Wednesday, October 29, 2014

US aid to Israel = 1.2% GNP....

US Aid: When does Israel Get it? By Moshe Feiglin

Don’t be Selfish..
Israel’s The Marker magazine (the Ha’aretz economic publication) published an important report on Sunday, August 17, ’14  on US ‘aid’ to Israel. If you read the small print, you will find exactly the same things that I have been writing for the last two decades: “Today it is clear,” says the report, “despite the fact that no prime minister or Finance Minister will say so – that Israel can live without the grant.”
USaid

Please note the graph attached to the The Marker article (above). Until the Six Day War, in the days of shortages and tent camps- an era when Israel real did need all help possible, American aid was approximately 2% of Israel’s GNP.

Instead of sending aid,

the US reneged on its support of the Partition Plan,
opposed the establishment of the State of Israel
and declared an arms embargo on fledgling Israel, which was being threatened with destruction by all the Arab armies surrounding it.

Only in 1962 did the Americans throw Israel a few bones: left-over Patton tanks from World War II.

When did the trend do a complete turnabout?  When did the US begin to sell Israel weapons in strategic quantity and quality? When did Israel begin to receive US military and civilian aid, which increased until it grew to 15% of our GNP?

When we left the ‘occupied territories’?

When we ended the ‘occupation’?

When we destroyed the settlements?

Not exactly…Actually, just the opposite is true.

In 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights (and expelled 60,000 Syrians, established Israeli towns and villages and annexed the Heights) Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem – and the Sinai desert. Suddenly it became America’s favored ally.

But that is not the end of the story. Look at the graph again; the numbers do not lie.

When did US aid to Israel begin to decrease?

The greatest amount of US aid, in grants and loans, was afforded to Israel in one year, 1979, in which the peace accords between Egypt and Israel were signed. According to The Marker, US aid to Israel in that one year was 15.7 billion dollars.
And since then?

If we take the US rhetoric literally, then when Israel made peace and surrendered the entire Sinai to Egypt, we should have received more aid. But for some reason, the ‘occupation’ increased the aid, while ‘peace’ brought about its decline.
Today, US ‘aid’ to Israel, entirely military, is at its lowest level ever. Even the leftist Ha’aretz admits that Israel does not really need it. We take this ‘aid’ for psychological reasons (if we have an allowance, that means we have a father) and pay for it dearly; much more than its economic, security and diplomatic benefit.


One thing must be clear. Israel and America do share some common values. It is important to strengthen them on a mutual basis. But we do not receive any aid for being ‘nice guys’. Israel receives US ‘aid’ regardless of how many Gazans were killed. We receive the ‘aid’ because it is in the economic, security and diplomatic interest of the US. When Israel is strong (1967) it is worth America’s while to invest in us. When we retreat (since 1979), the US invests in us less and less.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

MK Moshe Feiglin: Arab Violence on Temple Mount Fans Flames of Terror in Israel

In a response to the murder of a three month old baby on Wednesday evening in a Jerusalem terror attack, MK Moshe Feiglin said that  at the Knesset Interior Committee meeting on 17 Av (August 13) he had warned that lack of police response to Arab violence on the Temple Mount would eventually lead to the murder of Jews .

“For years,” said Feiglin, ” Israel has been deceiving itself into thinking that it can manage the height of the flames on the Temple Mount without restoring its control there. But this approach breeds even more terror. The Hamas violence that goes unchecked on the Temple Mount dangerously undermines Israel’s existence. The sense of victory that we allow our enemies to feel in the heart of our capital fans the flames of their hope to defeat us – and encourages them and all their allies around the world to continue their efforts to destroy us.”

Invoking the words of the  poet of castigation and faith, Uri Tzvi Greenberg, Feiglin continued,”‘He who controls the Mount controls the Land’. The way to protect our babies in Jerusalem and throughout Israel is to re-establish Israeli control of the Temple Mount.”

Moshe Feiglin: Israel’s Lack of Jewish Identity Invites Arab Admiration of Bashara

Bnai Sachnin, to former Knesset Member and Hizbollah spy Dr. Azmi Bashara, has awakened the ire of Israeli government ministers,” said MK Moshe Feiglin. “But I will tell you a secret: At this very moment,  the spy’s portrait adorns the walls of the Jerusalem Knesset offices of some of Israel’s Arab Knesset members.”
“In other words,” Feiglin continued, “the Bnai Sachnin soccer team is not at all alone in its open admiration of the enemy. But as opposed to the offended Israeli ministers, I totally understand Bashara’s popularity in the Arab sector. After all, the State of Israel did not prosecute that despicable spy, who used his Knesset-bought phone to direct the Hizbollah’s incoming missiles during the Second Lebanon War. Azmi Bashara did not flee Israel’s Security Service. He was caught, and then allowed to slip over the border into Jordan. (For many years afterwards, Israel continued to pay him a sizeable pension as a former MK). If the Jews are so forgiving of the worst of their enemies, what do we expect from the Arabs?” Feiglin asked.
“Why did Israel release Azmi Bashara? Because his trial would have revealed the big lie that is Israeli identity. “You Jews thought that you could force your Israeli identity upon me,” Bashara would have said. “But I am a proud Arab.”
It is the Israeli who is disconnected from his Jewish identity who needs the Arab to help him forget that he is a Jew. “If an admired Arab leader cannot be a Knesset Member, then clearly, the new Israeli identity simply doesn’t work and we will remain stuck with our Jewish identity”, the Israeli powers that be reasoned. “It is best to allow him to flee, leaving us safely inside our false Israeli identity.”
Bnai Sachnin and Bashara are not the illness; they are the symptom. When they State of Israel truly comes to terms with its Jewish identity, it will be able to demand full loyalty of the Arabs. And the Arabs will be happy to comply.”

Moshe Feiglin: Four Steps to Balanced Economic Growth

 

“Israel is a wealthy country and its wealth, thank G-d, is increasing,” said MK Moshe Feiglin. “But most of the abundance that our Father in Heaven showers upon us (particularly since the wonderful aliyah to Israel from Russia in the 90’s) is concentrated in the upper decile of Israeli society,” Feiglin stated.  “Below them”, Feiglin continued, “everyone is choking, paying taxes over their heads. The Israeli ‘food chain’ enslaves the young couple. They work long and late hours and serve in the reserve army while their chance to buy an apartment or home grows increasingly distant. In the meantime, their hard-earned tax money goes to pay for the former Attorney Generals, who receive a budget-based pension of close to 100,000NIS monthly, or the career army soldier who retired at 45 and also receives his budget-based pension, or to an array of other traditional power-holders and ‘insiders’ who live the good life at the pinnacle of the pyramid.”
“For years,” MK Feiglin added, “I have been explaining that there are four simple steps that Israel must take to lower the cost of living in Israel:
  1. End the state monopoly on land (restoration of the Land of Israel to the Nation of Israel in the most personal way)
  2. Free market: Completely open the Israeli market – particularly the food market – to competitive imports.
  3. All-out war and liberation of the state from the clutches of the vested interests and swamps of corruption in the Defense Ministry (which must submit to a deep budget cut), the Health Ministry, the large workers’ unions and additional power hubs within and without the government.
  4. Elimination of the ‘peace industry’. This death process has cost Israel one trillion shekels to date. In other words, Peres, Beilin and friends have already taken 600,000 NIS from every family in Israel for their illusions of peace – and the register is still ringing. Instead of sending trucks of cash to Gaza, send them to Israel’s poor.”

Who is Manhigut Yehudit?



Manhigut Yehudit:

We are simply Jews -- with no added definitions. We do not call ourselves Orthodox, Conservative or Reform -- neither "right-wing" nor "left-wing."

Like the overwhelming majority of Jews, we believe in G-d, Who has brought us back to our Jewish home --the Holy Land of Israel. In Israel, the natural predisposition of the Jewish People to illuminate the world with G-d's light is brought to perfection, enabling us to perform our task in the most consummate way.

The natural predisposition of the Jewish People is to illuminate the world.
Our aim is to create a genuinely Jewish consciousness in the Land of Israel, motivated by the awareness that our faith and our country are intrinsically woven together. An Israeli society predicated on Jewish faith -- the Torah -- is an ethical and loving society whose ultimate goal is to illuminate the entire world with God's benevolence.

The Modern State of Israel in Crisis

The Zionist movement, which founded the modern State of Israel, was a product of the millennia of longing for return to the Land of Israel. However, it was also a product of the times in which it was born. Basing itself on secular 19th century Western values, Zionism came to fill the need for a safe haven for the Jews of the world. Miraculously, the Zionist movement succeeded in building the complete infrastructure of a modern state -- replete with a strong army, high tech, immigration absorption etc. out of the wilderness.

In its essence, though, the secular Zionism on which Israel was built negates holiness. In doing so, it has stripped itself of the tools necessary to reflect the Jewishness of Israel and its ultimate holy purpose.

The very Zionist ideology that built the modern state of Israel has now turned against itself.

We are now witnessing a complete unraveling of the fabric of Israeli society. The very Zionist ideology that built the modern state of Israel has now turned against itself as it seeks to counter its Biblical roots and Divine purpose. This self-destructive bent is the ultimate conclusion of the secular ideology upon which Zionism is based.

The Essential Question: Is Israel a State of Jews -- or a Jewish State?
Until now Israel has been a state of the Jews. It is vital to our future to transform Israel into a Jewish state. Israel's elected officials must lead the country with policies based exclusively on Jewish identity, values and ethics.

An Alternative
In 1994, Moshe Feiglin began the Zo Artzeinu ("This is Our Land") protest movement that opposed the self-destructive Oslo Accords with a massive civil disobedience campaign.

It became clear, though, that it was not enough to protest; we had to offer a fundamental alternative -- a new strategic objective -- in place of the process of collapse that gave rise to the Oslo Accords. Such an alternative would need to be based on both an alternative ideology that would inspire the nation and possess the means for implementation.

Belief-Based Leadership
Only leadership motivated by an authentically Jewish vision will be capable of meeting all the challenges.

There is only one way to truly imbue the State of Israel with the meaning it deserves and needs: to promote an alternative leadership for the State of Israel that is based on Jewish belief. Only leadership motivated by an authentically Jewish vision will be capable of meeting all the challenges currently facing the State of Israel and the Jewish People. Only leadership of this kind will be capable of reinvigorating the State of Israel and the Jewish People and leading it towards the realization of the vision of the prophets.

Leadership of the Likud

In 1998, Manhigut Yehudit (The Jewish Leadership Movement) was established as the successor to Zo Artzeinu.

Our aim is to enlist thousands of believing members in the Likud -- Israel's central ruling political party -- and to elect a party leader who will be motivated by Jewish ideals and values. As the Likud's candidate for Prime Minister, this candidate would be the natural leader of the national camp and would be elected as the Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

Our weapon is our ideology.

What began as a dream has become a reality. Already today, Manhigut Yehudit (The Jewish Leadership Movement) has the largest bloc inside the Likud's Central Committee. In a very short time we became known as the group which "does not come with a price tag." Our weapon is our ideology and tens of thousands of supporters have already joined our ranks. Many Israelis throughout the political spectrum believe that we are the future of Israel's political life and the path we have chosen is correct and viable.

Our Future

With firm faith in the God of Israel, Manhigut Yehudit (The Jewish Leadership Movement) is confident that our future is bright. Indeed the totality of our strategic goals could be summed up in a single phrase from the traditional Aleynu prayer recited daily:

To perfect the world in the kingdom of the Almighty

Meet: Moshe Feiglin

Moshe Feiglin first house in Metula

Moshe Feiglin, Founder and President of Manhigut Yehudit, is determined to provide Israel with the authentic Jewish leadership that it so desperately needs. As Prime Minister of Israel, he will lead the nation to its Jewish destiny with authentic Jewish values and concepts.

Roots in the Land of Israel
The Feiglin family’s roots were planted in the Land of Israel during the “First Aliyah.” In 1889, Moshe Feiglin’s ancestors immigrated to Israel in order to fulfill the Torah commandment to live in the Land. The Feiglins were among the pioneers who established the first settlements in Israel’s north – Mishmar Hayarden, Hadera, Kinneret and more. Moshe Feiglin’s grandfather, Avraham, was the first child born in Metulah.

Natural Connection
Although the Feiglins who had originally arrived in Israel as pioneers were Torah observant, not all of their descendants remained so. By the beginning of the twentieth century, part of the Feiglin family had become non-observant. Moshe Feiglin was born into an extended family comprised of all the different types of Jews that make up Israeli society; observant, secular, ultra-Orthodox, Left, Right and just about everything in between.

Youth
Moshe Feiglin was born in 1962. He grew up in Rehovot, where he met his wife-to-be Tzippy. Tzippy and her family had made aliyah to Israel from the United States. Moshe studied in the Or Etzion high school yeshiva. Although the religious Hesder army option was popular at the time, he opted to enlist in the army for the full term of service.Moshe progressed quickly in the army and became an officer in the engineering corps. He completed his service after four years, and he and his bride, Tzippy, moved to Karnei Shomron.

Work
Upon completing his army service, Moshe opened the first window washing company for high-rise buildings. The company grew and developed, eventually employing tens of people. At the beginning of the 90s, Moshe and a partner established a hi-tech company that developed a unique security product. The company never took off, though, as it was precisely at that time that Yitzchak Rabin was elected as prime minister of Israel and signed the Oslo Accords.

Wake Up Call
Moshe Feiglin immediately understood the ominous significance of the Oslo Accords and attempted to warn of the impending danger. The leftist government reacted with derision to the protests and warnings of the National Camp. The Right’s ineffectual reaction to the moral and security collapse that Oslo engendered brought Moshe to the conclusion that he could no longer continue life as a private person. He left his business and with his friend Shmuel Sackett, established the Zo Artzeinu protest movement. With no major organization behind them, with no budget and coming from total anonymity, Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett managed to carry out the largest and most significant protest that the State of Israel had ever seen. On the 12th of Av, 5755 (August, ’95), approximately one hundred thousand demonstrators from all sectors of Israel’s society took to the streets and blocked more than one hundred main intersections in Israel. The protest paralyzed the country and proved that the nation – unlike its leaders – was faithful to its land and was not interested in the embrace of the terror organizations.

Zo Artzeinu was a huge success and brought Moshe Feiglin into the headlines as a person with unusual leadership capabilities. Even his opponents admitted that Feiglin represented a phenomenon never before witnessed on the Israeli scene.

1996: Major Factor in Political Turn About
Despite the success of Zo Artzeinu, Moshe Feiglin did not seek any political gain. He was immediately arrested, refused the services of defense attorneys and together with Shmuel Sackett and Rabbi Benny Elon, was put on trial for sedition. Proceedings against Rabbi Elon were terminated when he was elected to the Knesset. Feiglin could have easily chosen the same path. He could have taken advantage of the tremendous public credit that he had accrued, gotten himself elected to the Knesset in one of the right wing parties and elegantly saved his own skin. But Feiglin is a true leader. “There is no way that I will lead people in a struggle and then find my own personal escape hatch to avoid the consequences,” he said and paid the price in full.

Instead of running for the Knesset in a small party, Zo Artzeinu used its deep grass roots support to help the Likud’s Binyamin Netanyahu win the elections against Shimon Peres. Zo Artzeinu volunteers manned the intersections throughout Israel, handing out Netanyahu leaflets in an all out effort to bring the Right into power. The hard work of the Jewish majority public tipped the scales and Netanyahu narrowly won the elections. Ironically though, Feiglin’s sedition trial continued throughout the years of the Likud’s rule. Instead of sitting in the Knesset, Moshe sat in the courtrooms. He was ultimately sentenced to six months of community service.

Writer
During those years, Moshe Feiglin wrote his first book, “Where there are no Men.” The book was published in Hebrew, English and Russian. Moshe’s articles began to appear in the media. The Jewish majority public began to integrate his opinions and outlook into its own world view and Moshe became a sought-after speaker throughout the world.

Moshe Feiglin’s second book, “The War of Dreams,” is 530 pages of selections of the hundreds of articles that he has written. The articles span an eight year period – from 1997 to the Disengagement in 2005. Feiglin’s impressive prescience is apparent in the book. In his articles, he concluded that the Hizbollah would shoot missiles at Haifa three years before it actually happened and predicted that the US army would become hopelessly embroiled in Iraq, explaining precisely why – immediately after 9/11. When everybody eulogized the Likud as a party of the past, Moshe explained why it would quickly recover, convincing both his supporters and opponents that his analyses are to be taken seriously.

Jewish Leadership
When Netanyahu warmly shook Arafat’s hand and announced that he had found a friend, he effectively eliminated the opposition to Oslo. It was at that point that the National Camp – as the Left before it -- accepted the justice of the Arab claims. When the Right was dragged by Netanyahu into Oslo, it was no longer capable of establishing an alternative. The public got used to the fact that when it voted Left, it got Left and when it voted Right, it got double Left. Naturally, deep despair followed.

Although a number of right wing parties attempted to convince Moshe Feiglin to join their ranks, he refused. He knew that only the party that represents the main sector of Israeli society – the Likud – can possibly rectify the situation. After the Likud leadership attached itself to Arafat, Feiglin understood that just helping the Likud to get elected accomplishes nothing. The Likud, currently captive to Leftist ideology, must have a leader who will express its latent Jewish identity. He joined the Likud and immediately announced that he intended to lead it.

In 1999 Netanyahu lost to the Labor’s Ehud Barak. The Likud seemed to be a dead-end party. But it was precisely then that Feiglin began his campaign to convince the public to join the Likud in an effort to establish authentic Jewish leadership for Israel. Thousands – about half of whom were settlers in Yesha -- complied and signed up.

In 2003, Moshe Feiglin participated in the Likud primaries for the first time. He ran against Netanyahu and Sharon and got just 3% of the vote. Of course, his candidacy then was just symbolic. But he had proven that he was seriously in the race.

In 2006 the Likud held primaries once again. There were six candidates beside Feiglin: Netanyahu, Silvan Shalom, Israel Katz, Uzi Landau, Shaul Mofaz and Limor Linat.

This time, Feiglin’s candidacy was not symbolic at all. As soon as the first polls showed Feiglin bypassing Livnat, she pulled out of the race. When Feiglin passed then Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in the polls, he didn’t suffice with reneging on his candidacy; he left the Likud and joined the Kadima party. When Feiglin passed Uzi Landau in the polls, Landau left the race and supported Bibi. Feiglin eventually won third place in the primaries with 13% of the Likud votes. It was the surprise of the primaries. Despite the fact that all the other candidates had been ministers and Knesset members, Moshe reached third place without ever having been in the Knesset. Many Likud members desperately seek authentic Jewish leadership. In the polling booth, they voted Feiglin.

Future
”Moshe Feiglin intends to provide Israel with authentic Jewish leadership. From the leadership position of the Likud, his goal is to create a National umbrella party with the Likud at the helm.
“When I will lead the Likud,” he explains, “I will establish the ‘Jewish Israel’ umbrella party. Who will vote for the National Union when Feiglin is at the head of the Likud? Who will vote for the NRP? How many voters will stay with Lieberman? How many people will come home from Shas? When we establish the National bloc with the Likud at the head, there will be no choice but to join us. It will be the greatest victory in the history of the Knesset!


Family Man
Moshe Feiglin is a family man. He and his wife Tzippy have five children. His oldest daughter is married, lives in the settlement of Einav and has turned her father into the youngest grandfather in Israeli politics

Moshe’s day begins before dawn when he rises for prayers, Torah study and mountain biking in the Shomron mountains. Between his frequent speaking engagements and meetings, he still finds time to write, answer the many letters that he receives and of course – to spend time with his wife and children.

The Divine Political Plan....

"And you shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein; for I have given the land to you to possess it.
But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those that you let remain will be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you dwell.
And it shall come to pass, that as I thought to do unto them, so will I do to you."
(Torah portion, Numbers 33: 53, 55, 56)

A Torah portion provides us with the most realistic political plan that exists. The State of Israel must foster a reality in which the entire Land of Israel is in the hands of the Nation of Israel. It must not allow any part of the land to remain in foreign hands. If we give our land to foreign peoples, we will lose our own hold on the land and will eventually be forced to leave. Any political plan or solution that does not take this fact into account is nothing more than an illusion.

The Temple Mount....

(The Coming Temple)

by Moshe Feiglin, Future Prime Minister of Israel

On the 19th of every Hebrew month I have the privilege to guide a group of Jews on the Temple Mount. At 7:30 in the morning, I wait at the main entrance to the Western Wall for the people who will join me. The people who come are not average tourists. Before they arrive, they purify themselves in a ritual bath, put on non-leather shoes and make sure that they know where it is permissible by Jewish law to walk on the Temple Mount.

This week is part of the period of mourning for our destroyed, holy Temple. As such, I invite you to join me here for a virtual tour. I hope that someday you will join me in Jerusalem for the real thing.

At 7:30 we enter the side entrance that leads to the Mugrabim Gate. Well, we don't really enter. Other groups of tourists from around the world or groups of Israelis who look like tourists sail right past the security. But for us - the Jews who look like Jews - there is a special procedure. We must undergo a body check. On the surface, it seems like the police are searching for weapons, as is the norm in all public places since the Oslo 'Peace' Accords descended upon us. But actually, they are searching for something much more dangerous. They are searching for prayer books. One time, a particularly industrious policeman caught me with a Grace after Meals card that I always carry in my wallet. I began to laugh and almost got myself arrested.

After it is clear that we are free of any dangerous prayer materials, we undergo a briefing. The group is sternly informed that it is forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount - the site of the Jewish holy Temple. "Whoever prays," the policeman warns, "will be arrested, and will not be allowed on the Temple Mount next time." After that degrading ceremony, we ascend to the holiest place in the world. The yearning for this place and for the Temple that will be built upon it has preserved our identity for close to 2,000 years.

We gingerly step onto the wooden bridge that will bring us to the Mugrabim Gate, above the Western Wall. Before we enter the gate, I ask my group to look down below, to the Herodian street that was uncovered in the archeological digs in and around the Temple Mount. This is the street on which Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon walked. On the day of the destruction of the Temple, 1,938 years ago, Roman soldiers toppled the huge stones of the Western Wall onto the street below. This pile of rocks was unearthed and wisely left by the archeologists as it had been found. It provides us with a snapshot of the day that the Temple was destroyed.

With awe in our hearts we enter the Temple Mount. The awe is almost immediately sidelined by what feels like an emotional sledgehammer to the head. Arab children are playing soccer. Other Arabs sit in the shade and chew on a sandwich. The Temple Mount looks like a Moslem park. Our holy Temple of the past peeks out at us from everywhere, but you have to be able to see past the sorry picture of the present. Exquisitely crafted marble pillars from the Second Temple period are scattered about the Mount. Remnants of the gold plating that covered the pillars can still be detected in the cracks.

A Moslem guard joins our group. He keeps his eyes on our lips. If he sees someone whispering a prayer, he immediately informs the Jewish policeman, who will call extra forces to arrest the “criminal”.

And now, we stand at the entrance to the Hulda Gates. It is from here that the Jews who came from near and far for the Jewish holidays would enter the Temple Mount. It was here that, after days of walking to Jerusalem, they would finally see the Temple in all its glory. We can imagine how, when they would come face to face with the house of G-d, they would bow down with intense devotion. We stand silently as we face the Dome of the Rock that covers the Foundation Stone, the site of the Holy of Holies. We tightly seal our lips. Remember, it is forbidden for Jews to pray here.

We continue. Off to the side we see what looks like a pile of junk. We approach the pile. This is not junk, but huge, ancient wooden planks. When a fire broke out at the Dome of the Rock a number of years ago, large amounts of these planks were removed from there. A Jewish man managed to buy some of those planks from an Arab junk dealer. He sent them for botanical examination and for Carbon-14 dating. The tests showed that the planks are made of cedar and cypress trees - the very same trees cited in the Book of Kings - the trees that Hiram the king of Tzor sent to King Solomon to build the 1st Temple. The lab dated the trees to the 1st Temple period. When a 2,000 year-old boat was discovered in the Sea of Galilee, a museum was built in Ginosar to house the vessel that may have carried the Jew who founded Christianity. But remnants of the 1st Temple? Just throw them into the junk pile. That is how Israel relates to its Jewish identity.

We continue to walk. The Arabs have been digging through the center of the mountain for years and have already cleared an immense area that now houses the largest mosque in the Middle East. They do their best to destroy any remnant of the Jewish Temple. The Israeli government allows them to dig and destroy as they please. Piles of debris - chock full of ancient, priceless artifacts - are regularly trucked off to Jerusalem garbage dumps. Jews who pick through the piles of debris have found amazing artifacts from both Temples. The gray tone of the debris piqued the interest of Temple loyalists. Laboratory tests confirmed what they suspected. The dominant factor in the debris is ash. 1,938 years ago, a huge fire burned here.

We reach the entrance of the sanctuary. This is where the priests raised their hands to bless Israel. We stand in silence. Strong emotions of awesome sanctity and horrifying degradation storm through our hearts. And here we end our virtual tour. I have presented you with just a taste of what we experience on the Temple Mount. Whoever wishes to learn more is welcome to join me on the 19th of every month.

The famous, prophetic poet, Uri Tzvi Greenberg, wrote: "He who rules the Temple Mount rules the Land of Israel." The Temple Mount is the beating heart of the Land of Israel. Our national heart is no longer circulating the blood to our organs. On the periphery - in Sderot and Ashkelon - gangrene has set in and begun to spread. When Jews give the keys to the Mount to a foreign nation, they forgo the justice of their claim to any other part of the Land. The most important weapon that a nation can have - belief in the justice of its cause - has been denied us, and we steadily retreat. If we deny the Mount, we cannot claim that our cause is just. Not in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv.

If we want to return to ourselves - to our moral health, our culture, our security and our destiny - if we want to bring peace to our Land and to the world, we must remember the destroyed house of G-d and tenaciously return to the Temple Mount.

On the Cusp of a Feiglin Revolution

Last Month, Moshe Feiglin hosted a very special event in HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv to toast the new year and to celebrate reaching 100,000 “likes” on his Hebrew Facebook page (a 125% increase in 3 months). Several hundred people came, mostly from the Tel-Aviv area, mostly kippa-less, in tank tops and t-shirts.  As I went around the crowd, I talked to people about their reasons for being there and what attracted them to Moshe Feiglin.  Several themes emerged:

    The old ideas aren’t working. Moshe is the only one with any real alternative.  Let’s give his ideas a try.
    Moshe is the only politician who speaks truthfully, who holds consistently to what he feels is right, and who doesn’t zig-zag based on the current political winds.
    Moshe is the only guy in the political arena who makes any sense.
    Moshe’s plan offers the best real chance for peace.  (This was from a self-described “peace activist”)

I’ve spoken to a number of Manhigut Yehudit supporters in the last few weeks who have told me that their leftist friends no longer know what to make of Moshe. 

They used to have him pegged as a right-wing extremist and an enemy.  Now they’re confused and curious and more and more are finding themselves surprisingly supportive of some of his initiatives. More and more of the true leftists are seeing Moshe as their champion for peace and for liberty.  This seems to be particularly true of those who are younger, in their 20’s and 30’s.

It feels like we’re on the cusp of a political revolution here in Israel, one that unites dati and non-dati, left and right, and Moshe Feiglin is the face of that revolution.  His vision is the only one that is broad enough to include all sectors of Israeli society.

Read the Rest:

http://www.jewishisrael.org/revolution-hayarkon-park-shlomo-vile/?utm_source=On%20the%20Cusp%20of%20a%20Feiglin%20Revolution%20in%20Tel%20Aviv&utm_campaign=update&utm_medium=email

Afraid of Freedom - Moshe Feiglin

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.