Monday, December 20, 2010

Egypt and the 21st Century - By Levi Avtzon

It is really hot outside. Hot like a desert.
Hundreds of people are out in the fields, wrapped in rags, ripped  sandals on their aching feet. They walk haggardly, whiplash marks  painted all over their broken bodies. To the side stands the guard, a  dark-skinned man with an interesting-looking beard.
Stop for a moment and imagine the scene. Enter Egypt of 3,300 years ago.
Now make use of your mental Photoshop program, and insert yourself  into the picture. You will be experiencing the drama along with the  others; you will try to feel their pain and plight.    Ready?







You notice one of your coworkers collapsing. He is blue.
You don't cry; you are already immune to pain, having lived this nightmare as long as you can remember. Life is painful. When the guard walks over to the dead man, you have a brief moment to think undisturbed. Your mind begins to wander…

You are already immune to pain, having lived this nightmare as long as you can remember. You  remember the time your daddy sat you on his lap and related what had  been told to him by his father, quoting the patriarch of the family: "A  day will come when a man will arise and declare in the name of G‑d, 'I  have surely remembered you!' All the suffering will then end…"

Whip! GET TO WORK! The guard is back. Back to reality!
Back to work you go, but with a flicker of hope. The future envisaged  so vividly revives your shattered soul. It is all about to end, you  tell yourself with pure faith...
Hey, what's the noise you suddenly hear? Why is everyone shouting?
You raise your eyes and behold a dream come true.
There stands a man with an angelic look, a long white beard and eyes  so kind, and he is shouting for all to hear, "G‑d has said: 'I have  remembered you!'"
Moses has arrived.



 Close Photo shop. Go back to the exile of America circa 2010.
No whips, no guards, but an exile of a different sort—a prison of secularism. The Divine hand obscured almost completely.

People walk the streets fashionably dressed, fancy shoes on their  feet. They walk proud, meaninglessness painted all over their face. All  over are billboard and screens telling people how to live their lives.
No need to imagine the scene. Just turn on a TV or walk down the street.
You notice another neighbor who has fallen off the beaten path, his morals shattered.
You don't cry, you don't flinch; you are used to this, this is life.
When the radio, phone, and TV are all shut you have a few minutes to think undisturbed.
You raise your eyes and behold a dream come trueYou remember sitting on Daddy's lap, as he related how the one-liner Ani Maamin  – which proclaims the faith that one day we will be free from evil and  pain, and we'll live in a utopian world where G‑d is revealed and peace  takes over the world – has been with us Jews wherever we went. It has  given us hope even at the darkest moments...
Hey, what's that noise you hear? Why is everyone shouting?

You raise your eyes and behold a dream come true.
There stands a man with an angelic look, with a long white beard and  eyes so kind you feel the truth penetrating your soul. And he is  shouting for all to hear, "The time of your redemption has arrived!"
Moshiach has arrived. 

It's about time.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Foreign Policy for the Future: By Moshe Feiglin

2 Tevet, 5771
Dec. 9, '10

Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper

The request to lecture this week before a delegation of rightist European parliament members visiting Israel took me by surprise. I do not even buy German products, the very sound of spoken German gives me the chills, I have never set foot and never will set foot on German soil, and I oppose the Israeli high-school Holocaust tours. What possible connection can there be between me and this delegation?

Not only that. This was a nationalist, rightist parliament delegation - politicians that the media like to portray as Nazis. My natural instincts dovetailed with political expedience and my logical conclusion was to keep my distance. What do I need this for? Wouldn't it be wiser for me to follow the example of all the other politicians in Israel and evade any dialogue with this delegation?

But there is a rule that I always follow: When a hot potato comes your way, it is always worthwhile to see how the Left relates to the issue. Then, after a thorough investigation, do the opposite of what the Left does. So if the Left is demonstrating against this delegation - the same Left that trumpets every legal or illegal meeting with the most diabolical murderers of Jews in our generation - if it is so important to the Left to distance this delegation from here, then there must be something important and positive about them that deserves my attention. Boycotting everybody and everything is a childish privilege affordable only to those who are not interested in taking responsibility and leading.

A thorough investigation showed that these parliamentarians are not Nazis. On the contrary, they are the best friends that Israel and the Jewish Nation have today in Europe. But this fact alone would not convince me to meet with Germans. There is another, more significant reason.

The world-wide public that is loyal to its identity is buried deep in the dungeons of the world - the world that was once called "the free world." Officialdom is completely controlled by the despots of disintegration: the Left. It is an all-out post-modern war against anything of substance; nationality, family, G-d - everything.

There is no nationality. The Arabs did not set our forests on fire. The hookah did.

Pass the hookah, filter out all the incriminating news and stuff the entire arson war that raged through Israel's forests on Chanukah into its hollow pipe.

Pass the hookah, and let us hide the national war that is searing Israel deep inside, where it cannot be seen. Let us cram the Jewish Nation into there for good measure, as well.

Just put out the fire, get the Ministry of Truth back into control and make sure that all the doors to the dungeons in which we are buried are locked shut.

But above dungeon-level, everything is collapsing. Here in Israel, in Europe and in America. In all these places there are forces that strive to return to their essence. Amalek is not the only player in Europe. There are also noble values there. Our role as Jews who are entrusted with perfecting the world is to filter out the good, guard it, nurture it and yes - with proper care - even find values worth adopting. We do not endeavor to destroy the world in the name of Allah, but to perfect the world in the Name of G-d.

When everything collapses both here and there - and it will collapse, for a fire cannot be doused without water - we will have to emerge from the dungeon and build a new world.

This is already happening. It is hard for me to describe in words the distress signals that these parliament members were communicating. They are all strong and successful. But to me, they seemed as if they were reaching out from amidst the flames. They understand that their children - not their grandchildren, their children! - will either have to become Moslem or die. No exaggeration.

What should we do? Should we ignore all the forces that, parallel to us, are emerging from the dungeons of the world? Or should we begin now, with caution and true national pride, to weave the bonds of the future and plant them on the proper values system? After all, that is exactly why the Left defames all those who meet with them - so that it can continue to divide and conquer.

The delegation did not have an easy time with me. As opposed to other voices that they heard, I was careful not to ask for anything and not to try to convince them of anything. Our status is that of the giver - not of the potential receiver.

"You are the last true obstacle in the face of Islam," I told them. "Jerusalem belongs only to the Jews - including the Temple Mount, where we will ultimately build our Holy Temple."

When one of the representatives asked how there could be peace without negotiations on Jerusalem, I responded with such shock that he immediately apologized for even thinking to ask such a question.

I explained my feelings toward them honestly - including the need to express our stinging historical memories of Europe in political and practical terms. They did not have an easy time with me. But nevertheless, they heard the real truth, which is what they sought. My words starkly contrasted what they heard from others: empty overviews and pathetic attempts to convince them that we are really the pitiful underdogs of the world.

I do not think that Europe and America have much of a chance. Most likely, these healthy forces have woken up after the horses have fled the stables. But nobody knows how the history of the once-free world will develop. If rising leaders in Europe and America who share common values and a common enemy will be willing to come en masse to Israel and declare that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong and are holy exclusively to the Jewish Nation, we must stretch out our hand to them in friendship.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Who Set the Fire and Why?: By Moshe Feiglin

28 Kislev, 5771
Dec. 5, '10

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website

This article is being written two hours before Shabbat. The radio is incessantly reporting on the fire raging in the Carmel Mountains. The focus of the reports is twofold: The heartwarming response of the Israeli public to the victims of the fire, with families from around the country volunteering to open their homes to those people who have lost or had to leave theirs. The second focus is on finding the guilty party or parties. Who is guilty for the fact that Israel doesn't have amphibian planes? Whose fault is it that Israel doesn't have more fire fighters? Who is to blame for their lack of basic equipment? The finger-pointing is gathering steam. Just one question is not being asked: Maybe the guilty party is he who struck the match?

There is no question that Israel must better prepare itself for fires. Perhaps G-d is giving us a "fire drill" in advance of a strategic attack. Perhaps somebody will finally remove the dangerous chemicals being stored in Haifa Bay to storage areas far from population centers. Maybe Israel will finally buy amphibian planes, capable of filling huge amounts of sea water within minutes and releasing them on the flames before they get out of control. There are certainly many technical lessons to be learned and implemented from this Chanukah tragedy. But when all is said and done, we are looking for all those responsible everywhere but where they really are. The question is not, 'Why wasn't the fire extinguished sooner?' but rather, 'Who lit it?'

This time the fire started in the illegal Asufiya garbage dump?
Perhaps.
And no proof of arson has been found for the fires that broke out simultaneously in nearby Kiryat Bialik?
True.
And no perpetrators have been found for the fires that broke out at the same time in the south, even closing down some train service there?
Also true.

Nevertheless, it was clear to me - and to all the other people who are afraid to talk about this openly - that the huge blaze in the Carmel Mountains would kindle all sorts of other fires far away from the range of its sparks. It makes no difference if it started in a garbage dump or by arson. It makes no difference because we all know that most of the fires in Israel are caused by arson. Arson perpetrated by Arabs. Not by nut-jobs, not by criminals. Arson motivated by nationalism. Arson by Arab citizens of Israel.

Everyone is busy figuring out how many tons of fire extinguisher we have to keep in storage, but they are afraid to touch upon the real reason for the fires. Please allow me to address an issue that is extremely non-politically-correct: Who is setting these fires, and why?

Arson in Israel is generally perpetrated by Israeli Arabs. Not all of them, of course. But somehow, those guilty of arson are generally from the Arab sector.

Why would they do it? After all, life is good for Arabs in Israel. There is no Arab state in which they can enjoy absolute freedom and economic well-being like in Israel. Why do they hate us so much? Why do they burn the Land that is showering them with so much good?

I do not think that they do it because they are bad people. I have gotten to know quite a few Arabs with hearts of gold. They also do not do it because of some dark primitivism. And they are not stupid.

But they have a problem with the Islamic religion and culture.

When a doctor from Kfar Saba's Meir Hospital murders his sister for "family honor," he is motivated by a very problematic cultural background.

"The Arab is not the son of the desert, but its progenitor," said the first British Commissioner of the Sinai, Sir Charles Darvis. Wherever the Arab goes, he brings the desert with him. Now he has brought the desert to the ever-green Carmel Mountains.

Why did Arab MK Azmi Basharah feel the need to guide the incoming enemy missiles into Haifa? After all, if his dream comes true and Israel is defeated, he will lose his fat salary and the other benefits that he has. Why is he cutting off the branch upon which he sits?

The answer is that questions like that are irrelevant in a culture of robbers. In Arab countries, there is no middle class. In the Middle East, either you are one of the lucky few who sit down to the feast, or you belong to the masses that are part of the menu. For this reason, there is not and there never will be democracy in the Arab states - and their economies will never flourish. Israel produces more than all its neighbors combined. That is not because we are extremely industrious. It is because true economic vitality cannot exist in a culture of robbery.

"The Jews' goal is to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel," explained British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin to the UN, "while the goal of the Arabs is that there should not be a Jewish state in the Land of Israel." Bevin cannot be counted as a friend of Israel. But he, like Darvis thirty years before him, understood that there is no struggle taking place here between nations and cultures that desire to settle and develop the Land. Not at all. There is only one side that wants to do so - while the other side has no positive intentions. Its only goal is the elimination of the first side's goals.

Arab culture is anti-productive. It has no good and bad, only strong and weak. If you have given me something, it is a sign that you are weak; in other words, morally inferior to me - and that makes you my prey.

Currently, Israel is the main course on the Arab menu. If we want to live, we will have to wake up and deal with the Arab enemy. Sadly, we have plenty of experience.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The American Honey Trap: By Moshe Feiglin

14 Kislev, 5771
Nov. 21, '10

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website

Did you hear what Obama is offering?

What?

F-35 Stealth Bombers!

And why do we need them?

Are you serious?

I'm entirely serious. Why do we need the American jets?

Have you forgotten that Israel is under an existential threat? That our neighbors seek to destroy us?

And what is the greatest threat?

Iran, of course!

And why haven't we bombed Iran's nuclear facilities with the American jets that we already have?

What do you think? That Israel can do whatever it wants? We have international pressure. Luckily, the Americans still stand by our side.

And what will they do if we bomb, nevertheless?

They will stop selling us spare parts for the planes.

They will stop selling spare parts for the planes that they have already supplied?

Yes. That is what the experts explain. We have not bombed Iran because if we do so, the Americans will not sell us the spare parts for their fighter jets.

So you are saying that we cannot defend ourselves against the greatest threat against us because we have American jets.

Uuummm

And now you want us to add more American jets to our military hangars so that we will have even less room to maneuver in dealing with the most serious existential threat that we face.

Just a minute. Are you proposing that we throw all the American jets in the garbage?

The sooner the better. There is nothing as detrimental to Israel's security as American weapons. I think that the little exercise that we just did explains that clearly.

And how will you fight? With sticks and stones?

Until 1967, Israel did not have American weapons. In the War of Independence, the Sinai War and the War of Miracles that is called the Six Day War, Israel achieved a far more convincing result without them than in all the battles that followed – when we were already equipped with American weapons.

Today, Israel bases its military capabilities on American military hardware, and we cannot eliminate that in one day. But the State of Israel can develop and produce the most advanced weapons in the world. We have already proven our capabilities. We must enter an accelerated process of production of Israeli weapons systems – including fighter jets. Why do you think that the Americans are not willing to allow Israel to equip the F-35s with Israeli systems? They know that Israeli avionics are better than what they have to offer and they wish to stop local development. They want to make sure that we do not do exactly what we need to do. They want to protect their own weapons industry from competition and maintain Israel's complete dependence on them, as well.

Israel can produce a platform for a stealth bomber together with the aeronautics industries of other nations that are eager for this type of partnership. Alternately, Israel can produce the platform itself, as it did with the Lavi project. What is certain is that the F-35 deal is leading us in the opposite direction: More dependence on American weapons, another obstacle in the face of Israeli weapons production and most important of all – another obstacle in the face of our ability to defend ourselves from the most serious existential threats that we face.

Manhigut Yehudit's Strategy: Past, Present and Future

From the hysteria that has gripped the Left and the Arabs since this week's Knesset ratification of the National Referendum Law, which will require either a Knesset super-majority or a national referendum before Israel could surrender parts of Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, we can understand that the new law can delay Israel's collapse more than any protests that the Right can organize. It can delay Israel's collapse. But it cannot prevent it. The collapse is taking place on an essential level, while the law is a technical matter. Nevertheless, this law is an additional obstacle – perhaps even significant – in the path of those who plan to transform the Jewish State into a state of all its citizens – or to destroy it.

The day after the bill was passed, the headline of the radical Left newspaper, Ha'aretz, claimed that the bill can be annulled by a regular majority. In other words, the Left is already planning how to overcome this obstacle. Clearly, if the PM brings a "peace" agreement to the triumphant calls of the press and if the entire horror film that we experienced with the expulsion from Gush Katif replays itself – the Left will find a way to circumvent this law.

Nevertheless, this is an important law. Since Begin's Camp David, every retreat and surrender carried out by the Israeli government has been implemented against the will of the Nation. The fait accompli was executed with media and court manipulation of the will of the majority. In the name of democracy, of course.

The importance of this law is in the fact that in a small measure, it returns the state to the Nation. The Left and elites will take the state back – that is quite clear. But this law is important because it compels them to do so up front. It forces them to openly take the sovereignty away from the Nation and to return it to the elites.

How is Manhigut Yehudit connected to this?
MK Yariv Levin, who initiated the National Referendum bill, would not have been in the Knesset without Manhigut Yehudit. All the opposition inside the Likud to the proposed building freeze – entirely a product of faith-based registration for the Likud – would not have taken place without Manhigut Yehudit.

It is worthwhile to remember the ridicule for Manhigut Yehudit - largely from the Right - when we joined the Likud ten years ago. With all due humility, we can safely say that our entry into the Likud then was the result of the fact that we had successfully identified the truly consequential developments in Israel amidst the barrage of distractions.

Now, we can once again calm all those who say that Manhigut Yehudit has "failed" or "gotten tired." Our change of focus to an additional arena does not stem from a feeling of failure or weakness. It is the product of our strategic perspective. In the near future, when the world will claim that there is no need for a Jewish state and when this will be the hot topic in the elections for leadership of Israel, nobody will ask why a year or two ago Manhigut Yehudit began printing a magazine that explores this topic.

They are renewing the freeze and you are printing a magazine?
Absolutely. We have identified the strategic point – the point where the light of Mashiach is being created. Since the times of the Begin government we have run from one demonstration to the next – failing time and again. The public anti-freeze campaigns that we have seen over the past week or two – the full page ads in the newspapers, the demonstrations in Jerusalem, the municipal strikes – all look like an old, tattered shirt that is pulled out of the closet every few years.

It is the same shirt.
The same patches.
It didn't fit before and it still doesn't fit.

We have matured. The shirt didn't fit before, but we wore it anyway. We youthfully blocked the highways and thought that that would save Israel. There is no doubt that it was important to do so. But if years later, we are still wearing the same shirt and still using the same tactics that didn't help last time, we look pathetic.

Where is the strategic point?
We are losing the Land of Israel because the State of Israel is not a Jewish State. At the very most, it is the State of the Jews and the rest of its citizens. Without true Jewish content and essence, nothing here will last.

Manhigut Yehudit's goal is to reach out to the Israeli public with the tools and at the pace that it can digest. We must convince the public to lift its eyes off the ground and to see the new horizon – the Jewish State that awaits it, just around the corner. We must stimulate broadening circles of the Israeli public to stop fearing the Jewish State and eventually – to yearn for it.

For this reason, Tomorrow magazine does not argue with the present reality. Instead, it presents future reality. It doesn't debate. It creates a new paradigm. If we can consistently produce this magazine, its accompanying internet site and other programs that it will precipitate, we will generate a new consciousness in Israel. We will help to create the light of Mashiach.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Is There Life After America?: By Moshe Feiglin

27 Cheshvan, 5771
Nov. 4, '10

Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper

The tremendous significance that Israel's Right attaches to last week's elections in the US attests to the fact that the Right also pins most of its hopes on America. In other words, both the Right and Left in Israel suffer from the same delusion. For both sides of the political spectrum, everything depends upon our relations with the US - and not on our relations with ourselves, with the justness of our cause - and with our G-d.

The "pragmatic" perspective that disconnects destiny from existence is what ultimately prevents us from understanding reality and dealing with its challenges.

From a strategic perspective, the political process in the US does not have much importance for Israel. The building moratorium in Yesha began a short time after Rabin took office in 1992. Since then, we have been busy adjusting the height of the flames, while the situation has steadily deteriorated. Now, there is also a building moratorium in Jerusalem - even though officially, no such thing exists.

Obama did not create the problem. The problem is completely home-grown. We created it and the US pressure that accompanies it. True, Obama has intensified the problem and treats us less gently. But his behavior is actually helpful because it indicates which way America is headed - an indication that pragmatists like us insist on ignoring. Instead we look to the mid-term elections in Washington for salvation.

There are more than enough signs that the curtain is closing on America. If someone would have told us ten years ago that within less than a decade it would not be Israelis stuffing dollars into their mattresses but Americans rushing to buy the shekel, would we have believed him? If we had been told that within a decade the Governor of the Bank of Israel would be buying dollars in an effort to maintain the value of the American currency, would we have taken that information seriously?

What happened to the Soviet Empire, the British Empire and all the empires throughout history is beginning to happen to America. It is simply a historical rule to which the American Empire is also subject.
Obama has hastened the pace of this process but he did not create it. Thus, his decline will not prevent it. The very fact that the majority of Americans so enthusiastically voted for the man whose entire being symbolizes the complete opposite of the values that brought about the establishment of the United States, indicates the deep rot that has spread through American society. The inevitable economic collapse that Obama is inflicting upon America is nothing more than a symptom of the moral rot.

Significant sections of the American population are still motivated by the values of America's founding fathers. But they have no real ability to stop the crumbling of their society. The Hispanic immigration on the one hand and the Islamic pressure on the other have forced America to face a challenge that it cannot overcome. "Multi-culturalism has failed," explained Angela Merkel. In America, multi-culturalism is in the Oval Office.

In these very days, when America is pulling out of Iraq with its tail between its legs and when it is already clear that it will suffer a similar defeat in Afghanistan, we can say that Bin Laden defeated Bush - in a big way. He defeated Bush, which just goes to show that the defeat is not Democratic or Republican. The defeat is American, the product of values that cannot face conflict with a religion or an enemy that is not a nation-state.

Where is Israel in this state of affairs? Clearly, nobody in Israel's Foreign Ministry, in its plush universities, in Israeli politics or its generously-funded think tanks is even attempting to think about what will happen when we wake up one morning and America will simply not be there. For them, this would be tantamount to a religious person considering the ludicrous possibility that there is no G-d.

But that is exactly what will happen. First, America will not be there for Israel. And then it will not be there at all. It will collapse or turn into something reminiscent of Argentina.

All the important institutions that are supposed to warn us of this eventuality will fail miserably. That's how it is with institutions. By their very nature, they cannot think out of the box. They will scoff at the type of article that you are reading now, just like they scoffed at everyone who warned that rockets would be flying into Ashkelon. Afterwards they will explain why they were right nevertheless or they will ignore their failure. The people who were paid fat salaries to prepare us for the new reality - and instead left us off-guard and helpless - will write glorious autobiographies and run for the Knesset.

So, despite all the warning signs, America's collapse will catch us completely by surprise. Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, like the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is impossible to know when it will happen. But one way or another it will happen - and Israel should plan ahead and free itself now of its dependence on America.

How will we manage without the American veto in the UN Security Council? Maybe we should pre-empt that problem and simply resign from the UN? Don't we have other strategic allies?

How do we fight without American weapons? Has anybody thought of the fact that in any case, we will not have American spare parts after a certain point? Did the recent F-35 deal take that into account?

In other words, instead of beginning to free ourselves from the sinking Titanic, we have added another rope that ties us to it. Simply because our pragmatism leaves no room for strategic thinking.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Rabbi Meir Kahane’s last speech urging American Jews to make emergency Aliyah

Rabbi Meir Kahane’s last speech urging American Jews to make emergency Aliyah (excerpts of speech) November 5, 1990 – Cheshvan, 18, 5751

I was born in this country, and I can’t recall ever, in my life, as much open and vicious Jew-hatred as I have seen in our time right now, in this country. I travel around from city to city, and in every city Jews tell me it is unbearable. Attacks upon synagogues, attacks upon Jews, all of which are of course buried. Because the synagogue doesn’t want it to be know. The ADL wants to report “there were 55 incidents this year in the United States”, when actually, there were 55 incidents in one hour in the United States. On radio programs which I am on – the telephone calls – open, open (anti-Semitism).
Two Reasons for Increased Anti-Semitism

What has happened? What has happened in natural terms? Of course, in divine terms, the Almighty is ending it for us. But what is happening in natural terms? Two basic changes have taken place in this country over the last twenty years. It began slowly, now it is reaching its crescendo. We have seen the death of what I call the “Auschwitz syndrome”. What is the “Auschwitz syndrome”? After World War II, it was hard to be an anti-Semite, even for an anti-Semite. It was just difficult. And then the years passed – ten years, twenty years, twenty-five years, thirty years, and a generation arose which was not born at that time. And the “Auschwitz syndrome” began to fade away, and the guilt began to fade away. No matter how many Holocaust programs were shown on television, every year they had less and less impact. Indeed, they reach a point whereby they encourage anti-Semitism, whereupon the anti-Semite says: “ Hey, you know, I know Jews, and the Nazis, and they were probably right.” That’s what happens today. It fades away. And to help things along, there was the rise of a strong Israel. Suddenly, Israel was winning. And that allowed the anti-Semite to cut the albatross. Now it was OK. You see, the Jew are Nazis, and they persecute the Palestinians, and now it was OK. So the “Auschwitz syndrome” faded, and it’s gone for all practical purposes. And you hear people speak about the holocaust that the Israelis are perpetrating upon the Palestinians. A Holocaust…So all the Israelis and all the Jews who ever called me a Nazi and didn’t realize that when you call a Jew a Nazi, you cheapen the Holocaust. And you cheapen the concept of Nazi, which is a very unique thing. And by you calling a second Jew a Nazi, what you are telling the world is” Jews can also be Nazis. Foolish people and tiny dwarfs and pygmies, grasshoppers.

So the “Auschwitz syndrome” is gone. And another thing has happened. After World War II, and until perhaps ten years ago, the American people lived in an economic luxury such as we have not seen ever in world history. No Roman emperor lived as well as the average American did from World War II on, until fairly recently. Life was good. And when life is good, the anti-Semite hates Jews quietly. It’s not a big deal to him. He hates Jews, but he’s too interested in the Monday night football game. I myself am amazed that so many people are here tonight that don’t want to see the Giants massacre the Colts…
The Economic Crises

So when times are good and he has his job, he has his beer and he has his TV set, he has everything – he hates Jews, but it’s not that important to him. But as the economic sands of time begin to run out, and as things get bad and they get worse and suddenly there is a chill, there is a fear. I can sense a fear in this country – people are afraid of what is going to happen, and they have every right to fear it. This is a country which is on the verge of economic horror, horror. In two years they expect the national debt to go from 3.7 trillion to 5 trillion dollars, so they work for months and months – this fiasco between Congress and this administration – and they say, “we are going to cut 500 million dollars in five years”. Five years! It is a joke – It’s a drop in the bucket. This is a country which is dying because the thing that was saving it was the fact that the Japanese are buying Rockefeller Center, Rockefeller Plaza – don’t be angry. If they stopped buying it, no one is going to cover the national debt. And they are stopping.


The dollar is a weak dollar today. Can you imagine: The Israeli shekel has held its own against the dollar now for a year. Don’t clap! It doesn’t mean that the Israeli shekel is strong. The shekel is weak; the dollar is just as weak. The Japanese don’t want dollars anymore, they want German marks. And they’re investing now in South Korea, Thailand, Singapore. The banks here are shaking, they’re tottering. In their greed, in the 1960’s and 70’s, they gave loans to anybody. The Congo came – you want money, take the money. Mexico came – take 100 million dollars – take, take it, take. Suddenly, the Congo couldn’t pay back. If that’s what a banker is…did he expect the Congo to ever pay back in total? So hundreds of millions of bad loans are being held by major banks: Chase Manhattan, Citicorp – and they are in deep, deep trouble today. And on top of that, suddenly the real estate market has collapsed and they are now holding several more hundred million dollars of bad mortgages. That’s the tragedy. That’s why suddenly, there’s a hurry talk bout Chase merging with City.


There’s a myth that your money is insured for $100,000. If the FDIC had 60 cents for every hundred dollars that you have, I’ll swim back to Israel. There is a myth that they are going to bail out the Savings & Loan with 40 billion dollars. If they can make it with less than half a trillion, it will be a miracle.

So for years, the new economists said, “Don’t worry about deficits, it doesn’t matter. Deficits don’t matter? I know that when my bank account is in deficit, it matters to me. The bank calls me up and says, “Rav Kahane, we have a little problem. Would you like to come and cover it?” A city can go a little deeper into debt than I can, and a state deeper yet, and a country can go a little deeper yet; but, in the end you have to pay the piper. So, America has lived beyond its means – extra credit, credit cards – and give anybody credit, give kids credit cards – anybody. Now it’s time to pay the piper, there is no money, there is no money. And should the economic collapse come it is the Jew who will be blamed. It is the Jew. You can hear it already. You can small it in the air.


The Racial tension – In all Colors

I was on a radio program in Chicago. Every single caller blamed the Gulf oil crisis on the Jews. Every single call. What you have now is the getting together of all these crises – the economic crisis, the racial crisis – and there is a serious racial crisis in the country. It’s a serious one. It is a dangerous one. Whites hate Blacks and Blacks hate Whites and they both hate Jews. It is a terrible, terrible thing. It’s not just Whites and Blacks. Now in the West, it’s the Hispanics and the Anglos – tremendous crises, which only proves all the more the myth of the melting pot. Uh nechtiga tag –what melting pot? A melting pot is fine until there is a terrible crisis and then two “objects’ occupy the same job at the same time. That’s a law of physics, which I’ve changed a bit…

So it’s not an accident that Jesse Helms is now putting on TV ads talking about the unfairness of quotas. Quotas are unfair. Of course, that is his trump card. People are angry about quotas and affirmative action, etc. And Blacks are angry. You think that Blacks have no argument? You think they are all bad? – that everything the Blacks do is wrong? You think that Bob Grant is your kind of guy? G-d forbid! This Jew-hating fascist type. That he says something good many, many times –you’re right. You think that bad people don’t often say correct things? Of course they do – but watch him, watch him and be careful of such people! People who are anti-Black will always be anti-Jewish too. One doesn’t have to love Farrakhan or Jesse Jackson to realize that he should be careful of racism of all kinds – White and Black – be careful, because we get stuck in the middle. Because the Whites and Blacks hate us both.


The Pre-War Depression: Not a Criteria

We have a serious problem – the economic crisis cannot be averted. There is no way. This country is in for terrible, terrible times. People tell me in the depression it was also bad. It’s true. But first of all, who knows what would have happened in this country if World War II had not ended the depression? If you think that Roosevelt ended it, you don’t know history. World War II ended it. It gave jobs finally, but more to the point, it was a different era back then. The American people at that time were a much stronger people in character. Today, after 40-50 years of good life and soft life, and the materialistic life, people are into themselves. Unbelievable ego. Everything is me, me – my life, my body, my-me, my-mine. People are incapable today of making sacrifices and that’s the great, great difference between today and what happened in the depression. The person who is fairly poor and gets poorer – not so terrible. The person who has it and lost it becomes a wild animal, a raging animal. He’ll not accept it and will look for a scapegoat. He’ll look for some target to blame. We Jews are the most visible, the most highly visible in terms of power, in terms of money. Of course, Wasps have more money than Jews have. Certainly, Jews are not into U.S. Steel and banking and so on, and the real, real money is not Jewish money, but that doesn’t matter because Jews are in those professions that are most visible.


How to Gauge anti-Semitism: Go to a Bar

So in the bars, it sits the jealousy and the envy of the Jews which leads to hate. The tragedy as I’ve said a million times is that the average Jewish leader in this country has no idea what people say ago about Jews in bars, because the average Jew doesn’t go into a bar – and he should; he should be compelled to go into a bar. Every rabbi before getting “smicha”, before being ordained, should be compelled to go into a bar and find out what the real world is like. It isn’t a joke. I’m serious. To hide in some little ghetto, you never know what the world is. They hate us with a passion out there, with a virulence which is frightening to see and to hear. On every radio program I go on, I hear, “why should we give you guys three billion dollars a year”? Anytime some fellow from the Israeli consulate is asked that question, he comes up with the answer, “well, we help you too, etc.” Baloney! The only way to get rid of that question is to answer as I do, “I don’t want the money! I want Israel to be a free enterprise state and allow private enterprise to flourish and then we don’t want your money, I don’t want your charity.” So, that of course gets rid of the question, but it doesn’t get rid of the anti-Semite. He’ll go home mutter in his beer and pretzels. He’s still there. He’s still there.


Role of the Prophet – To See It and say It

The rabbis tell us that G-d told Moses and Aaron. “I’ll make you Jewish leaders on one condition that if they throw stones at you, you’ll accept it.” Rather to be pelted with stones and not with dollars. That’s what a Jewish leader has to be! Say the bitter truth, even though they won’t like you. They won’t like you; they’ll attack you, but tell the Jews the truth if you love them. If you love Jews, tell them the things which will make them angry, but which can save their lives. That’s what you have to do! Think carefully about what I’m saying, and that is why we created this group called ZEERO, Zionist Emergency Evacuation Rescue Organization. It’s a name that provokes. And we hope that as we spread this idea it will provoke Jewish leaders to attack so we can debate the controversy that arises. People will say he’s right; he’s wrong, and so on. Of course, this is probably the worst thing you can ever tell any Jewish leader, any Federation leader – that he should leave here, and go to Israel. What’ill do there? .

The rabbis say: “Who is wise? He who sees the future”. It’s no big deal to see “today.” A Jewish leader has to see tomorrow.


Living in Israel – Difficult; Living Elsewhere – Impossible

It is coming here! It is coming here! Friday night I spoke in Brooklyn in shul, and I had to walk through Bensonhurst, a white neighborhood – nice people, because they’re white…Watching the people, the kids, you can smell the violence, you can see the hate, you can see the envy – frustrated, bored, looking for action. You can see it. Those are the potential mobs. And G-d forbid, we will see it. So ZEERO is a very serious project of Kach, and I mean a serious one. And I know how hard it is to go to Israel – it is really hard. Hard to make a living. My son goes into the army every single year. It’s dangerous and so on. All of it is true. Everything that’s all true. That’s all true. It’s hard to live in Israel, but it will be impossible to live here, and if we go to Israel, at least there we can change the country. Of course we can change it and make it better and make it tremendous and make it safe. Of curse we can do that if we have the power in the government, but here there is nothing you can do to change it, it’s out of our hands. We are a minority and we are strangers here. We’re stranger in this land, no matter how many years we’ve been here.


It’s not an accident that so few German Jews survived the camps. The Polish Jew did better. Why? Because the Polish Jew wasn’t surprised. It didn’t shock him that gentiles could behave like this. It didn’t surprise him, so he wasn’t shattered inside, he wasn’t’ broken. But the German Jew was psychologically shattered. How could this be? I’m a German. I’m a German. How could it be? How can you do this to me? The Pole knew he was a Jew. The German was broken because his whole illusion was shattered. And that’s how the American Jew lives. “I’m an American”. It’s the gentile who will teach you so quickly that you’re a Jew.


It’s no just in the bars, in the working class bars the anti-Semitism that you see. When you see the news media and their attitude towards Israel; it’s not anti-Israel – it’s anti-Semitism. Do you know why they hate Jews? Because among intellectuals there is a jealousy of Jews. When Truman Capote, the famous author, a sickness, a disease who represents all that is sick about Western culture – when he spoke about the publishing business being a Jewish mafia – you can see the jealousy. [He writes] how Jews are over represented in publishing, in broadcast, in movies, etc. Of course it’s so – they have talent. Untalented people don’t like to think it is because of talent. They like to think they run it because their friends, their uncles, their aunts and so on and so forth. The hate runs across the board. You can see Peter Jennings’ anti-Semitism. You can see it! And when I hold press conferences in Israel and I see them sitting around, you can watch them all – the hatred.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Feiglin on Freedom, Darwin, Obama and Jewish Identity

This week, Moshe Feiglin was invited to speak at two major Likud meetings. The first was a gathering to support Likud Central Committee member, Dr. Gabi Avital, who was dismissed from his position as Head Scientist of the Ministry of Education after he suggested expanding mandatory science studies to include theories for creation other than Darwin's evolution theory. The second gathering was a "Tea Party" organized by former Likud MK Michael Kleiner under the heading: Saying No to Obama. Both gatherings were well-attended by major Likud figures and commanded much media attention. The following is a summary of Moshe Feiglin's words at these two gatherings.

In Support of Dr. Avital
The fundamental questions behind Dr. Avital's dismissal are: Is the State of Israel a free state? Is it a state of liberty and freedom of thought? As a believing man, I do not feel threatened by the evolution theory for two reasons: For one, it is clear to me that aside from kindergarteners, nobody else can really learn the story of Creation on its simple level. On the other hand, Darwin's theory is no more than a theory that must be able to withstand the critique of common sense.

To me, for example, it is not clear where exactly in the Darwinist chain of development man cultivated the ability to differentiate between good and bad. In other words, from what animal, specifically, did we inherit morality? Obviously, Darwin's theory cannot explain that and actually - under the surface - claims that there is no such thing. That is the secret of the appeal that Darwin has had for humanity ever since it was introduced. It frees man of the chains of morality. What fun to be cultured monkeys, free of any limits or moral concerns.

There were those who took Darwin's theory to its ultimate conclusion and claimed that there really is no such thing as morality. It is all just a fabrication of the elites, they claimed, based on personal interest. From there, the path to the racial doctrine of the Nazis was short.

The enlightened witch hunt organized against Dr. Avital could not have been written better by George Orwell, himself. It was the thought police at their finest.

It would be worthwhile for the enlightened tyranny that forcibly sealed its ears and scurried to fire the scientist who merely suggested that students learn additional theories - to remember that there is no Nazism without Darwinism. This does not mean that Darwinism should be censored. On the contrary, it is important to learn as much as possible. But in this case, the religious fanaticism, darkness and threat hovering over man's liberty and freedom of thought do not emanate from the dismissed, but rather from the dismissers.

Moshe Feiglin's Remarks at Michael Kleiner's Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a major milestone on the way to the independence of the American colonies. Let us pray that this small tea party will also be a milestone on the way to an independent Israel.

In order to say no to Obama, we have to be able to say yes to ourselves. For the past ten years, Manhigut Yehudit has been explaining that the State of Israel must be a truly Jewish state. We asserted that the loss of our Jewish identity is the main cause of our diplomatic collapse. It was difficult for people to listen. It is much easier to declare that we are a Jewish state but in practice to disengage from any practical obligation toward our Jewish essence. It is more comfortable to forget our Jewish identity and to build an imitation of other nations; the Singapore of the Middle East, in the words of Peres.

We didn't want to hear this message from Manhigut Yehudit - so now we are hearing it from Abu Mazen and from more and more nations of the world that do not accept the right of self definition of the Jewish nation. Currently, Israel recognizes the "Palestinian" nation and its right to a state in the heart of the Land of Israel, but this non-nation does not recognize the Jewish nation and is not willing to accept Jewish rights for any type of sovereignty in the Land of Israel - or in any other place on the face of the earth.

But how can we complain about Abu Mazen for not recognizing Israel as a Jewish state when we have abandoned the holiest place for the Jewish Nation - the Temple Mount - to control of the Moslem wakf? How can we complain about Abu Mazen when we allow the remnants of the first and second Temples to be strewn about on the Temple Mount as so much rubbish? If we are complacent when our state turns its back on the foundations of our national identity, what can we expect from the nations of the world?

If we want to say no to Obama, we must first say yes - to a truly Jewish state.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Israel's Negotiations: The Blackmailer's Paradox

Israel's Conflict as Game Theory
By Prof. Yisrael Aumann
Nobel Prize Laureate
Two men-let us call them Rick and Steve- are put in a small room containing
a suitcase filled with bills totaling $100,000. The owner of the suitcase
announces the following:"I will give you the money in the suitcase under one
condition:you have to negotiate an agreement on how to divide it. That is
the only way I will agree to give you the money."
Rick is a rational person and realizes the golden opportunity that has
fallen his way. He turns to Steve with the obvious suggestion: "You take
half and I'll take half, that way each of us will have $50,000."
To his surprise, Steve frowns at him and says, in a tone that leaves no room
for doubt: "Look here, I don't know what your plans are for the money, but I
don't intend to leave this room with less than $90,000. If you accept that,
fine. If not, we can both go home without any of the money."
Rick can hardly believe his ears. "What has happened to Steve" he asks
himself. "Why should he get 90% of the money and I just 10%?" He decides to
try to convince Steve to accept his view. "Let's be logical," he urges him,
"We are in the same situation, we both want the money. Let's divide the
money equally and both of us will profit."
Steve, however, doesn't seem perturbed by his friend's logic. He listens
attentively, but when Rick is finished he says, even more emphatically than
before: "90-10 or nothing. That is my last offer."
Rick's face turns red with anger. He is about to punch Steve in the nose,
but he steps back. He realizes that Steve is not going to relent, and that
the only way he can leave the room with any money is to give in to him. He
straightens his clothes, takes $10,000 from the suitcase, shakes Steve's
hand and leaves the room humiliated.
This case is called 'The Blackmailer's Paradox" in game theory. The paradox
is that Rick the rational is forced to behave irrationally by definition, in
order to achieve maximum results in the face of the situation that has
evolved. What brings about this bizarre outcome is the fact Steve is sure of
himself and doesn't flinch when making his exorbitant demand. This convinces
Rick that he must give in so as to make the best of the situation.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict
The relationship between Israel and the Arab countries is conducted along
the lines of this paradox. At each stage of negotiation, the Arabs present
impossible, unacceptable starting positions. They act sure of themselves and
as if they totally believe in what they are asking for, and make it clear to
Israel that there is no chance of their backing down.
Invariably, Israel agrees to their blackmailing demands because otherwise
she will leave the room empty handed. The most blatant example of this is
the negotiations with Syria that have been taking place with different
levels of negotiators for years. The Syrians made sure that it was clear
from the beginning that they would not compromise on one millimeter of the
Golan Heights.
The Israeli side, eager to have a peace agreement with Syria, internalized
the Syrian position so well, that the Israeli public is sure that the
starting point for future negotiations with Syria has to include complete
withdrawal from the Golan Heights, this despite its critical strategic
importance in ensuring secure borders for Israel.
The Losing Solution
According to game theory, Israel has to change certain basic perceptions in
order to improve her chances in the negotiations game with the Arabs and win
the long term political struggle:
a. Willingness to forego agreements
Israel's political stand is based on the principle that agreements must be
reached with the Arabs at any price, that the lack of agreements is
untenable. In the Blackmailer's Paradox, Rick's behavior is the result of
his feeling that he must leave the room with some money, no matter how
little. Because Rick cannot imagine himself leaving the room with empty
hands, he is easy prey for Steve, and ends up leaving with a certain amount
of money, but in the role of the humiliated loser. This is similar to the
way Israel handles negotiations, her mental state making her unable to
reject suggestions that do not advance her interests.
b. Taking repetition into account
Game theory relates to onetime situations differently than to situations
that repeat themselves. A situation that repeats itself over any length of
time, creates, paradoxically, strategic parity that leads to cooperation
between the opposing sides. This cooperation occurs when both sides realize
that the game is going to repeat itself, and that since they must weigh the
influence present moves will have on future games, there is a balancing
factor at play.
Rick saw his problem as a onetime event, and behaved accordingly. Had he
told Steve instead that he would not forego the amount he deserves even if
he sustains a total loss, he would have changed the game results for an
indefinite period. It is probably true that he would still have left the
game empty handed, but at the next meeting with Steve, the latter would
remember Rick's original suggestion and would try to reach a compromise.
That is how Israel has to behave, looking at the long term in order to
improve her position in future negotiations, even if it means continuing a
state of war and fore going an agreement.
c. Faith in your opinions
Another element that crates the "Blackmailer's Paradox" is the unwavering
belief of one side in its opinion. Steve exemplifies that. This faith gives
a contender inner confidence in his cause at the start and eventually
convinces his rival as well. The result is that the opposing side wants to
reach an agreement, even at the expense of irrational surrender that is
considerably distanced from his opening position.


Several years ago, I spoke to a senior officer who claimed that Israel must

withdraw from the Golan Heights in the framework of a peace treaty, because
the Golan is holy land to the Syrians and they will never give it up. I
explained to him that first the Syrians convinced themselves that the Golan
is holy land to them, and then proceeded to convince you as well. The
Syrians' unflinching belief that they are in the right convinces us to give
in to their dictates. The only solution to that is for us to believe
unwaveringly in the righteousness of our cause. Only complete faith in our
demands can succeed in convincing our Syrian opponent to take our opinion
into account.
As in all of science, game theory does not take sides in moral and value
judgments. It analyzes strategically the behavior of opposing sides in a
game they play against one another. The State of Israel is in the midst of
one such game opposite its enemies. As in every game, the Arab-Israeli game
involves interests that create the framework of the game and its rules.
Sadly, Israel ignores the basic principles of game theory. If Israel would
be wise enough to behave according to those principles, her political status
and de facto, her security status, would improve substantially.
Copyright Yisrael Aumann

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Jewish Majority Prefers Nationalist Policies - not Left Imitation

The National Camp naturally numbers more than the Left. The majority of Israeli society identifies itself first as Jewish and is inclined to tradition and nationalism. Why then, does the Right seem to be shrinking?
Conventional political wisdom dictates that to win elections, the Right must get votes from Israel's illusive 'Center.' The political wisdom pundits urge the Right to win over Centrist voters by touting itself as Left-lite.

Reality, though, shows that just the opposite is true. In elections in which the Right remained true to its values, it won more mandates than the Left. But when it edged left-ward, it lost. Let us look at the facts:


In 1981 the Likud won 48 mandates. But then Likud PM Begin went to Camp David and implemented the policies of the Left. The destruction of the Sinai settlements brought the Likud down to 41 mandates in 1984. The Labor party won those elections with 44 mandates.

In 1988 the Likud returned to power with 40 mandates. But after focused pressure by the Left, Likud PM Shamir went to the Madrid Conference and opened the way for indirect talks with the PLO. The left turn did not help the Likud at the polling places. On the contrary - in the 1992 elections, Shamir lost to Labor candidate Yitzchak Rabin 32:44.

1n 1996 the Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu triumphed over Labor's Shimon Peres. Israel held its breath, anticipating that Netanyahu would nullify the Oslo Accords. But just the opposite occurred. Netanyahu shook Arafat's hand, signed the Wye Accords and Oslo marched on. In the following elections in 1999 the Likud crashed to 19 mandates and Labor's Ehud Barak became prime minister.

Support for the Labor shrank as a result of the Arab uprising in 2000. In the elections of 2003 Ariel Sharon brought the Likud to a massive victory against Labor, winning 38 mandates as opposed to Labor's 19. Sharon was elected to defeat the Arab enemy. But he veered sharply left and destroyed Gush Katif. Israel despaired of a nationalist alternative to the Left and in the 2006 elections, the Likud shrank to an all time low of just 12 mandates.

Conclusion: The Likud represents the right-leaning Jewish majority in Israel. The way for the Likud to win elections is to remain loyal to the values of Israel's Jewish majority. These are the values that Manhigut Yehudit promotes!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Obama trying to force agreement on Israel

Lieberman: Israel must not be tempted to adopt US President Barack Obama's
suggestion to declare a two-month settlement construction moratorium, as it
may lead to a forced (peace) agreement with the Palestinians and a return to
the 1967 borders, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday.

During closed-door discussions with fellow members of his Yisrael Beiteinu
party, Lieberman said, "The pressure won’t work. We are not leaving the
coalition in order to bolster the majority in government, which is against
continuing the settlement construction moratorium."

According to the foreign minister, five, maybe even six Likud ministers -
Moshe Yaalon, Yossi Peled, Silvan Shalom, Yuli Edelstein and possibly Gilad
Erdan - would vote against Obama's proposal.

"During my recent visit to the US I learned that Washington is planning to
force a permanent agreement on Israel – two states for two peoples along the
1967 borders, plus-minus 3 or 4% of the territory exchanged," Lieberman
said. "This is the objective of a continued freeze – to give the US and the
international community two months to come up with a solution that will be
forced on Israel."

According to the FM, in two months' time "The US, along with the Quartet,
the Arab League and the Palestinians will tell Israel, 'This is the
solution, take it or leave it. If you don't, there is a price – a
confrontation with the international community'. Therefore, we must not quit
the coalition. It's the only way to solidify a majority against the freeze,
which is a decoy."
Lieberman told the Yisrael Beiteinu members that President Shimon Peres
promised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he would get Shas spiritual
leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's approval for a two-month moratorium, but added
that Shas was being pressured by its supporters in the West Bank, mainly in
Beitar and Emanuel, "who are not willing to hear of another freeze."

The FM said Defense Minister Ehud Barak's support for another moratorium
stems from his fear that "in two months his friends from Labor will force
him to leave the coalition and lose his portfolio."

Lieberman said Netanyahu's fellow Likud members are also angry with him for
"not responding to what Barak is doing."
The FM also spoke of his controversial speech before the UN General
Assembly. "Arthur J. Finkelstein told me not to deliver the speech, but I
decided otherwise. I decided that I had to speak from the heart, and tell
the world the truth as I see it."

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bibi’s Speech at the UN General Assembly

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland.
I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.
The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events.
Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth. Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.
Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942 , after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments. Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?
A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler's deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie?
This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie?
And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie? One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father's two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?
Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.
But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?
A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state.
What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong.
History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.
This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries. In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Muslims and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times.
Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated. The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization.
It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.
The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day. Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially.
It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the Internet.
What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come. We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.
I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances - by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.
But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after an horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind. That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.
The most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?
Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood? Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?
Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?
The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging. Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted.
For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks. We heard nothing - absolutely nothing - from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.
In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza . It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis. We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare. You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.
Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded? Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II. During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians - Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.
That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances. Israel , by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas.
We dropped countless fliers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave. Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way.
Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel . A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.
By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth. What a perversion of justice.
Delegates of the United Nations,
Will you accept this farce?
Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.
If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity. And in condemning Israel , this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here's why.
When Israel left Gaza , many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense. What legitimacy? What self-defense?
The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us -my people, my country - of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!
Israeljustly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?
We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
All of Israel wants peace.
Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein. And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel , will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace. In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples - a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it.
We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state. Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel . This is the land of our forefathers.
Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more." These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city, in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem .
We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland. As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.
But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel .
That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don't want another Gaza , another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.
We want peace.
I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran , that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order. The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them.
Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the "confirmed unteachability of mankind," the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.
Churchill bemoaned what he called the "want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong."
I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the "unteachability of mankind" is for once proven wrong.
I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.
In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Afraid of Freedom: By Moshe Feiglin

11 Tishrei, 5771
Sept. 19, '10

Translated from the NRG website.

Nobody has to worry about the allegiance of the religious officers and soldiers who are crowding the ranks of the IDF today. IDF documents made public after the expulsion from Gush Katif show that statistically, it was actually the soldiers who were not connected to a religious framework who refused to obey orders - and that phenomenon was negligible.

There is a different phenomenon though, that should be worrying those people who view freedom of thought, freedom of choice and freedom of conscience as a threat to their hegemony.

Polls and in-depth studies unequivocally prove that Israeli society is rediscovering its Judaism. The fascinating aspect of this phenomenon is that the younger generation of Israelis is actually closer to traditional Judaism than their parents. This Yom Kippur, more young people fasted than their adult counterparts. In the past, the opposite was true. The synagogues and community leaders were relegated to the "old generation," while the youngsters wanted nothing to do with "religion". But now, Israeli society is becoming more and more faith-based, with the younger generation blazing the trail.

Israeli society is becoming more faith-based - not more "religious." The phenomenon that we are experiencing is much broader than the "repentance movement" in its strictly religious parameters.

In the days of entertainer-turned-rabbi Uri Zohar, to "repent" meant to turn from a "secular Jew" into a "religious" or "haredi" Jew. But these definitions do not reflect reality. The question that actually defines the status of a given Jew on the faith continuum is: Is G-d present in your life or not? There are Jews who observe the commandments, but have left G-d out of the picture. There are even "progressive" movements that excel at that. On the other hand, there are Jews who still have not connected to Jewish law in its entirety, but experience G-d as very much present in their lives.

On this fundamental level, all of us are returning to G-d all the time. This ongoing experience is not a move from one end of the social spectrum to the other, but a gradual cohesion of the two extremes- together with G-d.

Only a person who fears G-d benefits from true liberty:
"And the midwives feared G-d and did not do what the king of Egypt told them, and they let the children live." (Exodus 1)

Two Hebrew women whose lives were worth no more than dust in the Egyptian gulag refuse to obey the orders of the greatest king in the ancient world - the Egyptian Pharaoh - and don't throw the Jewish baby boys into the Nile River. Their fear of G-d preserved their liberty.

As part of my sentence for "sedition" against the Oslo Accords government, I did community service in a state nursing home. One of the old gentlemen there told me his own story about a different gulag:

"When I went to first grade in the Stalin-era public school in Russia, I made sure never to ask permission from my teacher to let me use the bathroom. It was very important to me to be sure that when I would need to ask permission to go to the bathroom, she would believe me and let me leave the classroom. I knew that I would need to use this escape route when the state nurse would come to check the personal hygiene of the students. If she would find the tzitzit (ritual fringes) that I had under my shirt, she would report me to the authorities and my father would be sent to his death in Siberia."

My friend in the nursing home told this story very matter-of-factly. But it gave me the goose bumps. I was in awe of the father who would risk his life for his faith and the little boy whose fear of Heaven made him truly free at the ripe old age of six.

The wave of return to G-d that Israeli society is now experiencing will necessarily lead to liberty for our Land as well. That is what the people in the ivory towers have to watch out for - not for the religious soldiers.

Monday, September 20, 2010

A Completely New Paradigm: By Moshe Feiglin

6 Tishrei, 5770
Sept. 14, '10

We have already been to this movie - over and over again:
The Right wins the elections.
A few months later - its elected leader makes a severely leftist declaration.
Afterwards, his "close aides" explain that it was simply a tactical diversion.
Estrangement and harassment of the settlers and settlements ensue.
Followed by the renewal of the "peace process."
Jews are murdered by Arab terrorists.
The "peace process" continues. "We can't play into the hands of the extremists."
The talks fail.
Unilateral concessions.
War.

The other part of the movie - the reaction of the Right - also follows a set pattern:

The Yesha Council embarks on a public relations campaign.
Massive demonstrations.
Great slogans, gleaned from the prime minister's past promises and warnings.
Possibly even road-blocking.
"Illegal" settlement.
Attempts to cook up all sorts of political magic solutions - inside and outside the Likud.

We all know that the same old methods will not work.
Not because they are not the right way to work. They are the least we can do stop Israel's collapse. But they don't work because they do not address the source of the problem.

The problem is not the government and not the prime minister. They are just the symptoms. Protesting the symptoms has never gotten us anywhere and it never will.

When we blocked the highways, we deceived ourselves into believing that the train had simply fallen off the tracks. We believed that all we needed to do was to put it back on the tracks and all would be well. The same is true of our political campaigns. We deceived ourselves into believing that the problem was a given prime minister. All that we would need to do would be to replace him or his government and then the next rightist coalition would not dare threaten the settlements.

Time and again we held the most massive demonstrations and the most successful public relations campaigns. But instead of achieving our goals, we became Israel's perpetual, irritating cry-babies. Israel continues to fall apart, irrelevant of its government and ministers and irrelevant of its election results. The collapse relentlessly marches on, like a raging tsunami.

It is not the individuals who are at fault here, but the frame of reference from which they work. The Israeli who bares his neck today to Achmadinijad's nuclear sword does so because his frame of reference tells him that there is no alternative. Israel's elite does not recognize the Jewish Nation or its right to self-definition. It maintains that justice is completely on the side of the Arabs. They are the permanent phenomenon here, while the Jews are simply temporary. That is why there is no chance that Israel will take out Iran's nuclear reactor. And it certainly will not insist on keeping Judea and Samaria.

We can demonstrate, we can try to delay the end and we can try to use political pressure. But with our current national frame of reference, we are playing a zero sum game.

We must completely change our national frame of reference. That is where Manhigut Yehudit is focusing its energies. One of the tools that we will employ to change the existing paradigm is a new newspaper that will describe the Jewish State as it should be. When we say that to save Israel from the dangers threatening us we will put out a new newspaper, it sounds detached from reality. A newspaper can stop a country's collapse?

Yes, it can. If we manage to create a new frame of reference throughout Israeli society, we will be able to make the change Israel so desperately needs. When Israelis understand that they are being offered a real alternative, they will choose it.

We are busily working on our new newspaper, to be called, "Tomorrow." The newspaper, to be broadly distributed, will not attack anyone and will not deal with the present outrages. Instead, it will present the alternative on the basis of working papers, interesting ideas and excellent graphics.

The newspaper's readers will begin to experience the new Jewish paradigm and will have a new frame of reference with which to analyze reality. They will realize that we can protect ourselves from destruction, live as a sovereign Jewish state in the Land of Israel and deal with all the accompanying challenges if we finally establish an authentic Jewish state. They will also learn that a Jewish state is not what they have been frightened into thinking it is, and that in most cases, it is just the opposite.

They will learn that a truly Jewish state will restore the liberty that was stolen from them before they were even born. They will learn that in a truly Jewish state their financial situation will be better, their security will be enhanced and their private and national lives will be filled with meaning.

Yom Kippur Assessment

The year that has passed since last Yom Kippur, to be remembered by many as "the year of the freeze," was a difficult one for both Israel and Manhigut Yehudit. Manhigut Yehudit entered a stage of serious deliberations as to how to progress toward our goal of Jewish leadership for Israel. The direction that we chose is possibly the greatest challenge that we have ever taken upon ourselves.

It is clear to us now that the Nation of Israel needs to see how we will run our country according to Jewish values before it will vote for the faith-based alternative. For now, we are strengthening our political accomplishments - partly thanks to the massive registration of the faith-based public for the Likud. The main focus of our efforts, though, is to make an authentic Jewish state a tangible and pertinent concept. If we succeed in arousing the curiosity and creative talents of our nation so that people will begin to see their Jewish-state dreams in practical terms, the authentic Jewish state will become a relevant alternative.

Let us pray that we will emerge from this "year of the freeze" to a year of vitality and renewal. Let us pray for the speedy healing of the nation and its individuals and for great success as we progress toward our goal of perfecting the world under the sovereignty of Heaven.

Gmar Chatima Tovah,

Moshe Feiglin

Thursday, September 9, 2010

First Blood Was Meir Kahane’s murder al-Qaida’s earliest attack on U.S. soil?

Last fall I received a cryptic email from Emad Salem, the ex-Egyptian Army major who was the FBI’s first undercover asset in what would become known as the war on terror. I’d told Salem’s remarkable story in my last three books, which were critical of the bureau’s counterterrorism record. Because I had treated him fairly, Salem reached out to me after years in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
We made plans to meet in early November, after a lecture I was giving at New York University. But Salem didn’t show. I went back to my hotel that night and had chalked it up as a lost opportunity. The phone rang at 2 in the morning. It was Salem, summoning me to a meeting outside 26 Federal Plaza, the building that houses the FBI’s New York office. Very cloak and dagger, but that’s how this man rolls. You don’t infiltrate the cell responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing without practicing a little tradecraft. Anyway, when my cab pulled in to Foley Square a few minutes later, Salem was standing in the shadows.
That was the start of a series of interviews that led to some astonishing revelations about two of the most infamous al-Qaida murders since Osama Bin Laden formed his terror network. The first one—in fact, arguably the first blood spilled by al-Qaida on U.S. soil—occurred on the night of November 5, 1990, just after Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Defense League, finished a speech at the Marriott East Side in New York.
Kahane, a volatile figure who had been expelled from the Israeli Knesset in the mid-1980s and returned to the United States to warn American Jews about what he believed to be a “second holocaust” at the hands of radical Islam, was gunned down by El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian émigré. The New York Police Department initially labeled him a lone gunman. I have argued that it was much more than that: an unsolved murder with dire implications for the war on terror.
Now, as a result of new intelligence I’ve learned from Salem, it’s clear for the first time that the rabbi’s death was directly linked to Osama Bin Laden. More surprising, there was a second gunman on the night of Kahane’s murder: a young Jordanian cab driver named Bilal Alkaisi. Alkaisi was also identified in FBI files I’ve obtained as the “emir” of a hit team in a second grisly al-Qaida-related homicide months after the assassination—the 1991 murder of Egyptian immigrant Mustafa Shalabi. The identities of the alleged killers in that second slaying have now become known as a result of information from Salem that prompted the New York Police Department to reopen the Shalabi case.
But the real news is that Alkaisi, originally indicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was cut loose by the feds in 1994 and presumably remains at large. This new intelligence, about a pair of historic terror-related homicides in New York City, lay buried for years in the files of the Joint Terrorism Task Force—until I obtained them from a government source.

Click  -    http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/44243/first-blood/print/

For the rest of the lengthy story.....

Avi 

Friday, September 3, 2010

An Alternative to a 'Palestinian' State - Feiglin

At a recent lecture in Los Angeles, I was asked about my alternative to a 'Palestinian State'. The solution that I propose, promotion of Arab emigration, is predicated on the following points:

A. The Land of Israel belongs exclusively to the Jewish Nation.
B. There is no "Palestinian nation" and aspirations for a "Palestinian State" are strictly for Arab propaganda purposes. The Arabs of Israel and their terror organizations are being offered a state on a silver platter – something that has never happened to any other group in history. Nevertheless, they have repeatedly rejected this gift. The reason that they reject this more-than-generous offer is because their real and exclusive goal is not Arab sovereignty, but the destruction of Jewish sovereignty. Thus, any plan that relies on a third side, and particularly on the good will and cooperation of the Arab countries, is unrealistic.
C. The solution for the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza must be based on the facts on the ground and not on the fantasies of Oslo.

There are three facts on the ground that support this position:

1. The Arabs want to leave. Time and again, polls of the Arab public – including polls carried out by Arab institutions – show that a large majority of the Arab population in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is interested in finding a better future elsewhere
2. Many Western countries and Arab emirates are interested in Arab immigrants from Israel. Quite a few Western countries have negative population growth (less than two children per family) and need immigrants to help sustain their economies. The question is not who will build the skyscrapers in Montreal, but whether they will be built by a Sudanese immigrant whose only construction experience is with mud huts, or by an immigrant from Ramallah, who has lived alongside a modern, Western culture for the past forty years and who has experience with building skyscrapers.
3. We have all the money necessary to promote this process. Israel spends approximately 150 billion dollars per decade -10% of its budget - on the Oslo vision of partitioning the Land. The price will continue to inflate as the relatively less expensive separation fence is replaced with ballistic missile batteries to defend our cities from flying pipes and as Israel's towns dig themselves underground in self defense. Exchanging this defensive paradigm for the emigration proposal would release approximately one quarter of a million dollars to be allotted to every Arab family that would emigrate from Israel.

The above proposal would solve Israel's local security problems, save it billions, give the Arabs mired in the "Palestinian struggle" a new lease on life and provide some Western countries with much-needed working hands. Do we dare to emerge from our Oslo box and implement it?