharon really want to help them make Eretz Yisrael to be Judenrein????

In conclusion we find Syria incapable of making peace; that peace is not possible now anyway; that the Syrians do not deserve the Golan; that the Golan really belongs to Israel; and that war, not peace, is Syria's true intention. Assad maybe whispering sweet nothings in Sharon's ear about peace, but we must tell Sharon not to be seduced.

================

Bernard J. Shapiro is the Executive Director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies <www.freeman.org> and editor of THE MACCABEAN ONLINE and the Freemanlist.

[Obviously this article needed an update, February 28, 2005. This article was originally written for the benefit of then Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and published by The Jewish Press (NY) on September 23, 1994, the October 1994 issue of The Caucus Current, and the October 1994 issue of THE MACCABEAN].

WHO SAYS THE GOLAN IS SYRIAN?

By Prof. Yoav Gelber

[Originally appeared in Yediot Ahronot [January 16, 2004]. Translation thanks to Moshe Kohn.]

Before we proclaim that "the Golan is Syrian," it is worthwhile doing a quick review of its history. Ever since the establishment of the Syrian state, that country has lost more significant segments of its land than the Golan. In 1920 Mosul was given to Iraq and Tripoli to Lebanon, and in 1937 the Turks took Alexandretta. Yet Syria has maintained correct relations with all three of those annexing neighbors. It would seem that her insistence on getting the Golan back in its entirety stems solely from her desire to weaken Israel.

In the original division between French Syria and British [Mandatory] Palestine [after World War I], most of the Golan Heights was within the borders of Palestine. In the course of the demarcation of the boundary, local landowners applied heavy pressure, and as a result - and due to the absence of Zionist counter-pressure - the line was moved [somewhat] westward. Upon gaining independence, Syrian refused to recognize that line, and ever since they have been demanding that the border run down the middle of the Jordan River and Lake Kinneret [the "Sea of Galilee"]. During the [1947-1948] War of Independence [Arab-Israel War], the Syrians gained control of areas west of the Jordan and afterwards demanded that the border coincide with the water line. The response of Israel's foreign minister at that time, Moshe Sharett, was that it was unthinkable that Israel should hand her Syrian enemy what the British had refused to give their French ally.

Under the 1949 armistice, the Syrian Army retreated across the border, and the area they vacated was declared a demilitarized zone. The struggle for the control of that area reached its peak when Israel started to drain the Huleh Valley swampland. In the spring of 1951 violence broke out throughout the demilitarized zone, leading to the expulsion of the Arab residents of the area to Galilee and across the border, and Israeli sovereignty over the area was ensured. There was a de facto partition of the demilitarized areas: Israel controlled the central section and the Syrians had el-Hamma on the Kinneret's northeastern shore and two tels on the fringes of the Galilee "panhandle." This partition is the basis of the difference between the two concepts, "the international border" and "the June 4 [1967] lines."

What did not obligate the Syrians then should not obligate Israel [today]. There is no need today to hand the Syrians a border that they rejected in the1940s and 1950s. The Golan has been under Israeli rule longer than under the rule of independent Syria (36 years as against 21 years). [The Golan town of] Katzrin is no more Syrian than Jaffa, Lod, Ramleh, or Acco [Acre] are Palestinian (under the 1947 United Nations partition proposal), and we ought to think of the consequences of setting a precedent by giving up the Golan.

The weight of the historical arguments might have been different if Syria held Israel by the throat. But the only real Syrian threat against Israel is the threat of missiles aimed at Israel's center. Security arrangements in the Golan might be a partial solution regarding the security of the Israeli settlements situated along the pre-1967 line, but is no answer to the threat of missiles fired from points far from the demilitarized zone and from far Israel's warning systems. The sole constraint on the implementation of this threat is the Israel Defense Forces' proximity to Damascus, Israel's withdrawal from which would abandon the Dan region, the Coastal Plain, and Haifa to Syrian missiles.

The argument that a peace agreement is the best defense against missiles is delusive. There has never been a war that was not preceded by peace. And the risks of war in our case are not symmetrical: we cannot afford a single loss, whereas our neighbors have survived several debacles. That is why Israel stubbornly insists on security arrangements in any pace pact with any of her neighbors.

Syria has far more serious problems than we in the military sphere, in the economic sphere, and in the political sphere. She needs peace in order to solve some of them, and it is she - not Israel - that has to pay the main part of the price to achieve it: first and foremost by ceasing to support Palestinian and Lebanese terror, and also by waiving her claim to most of the Golan.

DISENGAGEMENT - TRACK RECORD EXAMINED

by Yoram Ettinger

The late President Reagan stated that "History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap."

Reaganism and the proposed Disengagement Plan (cut & run from Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and northern Samaria, while uprooting Jews) constitute an oxymoron.

Enclosed you'll find the 174th issue of Straight From The Jerusalem Cloakroom, which highlights the damage - caused by disengagement - to vital US interests.

Straight From The Jerusalem Cloakroom #174, February 26, 2005

DISENGAGEMENT - TRACK RECORD EXAMINED

by Yoram Ettinger

1. Israel's 1993/6 disengagement from Gaza and 40% of Judea and Samaria established the pro-Saddam/Taliban PA, coinciding with the dramatic rise in anti-US Islamic terrorism, leading to the Twin Towers terrorism. Palestinian terrorists fought the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. Islamic terrorists compare Israel's disengagement to the US retreat from Beirut (1983) and Somali (1993).

2. IDF re-engagement with, and control of, Palestinian towns has sharply cut terrorism in 2004. Palestinian terrorism has targeted, mostly, Israel's pre-1967 area. IDF presence in/around Gaza protects, primarily, pre-1967 Israel.

3. In 1994 Israel disengaged from 85% of Gaza (and 100% of its population). By 1998 Israel disengaged from 40% of Judea & Samaria (and 95% of its population). It yielded unprecedented terrorism, facilitated anti-US and anti-Israel hate-education, smuggling and manufacturing of terror hardware, recruitment and training of terrorists.

4. 250 Israelis were murdered, by Palestinian terrorists, during 1988-1993. 1,700 Israelis have been murdered, by Palestinian terrorists, since the launching of the Oslo-driven disengagements (85,000 in US terms; 28 Twin Towers).

5. The 1994 disengagement created the largest terrorist base in the world, led/harbored by PLO graduates of terrorist camps in Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon and Tunisia. It is interpreted, by terrorists, as a retreat by the role-model of countering terrorism (Israel), and a reward to the role-model of terrorism (PLO/PA). It has inspired Islamic terrorism, which threatens pro-US Arab regimes (Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc.).

6. The 1995 disengagement from Bethlehem and Beit Jallah facilitated a takeover by Moslem terrorists, which has accelerated the flight of Christians.

7. The July 2000 disengagement from Southern Lebanon - following the loss of 21 soldiers in 17 months - propelled Hizballah to regional prominence (including in Iraq and Afghanistan), expanded Hizballah's role in Gaza and J&S, injured Israel's posture of deterrence and adrenalized Palestinian terrorism.

8. Egypt has inspired Palestinian hate-education and has encouraged the smuggling of terrorist hardware to Gaza. Its re-engagement with Gaza could unintentionally produce Israel-Egypt military confrontations (e.g. during hot pursuit of terrorists), dragging the US into unnecessary conflicts with both.

9. President Reagan: "History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap." Reaganism and the proposed Disengagement Plan (cut & run from Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and northern Samaria, while uprooting Jews) constitute an oxymoron.

The Jewish Press - 2/23/2005

ISRAEL FREEING ARAB TERRORISTS
AND SURRENDERING JEWISH LANDS:

Living Precariously In The Delirium Of Expectation

By Louis Rene Beres

Writing of the Jews as a "people of solitaries," E.M. Cioran, the most dazzling French philosophical voice since Paul Valery, observes of the Jewish "nation" that this people, "...unsuited to the complacencies of despair, bypassing its age-old fatigue and the conclusions imposed by fate, lives in the delirium of expectation, determined not to learn a lesson from its humiliations...."

Cioran's observation is astute. With the current Sharon plan for releasing Palestinian terrorists and surrendering Jewish lands, Israel has given new meaning to such "determination." Rejecting both Zionism and Judaism in the codified madness of "disengagement," the Prime Minister is openly comfortable with a policy that is indefensible by any reasonable standard of judgment. Withering every authentically Jewish heart and mind with his policy of "Land For Nothing," the Prime Minister proudly shows off an infinite forbearance for Israel's mortal enemies, past and future; foreign and domestic. Small wonder, then, that Sharon has now brazenly brought Israel to its final phase of unwitting self-parody.

What, after all, is being offered by the Arab side? Peace? Surely everyone must know that a "ceasefire" is strongly in the interest of the Palestinians, giving them needed time to reorganize unrepentant terrorist forces and to replenish terrorist materials. They are, after all, quickly running short of nails, screws, razor blades and rat poison for the vests of their "freedom fighters."

Newly freed by Israel from worry about targeted killings of their lead murderers, Palestinian terrorists are already being reborn as Palestinian "police" and "security services." Here, with the incomprehensible blessings of the United States -- and with an additional $350 million of our tax monies -- the meticulously sanitized and media-transformed killers can spearhead a new momentum for "Palestine."

Of course, the Palestinian state, torn from the still-living body of a Jewish state, will immediately become a base for terrorist operations against both Israel and the United States. Why, why - we must inquire: Why do our own intelligence services maintain absolute public silence about expanding cooperation between several interpenetrating Palestinian "authorities" and al-Qaeda? Common links in this cooperation are such fiery preachers as Sheikh Mudeiris, who receive their salaries and their appointments from the Palestinian National Authority.

Prime Minister Sharon shows no evident reluctance to fawn before Israel's intended executioners. Shall Israel survive under such leadership? Perhaps. Yet, by agreeing to live comfortably on its knees, by forgetting its utterly sacred obligations to those legions of honored and heroic Jews who now sleep in the dust, the nation has arguably lost all right to do so.

Who are Israel's intended executioners? Enemies who are irrevocably and doctrinally committed to destruction of the Third Temple Commonwealth, it makes no difference at all if they are Hamas, or Islamic Jihad or Fatah. None. Not a single Palestinian group accepts the idea of a "Two-State Solution" -- the delusionary mantra animating Secretary of State Rice as well as Prime Minister Sharon. On the official PA map of the Middle East there is no Israel. Only "Palestine."

The wider Arab plan is still to remove Israel not only from the maps, but also to expunge it from the physical world amidst rivers of blood and whole oceans of religious poetry. Hence the cartographic genocide is blueprint -- a premeditated design for the next "phase." The language here is precise and meaningful.

The "Phased Plan" was adopted formally by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on June 9, 1974. In its 12th session, the PLO's highest body, the Palestinian National Council, reiterated the PLO aim: "...to achieve their rights to return and to self-determination on the whole of their homeland." However, departing from a previous strategy then calling for immediate annihilation of "The Zionist Entity," and for the establishment of a 23rd Arab state covering "all of Palestine," the Phased Plan adopted the following unambiguous goals: "FIRST, to establish a combatant national authority over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated" (Art. 2); SECOND, to use that territory to continue the fight against Israel (Art. 4); and THIRD, to start "a pan-Arab War to complete the liberation of all Palestinian territory; that is, to annihilate Israel" (Art. 8).

"To annihilate Israel" has never been a hidden element of Arab strategy. Since June 9, 1974, nothing has changed. In Muslim parlance, all war dictated by the shari'a is necessarily "holy." Yet, the Arabic word jihad, which has the literal meaning of "effort," "striving," or "struggle," ought not to be taken lightly. A basic commandment of Islam, jihad -- still a favorite term of Israel's "partners in peace" -- is an obligation imposed on all Muslims by Allah, and is patently military in intent.

Derived from the universality of Muslim revelation, jihad calls upon those who have accepted Allah's message and Allah's word to strive (jahada) relentlessly to convert, or, at a minimum, to subjugate those who have not been converted. Regarding the State of Israel, this obligation is not bounded by any ascertainable limits of time or space. Indeed, this obligation must continue until the whole world has accepted Islam or has submitted to the power of the Islamic state.

What is the prevailing Islamic worldview for the interim? It is that the world remains divided in two: the House of Islam (dar al-Islam) and the House of War (dar al-Harb). In the House of Islam, Muslims rule and the law of Islam already prevails. In the House of War, which comprises the rest of the world, a constant struggle against the unbeliever is morally, legally and religiously obligatory. No authentic political compromises are possible. No conclusion to the struggle is acceptable short of a final and total military triumph. Significantly, the law books permit the state of war to be interrupted, when expedient, by an armistice or truce or "ceasefire" or treaty of limited duration. This state of belligerency can never be properly terminated by a peace that is not founded upon a final victory.

Could anything be clearer? Throughout the Islamic world, Sharon's humiliating and futile pleas for "peace" will be exploited eagerly by Israel's intended executioners. Today, with Sharon's "disengagement," these soldiers of jihad, including even the Egyptians (who negotiated a markedly self-serving "interruption" in their own 1979 treaty with Israel), can hardly believe their good fortune. Can the "Jews" (significantly, it is always the Jews in Arab/Islamic parlance, never the Israelis) really be fooled this easily?

For Islam, the unsubjugated unbeliever -- in our present concerns, the Jew -- is by definition the enemy. A part of the dar-al-Harb, the House of War, he is differentiated sharply from the dhimmi, the unbeliever who submits to Muslim rule. As for a presumably Jewish State, one that rules over Muslims and that "occupies" Muslim lands, it is nothing less than the very incarnation of unbelief, an intolerable source of contamination and a codified inversion of Allah's will. Such a state can be fit only for extermination. It is, in the language of today's Arab textbooks, a language drawn from revered Nazi mentors, "filth."

When Haj Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, spoke together with Hitler on Berlin Radio, in 1942, he cried out: "Kill the Jews -- kill them with your hands, kill them with your teeth - this is well pleasing to Allah." Today, the infamous PLO call for annihilation of Israel STILL remains at certain official PA websites and publications, and the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) STILL calls for the "realization of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: 'The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, killing them.'"

Only a few years ago, the Palestine Authority (PA) radio station (Voice of Palestine) broadcast the following sermon at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque. It instructed all Muslims to recall that Israel is a transient part of Palestine and that Israel's survival is strongly "forbidden by religious law:"

The land of Muslim Palestine is a single unit which cannot be divided. There is no difference between Haifa and Nablus, between Lod and Ramallah, between Jerusalem and Nazareth. The division of the land of Palestine into cantons and the recognition of the occupation is forbidden by religious law, since the land of Palestine is sacred Wakf land for the benefit of all Muslims, east and west. No one has the right to divide it or give up any of it. The liberation of Palestine is obligatory for all the Islamic nations and not only for our Palestinian nation.... All Israeli politicians across their entire political spectrum, regardless of their labels, they all have a single Zionist view embodied in the occupation of the land and the establishment of the Zionist entity at the expense of the Muslim Palestinian land... Allah shall free the captives and the prisoners, Allah shall grant victory to our jihad warriors.

Sharon's Israel -- however much it may lack the "single Zionist view" alleged by its intended executioners and however much it is willing to sacrifice for "peace" -- will remain despised in the Arab/Islamic Middle East. It will be loathed exactly as Israel was loathed in Barak's Middle East, as it was loathed in Netanyahu's Middle East, as it was loathed in Begin's Middle East, and as it was loathed originally in Ben-Gurion's Middle East.

It will remain hated in the Arab/Islamic world because it is a Jewish State. To its enemies. that is Israel's irremediable and unforgivable sin. It will cease to be hated only on the day that it would finally offer politely to disappear, and even on that cursed day there would be posthumous loathing among Israel's current "partners for peace." This loathing would extend even to all those Jews and Christians who might remain to mourn over the battered corpse of Israel.

To be sure, Israel's intended executioners -- within and outside the Green Line -- have now found the Sharon "disengagement" plan for surrender yet another good cause for revulsion. Under this unprecedented formula for incremental Jewish disappearance, Israel will continue to hope too much, to wallow in engineered delusion, to waste critical strength in vain concessions, to elicit still-growing enmity by its weary capitulations and -- above all -- to learn nothing, absolutely nothing, from its inexcusable humiliations.

To be sure, we must never allow this to happen.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Jewish Press. All rights reserved.

LOUIS RENE BERES was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971) and is the author of many books and articles dealing with terrorism, nuclear strategy, nuclear war and international law. Professor Beres is Strategic and Military Affairs columnist for The Jewish Press.

DEJA VU AND INNOVATION

By Moshe Feiglin

The voices of peace have returned to our country... We're now seeing a replay of despicable murderers such as Abu Mazen and Dahlan being turned into media idols as they perhaps give us a few moments of peace and quiet in return for the rehabilitation of the terrorist organizations. Once again, commentators are referring to the terrorist leaders as "colleagues" of IDF officers. Once again, armed terrorists are walking around unhindered, not fearing anything.

In total contrast, but also as in the past, good people are coming from all over the country to participate in a demonstration, thus indicating the basic obedience of the organizers and participants.What difference does it make if there were 100,000 or 500,000 participants in the demonstration? General Sharon doesn't bother to count them.

This is the real question: Of those who came to the demonstration, will there be tens of thousands who will stand up at the critical moment and say in a loud voice: "We shall defend our brothers with our bodies and not permit Jews to be expelled from their homes"? Will tens of thousands of regular and reserve soldiers say to their officers: "We shall not raise our hands against Jews -- we shall not expel our brothers from their homes"?

The answer to this question will determine the fate of the struggle. The tens of thousands of new Manhigut Yehudit booklets about the obligation to refuse to obey that were rapidly grabbed by the crowds, the thousands of signatories to the Homat Magen (defensive shield) petition who undertake not to obey the expulsion order, are a refreshing innovation in the process we are currently undergoing. Does Gush Katif stand a chance? Is there a chance that Israel will extricate itself from the vicious circle of disintegration and internal destruction in which it finds itself? The chance lies with disobedience.

We are witnessing the end of an era. The social elites who led this country until now have ended their role, but are not willing to step down from positions of power. Power is their only concern -- not security or peace, not democracy or the economy, not even civil war. "We'll