Newsletter #303     Friday, October 27, 2006

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This is a small sampling of the many excellent articles published this week. For more, please visit our Home Page.

• The Right of Israel to Exist
  Yehuda Avner - israelnationalnews.com - October 26, 2006  "Our right to exist - have you ever heard of such a thing?" he declared, passion creeping into his voice. "Would it enter the mind of any Briton or Frenchman, Belgian or Dutchman, Hungarian or Bulgarian, Russian or American, to request for its people recognition of its right to exist?"

• Three deadly fallacies
  Evelyn Gordon - Jerusalem Post - October 25, 2006
   There, in a nutshell, are the three deadly fallacies. First, peace is essential to Israel's survival: It is "the state's guarantee for future generations." Second, it must therefore be pursued regardless of the other side's behavior: "The prime minister's main job is presenting us with a timetable [i.e., a fixed schedule] for achieving peace." And third, because it is essential, it must be deemed achievable, even if this requires misreading the enemy's intentions: "I believe the other side is also tired of wars."

• Choose honor
  Jerusalem Post - October 23, 2006
   "Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war."
  - Winston Churchill to Neville Chamberlain at the House of Commons, after the 1938 Munich agreement.
  Now, in conjunction with but regardless of the need to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, the nations of the world must break relations with a regime that is openly justifying Israel's destruction - a call for genocide against the Jewish people. This must be done not just for Israel's sake, but to choose honor and prevent war.

• Reflections from the Front Lines in Gaza
  by Ari Abramovitz & Jeremy Gimpel - TheLandOfIsrael.com - October 26, 2006 As we sit here in the scorching heat of Gaza, terrorized by the flies whose persistence and tenacity is nothing short of inspiring, we find ourselves asking this very question. At face value, it is clear that the war is far from over. If anything, the majority of Israeli's recognize that while the battle in Southern Lebanon may have ended for now, the war with Hezbollah and the Muslim world is still to come. As to why we are here, the Arabs of Gaza are escalating their Jihad against Israel, and being that the army is still recoiling from the events of last month, they have decided to mobilize more soldiers to compensate.

  The deeper question that must be asked is what this war is really about. G-d's providence is unquestionably profound in the Land of Israel, and much like all of his creation, everything happens for a reason. Although our Prophet Isaiah tells us "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts", the spiritually attuned person can look at his life and world events and see the perfect orchestration and design.

  Last week we sat in our Jerusalem office overwhelmed with the daunting task of organizing our latest international speaking tour aimed at bringing clarity and truth, from the perspective of a commander and soldier in the IDF reserves, to a situation that is so littered with moral equivocation, misunderstandings, and lies. Without understanding the root causes, both political and spiritual, that Israel and every free nation is contending with, the powers of freedom and democracy are destined for defeat and it is the task of the Jewish people to be bring that truth to the world. As we were completely consumed with this undertaking, the phone suddenly rang notifying us that our unit has been mobilized to head down to Gaza within the week.

  On the surface, reserve duty is healthy for both the individual Jew and the Jewish Nation in the Land of Israel. On a personal level, when one is confronted with life and death, dollars and cents (or shekels and agarot), are demoted from the prominent position they tend to acquire in our lives. Showers and beds are the comforts one yearns for, rather than leather interiors and business class travel. One returns from such an experience with a renewed appreciation for things many take for granted. On a national level, reserve duty is the one vestige of Israeli society that is able to completely deconstruct social, economic, religious, and racial divisions that separate us throughout the year, bringing the nation together in the protection of our country from those who seek her destruction.

  Alongside hundreds of other Israeli's, we never thought that within the week indoor restrooms and sock-changing would be the luxuries of life. We found ourselves asking why G-d would interrupt our noble and necessary pursuit of being a "Light unto the Nations" with a call to our southern border. It did not take long, however, before the wisdom and perfection of this "distraction" became apparent.

  A mere two years ago, we served in the Philadelphi corridor region of Southern Gaza, less that a mile away from our current location and alongside the very same soldiers we are serving with now. In what is arguably the most politically opinionated nation in the world, reserve duty is as a place of debate and discussion ranging from politics and strategy to philosophy and religion. With the infamous Gaza disengagement plan approaching, there was definite division and debate concerning both the utility and justice of such a policy with a slight majority favoring the impending government initiative. The advocates the plan would simply point to the consistent barrage of dead soldiers and say "If we give this up, we'll never have to come back here again."

  Despite the disengagement, two years later we find ourselves back in Gaza and the attacks continue. Before surrendering Gaza, many claimed the attacks would cease if we would surrender the territories acquired in the 1967 war to the Palestinians. Now the missiles are exploding in Sderot, a city part of the 1948 State of Israel. The futility of machinations such as the "disengagement" and the "realignment" has been exposed and the true intentions of our enemies has been revealed leaving the same soldiers who sang the praises of appeasement and unilateral withdrawals with questions demanding answers. If this war is not about the "occupied territories" then what is it about? If we have completely withdrawn to the northern borders delineated in UN resolution 1559, then why did Hezbollah attack us? What can we do to finally make peace with the nations around us?

  Israelis have been forced to question some fundamental tenets on which the State of Israel was founded as well as assumptions and beliefs implanted in elementary school. At this very moment, there is a Torah study session going on just a few feet to my left between a secular Israeli named Rafi with a large tattoo of Gandolph (the wizard from The Lord of the Rings) on his arm, and a religious Jew named Eran with a full beard covering his face and large knitted kippah on his head. While the UN, the EU, and a growing voice in international community is questioning Israel's right to exist, Rafi is opening his heart to the true legitimacy to our claim. Rafi is learning that our right to Tel-Aviv is no more legitimate than our right to Gaza or Hebron and is based on the promise of G-d to Abraham. He is learning about our enemy, Ishmael, who is a "beastly man; his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him" who is jealous of the birthright granted to our forefather Isaac, with whom G-d granted an "everlasting covenant with him and his offspring after him". Most importantly, he is learning that there is a G-d in the world, we are his chosen people, and that he is waiting for us to return to him and guard his commandments.

  As we look at Rafi and see him beginning to understand, we too are understanding as well. Before the Jewish people can completely fulfill our task of being a "Light unto the Nations", we must first be a light unto ourselves. We can not extend a hand of friendship to the Christian world unless our other hand is firmly clasped by our Jewish brethren. G-d is bringing our enemies against us in order to turn us towards each other and to him. Whether or not we can understand it, the trials and tribulations we are facing in Israel are for our own good. Sometimes shedding falsehoods and illusions is cathartic, but the pain is a small price to pay for the truth we achieve.

  Thousands of years ago the prophet Amos sang ""Behold, days are coming - the word of the Lord - when I will send a hunger into the Land; Not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but to hear the words of Hashem." Was he picturing this very scene on the sweltering sand dunes of Gaza?

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  Ari's October 2006 speaking tour schedule

  If you live in the United States, United Kingdom, or Canada and would like to book Jeremy Gimpel for his upcoming March 2007 speaking tour, contact us: speaking@thelandofisrael.com

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• It’s because they’re Jews - stupid!
  by Stan Goodenough - Jerusalem Watchman - October 27, 2006

  The Jews of Hebron hit it right on the head Wednesday evening, when they sent a letter to the foreign policy chief of the European Union, who had arrived in Israel earlier in the day to level a fusillade of complaints at Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

  Javier Solana had demanded to know why the Israeli government had not yet uprooted “illegal” Jewish-built structures from Samaria and Judea. Israel must raze them immediately!

  And, he insisted, Israel should do more to help facilitate the quick implementation of the Road Map “peace” plan – which aims to see tens of thousands of Jews uprooted from their biblical homeland in order that a new Arab state can be established in their place.

  The arrogance and audacity of Solana his constituency knows no bounds.

  But we all know about Europe, a continent that has been saturated for centuries with the worst manifestations of antisemitism ever seen anywhere. Its rotten fruit flourishes, camouflaged but unchecked.

  I know this as a gentile student of the last 2000 years of Jewish history.

  Jews everywhere, but perhaps most especially those living in Hebron – a center of Jewish existence that continued unbroken for more than 3000 years before the British helped Hebron’s Arabs slaughter its Jews in 1929 – know it first hand.

  In their response to Solana, the leaders of Hebron’s Jews, Noam Arnon and David Wilder, drove a two-edged blade of truth and justice deep into his belly.

  “As you are a representative from Spain, a country responsible for the expulsion of over a quarter of a million Jews from their homes and country in 1492, we demand that you immediately stop pressuring Israel to implement another expulsion of Jews from their homes and communities in the Land of Israel.”

  They showed Solana the door.

  “Please leave Israel, return to your own EU business and minority problems, and stop interfering with the internal affairs of the State of Israel.”

  Their linking of the Jews’ expulsion from Spain 414 years ago and the threatened expulsion of Jews from Judea-Samaria today is not just a clever-sounding argument.

  Just as Spain was rendered judenrein (jew-free) by its Catholic monarchy, so did Israel’s abandoning of the Gaza Strip under international pressure last year leave that piece of the Promised Land judenrein.

  And the Quartet’s “two state solution” aims to see the mountainous heartland of Israel rendered judenrein for the Arabs to turn into Palestine.

  Solana is leading the European effort to bring this about. For he has chosen to identify the Jewish presence as the root of all evil.

  He, and his fellow Europeans, may protest until they are black in the face that their “solution” is not borne out of antisemitism.

  But it is.

  Last month, an Israeli politician who lives in one of the settlements in Judea told in my hearing of a conversation he had with a British diplomat at the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem.

  He had put two questions to her:

  1. If every Jew was removed (voluntarily or forcefully) from Judea and Samaria, and the EU and United Nations certified that not a single Israeli soldier or civilian remained in “occupied Arab territory” east of the 1967 border or “Green Line,” could England guarantee that Israel would be left to live in peace?

  “Of course not,” was her reply.

  2. And if all the Jews in the Middle East were transferred to Europe, and Frenchmen or Germans or Englishmen were transplanted into the Middle East in their place, did she believe there would be peace in the region?

  Her response: “No.”

  They know it, you see, these European leaders who cannot sleep at night for trying to find a “solution” for this intractable war. They know that it is not because of the settlers or the Jews that there is violence and instability in the Middle East.

  They know that the fault lies with the Muslim Arabs; that the Arabs are the real obstacle to peace.

  This is what makes these western nations’ sin so heinous, their behavior towards the Jewish people so black.

  This is how we know that antisemitism spawned and drives the “Road Map” to their latest “final solution” to the “Jewish question.”

  In 1938, the European powers of Great Britain and France chose not to stand up to Hitler, even though he was clearly the aggressor and wrongdoer. He was swallowing up parts of Europe, had clearly expressed his hatred of the Jews, and spoke openly of the plans he had in store for them.

  Instead of confronting him, they opted to offer up little, indefensible Czechoslovakia to appease the Nazi beast.

  Today they have an even easier choice. There is no need to offer up a third country. To mollify the Muslim aggressor they can sacrifice Israel’s land and people in one go. And this is what they are doing.

  For years, Israel’s governments and leftists have allowed their countrymen to be dragged into the appeasement process.

  But while the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem may be malleable to the point of risking the very existence of their homeland and their nation, Hebron’s Jews – and hundreds of thousands of Bible-believing Israelis like them – stand like a rock.

  Closing their letter to Solana, they declared:

  “We, the Jewish people, plan on remaining here, in our historic homeland, safely and securely, forever.”

  Unfettered by those chains

  One western politician whose country is not chained to the oil wells of Arabia nor overly concerned with how much his nation is loved or hated by hordes of keffiyeh-wearers in the Middle East this week took a firm stand with Israel against those bent on destroying her.

  When he did so, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also demonstrated a clear-sighted comprehension of the connection between the efforts to wipe out the Jews today and those practiced by their enemies through the ages.

  Explaining why his government had taken an unequivocal stand on Israel’s side during the recent war in southern Lebanon, Harper said:

  “The fact is [that] those who attacked Israel and those who sponsor such attacks don’t seek merely to gain some leverage, to alter some boundary or to right some wrong.

  “They seek what they and those like them have always sought: the destruction of Israel and the destruction of the Jewish people. Why? A thousand complicated rationalizations, but only one simple reason: because the Jews are different, because the Jews are not like them. And because Israel is different and alone in a complicated and dangerous part of the world.”

  Referring to the Holocaust he warned: “Those who seek to destroy the Jews, who seek to destroy Israel, will for the same reason ultimately seek to destroy us all.”

  The Mountains of Israel is an exciting and refreshing new perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict, clearly outlining how God is fulfilling His Word in modern-day Israel. Free with a $ 11.95 USD per copy Donation!  Click button at left for PayPal or visit our "Mountains" page onsite.

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