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.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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.
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.
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
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?
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?
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?
The Ultimate Objective: Redemption
Since the Nation of Israel was born, its ultimate aspiration has been the coming of Mashiach and the complete and final redemption. Unlike the very partial goals of modern Zionism (safe-haven, peace, international recognition, etc.) the goal of redemption is all-inclusive and redefines the motivation for the return of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel. It illuminates the life of the Nation with a new light, content and consciousness – for the individual and for the whole.
Our Sages have defined various stages in the process leading to redemption. These stages include establishing sovereignty, waging war against Israel's mortal enemies, building the holy Temple on the Temple Mount and the ingathering of the exiles. The culmination of the redemption process is, of course, the Messianic era, when the world will be rectified and united in its service of G-d.
These are the ultimate objectives of the Jewish state. Authentic Jewish leaders must always have these ultimate goals before them so that they can recognize historic opportunity when it arises. As the Sages (Rambam, Laws of Kings and Wars 12:2) reiterate, though, we do not know exactly how these stages will manifest in reality until they actually happen. What we can and must do in the interim is to create the fertile ground in which these ultimate objectives can flourish; a Jewish state whose shorter-term goals propel us toward our ultimate goals.
Jewish Identity for the Jewish State
Jewish Education
Jewish Society
Land of Israel
Jewish Security
Jewish Justice
Jewish Economy
Religion and State
Jewish Media
Arabs
(http://www.jewishisrael.org/eng_contents/policies/policies.html)
Will it Work?
Redemption is a Divine process that is already working! The redemptive process is well under way, as exemplified by the many positive and miraculous accomplishments of modern day Israel. We are pointing the way toward the next stage of this Divine process. When we realign our national goals with our ultimate, historic Jewish goals, we pave the way for determination and decisiveness in implementing our objectives.
Historic Opportunities
Clarity of purpose affords leaders with the tools that they need to identify historic opportunities as they develop and to capitalize on them to further the nation's goals. (If the goals are unclear, it is impossible to recognize historic opportunities. This leads to near-sighted policies and misreading of historic geopolitical developments -- as most aptly demonstrated by current Israeli policy).
Determination to identify and capitalize on historic opportunities creates a national leadership that is also responsible. Leading one's nation through the redemptive process is daunting, and the leaders may be tempted to take premature initiative to advance the nation's goals. However, the knowledge that historic opportunities can and will arise as part of the Divine plan gives the leaders the serenity and faith to lead the nation on a calculated yet courageous path.
Our Sages have defined various stages in the process leading to redemption. These stages include establishing sovereignty, waging war against Israel's mortal enemies, building the holy Temple on the Temple Mount and the ingathering of the exiles. The culmination of the redemption process is, of course, the Messianic era, when the world will be rectified and united in its service of G-d.
These are the ultimate objectives of the Jewish state. Authentic Jewish leaders must always have these ultimate goals before them so that they can recognize historic opportunity when it arises. As the Sages (Rambam, Laws of Kings and Wars 12:2) reiterate, though, we do not know exactly how these stages will manifest in reality until they actually happen. What we can and must do in the interim is to create the fertile ground in which these ultimate objectives can flourish; a Jewish state whose shorter-term goals propel us toward our ultimate goals.
Jewish Identity for the Jewish State
Jewish Education
Jewish Society
Land of Israel
Jewish Security
Jewish Justice
Jewish Economy
Religion and State
Jewish Media
Arabs
(http://www.jewishisrael.org/eng_contents/policies/policies.html)
Will it Work?
Redemption is a Divine process that is already working! The redemptive process is well under way, as exemplified by the many positive and miraculous accomplishments of modern day Israel. We are pointing the way toward the next stage of this Divine process. When we realign our national goals with our ultimate, historic Jewish goals, we pave the way for determination and decisiveness in implementing our objectives.
Historic Opportunities
Clarity of purpose affords leaders with the tools that they need to identify historic opportunities as they develop and to capitalize on them to further the nation's goals. (If the goals are unclear, it is impossible to recognize historic opportunities. This leads to near-sighted policies and misreading of historic geopolitical developments -- as most aptly demonstrated by current Israeli policy).
Determination to identify and capitalize on historic opportunities creates a national leadership that is also responsible. Leading one's nation through the redemptive process is daunting, and the leaders may be tempted to take premature initiative to advance the nation's goals. However, the knowledge that historic opportunities can and will arise as part of the Divine plan gives the leaders the serenity and faith to lead the nation on a calculated yet courageous path.
The Jewish Answer to Terror: By Moshe Feiglin
22 Elul, 5770
Sept. 1, '10
A moment before we try to find out what happened and who was killed, a moment before we begin to get a grasp on the thought that some people will not be coming home to their children anymore, another thought - no less painful - passes through our minds: Helplessness. Because we all know that every school of thought will use this horrendous murder to strengthen its own claims. The Left will say that it is because of the extremists and the Right will say that it is because of the "peace" process. And it makes no difference who is right and who is mistaken, who is blind and who is realistic. The miserable fact is that this murder, like so many murders before it, will not change the direction in which Israel is marching.
The fact that the Yesha Council decided to react to this murder by building in the settlements instead of holding a demonstration is excellent. But we had already figured that out fifteen years ago, in the Zo Artzeinu Double the Settlements project. In other words, the Yesha Council's admirable response will not change the general direction even one iota as long as the government and the mentality that guides it do not change.
Over the last fifteen years, Manhigut Yehudit and Zo Artzeinu that preceded it have been the vanguard of innovative right wing protests. We brought the struggle on the ground to its most advanced point with the roadblocks of Zo Artzeinu, and we brought the political struggle to its most advanced point with the Manhigut Yehudit-sponsored Likud referendum on Gush Katif. Along the way, we also initiated the idea of hilltop settlements and simultaneous building in all the settlements. These are all important ideas. But experience has shown that these actions are not enough. The bottom line is that when the State of Israel decides to self-destruct, it does so - regardless of how much we have built the settlements.
In another two days the headlines will change. The families of the newly-murdered Jews will continue to mourn and our state will continue to go about its business. Unless we change our entire mentality and run our national lives according to Jewish values.
When Israel adopts a truly Jewish mentality, there will be no more terror attacks. Clearly, the problem is not the Arabs, but rather, the Jews. As soon as we questioned the justification for our existence in our Land, we created the murderous genie and let it out of the bottle with our very own hands.
There are many ways to deal with terror from a Jewish perspective. Our proposal right now is to adopt the Golan Heights Peace plan. In short, this plan has five steps:
- Encourage Arab emigration
- Conquest
- Israeli annexation/sovereignty
- Jewish settlement
- No “peace” accords
This model has brought peace to the Golan Heights, and we believe that it will work wherever it is repeated throughout Israel.
Sept. 1, '10
A moment before we try to find out what happened and who was killed, a moment before we begin to get a grasp on the thought that some people will not be coming home to their children anymore, another thought - no less painful - passes through our minds: Helplessness. Because we all know that every school of thought will use this horrendous murder to strengthen its own claims. The Left will say that it is because of the extremists and the Right will say that it is because of the "peace" process. And it makes no difference who is right and who is mistaken, who is blind and who is realistic. The miserable fact is that this murder, like so many murders before it, will not change the direction in which Israel is marching.
The fact that the Yesha Council decided to react to this murder by building in the settlements instead of holding a demonstration is excellent. But we had already figured that out fifteen years ago, in the Zo Artzeinu Double the Settlements project. In other words, the Yesha Council's admirable response will not change the general direction even one iota as long as the government and the mentality that guides it do not change.
Over the last fifteen years, Manhigut Yehudit and Zo Artzeinu that preceded it have been the vanguard of innovative right wing protests. We brought the struggle on the ground to its most advanced point with the roadblocks of Zo Artzeinu, and we brought the political struggle to its most advanced point with the Manhigut Yehudit-sponsored Likud referendum on Gush Katif. Along the way, we also initiated the idea of hilltop settlements and simultaneous building in all the settlements. These are all important ideas. But experience has shown that these actions are not enough. The bottom line is that when the State of Israel decides to self-destruct, it does so - regardless of how much we have built the settlements.
In another two days the headlines will change. The families of the newly-murdered Jews will continue to mourn and our state will continue to go about its business. Unless we change our entire mentality and run our national lives according to Jewish values.
When Israel adopts a truly Jewish mentality, there will be no more terror attacks. Clearly, the problem is not the Arabs, but rather, the Jews. As soon as we questioned the justification for our existence in our Land, we created the murderous genie and let it out of the bottle with our very own hands.
There are many ways to deal with terror from a Jewish perspective. Our proposal right now is to adopt the Golan Heights Peace plan. In short, this plan has five steps:
- Encourage Arab emigration
- Conquest
- Israeli annexation/sovereignty
- Jewish settlement
- No “peace” accords
This model has brought peace to the Golan Heights, and we believe that it will work wherever it is repeated throughout Israel.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Yes, Mr. President. The killings undermine peace talks.
(From Naomi Ragen)
Friends,
According to numerous news reports, President Obama denounced the murder of
four Israelis by a Hamas gunman as "senseless slaughter" and said
the attacks won't "undermine these talks."
Dear Mr. Temporarily-Because of-a-Mass-American-Insanity President (not to
mention 78% of the American Jewish community who thought that abandoning
Israel in their vote would somehow help them. Has it, 78% of American Jews?
Are you happier now, richer, more secure?) I beg to differ. As an Israeli,
I believe that the murder of Israelis in cold blood at close range by
Palestinian terrorists absolutely undermines the "peace process." It shows
that there is a hard-core of Palestinians, perhaps the majority, (after all,
in elections the "Palestinian people" overwhelmingly elected Hamas to lead
them in Gaza) are participants in or supporters of the mass murder of Jews.
They are no different in their philosophy and their actions then the Nazis.
And, believe or not, and despite the 78%, some Jews have actually wised up
since then. When someone tells us that they "want peace" or that "Arbeit
Macht Frei" we tend to question it a bit, and ask to see actions, instead of
empty words. So, yes, Mr.Temporary President of the temporarily insane
American voting public and the 78%, I'd say the murder of Yitzchak and Talia
Imas, who were buried in the ancient Mt. of Olives cemetery opposite the
Temple Mount in Jerusalem, seriously "undermines the peace process." Just
ask their six orphans aged 2 to 24: Daniel (married with a six-month-old
son), Ruth, Ariel, Hodaya, Ruhama and Oz-David. Talia was in her ninth month
of pregnancy.
Ask Maimon Even-Chaim and his eight year-old daughter, whose wife and
mother - Kokhava Even-Chaim, 37, who taught in Efrat, was riddled with
bullets. Ask Maimon how he felt when as a Zaka volunteer he arrived on the
scene and found Kokhava was one of the victims. Ask the new bride of
Avishai Shindler, 24, who buried her young husband so soon after the
wedding.
Ask the people of Beit Chaggai, the victims' home, how they feel that
because of pressure from the State Department and Mr. Temporarily President,
the weak-livered Israeli leadership took away checkpoints on road 60. Ask
them how they feel about tomorrow when more 'good will gestures' will be
demanded, resulting in more Jewish blood.
In light of the big, Jewish graveyard that is Europe, I'd say Mr.President
(albeit temporarily), you haven't gotten this one right. This absolutely
undermines your efforts to help the Palestinians fill Israel's graveyards.
Hopefully, Mr. Netanyahu, who represents us, understands that. We'll see.
As for me, I'm one Israeli who never wants to hear the word "peace" again as
long as I live. Because in the Orwellian world we live in, peace means war,
and death, and the slaughter of innocents. Every Jew murdered by terrorists
in Israel since the Oslo Accords is a "victim of peace." Just ask Shimon
Peres.
Naomi Ragen
Friends,
According to numerous news reports, President Obama denounced the murder of
four Israelis by a Hamas gunman as "senseless slaughter" and said
the attacks won't "undermine these talks."
Dear Mr. Temporarily-Because of-a-Mass-American-Insanity President (not to
mention 78% of the American Jewish community who thought that abandoning
Israel in their vote would somehow help them. Has it, 78% of American Jews?
Are you happier now, richer, more secure?) I beg to differ. As an Israeli,
I believe that the murder of Israelis in cold blood at close range by
Palestinian terrorists absolutely undermines the "peace process." It shows
that there is a hard-core of Palestinians, perhaps the majority, (after all,
in elections the "Palestinian people" overwhelmingly elected Hamas to lead
them in Gaza) are participants in or supporters of the mass murder of Jews.
They are no different in their philosophy and their actions then the Nazis.
And, believe or not, and despite the 78%, some Jews have actually wised up
since then. When someone tells us that they "want peace" or that "Arbeit
Macht Frei" we tend to question it a bit, and ask to see actions, instead of
empty words. So, yes, Mr.Temporary President of the temporarily insane
American voting public and the 78%, I'd say the murder of Yitzchak and Talia
Imas, who were buried in the ancient Mt. of Olives cemetery opposite the
Temple Mount in Jerusalem, seriously "undermines the peace process." Just
ask their six orphans aged 2 to 24: Daniel (married with a six-month-old
son), Ruth, Ariel, Hodaya, Ruhama and Oz-David. Talia was in her ninth month
of pregnancy.
Ask Maimon Even-Chaim and his eight year-old daughter, whose wife and
mother - Kokhava Even-Chaim, 37, who taught in Efrat, was riddled with
bullets. Ask Maimon how he felt when as a Zaka volunteer he arrived on the
scene and found Kokhava was one of the victims. Ask the new bride of
Avishai Shindler, 24, who buried her young husband so soon after the
wedding.
Ask the people of Beit Chaggai, the victims' home, how they feel that
because of pressure from the State Department and Mr. Temporarily President,
the weak-livered Israeli leadership took away checkpoints on road 60. Ask
them how they feel about tomorrow when more 'good will gestures' will be
demanded, resulting in more Jewish blood.
In light of the big, Jewish graveyard that is Europe, I'd say Mr.President
(albeit temporarily), you haven't gotten this one right. This absolutely
undermines your efforts to help the Palestinians fill Israel's graveyards.
Hopefully, Mr. Netanyahu, who represents us, understands that. We'll see.
As for me, I'm one Israeli who never wants to hear the word "peace" again as
long as I live. Because in the Orwellian world we live in, peace means war,
and death, and the slaughter of innocents. Every Jew murdered by terrorists
in Israel since the Oslo Accords is a "victim of peace." Just ask Shimon
Peres.
Naomi Ragen
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