FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GISNBERG
ISRAEL: REVOLUTION OR REFERENDUM?
RABBI MEIR KAHANE - 1990
MOVING TO THE VERGE
(Part 2 of 3 parts)
On May 30, a group of religious Jews went up to pray at what is traditionally believed to be the graves of Biblical figures, Joshua, his father Nun and Caleb. The graves are located in the Arab village of Kifl Harith and the Jews who had come to pray were attacked by rock-throwing Arabs. The Jews fired at the attackers and one of them, a girl, was shot and killed.
That day, the rabbi of the Od Yosef Chai in Schem was attacked as he and 30 other Jews were on a hike in the area. At the village of Sanjil, the rabbi was struck in the head by a rock
It was not the attack on the rabbi nor all the countless attacks on Jews that now caused rave and rage on the part of the Jewish Left. It was not the fact that that day, it was reported that some 12,000(!) cases of Arab violations of the law had been already processed by the courts in the 18 months of the intifada.
In response to the shooting of the girl, by Jews acting in self-defense and in an effort to teach the Arabs that they would not drive Jews out of the land, the newpaper Hadashot (May 21 1989) in a news item wrote:
“The actions of the settlers aroused severe reaction against Israel in world public opinion. The spokesman for the State Department, Richard Butcher, condemned the illegal violent acts of (Jewish) citizens in the territories.”
And in an editorial, the paper said: “Madness. There is no other word that better describes the voyage of vengeance in the Arab village Kifl Harith…”
Police arrested eight Jews, and the head of the Civil Administration in Judea-Samaria. Major General Sheika Erez, went to the Arab village to “calm the atmosphere.” He promised them that the army would prevent any violation of law and attacks on a “peaceful population.” (Hadashot, May 31, 1989)
On June 13, 1989, it was announced that the police had searched 34 houses of settlers in the settlements of Yitzhar, Tel Haim and Ma’ale Lvona in a search for weapons of those suspected of being at Kifl Harith. They also arrested and asked for a remand of two yeshiva students from the Shchem Yeshiva who admitted on radio that they had had been at the village and were attacked by Arabs.
On May 31, 1988, two days before Jerusalem Day, commemorating the liberation of the Old City in 1967, the Jerusalem Police announced that no rallies could be held in the Old City, no group larger than 50 people would be allowed to enter, and no Israeli flags could be flown. This insanity was immediately challenged by Kach which announced that it would demonstrate in the Old City on the holiday,
The same day (May 31) the chief-of-staff Dan Shomron issued a warning to Jewish settlers: “There is a small group of settlers that takes the law into its own hands and needlessly attacks Arab residents of the territories. This kind of activity will boomerang against the settlers…”
Meanwhile proof that the frustration of the Jews had reached a new peak was seen in a leaflet signed by a group called Dov. Aimed at the troops, it said: “You must not be cogs in a leftist treacherous steamroller which exists in the IDF. You must refuse any order that degrades you as soldiers and the IDF and the Jewish army.”
The Israeli cauldron was heating up dramatically as the natural law of state and citizens went into effect: A government cannot play with the safety and lives of citizens and expect them to forever sit quietly.
And the, came the funeral of Frederick Rosenfeld of Ariel. Here is the way The Jerusalem Post described it (June 21, 1989)
“Barkan, Samaria- Hundreds of West Bank settlers who yesterday surrounded the open grave of their slain neighbor, Frederick Rosenfeld, booed Prime Minister Shamir and called him a traitor. Scores then drove to the Morasha junction near Petach Tikva and blocked traffic at that major intersection…
“You promised to eradicate the intifada, ‘one settler shouted. Another held up a picture of Rami Chaba, who was killed near Eilon Moreah before the intifada. ‘You should look at him. At him ‘the demonstrator shouted at Shamir. Another man, who was filling Rosenfeld’s grave, suddenly stood up and offered Shamir the shovel, reportedly suggesting that the Prime Minister fill the grave himself so that ‘maybe you’ll have a little compassion.’
“Ariel local council chairman Ron Nahman asked the demonstrators to show due respect for the dead, but he, too, was booed…
“Shamir said last night that the demonstration at the funeral was a difficult experience’ for him. Speaking to a group of Likud activists in the Jerusalem office, Shamir accused Meir Kahane’s Kach movement of organizing the disturbances.
‘Several people behaved disgracefully, but I am immune to such things,’ he remarked. ‘It is regrettable that the Jewish people suffers from the malady of internal dissention and senseless hatred.’ He claimed that the event only served the Arab cause.
The Prime Minister’s bodyguards, police officers and a police unit specially trained to handle riots circled him during the ceremony and later pushed the crowd aside as they led him to his car. They were surrounded by angry demonstrators who shouted in unison. “Traitor! Traitor!”
After the funeral, some 80 settlers and supporters set out for the Morasha junction near Petach Tikva. The windshields of at least two cars were smashed along their route. One driver was cut in the forehead, chest and hands. Another, Yaakub Ashur of Bidya, told The Jerusalem Post that a stone was flung at his car from a passing car. ‘We were nearly killed,’ he said. The stone hit one of the passengers in the stomach.
“The rioters blocked the entire Morasha junction, sat on the road, changed ‘Death to the Arabs’ and stoned a third car injuring tow more passengers.
“Police pushed the rioters off the road. When the police tried to arrest one rioter, other settlers grabbed the man out of their hands.”
In the above can be seen all the elements of the consequences of the failure of the Israeli authorities. Their incompetence or their deliberate refusal to take the steps necessary to protect Jewish lives, leads to justified attacks on the government to angry Jewish action in spite of the government and to the terrible possibility of a revolution, the blame for which will be soley that of the government.
(Conclusion next week's article)
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's activities at:
http:/www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
I am also posting MK Dr. Michael ben-Ari’s activities
http:/www.mkmichaelben-ari.blogspot.com
2.06.2010
2.02.2010
Revolution or Referendum? "Moving To The Verge"
FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
ISRAEL: REVOLUTION OR REFERENDUM?
RABBI MEIR KAHANE - 1990
MOVING TO THE VERGE
(Part 1 of 3 parts)
Israel moves to the verge of an explosion of violence on the part of Jews who are bitter, angry and deeply frightened. They are good Jews who do not wish to see such a frightening occurrence but who see a situation in which:
1)The government is either unwilling or unable to protect Jewish lives and property, and yet lays rules for both security forces and civilians that make it impossible to protect themselves properly.
2)When after much suffering and patience, Jews “violate” the insane laws and fire back in self defense they are arrested, their weapons confiscated and, at times, they are put on trial.
3)This only increases the danger and frustration as the Arabs, understanding the situation, grow ever bolder and attack and kill more Jews.
4)This, in turn leads to more and more Jews taking action on their own; either settlers attacking an Arab location from which a terror attack came, or urban crowds rioting after an attack or at a funeral.
5)This leads to better condemnation of the Jews by both the government and the liberal left, and a hardening of the police and judicial-including stiff sentences against Jews who reacted to violence and to government impotency with violence of their own.
6)This leads to the growth of underground groups who escalate the violence qualitatively and quantitatively.
7)This lead to threats by the Left of counter measures to them and of civil war
This is not a scenario for the future. This is what has been happening over the past few years and what is occurring in Israel at this moment. Consider:
The headline in Yediot Aharonot (December 20, 1988) read: “EVERYONE ASKS HIMSELF, WHEN WILL THE STONE HIT ME?” It was a story about the settlement of Ginot Shomron, a comfortable, relatively prosperous one that drew many Jews by advertising itself as being “five minutes from Kfar Saba.” i.e. the Green Line in Israel. Within the previous year, however, life had become a nightmare for the settlement. Five residents inured seriously by rocks, and a daily riding of the gauntlet of Arab terror from the nearby Arab villages and orchards.
And in the settlement of Alphei Menashe, also a constant target of attacks on its residents, there is bitterness, too.
In frustration, after each attack on a Jew, settlers at the beginning would go out to protest, only to be met by army roadblocks and threats of arrest. They would return home even more frustrated, even more angry, bitter, frightened.
The reality is that the army and the authorities ignore pleas, ignore warnings that Arabs are planning attacks and ignore reports of attacks on Jews except if they involve loss of life or serious injury.
The headline in Maariv (August 23, 1988) reads: “We shot in the air to escape attackers in Bir Zeit and the army did not intervene.”
Following a clash between Jews and Arabs at the Jewish settlement of Amatzia, the bitter residents speak to The Jerusalem Post (July 26, 1989). The settlement which is just inside Israel, within the Green Line, has been bothered by Arabs since the Six Day War.
The most grotesque twist of all is the tying of settlers’ hands and then the action taken against them when they act in self-defense beyond the stupid and irrational rules of the authorities. An interesting example of this, and of the fear of the Jew to use force even when attacked, is the case of Rafi Levi of Ariel.
Levi on December 22, 1988, left the settlement of Ariel where he lives, on a bus driven by Avner Mutzpi. Levi’s job was to protect the bus in case of attack. At the entrance to the Arab village, Marda, they were attacked by youths throwing stones. Rushing out they apprehended four of them, when from the village dashed out tens of Arabs, screaming, cursing and throwing rocks. Now consider Levi’s story, bearing in mind that he was armed and that his job was to protect the bus.
“One Arab, carrying a stone, tried to hit me in the head, when I stopped him with both hands but was hit and slightly injured in the head, when another Arab, from behind, grabbed my throat with both his hands. With all my strength and with the butt of my weapon that I had in my hand, I succeeded in hitting him in the stomach and freeing myself. The Arab with the stone now jumped at me and I stopped him again, but I was hit in my forehead above the eyes. He then grabbed my gun belt and began to pull on it. I felt that my life was in danger and I cocked the weapon. Then I heard my friend the driver yelling that he was coming to help, so I uncocked the weapon” (Maariv: December 23, 1988)
One hardly knows what to say: A man is given a gun and a job to protect a bus and presumably Jewish lives on it. Most presumably his own. He has the weapon. How does he allow Arabs to get that close so as to endanger his life? How does he allow Arabs to reach him and injure him and not shoot? How, when he feels that his life is in imminent danger, does he uncock his gun because his friend is “coming to help him?”
The answer is that Rafi Levi was afraid to shoot an Arab because he feared that he would be arrested, tried and jailed. Madness? Worse, it brings to mind the incident at the Cave of Machpela in Hebron in which an Arab woman suddenly attacked a soldier from behind. Holding a knife she proceeded to attempt to cut his throat. Another soldier, standing nearby fired two shots. The first was in the air? Those are the orders.
The madness and impotency of the authorities have led to a breakdown and an understandable one, in the confidence in the government on the part of more and more Jews. And more and more of them have decided to ignore the insanity and use force against the Arabs in order to save their own lives and, in the end, save the Jewish state. And, of course, the reaction of the authorities to that has been to punish the Jews.
On August 11, 1988, Pinchas Wallerstein, chairman of the Binyamin Regional council, was charged with manslaughter. Wallerstein was driving near the Samarian Arab village of Beitin when his car was stopped by a burning tire, a method used to
force Jews to halt and then be pelted with stones. Wallerstein leaped out of his car and, with gun drawn, chased two youths. He shot them both and killed one. The authorities decided to place him on trial.
On September 30, 1988, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, one of the leaders of Gush Emunim and the man who spearheaded the original settlement drive in Kiryat Arba, was driving with his family in the Avraham Avinu compound in Hebron, where he lives. Suddenly a rock came crashing through the window, narrowly missing a grandchild. At an army roadblock in Faisal Street, Levinger asked the soldiers to summon a patrol. They stood waiting when suddenly stones began to fly. Levinger dashed into the Arab marketplace, firing and shooting an Arab who later died.
On April 2, 1989 Rabbi Levinger was indicted and ordered to stand trial for the death of an Arab.
On April 11, 1989, following the deadly attack on Jews at the Western Wall by thousands of rock throwing Arabs, four Arabs were shot outside the Old City of Jerusalem’s Jaffa gate. One was killed.
On May 3, 1989, Jews from Kiryat Arba and Hebron, after years of Arab attacks on their buses and vehicles and bodies met and decided that from now on they would shoot any Arab who threw stones at them. They declared that stones being deadly weapons, they were justified in shooting. In response, in an interview on Israel radio, that day, General Amram Mitzna, said: “Anything that is forbidden, illegal or disturbs the security forces in their activities, we will have to deal with. The heads of the settlements know very well what is allowed and what is not.
On May 4, angry Jews from Kiryat Arba in reaction to another attack by Arabs, poured into the streets of Hebron smashing Arab cars and houses. The newspaper Yediot Acharonot (May 5) describes more Jewish reaction and the resultant government one.
“The police plan to deal more strictly with Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria who take the law into their own hands and commit acts of vengeance against the Arabs.
“Against this background it was decided to ask for a continuance of the remand of three Jews suspected of throwing stones last Wednesday on Arab houses in Kfar Mashah….
“The three reached Kfar Mashah in the wake of an incident in which an Arab resident of the village attempted to murder Levi Meshumar, a (Jewish) resident of Eytz Efraim in Samaria…
“(Meanwhile) tens of furious residents of Gush Katif (Gaza) blocked the highway leading to northern Gaza and threw rocks at local residents. This, after Arabs attacked a vehicle with stones, drove off its passengers, and set it on fire.”
(To be continued next week)
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's activities at:
http:/www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
I am also posting MK Dr. Michael ben-Ari’s activities
http:/www.mkmichaelben-ari.blogspot.com
BARBARA GINSBERG
ISRAEL: REVOLUTION OR REFERENDUM?
RABBI MEIR KAHANE - 1990
MOVING TO THE VERGE
(Part 1 of 3 parts)
Israel moves to the verge of an explosion of violence on the part of Jews who are bitter, angry and deeply frightened. They are good Jews who do not wish to see such a frightening occurrence but who see a situation in which:
1)The government is either unwilling or unable to protect Jewish lives and property, and yet lays rules for both security forces and civilians that make it impossible to protect themselves properly.
2)When after much suffering and patience, Jews “violate” the insane laws and fire back in self defense they are arrested, their weapons confiscated and, at times, they are put on trial.
3)This only increases the danger and frustration as the Arabs, understanding the situation, grow ever bolder and attack and kill more Jews.
4)This, in turn leads to more and more Jews taking action on their own; either settlers attacking an Arab location from which a terror attack came, or urban crowds rioting after an attack or at a funeral.
5)This leads to better condemnation of the Jews by both the government and the liberal left, and a hardening of the police and judicial-including stiff sentences against Jews who reacted to violence and to government impotency with violence of their own.
6)This leads to the growth of underground groups who escalate the violence qualitatively and quantitatively.
7)This lead to threats by the Left of counter measures to them and of civil war
This is not a scenario for the future. This is what has been happening over the past few years and what is occurring in Israel at this moment. Consider:
The headline in Yediot Aharonot (December 20, 1988) read: “EVERYONE ASKS HIMSELF, WHEN WILL THE STONE HIT ME?” It was a story about the settlement of Ginot Shomron, a comfortable, relatively prosperous one that drew many Jews by advertising itself as being “five minutes from Kfar Saba.” i.e. the Green Line in Israel. Within the previous year, however, life had become a nightmare for the settlement. Five residents inured seriously by rocks, and a daily riding of the gauntlet of Arab terror from the nearby Arab villages and orchards.
And in the settlement of Alphei Menashe, also a constant target of attacks on its residents, there is bitterness, too.
In frustration, after each attack on a Jew, settlers at the beginning would go out to protest, only to be met by army roadblocks and threats of arrest. They would return home even more frustrated, even more angry, bitter, frightened.
The reality is that the army and the authorities ignore pleas, ignore warnings that Arabs are planning attacks and ignore reports of attacks on Jews except if they involve loss of life or serious injury.
The headline in Maariv (August 23, 1988) reads: “We shot in the air to escape attackers in Bir Zeit and the army did not intervene.”
Following a clash between Jews and Arabs at the Jewish settlement of Amatzia, the bitter residents speak to The Jerusalem Post (July 26, 1989). The settlement which is just inside Israel, within the Green Line, has been bothered by Arabs since the Six Day War.
The most grotesque twist of all is the tying of settlers’ hands and then the action taken against them when they act in self-defense beyond the stupid and irrational rules of the authorities. An interesting example of this, and of the fear of the Jew to use force even when attacked, is the case of Rafi Levi of Ariel.
Levi on December 22, 1988, left the settlement of Ariel where he lives, on a bus driven by Avner Mutzpi. Levi’s job was to protect the bus in case of attack. At the entrance to the Arab village, Marda, they were attacked by youths throwing stones. Rushing out they apprehended four of them, when from the village dashed out tens of Arabs, screaming, cursing and throwing rocks. Now consider Levi’s story, bearing in mind that he was armed and that his job was to protect the bus.
“One Arab, carrying a stone, tried to hit me in the head, when I stopped him with both hands but was hit and slightly injured in the head, when another Arab, from behind, grabbed my throat with both his hands. With all my strength and with the butt of my weapon that I had in my hand, I succeeded in hitting him in the stomach and freeing myself. The Arab with the stone now jumped at me and I stopped him again, but I was hit in my forehead above the eyes. He then grabbed my gun belt and began to pull on it. I felt that my life was in danger and I cocked the weapon. Then I heard my friend the driver yelling that he was coming to help, so I uncocked the weapon” (Maariv: December 23, 1988)
One hardly knows what to say: A man is given a gun and a job to protect a bus and presumably Jewish lives on it. Most presumably his own. He has the weapon. How does he allow Arabs to get that close so as to endanger his life? How does he allow Arabs to reach him and injure him and not shoot? How, when he feels that his life is in imminent danger, does he uncock his gun because his friend is “coming to help him?”
The answer is that Rafi Levi was afraid to shoot an Arab because he feared that he would be arrested, tried and jailed. Madness? Worse, it brings to mind the incident at the Cave of Machpela in Hebron in which an Arab woman suddenly attacked a soldier from behind. Holding a knife she proceeded to attempt to cut his throat. Another soldier, standing nearby fired two shots. The first was in the air? Those are the orders.
The madness and impotency of the authorities have led to a breakdown and an understandable one, in the confidence in the government on the part of more and more Jews. And more and more of them have decided to ignore the insanity and use force against the Arabs in order to save their own lives and, in the end, save the Jewish state. And, of course, the reaction of the authorities to that has been to punish the Jews.
On August 11, 1988, Pinchas Wallerstein, chairman of the Binyamin Regional council, was charged with manslaughter. Wallerstein was driving near the Samarian Arab village of Beitin when his car was stopped by a burning tire, a method used to
force Jews to halt and then be pelted with stones. Wallerstein leaped out of his car and, with gun drawn, chased two youths. He shot them both and killed one. The authorities decided to place him on trial.
On September 30, 1988, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, one of the leaders of Gush Emunim and the man who spearheaded the original settlement drive in Kiryat Arba, was driving with his family in the Avraham Avinu compound in Hebron, where he lives. Suddenly a rock came crashing through the window, narrowly missing a grandchild. At an army roadblock in Faisal Street, Levinger asked the soldiers to summon a patrol. They stood waiting when suddenly stones began to fly. Levinger dashed into the Arab marketplace, firing and shooting an Arab who later died.
On April 2, 1989 Rabbi Levinger was indicted and ordered to stand trial for the death of an Arab.
On April 11, 1989, following the deadly attack on Jews at the Western Wall by thousands of rock throwing Arabs, four Arabs were shot outside the Old City of Jerusalem’s Jaffa gate. One was killed.
On May 3, 1989, Jews from Kiryat Arba and Hebron, after years of Arab attacks on their buses and vehicles and bodies met and decided that from now on they would shoot any Arab who threw stones at them. They declared that stones being deadly weapons, they were justified in shooting. In response, in an interview on Israel radio, that day, General Amram Mitzna, said: “Anything that is forbidden, illegal or disturbs the security forces in their activities, we will have to deal with. The heads of the settlements know very well what is allowed and what is not.
On May 4, angry Jews from Kiryat Arba in reaction to another attack by Arabs, poured into the streets of Hebron smashing Arab cars and houses. The newspaper Yediot Acharonot (May 5) describes more Jewish reaction and the resultant government one.
“The police plan to deal more strictly with Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria who take the law into their own hands and commit acts of vengeance against the Arabs.
“Against this background it was decided to ask for a continuance of the remand of three Jews suspected of throwing stones last Wednesday on Arab houses in Kfar Mashah….
“The three reached Kfar Mashah in the wake of an incident in which an Arab resident of the village attempted to murder Levi Meshumar, a (Jewish) resident of Eytz Efraim in Samaria…
“(Meanwhile) tens of furious residents of Gush Katif (Gaza) blocked the highway leading to northern Gaza and threw rocks at local residents. This, after Arabs attacked a vehicle with stones, drove off its passengers, and set it on fire.”
(To be continued next week)
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's activities at:
http:/www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
I am also posting MK Dr. Michael ben-Ari’s activities
http:/www.mkmichaelben-ari.blogspot.com
1.31.2010
We Will Also Protest Without A Permit
Following court ruling, right-wing activists say they will also protest without permit
Published: 01.28.10, 21:40 / Israel News
In response to the court ruling on the leftist demonstrations in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, right-wing activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir said that they plan on protesting Friday without a police permit.
"We will also demonstrate in front of the Tomb of Simeon the Just. Although we were planning on asking for police permission, now after the court ruling we will arrive without it. What the leftist are permitted to do – we should also be permitted," said the two. (Efrat Weiss)
Published: 01.28.10, 21:40 / Israel News
In response to the court ruling on the leftist demonstrations in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, right-wing activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir said that they plan on protesting Friday without a police permit.
"We will also demonstrate in front of the Tomb of Simeon the Just. Although we were planning on asking for police permission, now after the court ruling we will arrive without it. What the leftist are permitted to do – we should also be permitted," said the two. (Efrat Weiss)
1.27.2010
"Government in the eyes of Judaism" 1990
FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
ISRAEL: REVOLUTION OR REFERENDUM?
RABBI MEIR KAHANE - 1990
Government In The Eyes Of Judaism(Excerpts)
In Judaism there is a basic right to live, for the magnificent reason that there is a basic obligation to live, in order to carry out G-d’s will. And certainly, it is the most basic of obligations in Judaism for the king or government to defend Jewish lives and property. This is referred to as an obligatory war, as Maimonides says (Hilchot Mlachim 5:1): The king gives precedence to an obligatory war (as opposed to a voluntary one). And what is considered and obligatory war? The war against the seven (Canaanite) nations, the war against Amalak and aiding Jews against an enemy that rise against them.
Indeed, it was for protection against their enemies that the Jews demanded that Samuel appoint for them a king, as they declared (Samuel 1,8): “That we may also be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
Certainly that is a primary obligation of a king, or government in Judaism. "And the reason that Samuel was angered at the request for a king was that the Jews, in asking for one, did so not because it was a commandment of G-d but because they rejected Samuel and desired to be “like all the nations.” (See Maimonides, Hilchot Mlachim 1:2)
But certainly when the king or government fails to protect the people from “the enemy that rises against them,” in Judaism’s eyes it has failed to live up to its obligation to the people. And certainly, when it refuses to allow the people to defend themselves and, indeed, jails those who do, it loses the right to demand of the people obedience to orders that go against the Torah command of self-preservation, of “he shall live by them” and not die by them.
The question of democracy, itself, i.e. majority rule and the fact that a majority of Jews have the moral and legal right to decide any question and them demand acceptance of that decision, is discussed in Sanhedrin 26.
When Sennacherib and the Assyrians invaded the Land of Israel and surrounded Jerusalem, a fierce debate engaged over whether to surrender or not. King Hezekiah, under the prodding of Prophet Isaiah, refused to surrender despite the overwhelming strength of the mightiest empire of its day, one that swept over every nation it had faced. Shevna, a scribe, and one of the powers of the government, on the other hand, urged surrender. Each group took its cause to the people and this is the background for the following words of the Talmud:
What does the concept kesher r’shayim, a band of wicked people, mean? “Shevna gathered together and spoke to 130.000 people (who supported him) while Hezekiah gathered (only) 110.000 people. When Sennacherib laid siege to the city, Shevna wrote the following message and sent it by arrow to the enemy camp. ‘Shevna and his party have capitulated; Hezekiah and his party have not.’
“Hezekiah was fearful and thought: ‘Is it possible, heaven forbid, that G-d’s will tends toward the majority and since the majority wishes to surrender, we must too?’ Then there came a prophet and quoted the verse: ‘Do not recognize as a band, that which the people call a band; neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid.’ (Isaiah 8:12) Meaning this is a band of wicked people, and a band of wicked people is not counted.”
A majority of those who go against the law of the Jewish people is not a majority and, indeed, it is they who have broken the law when they decide to oppose the law of the Jewish people to forbid that which is obligatory and oblige that which is forbidden. It is they who defy the law; it is they who break down order. It is they who create a jungle of anarchy, and it is they who bring down disaster and Divine punishment on the Jewish people. It is not a question of Jews disobeying a government that defies the law but it certainly is a question of Jews who wish to obey the law, defying a government that violates the law while attempting to prevent Jews from obeying the law. It is a question of Jews demanding that the government if it will not itself do what it should, allow, at least individuals to do so.
It is a question if disregarding a majority that is not a majority, that is not counted, for it emerges from “the band of wicked people.
The Jewish concept of government is clear: The government exists to serve the state. The state exists to serve the people the people exist to serve G-d. The moment that the people fail in their obligation, law and order breaks down and Divine punishment must follow. The moment that a government opposes the law it creates anarchy and loses all moral and legal right to demand obedience from the citizen who desires to be law-abiding.
When the government demands that a Jew disobey a law, he must disregard the illegal order. When the government refuses to allow a Jew to obey a legal obligation, he must defy the illegal attempt.
Yes, this is halacha, and Israel is, unfortunately, not a state of halacha, but much closer to a state of anarchy.
What emerges, however is that despite the basic difference between Judaism and the secular concept of government, both are agreed upon upon one basic axiom: Government is obligated to protect the lives and property of Jews who are threatened, and failure to do so is a basic breach of that obligation. Both Judaism and liberal, democratic western thought agree that the individual, in order to protect himself, may disregard a government that refuses to protect him, and that–worse–prevents him from saving himself.
The government must be prepared to expect individuals to raise these issues, and it must have answers for them.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's activities at:
http:/www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
I am also posting MK Dr. Michael ben-Ari’s activities
http:/www.mkmichaelben-ari.blogspot.com
BARBARA GINSBERG
ISRAEL: REVOLUTION OR REFERENDUM?
RABBI MEIR KAHANE - 1990
Government In The Eyes Of Judaism(Excerpts)
In Judaism there is a basic right to live, for the magnificent reason that there is a basic obligation to live, in order to carry out G-d’s will. And certainly, it is the most basic of obligations in Judaism for the king or government to defend Jewish lives and property. This is referred to as an obligatory war, as Maimonides says (Hilchot Mlachim 5:1): The king gives precedence to an obligatory war (as opposed to a voluntary one). And what is considered and obligatory war? The war against the seven (Canaanite) nations, the war against Amalak and aiding Jews against an enemy that rise against them.
Indeed, it was for protection against their enemies that the Jews demanded that Samuel appoint for them a king, as they declared (Samuel 1,8): “That we may also be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
Certainly that is a primary obligation of a king, or government in Judaism. "And the reason that Samuel was angered at the request for a king was that the Jews, in asking for one, did so not because it was a commandment of G-d but because they rejected Samuel and desired to be “like all the nations.” (See Maimonides, Hilchot Mlachim 1:2)
But certainly when the king or government fails to protect the people from “the enemy that rises against them,” in Judaism’s eyes it has failed to live up to its obligation to the people. And certainly, when it refuses to allow the people to defend themselves and, indeed, jails those who do, it loses the right to demand of the people obedience to orders that go against the Torah command of self-preservation, of “he shall live by them” and not die by them.
The question of democracy, itself, i.e. majority rule and the fact that a majority of Jews have the moral and legal right to decide any question and them demand acceptance of that decision, is discussed in Sanhedrin 26.
When Sennacherib and the Assyrians invaded the Land of Israel and surrounded Jerusalem, a fierce debate engaged over whether to surrender or not. King Hezekiah, under the prodding of Prophet Isaiah, refused to surrender despite the overwhelming strength of the mightiest empire of its day, one that swept over every nation it had faced. Shevna, a scribe, and one of the powers of the government, on the other hand, urged surrender. Each group took its cause to the people and this is the background for the following words of the Talmud:
What does the concept kesher r’shayim, a band of wicked people, mean? “Shevna gathered together and spoke to 130.000 people (who supported him) while Hezekiah gathered (only) 110.000 people. When Sennacherib laid siege to the city, Shevna wrote the following message and sent it by arrow to the enemy camp. ‘Shevna and his party have capitulated; Hezekiah and his party have not.’
“Hezekiah was fearful and thought: ‘Is it possible, heaven forbid, that G-d’s will tends toward the majority and since the majority wishes to surrender, we must too?’ Then there came a prophet and quoted the verse: ‘Do not recognize as a band, that which the people call a band; neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid.’ (Isaiah 8:12) Meaning this is a band of wicked people, and a band of wicked people is not counted.”
A majority of those who go against the law of the Jewish people is not a majority and, indeed, it is they who have broken the law when they decide to oppose the law of the Jewish people to forbid that which is obligatory and oblige that which is forbidden. It is they who defy the law; it is they who break down order. It is they who create a jungle of anarchy, and it is they who bring down disaster and Divine punishment on the Jewish people. It is not a question of Jews disobeying a government that defies the law but it certainly is a question of Jews who wish to obey the law, defying a government that violates the law while attempting to prevent Jews from obeying the law. It is a question of Jews demanding that the government if it will not itself do what it should, allow, at least individuals to do so.
It is a question if disregarding a majority that is not a majority, that is not counted, for it emerges from “the band of wicked people.
The Jewish concept of government is clear: The government exists to serve the state. The state exists to serve the people the people exist to serve G-d. The moment that the people fail in their obligation, law and order breaks down and Divine punishment must follow. The moment that a government opposes the law it creates anarchy and loses all moral and legal right to demand obedience from the citizen who desires to be law-abiding.
When the government demands that a Jew disobey a law, he must disregard the illegal order. When the government refuses to allow a Jew to obey a legal obligation, he must defy the illegal attempt.
Yes, this is halacha, and Israel is, unfortunately, not a state of halacha, but much closer to a state of anarchy.
What emerges, however is that despite the basic difference between Judaism and the secular concept of government, both are agreed upon upon one basic axiom: Government is obligated to protect the lives and property of Jews who are threatened, and failure to do so is a basic breach of that obligation. Both Judaism and liberal, democratic western thought agree that the individual, in order to protect himself, may disregard a government that refuses to protect him, and that–worse–prevents him from saving himself.
The government must be prepared to expect individuals to raise these issues, and it must have answers for them.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
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1.16.2010
Coexisting With The "Palestinians" Part 3
FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
THEY MUST GO - 1981
RABBI MEIR KAHANE COEXISTING WITH THE “PALESTINIANS”
(Conclusion of 3 parts)
The Pogroms of 1929
On Yom Kippur in the year 5689 (1928), the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael discovered the Wailing (Western) Wall. More precisely, they discovered that the one remnant of the Holy Temple of the Jews was really a Muslim holy place. For hundreds of years, Jews had come freely to the symbol of their exile and suffering, to shed bitter tears and to plead with the Almighty to redeem them from the four corners of the earth. But on Yom Kippur, 5689, a British policeman barged into the midst of worshipers to forcibly remove the partition that separated the men and women, and thus he put into motion the forces of pogrom.
For years the British had claimed that they would keep the “status quo” for religious sites in Jerusalem. The Wall had no standing as a Muslim religious site at all, but the Muslims did not wish to see it granted Jewish religious status. The British viewed the partition between the sexes at the Yom Kippur services as an attempt to convert the Wall into a “synagogue.”
The incident gave birth to Jewish indignation and to an Arab myth. The Mufti of Jerusalem at the time, the supreme Muslim leader, carved a historic niche for himself as a treacherous and murderous individual (he later spent the years of World War II in Berlin calling upon Muslims to join in a holy war on behalf of Adolf Hitler). His name was Haj Amin Al-Husseini (a member of a Jerusalem family of “notables”), and in 1929, in his position as Muslim theologian, he decreed that the Wall was in reality a Muslim holy place. The reason? When Muhammad allegedly went up to heaven from Jerusalem on his wondrous horse, Al-Burak, he chose a spot near the Wall to tether it. This wondrous tale of a wondrous horse had of course, not prevented Muslims, for centuries, from wondrously riding through the area on horses and donkeys who left their unmistakably wondrous presence behind, on the ground. But no matter. A political-religious legend was born, and for almost a year the Arabs incited, lied, and heated the atmosphere that led to the deadly pogroms of 1929.
In many towns, “committees for the defense of the Burak,” were formed. On November 1, 1928, the Mufti convened a “religious” conference, which demanded that Jews be prevented from bringing religious items to the Wall. The Mufti added his pious wish that the British enforce this “in order that the Muslims themselves not be forced to enact measures to defend at all costs this Muslim holy place.”
For months the Muslims resorted to various measures to harass the Jews at the Wall. New houses began to be built that interfered with and disturbed the prayers. A new “religious ritual” known as Ziker was introduced. It involved loud chanting, singing, and dancing with a background of drums and cymbals to be performed exactly at Jewish prayer time. On 25 Tamuz (August 2, 1929) Jews were attacked and badly beaten at the Wall.
Jewish horror was hardly helped through the stupid comment by the socialist writer Moshe Beilinson, who called for Jewish “moderation” and calm, saying: “The value of the Wall is great but let us not forget: Of central importance to the revival of the nation are other values of immigration, work, land.” Thus spoke a socialist Jewish spokesman and a not-too-clever one at that. The Mufti could only smile.
On Friday, 10 Av (August 16), thousands of Muslims, leaving prayers at the Al-Aksa mosque, marched past the Wall, shouting : “Allah Akhbar” (“G-d is great”) “Din Muhamad Kari Basif!”(The Law of Muhammad with the sword”); and “Down with Zionism!” A bitter diatribe against the Jews was delivered, and Jewish prayer books were burned. The following day, the Sabbath, Arabs stabbed to death a young Jew, Avraham Mizrachi. Tension grew steadily.
The Mufti and other Arab leaders hastened to take advantage of the situation. Letters, reputedly signed by the Mufti (after the pogroms he claimed they had been forged), called on all Muslims to come to Jerusalem the following Friday to prevent the Jews from ‘seizing Al-Aksa.” Thousands of Arabs began streaming into Jerusalem with long sticks that had sharp nails protruding from them. Above all, the cry rang out throughout every Arab village and town: “It Dula M’ana!” – “The government is with us!”
And, indeed, it was. The British imperial, colonial government was represented by a new high commissioner named Chancellor, who – because of his recent arrival – allowed most of the decisions to be made by his chief aide, Harry Luke, a bitter anti-Zionist. Luke was the son of an assimilated Jewish family from Hungary named Lukach. The father had emigrated to England and in one fell swoop acquired a new country, religion, and name. The Hungarian Jew Lukach was now the British Protestant Luke. And having converted, Luke now acquired a gentile characteristic: he became anti-Semitic. No better friend in court did the Arabs have than Luke, whose policy of noninterference with the Mufti and Arab mobs led to the murder of scores of Jews.
Jerusalem
The pogrom in Jerusalem began on the Muslim holy day, Friday 17 Av (August 23). Thousands of Arabs streamed into the city carrying iron bars, sticks, and knives. In the courtyard inciters from Jerusalem and the two nearby villages of Lifta and Kalandia heated the atmosphere, and at 12:30 p.m. the mob burst forth, heading in two directions: toward the Jaffa and Damascus gates. At Jaffa gate, Jews who inadvertently passed by were attacked. Despite the presence of police, the two Ruttenberg brothers were beaten and stabbed to death. On Jaffa Road, Jewish stores were smashed by some sixty Arabs from Lifta and a Jewish newsman murdered. In the small Georgian quarter, home of poor Jewish families, four Jews including a woman and child were slaughtered and the humble homes looted. An attempt to smash into the Mea Sh’arim quarter was thwarted.
The worst attacks were on the outlying Jewish neighborhoods in the new, Jewish, part of the city. The neighborhood of Romema, through the Diskin Orphan Home, Givat Shaul, Montefiore, Bet Hakerem, Yefe Nof, and Bayit V’Gan, were targets of a large attack led by Arabs from the villages of Dir Yassin, Ein Kerem, and Lifta. Dir Yassin Arabs were the leaders and organizers of the attack, and the village became world famous in 1948 when it received its just reward for the many Jews slaughtered by its citizens.
It was only an incredibly valiant defense by the Jews that prevented a massacre of major proportions. With few men and weapons, the defenders succeeded in throwing back thousands of Arabs. The situation in the outlying neighborhood of Bayit V’Gan was especially critical. All the women and children were evacuated and the defenders concentrated in homes near the woods. All the other homes were looted by Arabs from Ein Kerem, Malha, and Walaja. Three Jews – a student, David Vilnai; a guard, Mordechai Ben-Menashe; and a policeman, Gudel Yudelevitz – were killed.
The fighting continued for days. Saturday night, August 24, the first seventeen Jewish victims were taken from Hadassah Hospital to be buried. The British had provided only three policemen who were weary, and nervous. The burial ceremony was hurried as it came under attack from Arabs in Talpiot.
The next day, Arabs from Bet Tzefafa, Tzur Bahir and other villages overran, looted, and burned to the ground the settlement of Ramat Rachel on the southern border of Jerusalem. Never had there been such a lengthy and widespread pogrom in Jerusalem. Coexistence was not working, despite the absence of a “legitimate grievance” known as “ the occupied territories.”
Just outside Jerusalem, astride the road to Tel Aviv, sat the small Jewish settlement of Motza. For decades its residents thought that they had enjoyed the best relationships with the neighboring Arab village of Kolonia. On Saturday night, August 24, as the Jews of Jerusalem were being buried, thirty villagers from Kolonia, longtime acquaintances, “visited” the settlement. They slaughtered everyone, including eighty-five-year-old Rabbi Zalman Shack, a guest for the Sabbath. The women were first raped and then murdered, and the house was burned down.
The small settlement of Hartuv was wiped off the face of the earth. Friday night, August 23, as the men huddled together in one house (the women and children had been evacuated), a mob of Arabs from the nearby villages of Dir Aban, Eshtaol, and Tzar’a attacked. They looted everything in the spacious farm of Y.L. Goldberg. Cows, horses, wheat, furniture – everything was plundered by the crazed mob, who literally razed it to the ground.
Destruction was also the fate of Midal Eder, between Bethlehem and Hebron, as well as Kfar Uria near Hartuv. The settlement of Be’er Tuvya was composed of some 120 people. Most of them, terrified and near panic were together in the large stable of Devora Korovkov. Arabs from the surrounding areas began their attacks. From the nearby settlement of Gedera came a reply to the Jews’ desperate request for help: “We cannot help you. We have not enough men or ammunition for ourselves.”
Perhaps more than anything else, the following statement by one of the Be’er Tuvya settlers tells the chilling reality of the “Palestinians” and what any ultimate victory of theirs would mean for the Jews. In the words of Dr. Yizraeli: “Several of the women asked the doctor to give them poison so that they not fall into the hands of the Arabs. He refused. But he said that all would defend the women and children until their last drop of blood. And if there was no other way, they would use their guns to save the honor of their women.”
In the attack that followed, with the Arabs burning houses on all sides, it was, ironically, the doctor, Haim Yizraeli, who was the first to be killed, shot down in his white coat as he stood near the gate. Just hours earlier he had gone out to bind up the leg of an Arab who had attacked the settlement and been wounded. Herzl Rosen was slaughtered next, and Moshe Cohen, who had refused to leave his farm, pointing to the decades of good relations with his Arab neighbors, was stabbed numerous times and with his last remaining strength managed to reach shelter.
The arrival of British troops saved the rest of the settlers. But they were evacuated to “safety.” And when they returned, the entire settlement had been burned to the ground. Literally, nothing was left.
Safad
High in the beautiful Galilean hills stood the city of Kabbalists, Safad. Its 3,000 Jews had lived for generations with the Arabs. All spoke Arabic, and the Sephardic Jews were hardly distinguishable in their dress. As the days of pogroms receded, it appeared that Safad would be spared the horror.
But on 23 Av (August 29), at 5:30 p. m., a mob of Arabs burst into the Jewish quarter, led by Fuad Hajazi, a young clerk of the local government health office. The first place attacked was the Klinger gasoline storage house. As flames and smoke leaped into the air, the mob entered homes of the Jews they had known for years, stabbing, beating, raping, looting. The wind carried the flames onward; ironically, this saved many Jewish lives as the mob rushed to save their own homes. But eighteen Jews were dead and more than eighty others injured. Almost all the victims were elderly or women, many of whom had pleaded with their slaughterers to remember the favors they had one them over the years.
The same evening, the small Jewish settlement in Ein Zeitim was decimated. Three Jews were murdered, the rest fled to Safad, and their homes went up in flames. In the northeast part of the Galilee, the settlement of Yesud Ha’Ma’ale was destroyed by its “good neighbors” from the Arab village of Tlail.
In the essence there was not a Jewish community of any consequence that was not attacked. Scores of Jews were slaughtered, and damage was estimated in the millions of English pounds. It was a shattering blow to the young Jewish community, which had caught a glimpse of the reality of the “Palestinians.” But nowhere was the full extent of “Palestinian” horror manifested more clearly than in the ancient city of Hebron.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
BARBARA GINSBERG
THEY MUST GO - 1981
RABBI MEIR KAHANE COEXISTING WITH THE “PALESTINIANS”
(Conclusion of 3 parts)
The Pogroms of 1929
On Yom Kippur in the year 5689 (1928), the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael discovered the Wailing (Western) Wall. More precisely, they discovered that the one remnant of the Holy Temple of the Jews was really a Muslim holy place. For hundreds of years, Jews had come freely to the symbol of their exile and suffering, to shed bitter tears and to plead with the Almighty to redeem them from the four corners of the earth. But on Yom Kippur, 5689, a British policeman barged into the midst of worshipers to forcibly remove the partition that separated the men and women, and thus he put into motion the forces of pogrom.
For years the British had claimed that they would keep the “status quo” for religious sites in Jerusalem. The Wall had no standing as a Muslim religious site at all, but the Muslims did not wish to see it granted Jewish religious status. The British viewed the partition between the sexes at the Yom Kippur services as an attempt to convert the Wall into a “synagogue.”
The incident gave birth to Jewish indignation and to an Arab myth. The Mufti of Jerusalem at the time, the supreme Muslim leader, carved a historic niche for himself as a treacherous and murderous individual (he later spent the years of World War II in Berlin calling upon Muslims to join in a holy war on behalf of Adolf Hitler). His name was Haj Amin Al-Husseini (a member of a Jerusalem family of “notables”), and in 1929, in his position as Muslim theologian, he decreed that the Wall was in reality a Muslim holy place. The reason? When Muhammad allegedly went up to heaven from Jerusalem on his wondrous horse, Al-Burak, he chose a spot near the Wall to tether it. This wondrous tale of a wondrous horse had of course, not prevented Muslims, for centuries, from wondrously riding through the area on horses and donkeys who left their unmistakably wondrous presence behind, on the ground. But no matter. A political-religious legend was born, and for almost a year the Arabs incited, lied, and heated the atmosphere that led to the deadly pogroms of 1929.
In many towns, “committees for the defense of the Burak,” were formed. On November 1, 1928, the Mufti convened a “religious” conference, which demanded that Jews be prevented from bringing religious items to the Wall. The Mufti added his pious wish that the British enforce this “in order that the Muslims themselves not be forced to enact measures to defend at all costs this Muslim holy place.”
For months the Muslims resorted to various measures to harass the Jews at the Wall. New houses began to be built that interfered with and disturbed the prayers. A new “religious ritual” known as Ziker was introduced. It involved loud chanting, singing, and dancing with a background of drums and cymbals to be performed exactly at Jewish prayer time. On 25 Tamuz (August 2, 1929) Jews were attacked and badly beaten at the Wall.
Jewish horror was hardly helped through the stupid comment by the socialist writer Moshe Beilinson, who called for Jewish “moderation” and calm, saying: “The value of the Wall is great but let us not forget: Of central importance to the revival of the nation are other values of immigration, work, land.” Thus spoke a socialist Jewish spokesman and a not-too-clever one at that. The Mufti could only smile.
On Friday, 10 Av (August 16), thousands of Muslims, leaving prayers at the Al-Aksa mosque, marched past the Wall, shouting : “Allah Akhbar” (“G-d is great”) “Din Muhamad Kari Basif!”(The Law of Muhammad with the sword”); and “Down with Zionism!” A bitter diatribe against the Jews was delivered, and Jewish prayer books were burned. The following day, the Sabbath, Arabs stabbed to death a young Jew, Avraham Mizrachi. Tension grew steadily.
The Mufti and other Arab leaders hastened to take advantage of the situation. Letters, reputedly signed by the Mufti (after the pogroms he claimed they had been forged), called on all Muslims to come to Jerusalem the following Friday to prevent the Jews from ‘seizing Al-Aksa.” Thousands of Arabs began streaming into Jerusalem with long sticks that had sharp nails protruding from them. Above all, the cry rang out throughout every Arab village and town: “It Dula M’ana!” – “The government is with us!”
And, indeed, it was. The British imperial, colonial government was represented by a new high commissioner named Chancellor, who – because of his recent arrival – allowed most of the decisions to be made by his chief aide, Harry Luke, a bitter anti-Zionist. Luke was the son of an assimilated Jewish family from Hungary named Lukach. The father had emigrated to England and in one fell swoop acquired a new country, religion, and name. The Hungarian Jew Lukach was now the British Protestant Luke. And having converted, Luke now acquired a gentile characteristic: he became anti-Semitic. No better friend in court did the Arabs have than Luke, whose policy of noninterference with the Mufti and Arab mobs led to the murder of scores of Jews.
Jerusalem
The pogrom in Jerusalem began on the Muslim holy day, Friday 17 Av (August 23). Thousands of Arabs streamed into the city carrying iron bars, sticks, and knives. In the courtyard inciters from Jerusalem and the two nearby villages of Lifta and Kalandia heated the atmosphere, and at 12:30 p.m. the mob burst forth, heading in two directions: toward the Jaffa and Damascus gates. At Jaffa gate, Jews who inadvertently passed by were attacked. Despite the presence of police, the two Ruttenberg brothers were beaten and stabbed to death. On Jaffa Road, Jewish stores were smashed by some sixty Arabs from Lifta and a Jewish newsman murdered. In the small Georgian quarter, home of poor Jewish families, four Jews including a woman and child were slaughtered and the humble homes looted. An attempt to smash into the Mea Sh’arim quarter was thwarted.
The worst attacks were on the outlying Jewish neighborhoods in the new, Jewish, part of the city. The neighborhood of Romema, through the Diskin Orphan Home, Givat Shaul, Montefiore, Bet Hakerem, Yefe Nof, and Bayit V’Gan, were targets of a large attack led by Arabs from the villages of Dir Yassin, Ein Kerem, and Lifta. Dir Yassin Arabs were the leaders and organizers of the attack, and the village became world famous in 1948 when it received its just reward for the many Jews slaughtered by its citizens.
It was only an incredibly valiant defense by the Jews that prevented a massacre of major proportions. With few men and weapons, the defenders succeeded in throwing back thousands of Arabs. The situation in the outlying neighborhood of Bayit V’Gan was especially critical. All the women and children were evacuated and the defenders concentrated in homes near the woods. All the other homes were looted by Arabs from Ein Kerem, Malha, and Walaja. Three Jews – a student, David Vilnai; a guard, Mordechai Ben-Menashe; and a policeman, Gudel Yudelevitz – were killed.
The fighting continued for days. Saturday night, August 24, the first seventeen Jewish victims were taken from Hadassah Hospital to be buried. The British had provided only three policemen who were weary, and nervous. The burial ceremony was hurried as it came under attack from Arabs in Talpiot.
The next day, Arabs from Bet Tzefafa, Tzur Bahir and other villages overran, looted, and burned to the ground the settlement of Ramat Rachel on the southern border of Jerusalem. Never had there been such a lengthy and widespread pogrom in Jerusalem. Coexistence was not working, despite the absence of a “legitimate grievance” known as “ the occupied territories.”
Just outside Jerusalem, astride the road to Tel Aviv, sat the small Jewish settlement of Motza. For decades its residents thought that they had enjoyed the best relationships with the neighboring Arab village of Kolonia. On Saturday night, August 24, as the Jews of Jerusalem were being buried, thirty villagers from Kolonia, longtime acquaintances, “visited” the settlement. They slaughtered everyone, including eighty-five-year-old Rabbi Zalman Shack, a guest for the Sabbath. The women were first raped and then murdered, and the house was burned down.
The small settlement of Hartuv was wiped off the face of the earth. Friday night, August 23, as the men huddled together in one house (the women and children had been evacuated), a mob of Arabs from the nearby villages of Dir Aban, Eshtaol, and Tzar’a attacked. They looted everything in the spacious farm of Y.L. Goldberg. Cows, horses, wheat, furniture – everything was plundered by the crazed mob, who literally razed it to the ground.
Destruction was also the fate of Midal Eder, between Bethlehem and Hebron, as well as Kfar Uria near Hartuv. The settlement of Be’er Tuvya was composed of some 120 people. Most of them, terrified and near panic were together in the large stable of Devora Korovkov. Arabs from the surrounding areas began their attacks. From the nearby settlement of Gedera came a reply to the Jews’ desperate request for help: “We cannot help you. We have not enough men or ammunition for ourselves.”
Perhaps more than anything else, the following statement by one of the Be’er Tuvya settlers tells the chilling reality of the “Palestinians” and what any ultimate victory of theirs would mean for the Jews. In the words of Dr. Yizraeli: “Several of the women asked the doctor to give them poison so that they not fall into the hands of the Arabs. He refused. But he said that all would defend the women and children until their last drop of blood. And if there was no other way, they would use their guns to save the honor of their women.”
In the attack that followed, with the Arabs burning houses on all sides, it was, ironically, the doctor, Haim Yizraeli, who was the first to be killed, shot down in his white coat as he stood near the gate. Just hours earlier he had gone out to bind up the leg of an Arab who had attacked the settlement and been wounded. Herzl Rosen was slaughtered next, and Moshe Cohen, who had refused to leave his farm, pointing to the decades of good relations with his Arab neighbors, was stabbed numerous times and with his last remaining strength managed to reach shelter.
The arrival of British troops saved the rest of the settlers. But they were evacuated to “safety.” And when they returned, the entire settlement had been burned to the ground. Literally, nothing was left.
Safad
High in the beautiful Galilean hills stood the city of Kabbalists, Safad. Its 3,000 Jews had lived for generations with the Arabs. All spoke Arabic, and the Sephardic Jews were hardly distinguishable in their dress. As the days of pogroms receded, it appeared that Safad would be spared the horror.
But on 23 Av (August 29), at 5:30 p. m., a mob of Arabs burst into the Jewish quarter, led by Fuad Hajazi, a young clerk of the local government health office. The first place attacked was the Klinger gasoline storage house. As flames and smoke leaped into the air, the mob entered homes of the Jews they had known for years, stabbing, beating, raping, looting. The wind carried the flames onward; ironically, this saved many Jewish lives as the mob rushed to save their own homes. But eighteen Jews were dead and more than eighty others injured. Almost all the victims were elderly or women, many of whom had pleaded with their slaughterers to remember the favors they had one them over the years.
The same evening, the small Jewish settlement in Ein Zeitim was decimated. Three Jews were murdered, the rest fled to Safad, and their homes went up in flames. In the northeast part of the Galilee, the settlement of Yesud Ha’Ma’ale was destroyed by its “good neighbors” from the Arab village of Tlail.
In the essence there was not a Jewish community of any consequence that was not attacked. Scores of Jews were slaughtered, and damage was estimated in the millions of English pounds. It was a shattering blow to the young Jewish community, which had caught a glimpse of the reality of the “Palestinians.” But nowhere was the full extent of “Palestinian” horror manifested more clearly than in the ancient city of Hebron.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
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