the (NOT) forgotten prisoners of zion

2010-05-30T05:25:00.001+03:00

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    <option value="Israel">Israel $3.50</option>
    <option value="US 48 Continental">US 48 Continental $5.00</option>
    <option value="Hawaii/Alaska">Hawaii/Alaska $5.50</option>
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--
Nofia Vered Shem-Tov

"...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -
to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
-- Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning

US STATE DEPARTMENT: JERUSALEM FOR ISLAM

2009-07-31T18:28:00.001+03:00

You must go immediately to the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem. Let me know whether you can find ANYTHING about Israel. As of 11:00 p.m. EST, every single entry/article/announcement is about the "Palestinians" or the "West Bank." NOTHING about Israel. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. In addition, there is an option to link to an Arabic version of the site but not one for Hebrew.

Does this bother you? If so, tell Secretary of State Clinton in an email, through her site here, and also tell everyone you know. (hat tip Lori Marcus, Z Street)
http://jerusalem.usconsulate.gov/

Devastating. Read the "about section" here, it's as if Israel never existed. (hat tip Dave)

We are All "Settlers"

2009-07-22T17:42:00.001+03:00

The Arab leadership occupying the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been quite thorough over the years in expressing their opinion that they consider all Jews residing in Israel settlers and that they intend to make our entire country Judenrein.
Jerusalem is not the end, Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) are not the end - these places are only the beginning of the map that the Arabs intend to clear of Jews.

Essentially, it is incumbent upon all Jews throughout Israel to view their residence in this Land has a great privilege, and to understand that we are all under threat. Tel Aviv, Yafo, Safed, Ashdod, Ashqelon, Haifa - all of these areas and cities are places that the Arabs desire to invade and take over. Their threats of 1967 - "to push the Jews into the sea" are still on the Arab lip, only whispered in couched terms in order to appease Western leaders.

Rise of the Right Film

2009-06-30T09:23:00.001+03:00

Worthwhile to watch....a video about the struggle to keep Israel Jewish and to challenge Arab disloyalties...and for that matter, Jewish disloyalty, to our Holy Land.

MUST SEE VIDEO

2009-04-17T18:27:00.001+03:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbrIWyEhl8A&feature=player_embedded

McCain's brother's speech on the Jews & Israel

2009-03-12T19:35:00.001+02:00

Senator John McCain's brother on The Jews & Israel.

    There is a lot of worry popping up in the media just now -- "Can
    Israel Survive?" Don't worry about it. It relates to something that
    Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don't realize --
    the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world
    doesn't come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to
    die. It's as simple as that.

    Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around
    race of people have been the Jews. Not just during the holocaust of
    World War II, but for thousands of years. They have truly been "The
    Chosen People" in a terrible and tragic sense.

    The Bible story of Egypt 's enslavement of the Jews is not just a
    story, it is history, if festooned with theological legend and
    heroic epics. In 70 A. D. the Romans, which had for a long time
    tolerated the Jews -- even admired them as 'superior' to other
    vassals -- tired of their truculent demands for independence and
    decided on an early "Solution" to the Jewish problem. Jerusalem was
    sacked and reduced to near rubble, Jewish resistance was pursued and
    crushed by the implacable Roman War Machine -- see ' Masada '. And
    thus began The Diaspora, the dispersal of Jews throughout the rest
    of the world.

    Their homeland destroyed, their culture crushed, they looked
    desperately for the few niches in a hostile world where they could
    be safe. That safety was fragile, and often subject to the whims of
    moody hosts. The words 'pogrom', 'ghetto', and 'anti-Semitism' come
    from this treatment of the first mono-theistic people. Throughout
    Europe , changing times meant sometimes tolerance, sometimes even
    warmth for the Jews, but eventually it meant hostility, then
    malevolence. There is not a country in Europe or Western Asia that
    at one time or another has not decided to lash out against the
    children of Moses, sometimes by whim, sometimes by manipulation.

    Winston Churchill calls Edward I one of England 's very greatest
    kings. It was under his rule in the late 1200's that Wales and
    Cornwall were hammered into the British crown, and Scotland and
    Ireland were invaded and occupied. He was also the first European
    monarch to set up a really effective administrative bureaucracy,
    surveyed and censused his kingdom, established laws and political
    divisions. But he also embraced the Jews.

    Actually Edward didn't embrace Jews so much as he embraced their
    money. For the English Jews had acquired wealth -- understandable,
    because this people that could not own land or office, could not
    join most of the trades and professions, soon found out that money
    was a very good thing to accumulate. Much harder to take away than
    land or a store, was a hidden sock of gold and silver coins. Ever
    resourceful, Edward found a way -- he borrowed money from the Jews
    to finance imperial ambitions in Europe, especially France . The
    loans were almost certainly not made gladly, but how do you refuse
    your King? Especially when he is 'Edward the Hammer'. Then, rather
    than pay back the debt, Edward simply expelled the Jews. Edward was
    especially inventive -- he did this twice. After a time, he invited
    the Jews back to their English homeland, borrowed more money, then
    expelled them again.

    Most people do not know that Spain was one of the early entrants
    into The Renaissance. People from all over the world came to Spain
    in the late medieval period. All were welcome -- Arabs, Jews, other
    Europeans. The University of Salamanca was one of the great centers
    of learning in the world -- scholars of all nations, all fields came
    to Salamanca to share their knowledge and their ideas. But in 1492,
    Ferdinand and Isabella, having driven the last of Moors from the
    Spanish Shield, were persuaded by the righteous fundamentalists of
    the time to announce "The Act of Purification". A series of steps
    were taken in which all Jews and Arabs and other non-Christians were
    expelled from the country, or would face the tools and the torches
    of The Inquisition. From this 'cleansing' come the Sephardic Jews --
    as opposed to the Ashkenazis of Eastern Europe . In Eastern Europe ,
    the sporadic violence and brutality against Jews are common
    knowledge. 'Fiddler' without the music and the folksy humor. At
    times of fury, no accommodation by the Jew was good enough, no
    profile low enough, no village poor enough or distant enough.

    From these come the near-steady flow of Jews to the United States .
    And despite the disdain of the Jews by most 'American' Americans,
    they came to grab the American Dream with both hands, and
    contributed everything from new ideas of enterprise in retail and
    entertainment to becoming some of our finest physicians and lawyers.
    The modern United States , in spite of itself, IS The United States
    in part because of its Jewish blood.

    Then the Nazi Holocaust -- the corralling, sorting, orderly
    eradication of millions of the people of Moses. Not something that
    other realms in other times didn't try to do, by the way, the
    Germans were just more organized and had better murder technology.


    I stood in the center of Dachau for an entire day, about 15 years
    ago, trying to comprehend how this could have happened. I had gone
    there on a side trip from Munich , vaguely curious about this Dachau .
    I soon became engulfed in the enormity of what had occurred there
    nestled in this middle and working class neighborhood.

    How could human beings do this to other human beings, hear their
    cries, their pleas, their terror, their pain, and continue without
    apparently even wincing? I no longer wonder. At some times, some
    places, ANY sect of the human race is capable of horrors against
    their fellow man, whether a member of the Waffen SS, a Serbian
    sniper, a Turkish policeman in 1920's Armenia , a Mississippi
    Klansman. Because even in the United States not all was a Rose
    Garden. For a long time Jews had quotas in our universities and
    graduate schools. Only so many Jews could be in a medical or law
    school at one time. Jews were disparaged widely. I remember as a kid
    Jewish jokes
    told without a wince - "Why do Jews have such big noses?"

    Well, now the Jews have a homeland again. A place that is theirs.
    And that's the point. It doesn't matter how many times the United
    States and European powers try to rein in Israel, if it comes down
    to survival of its nation, its people, they will fight like no
    lioness has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with a
    ferocity, a determination, and a skill, that will astound us.

    And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were
    a macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the
    Israelis to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and
    the Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill
    their suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment
    them.

    The irony goes unnoticed -- while we are hammering away to punish
    those who brought the horrors of last September here, we restrain
    the Israelis from the same retaliation. Not the same thing, of
    course -- We are We, They are They. While we mourn and seethe at
    September 11th, we don't notice that Israel has a September 11th
    sometimes every day.

    We may not notice, but it doesn't make any difference. And it
    doesn't make any difference whether you are pro-Israeli or you think
    Israel is the bully of the Middle East . If it comes to where a new
    holocaust looms -- with or without the concurrence of the United
    States and Europe -- Israel will lash out without pause or restraint
    at those who would try to annihilate their country.

    The Jews will not go quietly again.

    Joe McCain

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Nofia Vered
Sell on eBay
http://www.auctionsfromisrael.com

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http://nofiaphoto.blogspot.com

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http://greensmoke.com/107.html

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Please tell your friends and relatives!!!

2009-03-09T13:39:00.001+02:00

Dear Friends near and far,
In the last few months I have slowly been making my way in cyberspace selling items on eBay thanks to taking an internet marketing course I took with a neighbor.

I am now offering "All you need in a box" Passover spice kits on eBay. Please let your rabbis, friends and relatives WORLDWIDE know.

Each "kit" will come with a copy of the Kashrut certificates from the Badatz Beit Yosef and the Shomron religious council. The supplier is Tavlinai Natanel from the Barkan Industrial Center. I am buying via a well known shopkeeper in the shuk. Everything is being cleaned for Pesach in his store as I write this.

If you have a charity that is registered on eBay and would like to send your donors to my auctions we can arrange for your charity to benefit. Give me an approximate number of orders and the name of your organization and I will make a special auction just for you to send your patrons to. Your donation tier will start at 10% but will be promoted according to number of sales. Each group of 180 sales will earn a promotion up to a maximum of 30% of the auction earnings.

For examples see items:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/salesfromisrael_Spices-teas-and-coffees_W0QQ_fsubZ701607010QQ_sidZ63275920QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322

Items are certified Kosher for Passover for Ashkenazim and Sephardim by Badatz Beit Yossef under the auspices of Rabbi Ovadia Yossef.

Individual items will become available for sale later this week. Bulk orders are also available.

Thank you and have a Very Happy Purim Holiday and a Wonderful Adar!

Nofia Vered Shem Tov (aka Bonnie)
054-484-6899
973-910-5173

another important link

2009-02-21T22:57:00.001+02:00

http://www.americancongressfortruth.com/media1/Duke_Brigitte_interview.wmv

important video!!!

2009-02-21T21:40:00.001+02:00

http://multimedia.heritage.org/content/wm/Lehrman-092706a.wvx

How Islamists make sure Arab kids die - Photos

2009-01-12T20:03:00.001+02:00

Please Distribute these Photos showing Palestinian use of its own kids as shields

How Islamists make sure Arab kids die, so they can kill more innocent Israelis!

Download them onto your comp., post them on your webpages/blogs, print them out, let more and more people know about the death cult of radical Islamic (Hamas/Hezbollah) that murders its own children for the sake of tarnishing Israel.

While Israel asks Arabs to stay away from Hamas areas, Hamas keeps on using women and children so that more 'dead Arab kids' can show on Al Jazeera and galvanize the Islamo Arab world towards the (sick) Palestinian victimhood and to hate the "common zionist enemy", thus legitimizing their real goal, which is Genocide of course.

Sort of sums it all up.......

2009-01-12T14:50:00.001+02:00

Hamas killing their own people

2009-01-11T19:29:00.000+02:00

YouTube - IDF VLOG UPDATE: IDF Captures Hamas Terrorists in Gaza - Capt. Benjamin Rutland - 5 Jan. 2009

2009-01-11T19:16:00.000+02:00

YouTube - IDF VLOG UPDATE: IDF Captures Hamas Terrorists in Gaza - Capt. Benjamin Rutland - 5 Jan. 2009

Hamas "Volunteers" Arab Children to be Human Shields

2009-01-11T15:10:00.001+02:00

Contributors wanted

2008-12-05T03:43:00.000+02:00

If you keep up well with the news and can write a summary or keep tabs on at least 1 prisoner on a regular basis, please consider volunteering for this important site.

Fifty people were arrested on their way to protest in Moshav Reut

2008-09-02T23:40:00.002+03:00

Official Press Release from Women in Green:

Some 50 men, women and children were arrested this evening, 2 September, and are currently being held by the police at the Modiin police station. Among the arrested are Nadia Matar, Daniella Weiss and Yehudit Katzover.
For some reason, Nadia Matar is being held separately from the rest of the group.

The 50 were traveling by bus and cars when they were apprehended at the Shilat intersection, on their way to Reut (near Modiin), the yishuv where Commander Gadi Shamni lives. Last week, Commander Shamni signed eviction orders against three Jews from their Samaria homes. The demonstration, slated to take place in the town of Reut, near Modi'in, was intended to protest these orders.

The 50 were arrested some 10 kilometers away from their destination, solely for their intentions of demonstrating!
Spirits are high and morale is good, despite the thirst and hunger.

New Political Action Group

2008-08-11T10:38:00.002+03:00

Based on the rapidly changing political & economic events in the US & Israel over the last 6 months, we have seen a change in the information in the messages that we have been asked to post.

We first addressed the issue by creating a new group called Frum Politics, so that subscribers would have a forum

dedicated to the intense discussion with regard to the US Presidential Election, as well as current events in Israeli

politics.

We have gotten several off line E mails asking us if there was anything more we could do to help.

There are more things we can do as a community... .

We decided to create a new group called the Jewish Political Action Network (a Yahoo group as well).

Here is its mission statement:)

(In the near future, we are going to gather a list of all US Senators & Congress People & put their links on the groups site. Will encourage people to E mail their representative with requests to stand by Israel with regard to news stories as they break).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JewishPoliticalActionNetwork/

Ruvain Boruch

Moderator

Jewish Political Action Network

Amir Al-Quntar: "I will kill more Israelis"

2008-07-23T23:54:00.000+03:00

Amir Al-Quntar: "No. I am proud of this, and Allah willing, I will get the chance to kill more Israelis. As for the children, that's another story. A girl was killed during the operation, in the crossfire. In all the operations that involved capturing Israeli hostages, the hostages were killed by the bullets of the Israeli forces. In the operation of Dalal Al-Maghrabi, the [Israelis] fired like crazy on the bus, and killed a large number of Jewish hostages. In the Ma'alot operation, hostages were taken at a high school. [The Israelis] used anti-tank missiles to storm the school, killing many. The same thing happened in my operation. When we fired at them, in response to their fire, they began shooting in our direction like crazy. They are the ones who killed the hostages."

The Shock is Still With Me

2008-07-23T00:17:00.003+03:00

A week has passed, and yet I still have not overcome the horrifying shock of last week, when "our" government committed the grave atrocity of trading our sworn enemies, convicted live hate-spewing murderers, in exchange for the maimed, desecrated, corpses of our silent heroes.

Nofia Vered

The Israeli Initiative for the Solution to Arab Refugees

2008-07-21T14:58:00.001+03:00

I found an interesting new website (new to me anyway) regarding a solution to the Arab refugee problem in Israel. The website is informative and valuable and I suggest placing it in your Favorites/bookmarks file and sharing it with friends.

. http://www.hayozma.org/rewr-true/language-en_us/Annapolis.aspx

Our whole country is being held captive by this problem and it is the source of the Arab claims on Israel and the "Palestinian" Authority (read: terrorist area).

Nofia Vered

Shishon Cytryn sent to Jail again -- email from Women in Green

2008-07-08T06:38:00.003+03:00

Dear Friends,

Outraged! This is how we feel after hearing that the authorities have decided to send Shimshon Cytryn back to jail for a period of 15 months.

Shimshon, 21 years old, a dear and proud Jew, recently married, grandson of longtime Women in Green activists, was, during the expulsion from Gush Katif a victim of a blood libel against him. He already spent two years in jail and administrative detention. This coming Sunday the authorities are sending him back to jail.

Details and reminder of his case are below.

Once again we are witnessing a case of judicial persecution against lovers of the Land of Israel by a leftist anti-Jewish Israeli Injustice system.

Let's remember that the same government and powers to be that persecute loyal and innocent Jews, has , over the past year and a half, released close to 1500 Arab terrorists! It is simply unbearable!

We cannot allow Shimshon Cytryn to go to jail without making a loud geshrei and protest. The public is asked to accompany Shimshon on the day he is asked to show up to jail. That day is SUNDAY, JULY 13th,at 9:00 am at the entrance to the BEERSHEVA MAGISTRATES COURT.

We realize that on that same day, at approximately the same time, friends and family of the Harel-Levinstein brothers are organizing a vigil in front of the Presidents house in Jerusalem, demanding their release. We are sure that our national camp has enough activists to ensure that there will be supporters in both places- in Jerusalem and in Beersheva.

In addition it is of utmost importance to have a lot of public pressure demanding Shimshon's release. Not only do we need to bombard with faxes and emails the offices of the President and the ministry of Justice,

Presidents house tel 972-2-6707211 fax 972-2-670-7272

Minister of Justice Daniel Friedman tel 972-2-6466533 fax 972-2-6287757 email mancal@justice.gov.il

but we turn to all friends of Israel in the USA to telephone -- rather than e-mail --the Israeli Embassy or the Israeli consulate nearest you and demand to express your outrage at the latest
decision by the state prosecution and the Supreme Court in the case of Shimshon Cytryn, a U.S. citizen.

The embassy's phone number is 202-364-5500.
Stress, that as an American citizen, you can ask the State Department to investigate what you feel is clearly a human rights violation.

Now, in addition, we are asking you to call your member of Congress and raise the issue of Shimshon Cytryn. Obviously, in that same phone call, you can mention the other cases of persecution and injustice against lovers of Israel (the Rivka Maierchik case, the Halamish case, the Levinstein-Harel case etc...).

We also ask you to call the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and inform them of Shimshon and demand an investigation. Tell the department officer you have also raised these cases with your member of Congress. The State Department's main numbers are 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339.

The Olmert government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused any accountability to the Israeli people and fears only the US administration. Unless we act now, there will be many more Shimshons and Rivkas and Mordys and Elitzurs and Itziks and Dannys in jail.

If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important than winning the release of a Jewish youth imprisoned for loving his/ her country and people?

(thank you to Pidyon Shvuim for the info in this latest paragraph)

SUMMARY OF THE SHIMSHON CYTRYN CASE:

We want to give you a short account of Shimshon Cytryn.

On the eve of the expulsion from Gush Katif, may it speedily be rebuilt, Shimshon was caught in an attack against a group of Jews by Arabs from the Muassi neighborhood. Like any good Jew, he defended himself and his fellows. Naturally, not a single Arab was arrested, but - how ironic! - as is well known, in the State of Israel Jews are forbidden to defend themselves, and the police arrested Shimshon, on the charge of no less than lynch, accused of assaulting an Arab in the Gaza Strip in June 2005.

The Arab attacker, Hillal Mujiada, who said his injury was caused by a soldier, was under arrest for throwing rocks at Jews but no charges were pressed against him.

What is absurd about all this is that that same Arab who was said to be the victim of a lynch was already seen walking about, the same day. The very use of the word "lynch" in this situation is excruciatingly painful, since we all remember the brutal and shocking lynch of the two IDF soldiers who took a wrong turn, entered Ramallah and were brutally massacred by a lynching mob.

Following Shimshon' arrest, the police asked to extend his arrest until the end of the criminal proceedings. Over the course of two long and exhausting years Shimshon spent seven months in Ayalon Prison, and was under house arrest, under harsh conditions, the rest of the time.

A year ago Shimshon married; we should mention the great tension under which the young couple lived in the shadow of the trial that refused to end. Half a year ago, it seemed that everything had come to a conclusion. A forum of three judges in the District Court sentenced Shimshon to six months of community service. But, what can be done? The State Attorney's Office fights with all its might to put good Jews in jail, and it filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. After another half year of tortuous delay, the Supreme Court decided, with no conscience, and certainly without a Jewish heart, to sentence Shimshon to fifteen months of imprisonment, which he is to begin serving next Sunday, July 13. He has to report at 10:00am in the Beersheva District Court.

Every Jewish heart quakes when hearing that, after two thousand years of Exile, the State of Israel sends a Jew to long months in prison for defending himself and his fellows, while, in the background, we hear of more and more Arab murderers who simply are freed and sent home. For how long?A demonstration is planned in Beersheva, at the time and place where Shimshon is to enter prison, i.e. on SUNDAY July 13th at 9:00am at the entrance to the beersheva magistartes court.

Please make sure to come.

We also request your financial help for the young Cytryn family, which remains without a breadwinner. And, importantly, the public must remain on the alert, and engage in follow-up: to which prison Shimshon is incarcerated - this makes a great deal of difference; whether he receives the vacations to which he is entitled by law; and, most importantly, that his time in prison be reduced by one third.

It is important to know that major public pressure significantly impacts on the taking of decisions on such matters.

For details regarding the demonstration and financial help to the Cytryn family:

David Leibman 0526-051156

Nadia Matar, Women in green 0505-500834

Vigil Protesting The Incarceration Of The Halamish Brothers

2008-06-15T17:16:00.001+03:00

12 Sivan 5768

Announcement from Women In Green:

This coming TUESDAY, JUNE 17th, 2008, Women in Green will hold a vigil in front of the "Third Annual Conference on Quality of the Government" at Binyanei Hauma, protesting the continued incarceration of Itzik and Danny Halamish, prisoners of Zion in Zion, and demanding their immediate release.

The "Quality of Government Conference" is a three-day annual conference in which they discuss all the 'crisis" of the current leadership.

Details can be found on Kenes Yerushalayim.

As you can imagine, this conference is not a objective conference but rather once again, a leftist platform to express their extreme anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist views.

As proof one just has to see the list of participants:

Yossi Beilin, Michael Cheshin, Sheli Yachimovitz, Dalia itzik, Miki Levy (yes, the one from the police) , Naomi Chazan, Yossi Sarid, Ofir Pines-Paz, Tali Lipkin-Shachak, Tzippy Livni, Mani Mezuz and many more "gems" of that kind.

Obviously the organizers of the conference have also invited a few token "right-wingers" that will serve as decoration to the event.

The fact that Itzik and Danny are in jail despite them having not done anything wrong, and their Arab assailants are walking around free, is the best proof that in Israel there is no quality of government and that the authorities are corrupt, rotten, anti-Jewish and anti-Zionistic.

We will hold placards and hand out leaflets explaining the Halamish case and demanding their release.

The authorities want us to keep quiet and bury the Halamish case. A case of legal persecution of loyal Jews by the authorities and a case of capitulation to the Arab enemy.

Women in Green will not keep quiet.

On the contrary! Be there and make your voice heard!

We will meet at 10:00am in front of the main entrance to Binyanei Hauma.

Ruth Matar - Nadia Matar (050-5500834) - Anita Finkelstein 050-5777254)

Cross-posted on the B'nei Elim Blog

Israeli Judge Again Postpones Release Decision of Rivka Meirchik

2008-06-03T15:15:00.000+03:00

בס״ד

(this came in an email from Datya Itzhaki)

On June 1, Kfar Saba Magistrate Nitza Maimon Shashua scheduled yet another hearing for a decision on the release of Rivka Meirchik despite an earlier decision by Petah Tikva District Court Judge Ruth Lorch that her arrest and detention are illegal.. [The hearing on June 1 was originally scheduled for May 29 but was postponed after chief police prosecutor Shir Laufer said she was vacationing in Eilat.]

Meirchik, who remained handcuffed and shackled in leg-irons throughout the hearing, has refused to be handcuffed inside the Neve Tirza prison where she is kept in solitary confinement and denied visitation and telephone rights. Prison authorities have also denied her the right from meeting with her attorney in her cell.

After the hearing, prison guard Orit Hasidi speeded Meirchik out of the courtroom into a waiting prison van despite the judge's order to allow her to meet with defense attorney Aviad Visoly.

Earlier, police at the Kfar Saba court barred friends from entering the open court session after they said that Tzvia Sariel, who earlier this year spent three months in prison in similar circumstances, was provocative. The judge later agreed to admit her.

Meirchik, who appeared gaunt, managed to convey to family members that she was hungry.

"My sister is very allergic and can only eat certain foods," Rivka's sister Racheli said. "We, the family, hired the attorney, because we want to see Rivka released. Why is there so much foot-dragging and why does it [judicial process] take so long?"

Meirchik, like Sariel, has refused to accept the authority of the court including agreeing to police conditions for her release and is being held until the end of judicial proceedings.

"According to the police release sheet, the reason for her arrest was that she refused to identify herself," Visoly said. "There was no other cause."

Visoly said the police arrest record shows that Meirchik, arrested at the Shvut Ami Jewish community near Kedumim on April 2, was arrested for failing to identify herself and not for committing any other offenses. Only later, Visoly said, police charged Meirchik with trespassing, disturbing and assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and violating a military closure order.

"The arresting officer did not follow protocol when he failed to identify himself or explain [to Meirchik] that she was arrested and for what reason," Visoly said. "According to paragraph 24 of the criminal code, this arrest was illegal. And in the case of an illegal arrest, the suspect has a right to resist."

The Petah Tikva District Court also deemed Meirchik's arrest and incarceration illegal for another reason. She was imprisoned and ordered held until the end of judicial proceedings before the prosecution presented any evidence against her.

The next hearing is scheduled for June 5 at the Kfar Saba Magistrates Court.

The major Israeli media, particularly the state-operated radio and television, did not mention a word of this travesty of justice. So, we must turn to you, lovers of Israel, who were so effective in the case of Tzvia Sariel and who, thanks to your efforts was released from jail, and ask that you act to help defend Jewish rights in Israel.

As a first step, we request that you telephone -- rather than e-mail -- the Israeli Embassy or the Israeli consulate nearest you and demand to know why Rivka is still in prison. The embassy's phone number is 202-364-5500.Stress, that as an American citizen, you can ask the State Department to investigate what you feel is clearly a human rights violation.

Now, we are asking you to call your member of Congress and raise the issue of Rivka Meirchik. We also ask you to call the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and inform them of Rivka and demand an investigation. Tell the department officer you have also raised Rivka's case with your member of Congress. The State Department's mainnumbers are 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339.

The Olmert government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused any accountability to the Israeli people and fears only the Bush administration. Unless we act now, there will be many more Rivkas in jail.

If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important than winning the release of a Jewish child imprisoned for loving her country and people?

We also urgently need your help to pressure the office of President Shimon Peres this week to pardon Dani and Itzik Halamish who are innocent of any crime but are sitting in prison.

Please contact the military attaché at the Israeli Embassy [telephone: 202-364-5500] and ask to speak to the military attaché. Express your outrage that the Israel Army abandoned its fighters for protecting Jews. Don't argue. The military attache's office knows exactly what you're talking about. Stress that you are an American citizen whose support for the Israeli military is based on its protection of Jews. Say that you also plan to discuss this case with your member of Congress who decides on U.S. military aid to Israel.

You can also fax the president's office at: (011 972) 2 567 1314.

2 Months solitary confinement, no phone, no visitation for trespassing. Pidion Shvuyim for young women

2008-05-26T16:44:00.000+03:00

The following was received in an email from Datya Itzhaki:

Rivka Meirchik Sent To Jail For Another Month

Rivka Meirchik is the second young Jewish woman this year to languish in the Neve Tirza prison without trial after refusing to recognize the authority of the court and to cooperate with the prosecution.

Earlier this year, 18 year-old Tzvia Sariel spent over four months in Neve Tirza until she was released in March and all charges against her were dropped. [In January, seven teenage Jewish girls were released after being held for three weeks in Neve Tirza without trial. The 13 to 14 year-olds were also arrested for Jewish settlement activities and also refused to cooperate with authorities.]
On May 22, an Israeli judge sent Meirchik back to jail for another month after deeming her refusal to cooperate with authorities an ideological crime.
Rivka Meirchik, 29, an anti-government demonstrator who participated in Jewish settlement and was arrested almost two months ago, is being held until the end of judicial proceedings. She has refused to cooperate with authorities, including paying a release bond and agreeing to restrictive conditions.
"[For Meirchik] it's ideological," Kfar Saba Magistrate Clara Rejiniano said. "The law allows me to keep a person nine months. These are legal decisions which we must respect." Rejiniano, who ordered Meirchik remanded in custody until the end of judicial proceedings on April 21, scheduled the next hearing for June 19.
Ms. Meirchik was arrested on April 2 in the Jewish community of Shvut Ami after police ordered all Jews evacuated from the area. [Shvut Ami was one of the Jewish communities established after the expulsion of 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif and the northern Shomron in August 2005.]
Merichik was charged with trespassing, assaulting a police office and disobeying military orders after the area was proclaimed a closed military zone. For her part, she said that she was beaten by police.
She has since been held in the Neve Tirza prison after she refused to recognize the authority of the court, refused to cooperate with police prosecutor Shir Laufer and refused to accept court-imposed conditions for her release.
Meirchik, who appeared pail and frail, has also refused to be handcuffed or shackled with leg-irons with the result that prison authorities have refused to allow her out of her solitary confinement cell and have deprived her of phone and visitation rights. However, she is brought to court appearances manacled and on April 14, Kfar Saba Magistrate Nava Bechor ordered her held in leg-irons and handcuffs throughout the hearing. [Bechor is the same judge who ordered Tzvia Tsariel held for a fourth month in jail prior to her trial.]
During the May 22 hearing Rejiniano said she had no authority to release Meirchik, despite the prosecution's insistence on calling an expert witness to testify on the land claims by Arabs to Shvut Ami, located near the Jewish community of Kedumim, to prove the trespass offense.

Defense attorney Aviad Visoly asked that Meirchik be released from hearings as the cross-examination of the witness would be lengthy and Meirchik had already spent close to two months in prison.
"I reiterate my request to free the defendant from the hearing and all other hearings," Visoly said, "in view of the fact that the prosecution witness has brought 10 pages on testimony and will be questioned on every paragraph."
Attorney Rinat Levine from the military prosecutor's office presented the court with Jordanian maps and tax possession registration documents from 1933 and 1936 as evidence that the land is owned by Arabs.
The judge, visibly annoyed by prosecutor Nili Dayan for bringing the witness, nevertheless castigated Visoli for a political cross-examination.
"Who has sovereignty in Judea and Samaria according to international law?" Visoli asked Levine. "I will prove that according to international law that Israeli law is the law in Judea and Samaria."
The judge refused to allow Levine to answer the question.
"This is political," Rejiniano said as she addressed the prosecutor. "Do you understand what you have brought to this trial for an offense of trespassing?"
A second witness, border policeman Nasid Sayad, testified that Meirchik had assaulted him and resisted arrest while she was sitting on the ground.
Sayad, who said he bent down to touch Meirchik's bag, first said Meirchik bit him when she was sitting down and later testified that Meirchik also slapped him.
Visoli asked Sayad to demonstrate how a police office, over one meter tall, with a second police officer at his side, was slapped and bitten by a very slight young woman in a sitting position. Sayad refused to cooperate
with the defense's request.
Visoli said he will appeal to the Supreme Court to have Meirchik released immediately. He said that it isn't a crime under Israeli law not to recognize the authority of the court.
"It's shocking," Visoli said. "Her incarceration is illegal and so is keeping her in custody until the end of proceedings."

The major Israeli media, particularly the state-operated radio and television, did not mention a word of this travesty of justice. So, we must turn to you, lovers of Israel , who were so effective in the case of Tzvia
Sariel and who, thanks to your efforts was released from jail, and ask that you act to help defend Jewish rights in Israel .
As a first step, we request that you telephone -- rather than e-mail -- the Israeli Embassy or the Israeli consulate nearest you and demand to know why Rivka is still in prison. The embassy's phone number is 202-364-5500.
Stress, that as an American citizen, you can ask the State Department to investigate what you feel is clearly a human rights violation.
Now, we are asking you to call your member of Congress and raise the issue of Rivka Meirchik. We also ask you to call the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and inform them of Rivka and
demand an investigation. Tell the department officer you have also raised Rivka's case with your member of Congress. The State Department's main numbers are 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339.
The Olmert government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused any accountability to the Israeli people and fears only the Bush administration. Unless we act now, there will be many more Rivkas in jail.
If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important than winning the release of a Jewish woman imprisoned for loving her country and people?

With Love of Israel,
Datya Itzhaki

Halamish Brothers Jailed Before Final Appeal

2008-05-23T01:40:00.000+03:00

Halamish Brothers Jailed Before Final Appeal

18 Iyar 5768, 23 May 08 01:41

Source: Arutz Sheva
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Danny and Itzik Halamish, convicted of attacking Arabs who attacked them, entered prison Tuesday afternoon - while the Supreme Court considers their final appeal.

Danny, 35, has been sentenced to seven months in prison, and his brother Itzik, 28, must sit for eight months. The two IDF combat unit veterans have asked President Shimon Peres for a pardon - but no response has yet been received.

The Halamish brothers were to have entered prison several weeks ago, but they received temporary reprieves from various courts in light of their request for a pardon. However, on Monday, the Supreme Court denied their request to have their sentences pushed off for good until Peres makes his decision.

Final Appeal Still Pending
On Tuesday, the brothers filed a final appeal, maintaining that if ultimately Peres decides to pardon them after they have spent time in jail, this would be a blow to the presidential authority to pardon them.

While the Supreme Court "tries to figure out what to make of this appeal," in the words of activist Datia Yitzchaki, who has been closely following the case, the brothers arrived at the Jerusalem detention center to begin their sentence. They will be brought to the Supreme Court tomorrow to hear a final decision.

The brothers were convicted of attacking Arabs who infiltrated the fields of their town, Maaleh Rechavam in eastern Gush Etzion. Not only do they claim that the Arabs attacked first, they also say they did not shoot at all. Read here the full story of the incident and some of the judicial obstacles the brothers faced.

"Big Event" at Maaleh Rechavam
Yitzchaki also serves as the secretary of the small town of Maaleh Rechavam, which is named for the late terrorist victim, Tourism Minister and IDF Central Commander Rehavam (Gandi) Ze'evi. Maaleh Rechavam, which the government currently considers an unauthorized outpost, numbers five families and eight singles, and is seeking to add residents.

"The members need to be strengthened, given the recent events," Yitzchaki told Arutz-7, "and this Friday, Lag BaOmer, we will have a special event in the town to raise morale and to invite people to see our town. There will be music and activities, and everyone is invited to this important event."

www.IsraelNationalNews.com

Some good news on the Halamish brother's case (email from Women in Green)

2008-05-05T23:00:00.000+03:00

In a very last minute appeal this morning to the Supreme Court the Halamish brothers achieved a two week postponement for their jail term.

For those not familiar with the Halamish case please click here:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125781

Kol Hakavod to the many who came to the demonstration at the Russian compound, despite the very last minute announcement.

Among the speakers at the demonstration were Rabbi Yossef Mendelevitch, ex-prisoner of Zion who meant to give Itzik and Danny the "Prisoner of Zion in Zion" medal made by the artist Aharon Shevo; Aharon Halamish, proud father of the Halamish brothers who told us this trial reminds him of the Dreyfuss trial; Attorney Johan Rhodius from Holland and expert in international law who told us that he analyzed the Halamish case in depth and in his entire career as a lawyer had never seen such despicable travesty of justice; Datya Yitzhaki, spokeswoman for the Maaleh Rehavam community; Rabbi Durani, Rabbi of Nokdim; Moshe Feiglin, head of Manhigut Yehudit; Boaz Haetzni from Chomesh Tehilla, historian Arieh Yitzhaki and Nadia Matar, co-chair of Women in Green.

All speakers strengthened Itzik and Danny, and pointed out that it is an honor to go to jail for the "crime" of loving the Land and the people of Israel. All agreed that please G-d the day will come where this current corrupt and evil leadership in Israel will fall and the country will be ruled by proud Jews like Itzik and Danny.

The participants held signs in Hebrew and English and signs with the faces of the two brothers with the clear message: we are all Itzik and Danny.

After the Supreme court's decision, Itzik and Danny joined us and we welcomed them on a special red carpet with songs and Shofar blowing.

It is crucial to use the next two weeks to increase the public pressure in Israel and abroad in order to try to make sure that Itzik and Danny's incarceration will be, please G-d, completely cancelled.

Link to the pictures taken by Women in Green's photographer Gemma Blech, please credit if used:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gemmablech/200855NoToDannyAndItzikHalamishGoingToJail

Link to the Hebrew Arutz 7 video footage: http://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/174666

The committee for the release of Itzik and Danny Halamish - Women in Green
050-5246770 - 050-5500834

Arab Judge: Halamish to Jail

2008-05-04T23:04:00.000+03:00

The Halamish brothers from Gush Etzion were just ordered, by an Arab Supreme Court judge, to present themselves for imprisonment first thing tomorrow morning. (It's nice to have plenty of notice about these things…). This order was given a few minutes ago. The Supreme Court judge was to have held a hearing pursuant to a District Court decision which referred the case to him, however, he has refused to do so. This is standard, unfortunately, when settlers are involved.

So, the Halamish brothers, guilty of shooting only in the air and injuring no one responsive to a security event – in other words, innocent of any crime – will go to jail tomorrow. Women in Green request your presence at a demonstration at the Migrash haRusim – Russian Compound – in Jerusalem at 9 AM tomorrow morning (Monday May 5). For details Nadya 0505500834 or Datya 0505246770

Announcing Logo Contest

2008-04-29T18:10:00.002+03:00

We've been around for almost three years and it's about time we got a logo, so I decided to open a contest to the budding graphic artists and political activists out there.

The prize: I will take a professional portrait of you and your family (worth 180 NIS) and you will be listed as a permanent contributor to the blog and you will be zocheh in the Mitzvah of Pidyon Shivuim.

Any businesses willing to contribute other prizes will be most welcome.

All entries will be posted to the site and visitors will have the opportunity to choose.Should the contest become popular, we will invite professional artists to judge the winner.

Also, any young writers, photographers and videographers are invited to apply to become contributors. Good topics to cover would be: Approaching the third year since the withdrawal from Gush Katif, Jonathan Pollard, Halamish Brothers.

We had great success raising awareness for Daniel Pinner. Because this is an election year we have decided to really focus in on Jonathan Pollard.

Thank you,
Nofia Vered Altman
orangeprisonersofzion.blogspot.com

Jonathan Pollard featured on TNL

2008-04-24T20:11:00.004+03:00

20 Nissan 5768

Episode 15, which will be put on the internet next Thursday, May 1, 2008, Esther Pollard joins Ari and Jeremy to discuss Jonathan Pollard's situation and what it means for the Jewish people and our future.

Among Mrs. Pollard's main points: In this new election year, no Jew who donates money to a political party should sign a single check without asking why Jonathan Pollard has not yet been freed and what his senator, congressman or future president plans to do to free Pollard immediately.

Newsflash: Halamish Brothers

2008-04-10T01:02:00.003+03:00

5 Nissan 5768

From Women In Green:

NEWSFLASH from the Committee for the Release of the
Halamish Brothers!

Against all odds and against all expectations, at the very last minute, the incarceration of Danny and Itzik Halamish has been postponed until after Pesach by Judge Ravid who could not accept the fact that the Halamish brothers were refused a proper hearing when they asked to postpone their jail term.

Such a hearing will be held after Pesach.

Accordingly, the demonstration that was supposed to be held tomorrow is also postponed. Details will be posted if needed.

Datya Yitzhaki, Secretary Maaleh Rehavam 050-5246770
Nadia Matar, co-chair Women in Green 050-5500834

Uniting Against Imprisoning The Halamish Brothers

2008-04-06T13:38:00.004+03:00

Rosh Hodesh Nissan 5768

Activist Groups Unite to Thwart Halamish Jailing

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) Various activist groups have joined together to declare their intention to bodily prevent two first-response team members from being jailed for defending their homes.

Danny and Itzik Halamish were handed a prison sentence after a Jerusalem court accepted the Palestinian Bedouins’ account of a security incident in eastern Gush Etzion instead of that of the brothers and the local IDF-appointed head of security (click here for an interview with Danny and here for more background information)

Posters plastered all over the Jerusalem region overnight read: “Prisoners of Zion in Zion! We shall not be silent! We shall say to the judicial system, which denies Jews the right to defend their lives and the land of Israel: We won’t agree to the imprisonment of the brothers Izik and Danny Halamish because we too are ‘guilty’ of the wish to preserve our lives and our land.”

The poster's English version

The posters call upon the public to appear next Thursday (April 10) at 9:30 AM at the police station in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound – where the brother are required to turn themselves in to begin their prison sentences. “We shall be present and prevent this miscarriage of justice,” the announcement declares.

Organizers say they are quite serious about preventing the Halamish brothers from being jailed. Organizations participating include the Yesha Rabbis’ Council, Honenu Legal Aid organization, Women in Green, Land of Israel Loyalists, Land of Israel Youth, Homesh First, the Committee to Save the Nation and the Land, Manhigut Yehudit, Mateh Tzafon, Nahalal Forum, V’yirashtem Otah, Pidion Shvuyim and the Action Committees of Efrat, Gush Etzion, Kiryat Arba and Hevron.

For updates, activist are invited to SMS the word חלמיש to
052 999 1800

Efforts to Receive Peres Clemency Ongoing
According to the Mateh Tzafon activist group, President Shimon Peres has agreed to consider a special clemency request for the Halamish brothers. However, Peres's office called the brothers and told them that the clemency proceeding requires 6 months and asked whether they had filed in court for a 6-month deferral of their sentence. The brothers indeed filed the request in the Jerusalem District Court but have not yet received an answer, because "no time has been found in the court's schedule to do so," according to activists. "This is a familiar trick in other contexts -- petitions to the Supreme Court against the release of terrorists have been scheduled for after the terrorists were released, etc."

Activists are therefore asked to contact the court's administrative secretary by fax to the Jerusalem District court: 02-6292522, 02-6292521, 02-6281284 or 02-6291405 (replace zero with 011 972 from overseas). Mateh Tzfon's sample letter reads as follows:

To the secretary responsible for the schedule of Judge Jonathan Adiel,
President Peres is looking into clemency for the two security officers from Gush Etzion, Dani and Itizk Halamish, who are said to have shot in the air and toward the ground (though not at people). As is standard, these brothers have petitioned for their jail sentence to be delayed to give the President time to do so. Unfortunately, the brothers' petition has yet to be placed in the court's schedule, even though it is clearly very urgent since their jail sentence starts in a week!

I ask that you as a good-faith administrator make sure that the brothers' urgent petition is given the proper priority in the court docket so the petition is taken up at a realistic time i.e. before their jail sentence begins.

Sincerely, (name)

Faxes may be sent to Israel's Minister of Justice Daniel Friedmann at 02-6285438 and to President Shimon Peres at 02-5611033.

*********

Related Links:

Caroline Glick's piece on the Halamish case, Israel's Accountiblity Problem

Women In Green's suggested plan of action, Halamish Brothers

Arab Attacks Old Woman in Hebron - Steals her Head Covering

2008-03-31T17:34:00.003+03:00

As reported to me around 13:30 today by residents of Hebron: An elderly Jewish woman was waiting at the Egged bus stop across from Ma'arat HaMachpela this morning around 11 AM to return to Jerusalem from Hebron, and an Arab youngster walked up to her and grabbed her hat from her head and ran away.

Worse than doing nothing to apprehend the fleeing Arab youth, nearby security forces LAUGHED at the woman. In tears, she made her way to Gutnick Visitor's center to buy a new head covering to go home in.

Police And Prison Authorities Mistreat Young Jewish Girls

2008-03-28T15:02:00.005+03:00

Erev Shabbat Parshat Shmini/Parah 5768

IsraelJustice.com reports:

Police And Prison Authorities Mistreat Young Jewish Girls

JERUSALEM -- For the young Jewish girl, Z., her night in jail was an experience she never learned in school.

Arrested at an anti-government demonstration, the Jewish teenager learned first-hand that the harsh policy of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert against Jewish dissent.

In treatment that jurists deemed harsher than that for alleged violent criminals, Z. and her friends were denied food, water and medical treatment and thrown into horrible conditions.

"They [police] took me to the jail in the Russian Compound [in Jerusalem] and I waited with the other two girls in a very small room with bars on the window," Z. said. "After a long wait, they took me for a body search." Z. recounted that she spent much of the night being shunted back and forth between the police station and the jail.

"Then they put me in a room while they looked for a holding cell with an old blanket and a mattress," Z. said. "Then they put me in a cell with two other girls and an old woman. She smoked all the time and I couldn't breathe."

Z.'s account has been verified by the Israel Bar Association. In a report by the Prisons Service Committee of the Israel Bar Association, the conditions in which Z. and four girls arrested with her were held were deemed "inhumane."

The conditions of their imprisonment are "harsh, inhumane and illegal," the report said.

The report said that police and prison guards had conditioned food, water and medical attention on the minors agreeing to identify themselves.

"Medical attention and food and water were conditioned on the disclosure of the girls' identities," the report said. "Such conditions are baseless and are a serious violation of their rights."

The report also detailed how the girls were given "stinky, soiled, military blankets" and they shared a cell with an adult woman who was a chain smoke. The cell "was full of cigarette smoke and had no ventilation aperture," the report said.

The five girls, ranging in age from 14 to 17, were arrested on March 16 at the end of a demonstration on Jerusalem's Promenade, located in the East Talpiot neighborhood. The demonstration was in protest against the government's refusal to destroy the home in the adjoining neighborhood of Jabal Mukhaber of the Arab attacker, Ala Abu Dheim, who killed eight Jewish teenagers on March 6 in the Mercaz Harav seminary in Jerusalem.

Witnesses said that most of the 22 people arrested at the demonstration were minors and were simply grabbed by police.

Z. said they were given some bread and water during the night but prison wardens and police threatened them that food and water and medical attention would be withheld if they didn't identify themselves.

"Early in the morning they woke us up to stand to attention and told us that we had to go to court," Z. said. "I sat there waiting for them but they didn't come and at 10.00 am they gave us two slices of bread and a cucumber."

Z., who had sustained injuries during the demonstration, complained to prison guards that she was feeling sick but was denied medical treatment.

"I was sick so I asked for tea from the prison guard, Z. said. "He told me there weren't any cups so he gave me tea in the cup belonging to the old woman in the cell and she was angry with me."

Z. said that prison guards assured her that she would be able to see the doctor but then said he was unavailable. "We were supposed to see the doctor and he would be able to get me a cup of tea," Z. said, "but they [prison wardens] told me that he wasn't available."

Z. said that they were given stale pasta but later forced to eat with their hands. "Then they [prison guards] gave us some old yellow spaghetti to eat," Z. said. "Then a female prison guard said that if we didn't identify ourselves, we wouldn't get any more food to eat. After we finished eating we threw out our plastic spoons."

Z. said that the situation improved after two attorneys from the Israel Bar Association spoke with the girls. "Then the two lawyers came and they [prison guards] gave us some more food," Z. said. "We asked for more spoons but the prison warden told us that we had thrown out our spoons and now would have to eat with our hands."

Police can hold people for up to 24 hours before bringing them before a judge to extend their remand and Z. was released 20 hours after her arrest.

"Then they called me to sign the agreement and put me in a closed room and shut the window slit," Z. said. "I waited for hours for someone to get me out."

Police later admitted to a Jerusalem magistrate that there was no reason for the arrest of the girls.

The Prison Services Committee, headed by attorney Michael Attiya, has recommended submitting the report to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to correct the civil rights violations.

Contact Information

2008-03-28T00:47:00.003+02:00

21 Adar Bet 5768

1) FOR U.S. CITIZENS:
Call, rather than e-mail, the Israel Embassy in Washington [telephone 202-364-5500] and demand to speak to the military attach .

2) To find the Consulate nearest you in the USA, click on http://www.israelemb.org/israeli-consulate-in-usa.htm

3) Embassies and consulates in the world: http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/about%20the%20ministry/diplomatic%20missions/Web%20Sites%20of%20Israeli%20Missions%20Abroad

4) IN ISRAEL
In addition to pressuring in the States, we must pressure the authorities in Israel too. The only way the Halamish brothers can get out of going to jail is by having the President of Israel pardon them. A demand for a pardon has been filed by the family with the President and with the Department of Pardons at the Justice Ministry. The more faxes and phone calls they will receive from the friends of Israel in Israel and abroad, outraged by this injustice, the more chance we have to save Itzik and Danny from prison.

*President's House
tel 972-2-6707211
fax 972-2-6707274
Ask to speak to the department of Pardons and make sure your fax arrived. (They are open every day from 9am till 11 am and from 1pm to 3 pm)

* Ministry of Justice-Department of Pardons
tel: 972-2- 6466801
fax: 972-2-6466813
Send your faxes to the Attention of Attorney Emmy Palmor

* Very Important: send a copy of your letters to Shas Minister Eli Yishai and other Shas ministers and urge them to act on behalf of the Halamish brothers

Shas Members of Knesset:
(we apologize if not all numbers are correct. Sometimes they change their numbers)

1. Chaim Amsellem Tel: 02-649-6457 02-675-3474 fax 02-649-6527 eamsalem@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-900-9393

2. Ariel Atias Tel: 02-675-3220 aatias@knesset.gov.il Minister of Communications 050-530-7028

3. David Azoulay Tel: 02-640-8184 02-640-8185 fax:02-675-3908 dazulay@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-549-4151

4. Shlomo Benizri Tel: 02-640-8196 02-640-8197 fax:02-675-3747 slomob@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-633-11-55

5. Amnon Cohen Tel: 02-640-8372 02-640-8373 fax 02-640-8927 amncohen@knesset.gov.il
050-5515-361

6. Yitzhak Cohen Tel: 02-640-8397 02-640-8398 fax: 02-670-6157 izchakec@knesset.gov.il
05045-7005

7. Yakov Margi Tel: 02-640-8187 02-640-8188 fax: 02-675-3759 ymargi@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-496-3737

8. Avraham Michaeli Tel: 02-640-8128 02-640-8129 fax: 02-675-3961 <amichaelli@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-333-1526

9. Meshulam Nehari Tel: 02-640-8446 02-640-8447 fax: 02-649-6447 mnahari@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-744-0120

10. Yitzhak Vaknin Tel: 02-640-8106 fax 02-649-6027 yvaknin@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-545-6706

11. Eliyahu Yishai Tel: 02-640-8406 02-640-8407 fax: 02-666-2909 eyishav@knesset.gov.il

Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee cellphone: 050-624-0932

12. Nissim Zeev Tel: 02-640-8151 02-640-8152 fax: 02-649-6549 nzeev@knesset.gov.il
cellphone: 050-5411-752

More Shas Contact Info:
Tel: 02-675-3550 Fax 02-649-6543

Halamish Brothers - Jail Time For Protecting Jewish Town

2008-03-28T00:05:00.007+02:00

21 Adar Bet 5768

We have been following the Halamish case since January, 2007, and updated you in July. Now the Halamish brothers have been sentenced, and are st to begin their 7 -8 month incarceration soon.

The comprehensive report by Hillel Fendel of Israel National News (Arutz 7) is lengthy, but worth the time as it exposes the railroading of the brothers by the powers that be.

Following this article, you will find a plan of action to lobby for for their release by Women In Green.

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Two Brothers on Their Way to Jail for Protecting Jewish Town

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) IDF combat unit veterans Danny and Yitzchak Halamish are set to begin 7-8 month prison terms next month - unless President Peres accepts their request for a pardon.

They have been convicted of attacking Arabs who infiltrated the fields of their town - but they claim they did not shoot at all, and that the Arabs attacked them.

The story began one day in February 2004, when an Arab gang entered the fields just outside the young Jewish community of Maaleh Rechavam in eastern Gush Etzion.

In accordance with accepted procedure, the local security officer - hired by the Defense Ministry - called two members of the local fast-response security team, Danny, 35, and his brother Yitzchak, 28, and the three went out to banish the Arabs from the fields where Jewish children play.

It did not go smoothly, however. The mob of 20 Arabs attacked the Jews with rocks and even with sticks, and then surrounded them. The security officer shot at the ground in front of the Arabs, and then he and the Halamish brothers retreated.

"The next thing we knew," Danny Halamish told Arutz-7, "the police came to arrest us - after the Arabs claimed that we had attacked them!"

Though the Jews filed a counter-complaint, the police later acknowledged that they never even interrogated the Arabs, Halamish said, "because of the weak claim that the Arabs had complained first..."

The site is just a kilometer away from the cave in which Kobi Mandell, 13, and his friend Yosef Ishran, 14, were brutally murdered while hiking in the area in 2001. The murderers, who were apprehended just this past week, were still on the loose at the time of the Halamish incident.

The Halamish brothers and the local security officer spent a few days in jail, and were soon accused and convicted of assault and battery. The security officer, who admitted that he had shot, asked for and received a pardon for "personal reasons." But the two Halamish brothers say they "have nothing to confess, since we did not shoot. But even more importantly: I have no intention of apologizing for having gone out to protect Jews. Even if I have to sit in prison for a few months, I will not say that it is wrong to do what I did. What do we have a State for, if not to protect ourselves? The State has lost its way..."

Danny, married with two children, says that though his legal position is solid, "the courts have taken the strange position that because we didn't make certain claims at the right time, our conviction stands. This is unheard of. First of all, our legal claim is one that can be made at any time, and the courts are simply not following the law. But regardless of this: How can they send two upstanding citizens to jail merely because of a technicality? This is totally unjust."

Police Shoot the Guns Themselves, Thus Neutralizing the Evidence
The brothers say that when their weapons were taken from them, they were confident that the ballistics tests would show that they had not been fired. This would support the finding that all the bullet casings had been shot from the security officer's gun. However, the police did not check the guns; instead they fired them themselves, claiming to want to see if they were in working order. Thus, the brothers' claim that they had not shot could no longer be proven.

Despite the lack of evidence against the brothers, and despite a recommendation by the probation officer that the sentence be only community service, Judge Amnon Cohen and two other judges of the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled that they believed the Arabs, and sentenced the brothers to seven and eight months in prison, respectively. The judges said they wanted to put them in jail to "serve as a lesson to others."

The brothers' subsequent appeals to the District Court and the Supreme Court were rejected, largely because the claim about the lack of police ballistic tests should have been submitted earlier.
"The justice system simply doesn't know how to deal with Arab aggression. Therefore, the easiest targets for their frustration are those on the frontline, like us."

Rigged in Advance
Asked how he explains these rulings, in light of the lack of evidence against him and his brother, Danny said, "For one thing, I think it was rigged in advance. The evidence and the witnesses were not really important; what really counted is what we call 'the commander's spirit' - it's fairly clear what the authorities on top want, and the judges often go along with that. Even Ariel Sharon had to fall in line; when he was in legal trouble, he knew what he had to do in order to stay on the right side of those in charge..."

Don't Know How to Deal With Arab Violence
"But more significantly," Halamish continued, "is the fact that the justice system simply doesn't know how to deal with Arab aggression. Therefore, the easiest targets for their frustration are those on the frontline - like us, in this case, and Shai Dromi, and the settlers [Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria] in general. If the legal system were to exonerate us, this would be an admission that we are doing the security job that the country is supposed to do on its own, but is failing at."

Danny emphasized several times: "I have no regrets. We were called to take part in protecting Jewish lives, and we came without hesitation - not like the policeman outside Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav who remained outside until the danger passed."

"The judicial system expects soldiers, policemen and farmers who face danger to make sure to observe the law perfectly," Danny feels, "even at a risk to their own lives. So why does the legal system itself violate the laws? The system is defending its mistaken rulings in the various courts, at the expense of two people who did nothing wrong - and this is not the first time."

Asked what aid he would like from the public, Danny said, "There are two planes. Firstly, I would like the public to know what is going on with the legal system here. Tzviya Sariel [the 18-year-old girl who was in prison for 3.5 months for refusing to cooperate with the system; she was released last week] has fired one of the first shots. She yelled, 'The Emperor has no clothes!', that is, that the system is unjust - and her claim was proven by the fact that the system, instead of dispatching her case quickly, kept her in prison for an inordinately long time. People have to know that the legal system is not working properly."
Supporters are asked to fax Pres. Peres and phone the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

"Secondly," he said, "we have filed a request for a pardon from President Shimon Peres. If people will fax his office [02-5611033; from abroad, replace leading 0 with international access code and 972], and demand justice, it could have an effect."

As of now, Danny and Yitzchak are scheduled to enter prison on April 10 - though there is a possibility this date will be pushed off while their request for a pardon is processed.

Attorney Sheftel's Presentation
Attorney Yoram Sheftel, representing the two brothers, said in one of the appeals, "My clients were convicted amidst total disregard of the police blunder in not having performed ballistic checks on the guns... In addition, the Arab identification of the brothers was done improperly, and is not acceptable as evidence."

Furthermore, Sheftel said, "there are no grounds for the judge having rejected my clients' claim that they acted with proper authority as part of their community's security team. Actions like the one they took are routine in many towns in Judea and Samaria."

Sheftel then took a broader view:
"Despite the terrible situation of Arab terrorism throughout Israel, and especially in Judea and Samaria, one would think - when reading the ruling of the lower court, and especially when reading the invective-filled cross-examinations of the Danny and Yitzchak and their witnesses - that there is no such thing as Arab terrorism in Yesha. One would further think that the [Halamish brothers], who are among the pioneers of Yesha and have no criminal background, are part of some group of bullies who attacked a serene group of shepherds for no reason at all. A false picture is painted as if we are dealing with a clash between base lawbreakers and innocent Arab shepherds who simply went out to graze their sheep in a pastoral meadow in serene Switzlerand. In fact, however, the Jews were forced to act to save their lives and prevent a situation that in the past has claimed the lives of Jews who were afraid to act the way they did."

In addition to faxing Pres. Peres, supporters in the U.S. are also advised to phone the Israel Embassy in Washington (at 202-364-5500) and ask to speak to the military attache. The message, according to Gush Etzion activist Datia Yitzchaki, should be one of "outrage by Israel's abdication of military responsibility of its own soldiers, who now face jail terms solely because they helped protect Jews." Callers are also advised to say they plan to discuss the case with their Congressional representatives.

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From Women In Green:
Pidion Shvuim Alert: No. 5

Two Jewish Brothers Sent to Prison for Protecting Jewish Community

Danny and Yitzhak Halamish are two quiet young men who under any other circumstances would be regarded as the pride of the Jewish people. They both served in top Israeli combat units, and when they finished the military they fought for Jews under threat of expulsion from the Gaza Strip. They also founded the community of Maalei Rehavam in the Judean Desert.

Today, the brothers await the start of their jail sentence. They are convicted of aggravated assault by a corrupt police force and a lackadaisical judge. Their appeals of innocence have been rejected by the judiciary.

Are the Halamishes guilty of a crime? Absolutely not. Indeed, the only crime committed was by an army that abandoned the two brothers and an Israeli court system that convicted them without evidence. But the brothers are lovers of Zion and builders of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria. And that makes them dangerous to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who pressured by Washington plans to destroy Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem over the next year.

The Halamishes, as part of their reserve military service, were members of a security response team organized, equipped and trained by the Israeli Army to help protect their community and surrounding region from Arab attack. On Feb. 21, 2004, the brothers were summoned by another security officer, Baruch Feldbaum, to help expel Arab Bedouins who trespassed into the Jewish community of Sdei Bar and were encamped near a student dormitory. Arab Bedouin tribes in the area had been deemed responsible for the killing of several Jews in the area in previous years.

Under the direction of Feldbaum, the Halamish brothers ordered the Arab squatters to leave. The Arabs refused, and about 20 of them approached the Jewish security officers with sticks and rocks. Feldbaum shot toward the ground when the Bedouins continued to move closer.

The response team later said that they shot in self-defense. An army medic who arrived at the scene determined that nobody was struck by the gunfire, an assertion disputed by the Arabs.

At that point, the military abandoned its own security team and allowed a police investigation. Feldbaum was sentenced to nine months in prison, but later was pardoned by President Moshe Katsav.

The Halamishes weren't as lucky. Although police refused to conduct ballistic tests or even a lineup of suspects, the brothers were convicted of shooting toward the Bedouins. Danny was sentenced to seven months in prison; Yitzhak, to eight months. An Israeli appeals court said ballistic tests or a lineup were not necessary. The word of the Arab Bedouins -- who refused to show up to police headquarters to identify their purported assailants -- was enough.
The court also rejected a recommendation by the probation officer for community service. The three-judge panel said it wanted the Halamish brothers to go to jail to serve as a lesson to others.

Unless we act, the Halamish brothers will be sent to jail on April 10 and their tiny community of Maalei Rehavam will be seriously harmed. As we see it, the Halamishes have been abandoned by the army and railroaded by the police and the judiciary.

Therefore, we urge you to act as you did so valiantly for Tzvia Sariel.

For US Citizens:
Call, rather than e-mail, the Israel Embassy in Washington [telephone 202-364-5500] and demand to speak to the military attach .

Tell him or his aide that you are outraged by the abdication of military responsibility of its own soldiers, who will go to jail because they helped protect Jews. Say that as an American citizen who contributes to the $2.4 billion of U.S. military aid to Israel, you demand the immediate release of the Halamish brothers. Say that you also plan to discuss this case with your member of Congress.

The Olmert government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused to admit any accountability to the Israeli people, and respects and fears only the Bush Administration. Unless we act now, there will be many more young Jews in jail. If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important than saving the lives of our fellow Jews?

With Love of Israel,

Datya Itzhaki

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For contact Information for the Israeli President (pardoning power), Shas Members Of Kenesset (currently in the government coalition), as well as Israeli Embassies and Consulates around the world, click here: Contact Information.

Tzvia Sariel Released!

2008-03-19T18:42:00.001+02:00

Word has come that Tzvia Sariel has finally been released, on time for her family in Elon Moreh to celebrate Purim reunited with their daughter. Baruch Hashem!

But what about the damage already done to her? What about the government who gets away with these type of abuses?

One is only left to wonder. Tzvia Sariel is now free, but who'll be next?

Update on Tzvia Sariel -- still imprisioned without charges

2008-03-18T08:48:00.013+02:00

Tzvia Sariel is still behind bars for over three months. She is a victim -- not a perpetrator -- of horrible abuse. But, alas, she happens to agree with the outrageous concept that Eretz Yisrael belongs to the Jewish people. Hence, the so-called Human Rights organizations are, as usual, too busy spreading Arab propaganda as to notice the 18 year old Jewish girl been held captive without charges.

This is from an email:

Tzvia Sariel cleared by rabbinical court and forcibly returned to solitary confinement.

In an unprecedented move, Tzvia Sariel, in jail for more than three months without formal charges, was ordered released by a rabbinical court in Jerusalem. But prison guards grabbed 18-year-old Tzvia and returned her to jail for another bout of solitary confinement.

Her "crime"? She refuses to cooperate with Israeli authorities, which have kept her in jail without evidence or witnesses in an attempt to intimidate her and other Jewish activists from protesting the Olmert government's plan to destroy the Jewish community in Judea and Samaria.

On March 14, Netanya Magistrates Court Judge Smadar Kolander Abramovitch ruled that Tzvia be brought to the rabbinical court to enable the rabbis to convince her to cooperate with secular Israeli authorities. On March 14, she was taken in leg irons to the rabbinical court, which declared her innocent of charges of assaulting an Arab and ordered her immediately freed. At that point, however, prison guards spirited Tzvia to a waiting van and she was returned to prison to continue her fourth month in jail.

"This was totally unexpected," Rabbi Chaim Richmond, one of four rabbinical judges, said. "In our presence, the prison warden made a call and they were expected to take Tzvia back to a civil court to be released."

The treatment of Tzvia is not exceptional. Since 2005, when the Israeli government planned the expulsion of the nearly 10,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, authorities drafted regulations tha reserved special penalties for Jewish protesters. More than 800 indictments, many of them involving minors, were issued against those who protested the government's destruction of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

"Every day and every hour that Tzvia Sariel spends behind bars is injustice to this girl," Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the rabbinical court, said. "Justice demands that she be released immediately. It is a serious stain on the judiciary system in Israel. According to the Torah law of Israel, we are demanding her immediate release without conditions and to erase the indictment."

The major Israeli media, particularly the state-operated radio and television, did not mention a word of this travesty of justice. So, we must turn to you, lovers of Israel, and ask that you act to help defend Jewish rights in Israel.

As a first step, we request that you telephone -- rather than e-mail -- the Israeli Embassy or the Israeli consulate nearest you and demand to know why Tzvia is still in prison. The embassy's phone number is 202-364-5500. Stress, that as an American citizen, you can ask the State Department to investigate what you feel is clearly a human rights violation.

Now, we are asking you to call your member of Congress and raise the issue of Tzvia Sariel. We also ask you to call the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and inform them of Tzvia and demand an investigation. Tell the department officer you have also raised Tziva's case with your member of Congress. The State Department's main numbers are 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339.

The Olmert government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused any accountability to the Israeli people and fears only the Bush administration. Unless we act now, there will be many more Tzvia's in jail.

If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important than winning the release of a Jewish child imprisoned for loving her country and people?

To download and read the Psak of the Sanhedrin, click here (the text is in Hebrew)

The tragedy in Mercaz HaRav

2008-03-06T23:21:00.002+02:00

For many years a small number of us in the National Religious Movement complained about Arabs working in Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva and its Baal Teshuva counterpart, Machon Meir. Those of us who read and believed in the truth of Rabbi Meir Kahane's teachings were taunted and the Rabbi was villified.

It took years for the leaders of Beit El and other settlements to listen to us and ban arab workers from the yishuvim.

Rosh Chodesh Adar....a terrorist enemy attacking students in Merkaz haRav..this is a national tragedy. More so because it could have been avoided.

The National Religious movement is no better in building Eretz Yisrael with its own bare hands rather than through goyishe laborers, than any other segment of Israeli Society.

AND THAT IS the failure and greatest tragedy of all.

The greatest Honor anyone can pay to the memory of Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook,ztzal: Put up your own drywall or hire a KOSHER shaliach to do so.

The Case of Tzvia Sariel -- An 18 Year-Old Prisoner of Zion in the Holy Land

2008-03-04T23:09:00.004+02:00

This is from an email from Mattot Arim:

Tomorrow (Wednesday), Kfar Saba: Another Court Session Re: 18 Year-Old Imprisoned Girl

In the USA: Call the Embassy, ask about Tzvia!!

Tomorrow, 5 March, come to Kfar Saba to attend yet another court session for jailed Tzvia from Elon Moreh. Session begins at 9 in Bet Mishpat haShalom courthouse in Kfar Saba (a few minutes walk from Tsomet Raanana -- right next to the police station). Ask for Judge Nava Bechor's courtroom -- It is preferable to come at 8 if you want to be inside (as opposed to holding a sign outside) because the courtroom is very small. Call Dudi in the morning to make sure there is no change in the time: 052-6070116. You may wish to bring a little sign: FREE TZVIA NOW!!

Pidion Shvuim Alert for USA Citizens re: Tzvia Sariel
Age: 18 Whereabouts: in Neve Tirza prison for three months
Charge: refusing to cooperate with police

How you can help her: Tzvia Sariel has been in prison for three months. Her crime: She refuses to cooperate with police who arrested her at a protest in her community of Elon Moreh in northern Samaria. On Feb. 27, Tzvia was brought to court where witnesses failed to identify her as the girl accused of pushing three Arabs. Still, Kfar Saba Magistrate Navah Bechor sent Tzvia back to jail until the next hearing on March 5. The treatment of Tzvia is not exceptional. Since 2005, when the Israeli government planned the expulsion of the nearly 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, authorities drafted regulations that reserved special treatment for Jewish protesters.

When residents of Sderot blocked the Tel Aviv highway in February in anger over the government's refusal to stop Hamas missile gunners, police stood by respectfully. When Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, protesting the government's expulsion policy, tried to do the same, they were beaten and thrown into prison.

Please telephone the Israeli Embassy at 202-364-5500 or the Israeli consulate nearest you and ask why Tzvia is still in prison. Do not argue with the embassy or consulate staffers. Instead, say that as a devout supporter of Israel, you have been defending the Jewish state from criticism by pro-Arabs who accuse Israel of violating human rights.

Therefore, you are shocked to hear about Tzvia, do not understand why she is in prison and feel that she be released immediately. Stay calm, but be very clear in your message.

Please act quickly. What could be more important than winning the release of a young Jewish girl imprisoned for loving her country and people?

See also here story in Arutz Sheva (click here)

Haveil Havalim #151 Is Up

2008-01-27T12:00:00.000+02:00

20 Shevat 5768

Posts from the (Not) Forgotten Prisoners Of Zion blog are featured on this week's edition of Haveil Havalim, the world's leading Jewish and Israel-related blog carnival.

Congratulations to new Blog Carnival owner Jack!

Daughters Of Zion Video

2008-01-23T11:21:00.000+02:00

16 Shevat 5768

The following video was recently produced to publicize the plight of young Jewish prisoners, who up until recently were held in prison for refusing to participate with the corrupt, Israeli Judicial system. One 16-year-old is still being held. The video exposes the Israeli prison system, which is abusive to religious activists.

This video also has the goal of publicizing the Jewish People's struggle for its Homeland.

Thanks to Voice Of Judea for the video link.

Those interviewed or who provide commentary include Nadia Matar of Women In Green, Rabbi Yeshayahu Hollander, of the nascent Sanhedrin, Prof. Hillel Weiss, and a young activist encouraging her friends to maintain their faith and hope.

The introduction to the video reads:

"Young female religious teens were held in jail for almost one month for refusal to recognize the corrupt government system. Their crime: ... all » being on a hilltop in Judea - Samaria, Israel. One girl is still in jail since Dec. 5, '08. They placed her in solitary confinement to break her. She is 18 years old. She needs your help. Here is their story and their jail conditions, motivation and determination."

Several young women attempt to block the police van carrying their friends. Please keep in mind that it is a violation of the girls right to be handled by male law enforcement officers.

Although all but one of the girls have been released, there are still expenses to be covered.

To help contribute to the emergency campaign for their release:

From the U. S. 011-962-54-489-6709

From Israel 054-489-6709

mishallyisrael@yahoo.com

Cross posted on the B'nai Elim Blog

Up Out of Bed With the Flu for Women

2008-01-21T13:38:00.000+02:00

It's a very good question: Where are all the feminists now? I also ask this question myself. I am going to address a few subjects in this article, all together, and hopefully, you'll be able to follow my flu-feverish daze into some sort of logic.

Girls arrested on hilltop, taken to prison, abused, ignored by public
Grandmother arrested and sentenced for "helping" daughter kidnap, though daughter not convicted of kidnapping herself
Single mothers don't receive child support from abroad, Israeli government does nothing

NRG.co.il headlines today: nothing about women. Three side articles about women: some raunchy popstar, mistakes in childbirth, and some students in England find their teacher on U-Tube.

INN.co.il: Daughters of Zion, last three, finally released.

Ynet.co.il" Ora Bnay has a baby girl.

NO ONE REPORTS ON SERIOUS WOMEN'S ISSUES, PERIOD. Women make up at least 50% of the population of the world, yet even we, don't take ourselves seriously. If anything we are the least sympathetic to ourselves. Even my rabbi told me not to bother complaining about not receiving child support because "no one will really be sympathetic."

The year is 2008, 40 years after 1968...the feminists have grown up, saved their 401K's and now retiring to the Bahamas.

What does this all mean? I don't know. I think it means that Kol Yisrael Erevim Zeh L'Zeh. All of Israel is connected to one another. It is our responsibility to love one another and care for one another, man, women, child, old, young, settler, left-wing, kibbutznik, right-wing, grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt, cousin, guy down the street. There is no one responsible for caring for different groups. We ALL have to care. About eachother. Period.

I am sick for the third time this winter. Please make chicken soup for your kids and think of me. If you want to pray for me for a Refuah Shleimah and for Parnassah, my name is Nofia (Nof-ya) bat Rivkah Chana Baylah.

Thank you.

Haveil Havalim #150 Is Up

2008-01-20T21:18:00.000+02:00

13 Shevat 5768

Posts from Orange Prisoners Of Zion are featured on this week's edition of Haveil Havalim, the world's leading Jewish and Israel-related blog carnival.

Where Are The Feminists Now?

2008-01-20T19:20:00.000+02:00

14 Shevat 5768

Three Girls Remain In Prison - Despite Court Ruling

by Hillel Fendel, 13 Shevat 5768/January 20, 2008

(IsraelNN.com) Three teenaged girls continue to be held in prison - despite a ruling by a District Court judge implying that the police should have released them this past Friday.

District Court Justice Noam Solberg ruled last Wednesday, regarding one of seven incarcerated girls, that whether or not the police succeed in identifying her, she must be freed by Friday at noon. Judge Solberg hinted that it is up to the police to identify them, and that it is not the girls' obligation to identify themselves. (Read more...)

NFPOZ Commentary:

So the Israeli police does not even follow the State's own rules. Surprised? You should not be. It only serves as additional evidence of the various double standards rampant in Israel.

Unfortunately, this fact continues to remain hidden from most Jews outside of Israel, especially in the U. S. As the wool continues to be pulled over their eyes, their longing for Israel, the Jewish Homeland, gets confused with a nonsensically idealistic view of the Israeli government. Their attitude remains "Anything having to do with Israel must be good."

The leftist, Israeli and foreign news media force their readers to wear rose-colored glasses wile examining the government. Then, in the same breath, demonize religious Jews, who often attempt to work within the government's framework to effect change, only to be betrayed with swift and frequent, changes in those vary rules.

This is what is now being called Israeli de-MOCK-racy.

Such double standards are found not only amongst the media and the government itself, but also amongst political activists, or rather self-serving political activists.

Minors are held in an adult prison.

Where are the human and civil rights activists? Where are the prisoner rights activists? This issue being fought exclusively by these girls fellow residents in Yehudah and Shomron, are issues which have fought by many across the political and religious spectrum.

Where are they now?

Young ladies have been incurring abuse at the hands of male, government employees.

Where are the feminists now?

These young ladies have been hung out to dry by the vary organizations and groups which claim to advocate on behalf of human beings, youth, women, or all of the above.

Apparently, these groups and organizations do not place the same value on rights and lives religious Jewish, as they do on the lives and rights of Jews who agree with their ideology,...or on the rights and lives of Arabs, who do not have a history of caring about any body's rights nor lives.

Daughters Of Zion: ZOA Statement

2008-01-18T12:47:00.000+02:00

Erev Shabbat Parshat Beshalah 5768

The Zionist Organization Of America [ZOA] has issued a statement apparently in protest of the girls' incarceration. To be honest, it was hard to tell. THe strongest word in the entire piece was "urge," not even "demand." You can read the staement by clicking the link and make your own judgment.

ZOA Appalled By Forcible Stripping By Israeli Police Of Arrested, Unarmed, Religious Female Teenagers

At least the ZOA bothered to write something. Can that be said for any other American Jewiish organization?

Please let us know by place a link in the comments section.

(Thanks to Sultan Knish for the ZOA link.)

Daughters Of Zion: Letter to American Consulate

2008-01-17T12:44:00.000+02:00

10 Shevat 5768

January 16, 2008

The American Consulate

American Citizens Services Section

Special Consular Services

Attn: Nili Weinfeld

Dear Ms. Weinfeld,

My name is Y. and I am an American citizen. My daughter X, who is 14 years old, is also an American citizen.

On December 25, 2007, she was detained with some other girls and boys her age for being in an old abandoned building not far from her home. Since then she has been incarcerated in a women’s prison for serious criminal offenders and I have not been allowed to see her. I have been allowed to speak with her by telephone only three times for one or two minutes each. At the time of her detention and arrest she was seriously abused, and has been denied her civil and legal rights during her time in prison.

The facts are as follows: She, along with 6 other girls and 8 other boys were pulled by the army and police out of an old and long abandoned building. They were taken to the police station in Sha’ar Binyamin and told to give their names and then they could go home. The boys did so and went home, and the girls refused, saying that they didn't do anything wrong. At this point they were formally arrested and also underwent serious physical and emotional abuse. I don't want to go into details about what they were subjected to in this letter, but it is profoundly outrageous and shocking.

Having spent the night at the police station, they were taken the next morning before a judge. Because they still refused to identify themselves they were sent back to prison on the pretext that the police couldn't conclude their investigation until the girls identified themselves. This, of course, is nonsense since the police have known perfectly well who the girls are from the very first night.

Every few days, X and the other girls are brought before a judge and then sent back to prison not a detention center for minors but to Neve Tirza, a prison for hardened and violent criminals. Neither I nor any of the other parents have been allowed to be present at these hearing and to get a glimpse of our daughters on the pretext that since the girls wouldn't identify themselves, the authorities couldn't confirm that we were indeed the parents. The cruelty with which these children have been treated defies belief.

After two weeks of this they were finally charged: with trespassing (an offense that requires prior knowledge and intent, although no one in the area is aware of this old abandoned building belonging to anyone).

Although convicted murderers are allowed daily hour-long phone calls and weekly visits with families, until recently and only then due to massive public pressure, the girls weren't allowed to speak to their parents at all much less see them. In the past week and a half, X’s been allowed to phone me three times, but even then, she’s only allowed to speak for a minute or two, with the guards yelling in the background to just say hello and then hang up the phone.

My X is a little girl, a good and idealistic and very innocent girl who has never done anything wrong, and who is being bullied and intimidated and abused by a legal system that affords more rights and consideration to adults convicted of murder than it has to her.

I am naturally very concerned for her welfare and very afraid about the emotional and psychic damage that has been inflicted on her. However, X also has health issues that make the conditions of her incarceration worrisome. She was seriously burned as a baby and since then has had to undergo multiple yearly skin operations. Good hygiene and staying out of the sun without her special creams are crucial for her health.

I would deeply appreciate it if the consulate could advocate for X and demand that the abuse of her civil and human rights stop and that this ugly persecution of an innocent child come to an end immediately.

I will eagerly await your reply. If you need any further information, please don't hesitate to call.

Sincerely,

Y.

(Thanks to Women In Green for sending this letter)

NFPROZ Commentary:
Our thoughts and prayers are with our sisters and with their families. We are moved by the impassioned plea of Y. (the mother of X.).
The U. S> government sees your daughter, along with all of us who live in Yehudah and Shomron as thorns in its side. Her civil and human rights are irrelevant, as long as she and her friends stand in the way of the American vision of "peace." Peace for whom, I do not know. As we all know, the U. S. government, even the Bush administration which many hold to be Israel's greatest ally, has repeatedly complained to Israel about the rights of Arab squatters, and has all but ignored the the Jewish blood spilled.

The U. S. government has been blinded by its addiction to Arab oil, its complicity with the United Nations, or its traditionally anti-Israel State Department, or all of the above.

Y., our hearts go out to you, but don't hold your breath.

Daughters Of Zion

2008-01-16T13:37:00.000+02:00

9 Shevat 5768

Some of our sisters and daughters are still being held in the Neveh Tirtzah Women's Prison. They were taken in for entering what the government calls "closed military area," Givat Or, a hilltop next to Bet-El. These young women have refused to identify themselves to the secular criminal justice system, whose authority they do not recognize.

Batya at Shilo Musings has been doing her own investigation, and has found that these young women may only have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is actually a repeat of two previous incidents. Back in 5765 (2005), three teen girls from K'far Tapu'ah were arrested for civil disobedience, protesting the impending expulsion of Jews from Azza. These three also refused to recognize the authority of the secular courts. As time passed the courts realized that they could not get away with the double standard they were perpetrating. They were holding three teen girls for civil disobedience until trial; whereas suspected perpetrators of violent crimes were given house arrest or released on bail.

The courts attempting to send them to a religious Kibbutz for "re-education" until their trial date. (Yes! That was the term used!) To the girls' credit, they refused, citing that the level of religious observance was not acceptable to them. The courts were willing to send them to a religious kibbutz, as they know full well that the State-loyalty indoctrination is just as effective in such a setting as in a secular setting. The courts eventually set a compromise, and released the girls' into the custody of on the girl's grandparents, living in the Greater Tel-Aviv Area. Releasing them back into the custody of their parents was not an option, as the judge believed the girls to pose a "dangerous influence" on their town. Yes, those were the judge's words.

More recently, Tirtzah Sariel face a similar ordeal. She also suffered for her failure to recognize the secular courts which enforced laws going against Torah.

And now, the government has resulted to even more treacherous deeds of,...yes, I will call it torture. That is essentially what it is. They are that desperate, and fearful of the power of faith in HaShem and dedication to the observance of His Torah, that this what they must stoup to.

Police Abused Young Religious Girls in Prison

(IsraelNN.com) Police forced several girls under the age of 16 to strip in prison, where they have been held under harsh conditions and without being charged, their parents charged. Police also allegedly woke them up repeatedly in order to deprive them of sleep in an attempt to break their determination not to identify themselves.

Judges have allowed the police to incarcerate the seven girls, ages 13 to 15, for entering a closed military zone and trying to establish a new hilltop community near Beit El, north of Jerusalem. The girls have refused to identify themselves because they say they abide by the law of the Torah and do not recognize the authority of secular judges.

Police responded to the charges with a routine statement that parents "are welcome to file a complaint" and the police themselves will investigate the charges.

Rabbis have called upon us to fast in support of our sisters and daughters.

Fast Day Thursday for Teenage Girls Held in Prison

(IsraelNN.com) Leading rabbis, including Kiryat-Hevron Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, have called on people to fast on Thursday on behalf of seven girls, ages 13 to 15, who have been held in Neveh Tirza prison near Ramle, east of Tel Aviv. The girls were arrested for trying to establish a hilltop community and have refused to identify themselves.

"In protest against the mistreatment and incarceration of these dear daughters of Zion and in protest against the terrible intention, G-d forbid, to endanger every single soul in Israel and to exile Jews from their homes and to expel them from their rightful inheritance, from Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, we call on all who are able to fast," said the Council of Rabbis of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha).

A Justice Ministry spokesman said, "The girls' release from prison is impossible until they agree to identify themselves because we cannot take legal action against the girls unless they divulge their names. Allowing these minors to leave prison before they identify themselves would establish a negative precedent which would allow criminals to avoid prosecution."

The residents of Yehudah and Shomron and their supporters have come under fire for sending our sisters and daughters out to fight for justice while the men sit on the sidelines. This scrutiny has come from the Haredi community, among others, which has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to protest the anti-Torah state. The Haredi community does have a point.

However, the leftist media certainly controls what is reported and what is not, and is more than happy to be a participant in any rift between various religious communities.

Our men are fighting in a variety of ways. Many have even been silenced by the courts or police "stay away" orders.

Our sisters and daughters should be commended for their efforts and self-sacrifice.

Contact Prisoners Easily Through Voice Mail!

2007-10-14T13:10:00.000+02:00

2 Marheshvan 5768

It is easy to contact several Orange Prisoners of Zion at the Ayalon and Massiyahu Prisons through their shared voice mail box:

02-5023311

After the music, menu, and beep, press the following numbers for the "residents," as the outgoing message says:

0 - Ofer ?? 1 - Aryeh Tessler 2 - Yitzhaq Ohayon

3 - Yehudah Ovadiah 4 - David ?? 5 - Gilad Pollack

6 - Eliyashiv Gilbar 7 - Shlomi Dvir

The tape wasn't great. So, if anyone can hear the two names I missed, please list here in a comment below.

Also, it's still not too late to call Gilad Pollack, and wish him a Happy Birthday.

Looking for new blog owner

2007-10-05T06:14:00.000+02:00

The time has come for me to pursue projects closer to my heart. I think the orange battle is important and worthwhile..but since my divorce my life has taken a different direction, and I must spend my time dedicating my efforts appropriately.

Therefore, if you would like to take over Orange Prisoners, and allow me to detach myself from it, then please email me.

Nofia

AN IMPORTANT PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

2007-08-17T18:12:00.000+03:00

AS OF 3 ELUL 5767, ALL POSTINGS WILL ONLY INVOLVE PRISONERS ARRESTED AS A RESULT OF PARTICIPATING IN ORGANIZED PROTESTS OR IN ACTIVITIES DEFENDING JEWS OR JEWISH PROPERTY; gush katif, northern shomron, hebron, etc.

IF there are any inaccuracies of witness information or if you have been harmed by any postings on the blog, please write a detailed description and we can post it as well. This site is about freedom of speech and the freedom for self defense, of all kinds.

Mazal Tov, Shimshon!

2007-07-28T22:07:00.000+03:00

Motza'ei Shabbat Qodesh "Nahamu" 5767

Shimshon Cytryn, a passionate Land of Israel activist, for acts of self-defense, has been through the Israeli judicial system's "wild ride" of nonsense for the past two years.

In 2005, Shimshon was accused of the attempted murder of a rock-throwing Arab in the Shirat HaYam community in Gush Katif, Azza. His alleged acts of self-defense and defense of his fellow Jews, gained him entrance into the anti-Torah-biased, Israeli criminal court system. After almost two years of arrests, incarcerations, solitary confinement, house-arrests, hearing and trials, Shimshon was exonerated from the attempted murder charges, yet found guilty of aggravated assault.

Unfortunately, his father Shmu'el was not able to attend this court appearance, as he himself was "under house arrest for having tried to stop two Arabs who stoned his car and smashed his windshield," as reported by Hillel Fendel of Israel National News.

Finally, Shimshon and his family are able to share with the public some good news:

Shmu'el and Liorah Cytryn and Yechi'el and Dalia Bengossi are pleased to announce the marriage of their children Shimshon Avihai and Oriyah Miryam

The wedding will take place, IY"H, this Wednesday, 17 Menahem Av 5767 (August 1, 2007), 6:30 PM at the Cave of Makhpelah, in the Holy City of Hevron, and would be honored to have the participation of you and your family.

Mazal Tov to Shimshon, Oriyah, their parents, and grandparents:

Aharon and Marilyn Cytryn

Yosef and Ester Bengossi

Siman Tov and Miryam Geula

...greater family and friends.

Halamish Brothers Face Trial (video)

2007-07-26T10:46:00.000+03:00

Arabs Surround 2 Jews; Jews Shoot And Now Face Trial

by Arutz Sheva TV Staff

(IsraelNN.com) Two brothers on the Emergency Response Unit in Maaleh Rechavam, south of Jerusalem, spotted suspicious Arabs on the outskirts of their village. The Arabs were suspected of collecting intelligence data about the Jewish village to be given over to terrorist organizations in preparation for an attack.

When Danny and Yitzhak Halamish went to distance the Arabs, more Arabs arrived and surrounded the two Jews who subsequently fired warning shots. The two brothers were arrested and face trial. The Arabs went free. Arutz Sheva TV documents the story below.

Th video can be viewed by clicking here.

The Six War: Recognizing The Miracle

2007-05-16T08:08:00.000+03:00

Yom Yerushalayim 5767

by Daniel Pinner

Forty years have passed since the Six Day War was fought and won. Forty years – a whole generation – during which we have studied that war, its background, causes, and course. Countless analyses have been written, from the most superficial babbling in cheap paperbacks and forgotten newspapers, to the most serious books and articles by the world’s foremost experts in military doctrines, strategists, tacticians, and political scientists.

Today, four decades of hindsight and a Torah-based insight can enable us to begin to understand the real lessons and significance of that war.

Ever since the Exodus, when “we were obligated to thank, to exalt, to praise, to glorify, to elevate, to beautify, to bless, to aggrandize, and to laud He Who performed all these miracles for us and for our fathers” (Pesachim 10:5), it has been fundamental to Judaism that we are commanded to thank GOD and to acknowledge the good that He bestows upon us. This is the halachic reason for saying Hallel on the Festivals, and on occasions when He saved us from extermination. Recognizing miracles inevitably increases our faith in GOD and our connection to He Who saved us and our fathers.

It is appropriate, therefore, to address the question: What was the single greatest miracle of the entire Six Day War? Not an easy question, for there were so many miracles, both hidden and revealed. There is no end to the stories that have been documented from the battles: of the Egyptian tank commander in the Sinai Desert who surrendered to a vastly inferior Israeli force on the second day of the war, because a desert mirage made him see hundreds of Israeli tanks where there were no more than a dozen; of the Jordanian forces who welcomed the Israeli tanks under the command of Colonel Uri Ram into Shechem on the third day of the war, because faulty communications misled the Arabs into thinking that these were Iraqi tanks come to reinforce them; of the battle for Ammunition Hill on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem, which was captured by an Israeli scout by mistake when he fell into a Jordanian trench in the moonless night at 2:00 on the Tuesday morning and started shooting from the hip – and the fall of Ammunition Hill was the necessary prelude to the capture of the Old City 30 hours later.

But all these events were details, and in the details it is all too easy to forget the overall picture.

A two-front war is every general’s nightmare: being forced to split the armed forces has been the downfall of countless seemingly invincible armies, from Assyria which lost a two-front war in 612 B.C.E. to a Babylonian/Median alliance, to the Athenian-Spartan army which succumbed to a Persian/Roman alliance in 480 B.C.E., to Germany which lost two world wars when battling Russia in the east and an Anglo-French alliance in the west. In June 1967, Israel was faced with a three-front war along the borders with Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. (There was technically a fourth front, the border with Lebanon. After firing a few token shots and sending two British-built Hunter fighter jets which were shot down almost immediately, Lebanon withheld from further fighting; the Lebanese army remained mobilized on Israel’s northern border, however, forcing Israel to keep an active force along that front.)

More than this: the Israeli military was outnumbered on all fronts and in all services. Israel could field a total strength of 264,000 soldiers; this included all the reserves, and could not therefore be sustained for any length of time without destroying the economy. Facing them were 525,000 Arab soldiers (of whom almost half – 240,000 – were Egyptian). Israeli tanks were outnumbered by more than three to one: 800 Israeli tanks faced 2,424 Arab tanks (again, about half – 1,200 – were Egyptian). The Israeli Air Force could field 350 aircraft, outnumbered almost 3 to 1 by 939 Arab aircraft (450 of them Egyptian).

While the Arab countries continued to receive vast quantities of weapons from their traditional suppliers – the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and, to a lesser extent, the United States – Israel’s main weapon supplier, France, without warning slapped an arms embargo on Israel; so did the USA. Little wonder that while the entire Arab world, led by the Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser, was proclaiming its forthcoming triumph against Israel, and proudly trumpeting the imminent annihilation of Israel and the massacre of all her citizens (the Jewish ones, that is), Israel was preparing to fight for her very existence, and projecting – in a best-case scenario – some 10,000 dead, maybe up to 50,000 – if she survived at all. Plans were made to turn national parks into mass cemeteries, even as schoolchildren were given canvas sacks and started shoveling sand into them to defend their homes.

The result is history. In six days, Israel captured the entire Sinai Desert (including the Gaza Strip) from Egypt; Judaea and Samaria, and half of Jerusalem, from Jordan; and the Golan Heights from Syria; instead of being annihilated, she had more than trebled her territory from 8,000 square miles (20,500 sq. km) to 26,000 sq. miles (66,500 sq. km). Of Israel’s neighbours, Lebanon alone (which, as noted above, did not attack Israel seriously) lost no land. This came at a heavy price: 776 soldiers were killed and 2,586 wounded – more than double the proportion its total population as the U.S. lost in eight years of fighting in Vietnam. The Arab countries have never published their losses; but reliable estimates put the Egyptian war dead at 11,500 (1,500 officers, 10,000 other ranks), Syrian at 2,500, Jordanian at 1,000 – not counting the tens of thousands injured and captured.

The very fact that Israel survived was a miracle; that we not merely survived, but won a decisive victory, infinitely more miraculous. Indeed, a West Point general once remarked that though the U.S. Military Academy studies wars fought throughout the world, they do not study the Six Day War – because what concerns West Point is strategy and tactics, not miracles.

What, then, was the single greatest miracle?

In order to answer this, we first have to understand the nature of a miracle. Perhaps the clearest analysis of the precise nature of miracles is given by the Ramban. In Parashat Lech Lecha, GOD forges His covenant with Abram, changing his name to Abraham and promising him that in a year’s time (when Abraham would be a hundred years old and his wife Sarah would be ninety) Sarah would give birth to a son – clearly a miraculous event. The Ramban comments as follows:

The reason that [GOD introduced Himself here] with the Name [El Shaddai] is that it is with this Name that hidden miracles are wrought for the tzaddikim, to save their soul from death and to sustain them in life through famine (Psalms 33:19), delivering them from the sword in war. Such was with all the miracles that were wrought for Abraham and the [other] Patriarchs, and all the subsequent [miracles] that the Torah promises in Parashat Bechukotai and Ki Tavo, [i.e. the promises of] blessings [for obeying the Torah] and curses [for disobeying it]. For all these are miraculous; after all, there is no natural reason why the rains should come in their appropriate seasons [Lev. 26:4] just because we worship GOD, or why the sky should become iron [ibid. 19] when we sow in the shmitta year. Thus, too, with all that the Torah commands. All are miracles, and all control natural fortune, even though the normal course of the world is in no way changed, as it was by Moshe Rabbeinu in the Ten Plagues, at the Splitting of the Sea, the Manna, the well in the desert, and so forth.

* Ramban, commentary to Genesis 17:1.

In addressing the calculation by which Jochebed was some 130 years old when she gave birth to Moshe, the Ramban returns to this theme:

The Tanach mentions miracles which were performed by a prophet after he had already prophesied them, or an angel who appeared for a divine mission; but it does not mention miracles which occurred spontaneously to help a tzaddik or to destroy an evil person.... The entire foundation of the Torah is hidden miracles; the whole purpose of the Torah is only miracles, not nature or custom. After all, all the promises that the Torah makes are miraculous.

* Ramban, commentary to Genesis 46:15.

The principle, then, is that there are two types of miracles: hidden and revealed. Revealed miracles are such events as the Splitting of the Red Sea, which are obviously miraculous to even the most skeptical observer; hidden miracles are those supposedly “natural” events which are calibrated for the sake of Am Yisra’el.

With this basis, we can now re-examine the events of the Six Day War.

In January 1964, Yitzhak Rabin had become the Chief of Staff of the IDF, a position he would retain until his retirement in January 1968. He had long since proved his mettle: almost exactly 19 years before the Six Day War, on June 21st 1946, in his capacity as Chief Operations Officer of the Central Front, he had commanded the Palmach unit that fired on the Altalena (an Irgun arms ship carrying almost 900 soldiers, 5,000 rifles, 250 Bren guns, 5 million bullets, 50 Bazookas, and 10 Bren carriers). To clarify: the Acting Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, had given the command to blow up this ship; he had ordered Yisra’el Amir (Commander of the Air Force) to bomb it from the air, but he – and all the Air Force pilots – refused point blank to turn their weapons on fellow Jews. A number of other Palmach officers likewise refused. It was Yitzhak Rabin who enthusiastically used Israeli artillery against an Israeli ship bringing materiel for the Israeli army, and in the process killed 16 Jewish soldiers – in the midst of the War of Independence, when every soldier and every bullet was needed to protect the nascent state.

There is a word for a person – more, a field commander in the military – who turns artillery fire against his own side during time of war.

Twenty-five years after the Six Day War, Yitzhak Rabin stood for election as prime minister for the second time (his first term had been 1974-1977). During the election campaign, Rabin presented himself as “Mr Security”; his most central election pledges were that he would never engage in dialogue with the PLO; that he would never agree to an armed force west of the River Jordan; that he would never negotiate on east Jerusalem; that even in time of peace, he would not even consider retreating from the Golan Heights.

In fact, within weeks of becoming prime minister (by a razor-thin margin), he began open dialogue with the PLO. It would take another few years for the general public to discover that during the election campaign, even while he was solemnly swearing never to talk to Arafat and his henchmen, Rabin’s closest colleagues were already cutting deals with those very terrorists, promising them weapons, political power, land, training bases, and the like in return for Arab support for his political party in the elections.

The rest is history: on 13th September 1993 – barely fifteen months after the elections – Rabin, Peres, and Arafat signed the Oslo death accords, under which Rabin’s government transferred tens of thousands of assault rifles and submachine-guns, tens of millions of bullets, armoured personnel carriers, and other materiel to the PLO. In order to dupe the Israeli (and world) public, Rabin deliberately lied, claiming that the state of war with the PLO was over. And after every terrorist outrage, while Jewish blood was flowing in the streets of Beit Lydd, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Hadera – the list goes on – Rabin continued to lie, deliberately protecting the PLO’s reputation, claiming that they were our “partners in peace, the “moderates” who were valiantly battling the “extremists” – even as he knew that the terrorists were those very “partners in peace,” receiving their orders directly from his own friend and confidant, Yasser Arafat.

Again, there is a word for a person – more, a prime minister and defence minister – who cold-bloodedly and deliberately arms terrorists for them to direct their murderous fire against his own side during time of war.

And so in 1967, at Israel’s most critical juncture ever, while facing a seven-nation military coalition dedicated to her extermination, outnumbered on three fronts, isolated in the world – at that time, the Israeli army’s supreme commander was a traitor, who consciously and deliberately collaborated with the enemy in time of war. He demonstrated his grasp of reality on Independence Day, the 5th of Iyyar (15th May: on the 19th anniversary, the Hebrew and civil calendars coincided). In a press conference, Rabin proclaimed that he “foresees a long period of peace between us and our Arab neighbours”. The very same day, Egyptian forces began deploying in the Sinai Desert, along the Israeli border. The next day, Nasser ordered the UN Emergency Force (stationed along the Israeli/Egyptian border since 1957 precisely to prevent war) to leave, and the UN Secretary General U Thant acceded within a few hours. Two days later, on May 18th, Syrian forces achieved battle readiness along the Golan Heights. Four days later, on May 22nd, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli ships, as well as non-Israeli ships bound for Eilat – blockading Israel’s supply routes from Africa, and blocking Israel’s oil supply. On May 30th, King Hussein of Jordan joined the Egyptian/Syrian war coalition, placing his army under Egyptian command. Meanwhile, contingents from the armies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia, and other Arab countries came to bolster the forces ranged against Israel. On June 4th, Iraq joined the anti-Israel pact.

GOD alone knows how Rabin would have acted, had he but been given the opportunity. If his previous record and subsequent behaviour are a reasonable indication, he would not have allowed the IDF to defend Israel – and certainly not to launch the first strike, without which Israel would have been annihilated in the first few land battles. Quite conceivably, Rabin would have transferred weapons – rifles, machine-guns, strike planes, artillery pieces – to the enemy Arab states, and lied to the Israeli public that he was “strengthening the moderates” in order “to make peace with them”. Who can say that he would not have ordered Israel to withdraw from the Galilee, from western Jerusalem, from Haifa, and from the Negev Desert – in order to “make peace”?

But by the grace of GOD, Rabin was denied the opportunity. On the 17th of Iyyar (May 25th), he suffered a nervous breakdown, and was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. (In order not to demoralize the nation, the official cover story was that he had collapsed of nicotine poisoning.) Major General Ezer Weizman – who had been the Commander of the Air Force from 1958-1966, and was by then OC Operations Branch – became acting Chief of Staff, and prepared the IDF for war, for pre-emptive strike.

Without Rabin’s nervous breakdown, none of the subsequent miracles could ever have taken place: the Israeli Air Force could not have destroyed the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Iraqi air forces within eight hours had they been forbidden to strike; the most highly-motivated soldier in the world cannot vanquish the enemy if his own commander forbids him to fire a single shot. The most dazzled and demoralized enemy tank commander will never surrender when he knows that the Commander in Chief of the opposing side is about to send him weaponry.

Rabin’s mental collapse falls precisely into the Ramban’s categorization of delivering them from the sword in war…even though the normal course of the world is in no way changed. And so we see that the greatest miracle of the entire Six Day War – the base upon which all the subsequent miracles rested – was actually a hidden miracle, which happened quietly and without fanfare (and was, indeed, deliberately kept secret), which happened a week and a half before the Six Day War.

Shimshon Cytryn Update - April 29

2007-04-29T09:10:00.000+03:00

11 Iyyar 5767

From Marilyn Cytryn:

The trial for Shimshon Cytryn on May 1st has been postponed until May 31st.

Have no idea why this has occurred.

Best wishes.

*See Further To Helping Shimshon Cytryn for information on what YOU can do to help!

Sara, my friend - not Sara, "the prisoner's wife"

2007-01-21T20:10:00.000+02:00

I studied with Sara at Machon Ora in 1990-1991. She impressed me with her strong identity and sense of right and wrong. At the time she was mourning Rav Kahane's recent murder, dressing in dark clothes and arguing vociferously with the Rabbi's critics.

Sara cared tremendously about her appearance and the way she dressed. She took pride in being a Jewish daughter, a Bat Melech. She always dressed and acted appropriately in public.

She was extremely sensitive to other people's feelings. When she heard of a death, she would cry for hours, even if she didn't know the person who died very well.

After she married Ami, Yediot Acharonot took the time to put out a full smear campaign. From that moment, in public, she was no longer the quiet learned girl who had once been Rav Meir Kahane's secretary...she was "Ami' the Mass Murderer's Wife".

Even last week, on the news, she was "Ami's Wife".

Sara will be missed. But it will be a greater tragedy if those of us who knew her allow her to go on being remembered merely as "Ami's Wife".

Sara was a great person, who like the rest of us from America, was a survivor of the silent Holocaust. She was also a strong person, who made difficult choices and lived with them everyday.

Sara had a beautiful smile and a warm voice. That is the only way she should be remembered.

2007-01-20T19:55:00.000+02:00

For those of you who don't already know: The entire shiva will be observed at Sara's z"l home: Shaulzon #26 apt. 7 (one fl. down) Har Nof, Jerusalem, and not in Tapuach, as previously posted.

Also, please daven for a Refua Shlema for the children of Sara Popper A"H:
Yisroel Mayer ben Sara
Avraham Yitzchok ben Sara
And for her husband/their father Ami (whose full name I'm trying to obtain - if anyone on this list has it, please inform us).

Shavua Tov, and may this be a week of only b'surot tovot,
Dina

The Problem with Mashiach: A Shanah Tova message for this Shabbat, by Daniel Pinner

2007-01-19T00:57:00.000+02:00

The Problem with Mashiach: A Shanah Tova message for this Shabbat, by Daniel Pinner

The Mishna (1:1) tells us that there are four New Years every year: the first of Nissan is Rosh Hashana for Kings; the first of Elul is Rosh Hashana for tithing animals (although according to Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shim'on this is on the first of Tishrei, which is the Halacha in practice according to the Rambam- Hilchot Bekhorot/ laws of firstborn 7:6); the first of Tishrei is Rosh Hashana for years, Shmita and Jubilee years, and vegetables; and, according to Shammai the first of Sh'vat (this Sahbbat) is Rosh Hashana for trees - i.e. for tithing the fruits of trees. According to Hillel, Rosh Hashana for trees is on the fifteenth of Sh'vat.

Now, we decide practical Halacha according to Hillel, which is why every year we celebrate Rosh Hashana for trees on the fifteenth of Sh'vat - Tu B'Sh'vat. But we have a principal that when Mashiach comes, the Halacha will go according to Shammai.

So if Mashiach comes in the two-week period after Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat, and before Tu B'Sh'vat, then we will face an interesting problem: will the fruits that ripen during that two-week period have to be tithed according to Shammai (from first of Sh'vat this year until the twenty ninth of Tevet next year), or according to Hillel (from Tu B'Sh'vat last year until fourteenth of Sh'vat this year)?

And if the tithed and un-tithed fruits get mixed up, maybe they will all be forbidden.

All in all, it would save us a lot of problems before Rosh-Chodesh- i.e. before this Shabbat.

In any event, Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh Tov, and Shana Tova - B'ezrat Hashem for this Shabbat, or if "Chas Ve'Shalom" Mashiach does not come by then, for Tu B'Shvat.

PARSHAT VA'ERA/ROSH CHODESH SHVAT: The Power of Hate, by Daniel Pinner

2007-01-18T22:25:00.000+02:00

"And Hashem said to Moses: 'Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch forth your hand over the waters of Egypt … and they will become blood… and the Egyptian sorcerers did the same with their black magic'" (Exodus 7:19).

This is the remarkable comment on the power of hate. The previous day, Moses and Aaron had stood before Pharoah and his sorcerers. Aaron had cast down his staff, it turned into a snake – whereupon the Egyptian sorcerers matched that miracle with their sorcery. True, Aaron's snakes swallowed all the sorcerer's snakes for telling that miracles from Hashem would inevitably overpower black magic from impure sources – but nonetheless, they succeeded in reassuring Pharoah that Egyptian magic could protect him. So when Aaron and Moses brought the plague of blood on Egypt, those sorcerers again duplicated the miracle using their own black magic, again demonstrating to Pharoah that they were a match for Hashem, the G-d of the Hebrews. Surely it would have been more sensible for them to turn the blood back into water! But instead, they took what little water they had (according to Targum Yonatan) they took water from Goshen ; according to the Or Hachaim, they dug for subterranean water), and turned that into blood. So important was it for them to prove that Moses and Aaron did not have special powers, they were willing to add to the plague.

With the second plague, too, the Egyptian sorcerers displayed the same characteristic: "Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the Land of Egypt. And the sorcerers did the same with their black magic, bringing up frogs onto the Land of Egypt," (8:3). Again, instead of trying to eliminate the frogs, they brought up even more frogs – purely in order to prove that their magic could match Moses's and Aaron's.

With the third plague, that of lice, they tried to do the same: "Aaron stretched forth his staff and struck the dust of Egypt; it became lice, on man and beast – all the dust of Egypt became lice throughout the Land of Egypt. And the sorcerers did the same with their black magic, to bring forth lice, but they were unable to" (8:13-14). It was then that the sorcerers confessed to Pharoah "this is the finger of G-d, (8:15). But at no stage did the sorcerers try to alleviate the Egyptians' suffering.

This seems to have been a consistent Egyptian characteristic: More than 80 years earlier, a previous Pharoah had made the infamous decree, "when you deliver the Hebrew women and you see the birth stones, if it is a boy, you will kill him, and if it is a girl she will live" (1:16). When this evil scheme failed because the midwives refused to collaborate, "Pharoah commanded all his nation [not just the Jews] saying: Every son who is born [not just the Jewish boys] you will throw into the river; and every daughter you will save alive" (1:22). The Midrash explains his rationale: "The astrologist told him: The mother of the savior of Israel has become pregnant, but we do not know if it will be an Israelite or an Egyptian," (Exodus Raba 1:18 and compare Targum Yonatan to Exodus 1:22). With hindsight, we understand their uncertainty: Moses was both an Israelite and an Egyptian prince. But the practical result was that in his attempt to frustrate the Israelites' salvation Pharoah was willing to perpetrate mass murder, even against the sons of his own people.

As the plagues progressed, Pharoah persisted in attempting to destroy the Israelites, even as he knew that he would destroy his own nation in the process. By the eighth plague, that of locusts, Pharoah's servants could already see the writing on the wall: Pharoah's servants said to him: Until when will he be a snare unto us? Send away the people so they will serve Hashem their G-d; Do you not know that Egypt is destroyed?!" (10:7).

In his desperate fight against Israel, Pharoah ultimately plunged himself and his army into the Red Sea – leaving them to their own destruction.

And this set a precedent for all our enemies. A few weeks later, we encountered Amalek in the desert, in Rephidim, (17:8). The Torah gives a fascinating insight into that encounter, and the nature of Amalek: "As it happened that when Moses would raise his hands, Israel would prevail…" (17:11). And the obvious question is: When Israel prevailed – as they eventually did when Aaron and Hur held Moses's hands up – why did Amalek not simply break off contact? After all, they were in the desert, far from Amalek's settled homeland; they had nothing material to fight for. Evidently, this was yet another example of the enemies of Israel being willing to doom themselves in order to fight against us.

Pharoah and the Egyptians managed to inflict horrendous damage on us before they were finally destroyed; so, too, our enemies in our own days. But the historical lesson is clear; an enemy so consumed by hate that he is willing to destroy himself in order to kill a few more Jews is an enemy whose defeat and utter desolation we will ultimately celebrate. "So, too, may all Your enemies be destroyed, Oh Hashem, and those who love Him will be as powerful as a rising sun" (Judges 5:31).

SHABBAT SHALOM AND CHODESH TOV

Sara Popper z"l

2007-01-18T20:57:00.000+02:00

Re: Sara Popper z"l

Shiva will be observed tonite and till noon tomorrow (Friday) at the
home of Sara z"l in Har Nof, Jerusalem. I just spoke to her brother
Lenny Goldberg, the number there is 02-6519077. After noon tomorrow,
shiva will be observed at Lenny's home in Tapuach till Wednesday. Call
there at 03-9366094 for directions and more information.

I am posting below a talkback comment I found in the Jerusalem Post
online edition, which consists of a nice mini-eulogy for Sara z"l. It
was refreshing to read after reading negative comments from the Post
talkbacks. You be the judge re what the commenter says about her
husband Ami.

BTW, he and the surviving sons are hospitalized at Hadassah Hospital -
Ein Kerem, Jerusalem.

Let's pray for "b'surot tovot" and that Lenny and his family, and Ami
and his two sons be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Kol Tuv, Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov,
Dina

tradgic death of Sarah Popper, a woman in my community
LK - Israel
01/18/2007 13:32

Sarah was a fine person who made choices that I don't understand. She
had free will to make wise choices for herself and for reasons I don't
understand she chose her life with this husband and in her merit
perhaps G-d granted her three beautiful chidlren. And now she is dead.
I knew Sarah; I feel she did her best to be the best wife and mother
she could be. I pray her soul is now at peace and her living 2 children
will be cared for by a loving famil y and her husband will do 'true'
teshuvah.

MORE PRISONERS WHO NEED OUR HELP

2007-01-12T01:27:00.000+02:00

Received from Women in Green on 3 January - Sorry it took me this long to post it here!

HELP THE HALAMISH BROTHERS APPEAL THEIR 8 MONTHS SENTENCE

Some three years ago, our friends, Danny and Itzik Halamish from Maaleh Rehavam in the Judean Hills (close to Tekoa), were asked by the Sde Bar security officer to drive away Arab shepherds who infiltrated the Sde Bar grazing area. The Halamish brothers were attacked by the Arabs and forced to defend themselves. Danny and Itzik were accused and found guilty of "assault'. The Arabs were, of course, not accused of anything!! Women in Green wrote about their case a couple of months ago, when the judge had already found them guilty. Already then we called upon you to help raise money for the appeal. At that time we did not know yet how long the judge would decide to keep those brothers in jail.

Last week, Judge Amnon Cohen sentenced the Halamish brothers to 8 months in jail, to an additional suspended sentence and to paying the Arabs "compensation"! We need your financial help to appeal this outrageous injustice. The monies raised a couple of months ago in preparation for the appeal, are not enough. For more details you can contact Aharon Halamish, Danny's and Itzik's father: halamish@013.net or call them at 972-2-970-9066

For tax deductible donations write out your check to HONENU and send it to: The HALAMISH Family, OFRA 90627, ISRAEL

PARSHAT SHMOT: THE NAME OF G-D, THE NAME OF ISRAEL, by Daniel Pinner

2007-01-12T01:05:00.000+02:00

"Moses and Aharon came and said to Pharaoh: Thus said Hashem, the G-d of Israel: Send out My People, that they may celebrate to Me in the desert. Said Pharaoh: Who is Hashem that I should listen to his voice to send out Israel? I do not know Hashem, neither will I send Israel out" (Exodus 5:1-2).

In addressing Pharaoh with these words, Moses and Aharon were carrying out the charge that G-d had given them in 4:22. The Midrash (Exodus Rabba 514, Tanchuma Vaera 5) records Pharaoh's reaction: He took out his catalogue of all the gods of all the nations and, since he found no mention of Hashem, the G-d of the Hebrews, he responded: "I have searched for his names throughout my archives and I have not found him". There then follows a lengthy dialogue between Pharaoh and Moses and Aharon in which Pharaoh asks the sort of questions about G-d that might be expected of an idolater: How old is he? How many cities has he conquered? How many countries has he captured? How many years since he has ascended his throne?

Was Pharaoh asking genuine questions, or was he being deliberately sarcastic? Moses and Aharon answered Pharaoh precisely: "Our G-d – Power and might fill the universe; He was before the world was created, and He will be after all the world; He created you and gave you the spirits of life…" [Pharaoh] says to them: "Everything you've said from the start is a lie! Because I am the Lord of the Universe, and I created myself and the Nile". Evidently, Pharaoh was not merely sarcastic, he was monumentally arrogant.

We still have to ask: Did Moses and Aharon really believe that Pharaoh would be impressed or frightened at being ordered about in the Name of "Hashem, the God of Israel"? It was surely clear from the start that Pharaoh's attitude would be that a god of a nation of slaves could not be all that powerful, otherwise he would not let his nation be enslaved – hence Pharaoh's (ostensibly sensible) questions – How many cities has your G-d conquered? How many countries has He captured? The very phrasing of Moses and Aharon's ultimatum to Pharaoh – "Thus said Hashem, the G-d of Israel" – seems almost deliberately calculated to guarantee that Pharaoh would refuse them.

There is an obvious reason for Moses and Aharon entreating Pharaoh in the name of "Hashem, the God of Israel": The purpose of the Exodus was not merely to liberate one more nation in the world. Rather, the fundamental purpose of the Exodus was to sanctify the Name of G-d in the world. For this reason, the demand that Pharaoh liberate this nation of slaves had to be made in the name of "Hashem, the G-d of Israel." Had Moses and Aharon appealed to Pharaoh's sense of justice, or argued that salaried workers would yield better results than slaves, or forged an alliance with a foreign army and conquer Egypt and then liberate them, then the name of G-d would not have been sanctified.

And there is an additional reason for demanding the Israelite slaves' redemption, specifically in the name of "Hashem, the G-d of Israel": 430 years before Moses and Aharon stood before Pharaoh, G-d had told Abraham: "Know with certainty that your descendants will be strangers in the land that is not theirs, and they will serve them, and they will oppress them for 400 years. And all the nations that they will serve, I will judge" (Genesis 15:13-14).

The Egyptians could well have claimed that they deserved no punishment for having enslaved the Jews: After all, G-d Himself had decreed the servitude. How, then, could He punish them for carrying out His will?

Well, not only did the Egyptians go way beyond the original mandate - there is a vast difference between subjugating the Jews, and murdering all their baby boys. Had the Egyptians genuinely enslaved the Israelites solely in order to fulfill the Divine decree, then as soon as G-d sent His messengers to demand release, they would have complied. G-d did not fore-ordain that He would punish the nation who would enslave Abraham's descendants, only that He would judge them. And this was a test: Would they obey the Divine decree by freeing the slaves?

For this reason, too, Moses and Aharon had to demand that Israel, the nation which is called by the Name of G-d, be released in accordance with the decree of Hashem, the G-d of Israel; "You are in our midst, Oh Hashem, and Your Name is proclaimed upon us; do not abandon us" (Jeremiah 14:9). Only by being addressed in the name of "the G-d of the Hebrews" could the Egyptians be tried with true justice, prove themselves for good or for bad, acquit themselves or convict themselves. Only thus could the Name of G-d be truly sanctified in this world: "When G-d punishes the Nations, His Name is aggrandized in the world" (Mechilta deRebbe Yishamel, VaYechi 1).

SHABBAT SHALOM

MAZAL TOV! MEIR BERTLER'S NEW SON - BRIT MILAH THIS FRIDAY - ALL INVITED!

2007-01-10T22:47:00.000+02:00

From Mattot Arim and Women in Green:

Mazal tov!! This Friday 12 Jan. at 9:30 a.m. - Brit of the newborn son of another of the 21 banished Jews -- Meir Bertler. The Brit will be at the "outpost" of Adei Ad, near Shvut Rahel in the Shilo area. This will be a very special experience and the Bertler family have widely -- very widely - publicized that as far as they are concerned EVERYONE is invited. There is a 9 AM Dan bus from Petach Tikva to Ariel, then another bus from Zomet Ariel to Shvut Rahel. From inside the yishuv, any car is fine to get to the bris at Adei-Ad. Or, take a bus from Jerusalem straight to Shvut Rahel. With the participation of Rabbis, MK's, and public figures and the musical accompaniment of Ariel Zilber.

For urgent short questions about how to get there, call Meir at 0504482848 (keep your call very, very brief).

UPDATES ON OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS AND A PLEA FOR SUPPORT

2007-01-10T22:45:00.000+02:00

Shalom all,

I am again posting names of prisoners and their canteen numbers next to their names, along with updates.

Arye Tessler, # 4672663 and Elad Keller, # 4609050 were recently transferred to Ayalon Prison. These are 2 of the 20-some young men expelled from their families in Judea and Samaria by unfair administrative orders, and who rightfully refused to obey them and stayed with their families, for which they were arrested and imprisoned. (The canteen numbers, as far as I was informed, stay the same even if the prisoner is transferred to another prison.)

Meir Bertler, also one of the 20 who was recently released from prison, is the proud father of a new baby boy, to whose Brit Milah this Friday everyone is invited. I will be posting an ad about the Brit in my next post.

Amram (not Amnon, as mistakenly posted previously) Cohen , #4651772, found guilty of illegal possession of a gun in his home and sentenced to a year and a half, is still at Shikma, and his wife Moran's P.O. bank account is #2553384. Moran is in dire need of financial aid for her and their 3 little children, and Amram could certainly use generous deposits into his canteen.

And let's not forget Daniel Pinner, #4628436, imprisoned at Ma'asiyahu, who still needs donations to his canteen.

TIZKU L'MITZVOT!

Kol Tuv,

Dina

PARSHAT VAYECHI: Living with Faith, by Daniel Pinner

2007-01-05T01:39:00.000+02:00

"Israel said to Joseph: 'Behold, I am dying. May G-d be with you all, and return you all to the Land of your fathers. And I have personally given you Shchem as one extra portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Emorite with my sword and with my bow" (Genesis 48:21-22).

This blessing of a special gift which Jacob granted to Joseph is a precursor of Jacob's blessing to all his twelve sons, his charge to each tribe of its unique task, and his tantalizing brief glimpse into the Messianic era. With this blessing, Jacob closes several historical circles. First, it is clear that there is a deep connection between Joseph, Shchem, and the Egyptian exile: The exile began with Joseph being sent to Shchem to look for his brothers 49 years previously (Genesis 37:12); and 233 years later, when the Egyptian exile was finally over and the 40 years sojourn in the Sinai desert was passed, when the children of Israel returned to their Land, the first station after conquering Jericho and its environs was Shchem, and the mountains overlooking it, Mount Eval and Mount Grizim. Immediately upon entering the Land, and before separating to their respective tribal territories, they assembled in Shchem to hear the blessings for obeying the Torah and the curses for forsaking it (Joshua 8:30-35), just as Moses had commanded in the last few days of his life (Deuteronomy 11:29, 27:11).

Nonetheless, an obvious question arises: Why did Israel grant the city of Shchem to Joseph (it was in the territory of Joseph's younger son Efraim)? – after all, it was Simeon and Levi who physically took it with their swords and bows. This closes another historical circle: Efraim and Menashe were Joseph's sons, "whom Osnat, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On, bore to him" (Genesis 41:50). Actually, Osnat was not the biological daughter of Poti-phera: "Pharaoh renamed Joseph Zaphenatch – Paneach, and he gave him Osnat, daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On, as a wife" (Genesis 41:45), which the Targum Yonatan renders: "…he gave him Osnat, whom Dina bore to Shchem, and he was raised by the wife of Poti-phera, priest of Tanix [On], as a wife". The midrashim are consistent in identifying Osnat as the daughter of Dina whom she bore as a result of being raped by Shchem. Hence, her son Efraim was a grandson of Shchem, and upon dividing the land of Israel between the tribes, Shchem's descendants reclaimed their heritage – a particularly neat example of mida ki-neged mida (measure for measure).

In fact, however, although Shchem was located within the territory of Efraim, the city itself was one of the thirty-five Levite cities scattered throughout Israel (1 Chronicles 6:51-52); so that Levi, who had physically fought in the city of Shchem, ultimately inherited the city itself with its surrounding fields.

And where does Simeon fit in with this? – After all, he, too, had fought in Shchem. Immediately after massacring all the males in Shchem, Jacob questioned the wisdom of their action: "You have sullied my reputation, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Cana'anite and the Perizzite, while I am few in number; should they gather together and smite me, I and my household will be exterminated" (Genesis 34:30). It is clear why Jacob feared the Canaanites: they were numerous and they occupied the area around Shchem. But the Perizzites? They lived in the south of the country, in the region between Jerusalem and Hebron. And those were precisely the areas, within the territory of Judah, through which the tribe of Simeon was scattered. Jacob feared the reaction of the Perizzites to Simeon's action – and Simeon was given the Perizzite areas.

The Emorites also occupied the general vicinity of the mountain range running north-south through Shchem, hence Jacob's reference to having taken Shchem "from the hand from the Emorites with my sword and with my bow". It is noteworthy that the Targum Yonatan, which typically gives midrashic rendering into Aramaic, translates this particular phrase literally; the Targum Onekelos, which is nearly always a direct, literal translation into Aramaic, paraphrases "…which I took from the hand of the Emorites with my prayers and with my supplications". (Onekelos homiletically reads the Hebrew "be-kashti" ["with my bow"] as "bakashati" ["my supplications"]). This phrase has been eternalized and popularized in Kaddish: "Titkabel tz'lot'hon u-va'ut-hon…" ("May the prayers and supplications be accepted…").

The commentators discuss which is the literal meaning – did Jacob conquer Shchem with sword and bow, or with prayers and supplications? The Targum Yerushalmi gives a beautiful, if alternative outlook: "And I hereby give you an extra portion more than your brothers – Adam's garment, which Abraham, my father's father took from the hand of the wicked Nimrod and gave to my brother Isaac, and my father Isaac gave to Esau; and I took it from the hand of Esau my brother, not with my sword and not with my bow, but by my merit and my good deeds".

The moral lesson is clear: On the physical level, Israel indeed took Shchem with the sword and bow. But Israel wins wars – whether against Esau, or whether against any nation who occupies this Land and claims it for themselves – not in the merit of superior physical strength, but in the merit of prayer and mitzvot. As in Shchem, the first battle the children of Israel ever fought – so every true Jewish army fights with "the praises of G-d in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hand" (Psalms 149:6).

SHABBAT SHALOM

JEFF'S TRIAL WED. 13 TEVET 5767/3 JANUARY 2007

2007-01-03T20:04:00.000+02:00

Today's hearing started at 12:30, with, Baruch Hashem, full-house attendance!

Today the prosecution finished her cross examination of Jeff. She shot wildly in all directions with her own big guns, in a desperate attempt to prove that Jeff is a violent Jewish terrorist who intended to keep the weapon, bullets, etc. that he brought or imported, to himself, for his own use or the use of his compatriots in the future, to harm Arabs. Her main method was to point out contradictions between what Jeff had told his interrogators (all of which was recorded during the interrogations) and his testimony during his trial. Jeff, for his part, had logical answers to almost all of the prosecutor's attempts.

The prosecutor pointed out that Jeff spoke of M. and E. (of Tapuach) helping him to make aliya, and that he knew in advance that M. was the leader of an organization that had been outlawed. But Jeff said that all he knew before making aliya was that they trained dogs to protect settlers. When the prosecutor insisted that Jeff said during his interrogation that he indeed did know about M., Jeff replied that the only thing he knew was M. had a group, and that he never spoke to M. before his aliya.

The prosecutor mentioned that Jeff said M. told him that he's “freelance”, not a member of any organization, because M. wanted to get to know him better and would not accept his (Conservative - DM)) conversion (done in the U.S. - DM) Jeff replied that A.K. helped him get into Yeshiva, after which he heard the group was closed down, so that there was no longer a “group” to accept him. When questioned re the meaning of “freelance”, Jeff explained that he didn’t have to do anything in Tapuach that he didn’t want to do, that he could do things in the yeshiva there if he wanted.

The Prosecutor said that Jeff told the investigators that Arabs should be expelled, and M. & E. said they should be killed, but Jeff didn't remember them saying that.

The following is indirectly quoted from the cross examination. (Pros. - Prosecutor, J. - Jeff):

Pros. You also told theinvestigators you'll help Israel in any way possible, that you wanted to fight legally, and you explained that you wanted to fight with the weapons you brought.

J. No.

Pros. The investigator said that you said someone could fight using your weapon, and you said yes.

J. I meant someone in the military.

Pros. Your weapon will be used by the military for what purpose?

J. For a Sniper’s Squad.

Pros. The weapon to be used against what?

J. By the military against terrorists.

Pros. When you made aliya in March of 2006, you had brought things with you.

J. Yes.

Pros. You brought 3 scopes, mask, lasersite. Why did you bring them?

J. I brought them to give to the army.

Pros. Why did you want to give them these things and the rifle only 3 months later?

J. How do I give it to the IDF properly, if not in package (all at once). (Jeff at this point accused the pros. of taking everything he said and interpreting it to her advantage). I brought the stuff for me because I knew I had to do guard duty in Tapuach.

Judge: Why didn’t you bring everything together?

J. I Couldn’t get it all on the plane.

Pros. Why didn’t you get in touch with the IDF re who to bring the items to? You could have found out who to contact in the army. Why didn’t you?

J. It’s hard to contact people if you have to leave at 5 a.m. from Tapuach to get to the Yeshiva at 7 a.m., and stay all day till 7 p.m. and then go back home to Tapuach.

Pros. I don’t think you can use your going to the Yeshiva as an excuse. You admitted you brought the weapon in illegally.

J. Yes.

Pros. Why didn’t you bother to get a license?

J. I didn’t know how to get a license, and I didn’t speak Hebrew to be able to find out.

Pros. There weren’t enough people you met in Tapuach you could have talked to about this?

J. No, I didn’t want to involve anybody else – just myself.

Pros. You could have asked around. You kept your possession of the weapon in a secret and conspiratorial way.

J. I didn’t think I should talk openly about guns. I only hinted to people re what I had, I didn’t say exactly what.

Pros. It’s clear that you didn’t bring the gun to hunt – there are no lions and bears here.

J. No.

Pros. You didn’t bring the rifle and ammunition for decoration.

J. (emphatically) No!

Pros. When you made aliya, you spoke to the Absorption Ministry clerk, Anatoly?

J. Yes.

Pros. What did you tell him?

J. That I wanted to do one year in the military, that I had a bullet proof vest and 3 scopes and other stuff for the military, but Anatoly didn’t remember.

Pros. You said that you had something to give to the IDF, you didn’t say anything re the scopes and the mask.

J. Yes, I did.

Pros. You wanted to give the stuff to the military or to the government?

J. To the military.

Pros. But during your interrogation you said you wanted to give them to the government.

J. No, I said the army. They wrote down something else other than what I said.

Pros. Why didn’t you tell him (Anatoly) about the weapons?

J. If I had told him I would have been taken to jail immediately.

Pros. You knew he wouldn’t believe you.

J. No.

Pros. Didn’t you ask him about who to contact?

J. Only after my arrest, an ex-Shabac officer told me who to contact.

Pros. Why didn’t you try to make contact with the military people before your arrest?

J. There was no way to contact anyone before all the stuff arrived.

The prosecutor then brought up Shaul, who was a witness for the prosecution, who lives in Tapuach and who is an army veteran. She asked Jeff: Why didn’t you try to connect with him?

J. I did. He said I didn’t, but I did.

Pros. What did you ask him?

J. I asked him about who to contact re the scopes and the mask. He told me he’d buy the scopes, but not the mask.

Pros. What about the rifle?

J. I didn’t mention this to him because I didn’t trust him. I asked him about putting the stuff in the right hands.

Pros. When were you planning to give the stuff to the IDF?

J. As soon as I got it all to Tapuach, I wanted to phone the IDF.

Pros. During the investigation, you said that you would wait a few years, until the right time to contact them, till you met somebody in the IDF. Is this true?

J. No.

Pros. You said you wanted to store them by a friend, A.H., till “the right time”.

J. Yes.

Pros. You said in your investigation that you’d give the stuff to someone for good use.

J. I meant an army person.

Pros. Why hide them by A.H., and not in your house?

J. People could see the stuff in my house and take it for ill purposes.

Pros. You said “they might take it”, you didn’t say they definitely would.

The prosecutor asked Jeff whether he shot the rifle when he got it, and Jeff said yes, he wanted to test it. When he was asked whether it wouldn’t have been better for the IDF to check the rifle, not him, he replied that he wanted to be the one to check it before he gave it to the army, in case it was defective. He said he wanted to give to the IDF as a test weapon.

Pros. Why didn’t you just send the IDF a photo or brochure about the rifle instead of bringing it?

J. A photo or brochure doesn’t show what the rifle can do – not adequately.

Some of us laughed when the prosecutor asked him the ridiculous question: Why didn’t you bring just one bullet, if you brought just one rifle? The Prosecutor said that during his investigation Jeff statd he could muffle the sound of the rifle, but Jeff denied saying this, that Shabac tried to get him to say it, Jeff explained that the rifle can’t be silenced because the bullet shot from it, at 5200 ft./second, breaks the sound barrier.

The pros then said the rifle was an attack rifle, not for self defense, to which Jeff replied that it’s a long-range shooting weapon, for hunting, or whatever, not a sniper rifle.

When asked why he bought long range bullets, Jeff said it’s a long-range rifle so any bullets shot from it will go long-range.

The prosecutor then asked Jeff why he brought a bullet maker, and Jeff responded that it’s not a bullet maker, just a bullet loader. He said he doesn’t know how to make lead for bullets, which the prosecutor said contradicted what he told investigators. Jeff insisted that says he only brought special bullets made by the manufacturer, not ones he made. But the pros. kept pounding away that he brought the raw material to make bullets, not just to re-load them.

The pros kept insisting that Jeff wanted to produce bullets for himself to use in the future. Jeff replied emphatically: No – this is for the army. The pros. moved to her main argument that Jeff brought scales (to weigh the gunpowder) and the other stuff NOT for the IDF, but to prove himself to the organization, to get them to accept his conversion, and to convince them that he could help them.

After showing photos of the scale & other stuff Jeff brought, our pros. then said that no court would believe Jeff’s explanation, that Jeff had plans to use the material with others he connected with in Tapuach. Correct?

J. Not correct.

Now for a lighter moment in the trial: The Pros. then showed Jeff a cartoon of Olmert bowing down to a Hamas leader with an ax in his hand to cut his head off, asking him if that was from his computer. We all saw the cartoon and burst out in laughter, which shocked the pros. and caused the judge to warn us (with a smile on her face) to be quiet. Jeff insisted that the cartoon was not from his own computer, but from another computer in the same house that didn't belong to him.

After almost an hour and a half, the Judge concluded this session, and asked both lawyers whether they would prefer to make written or oral summations. It was decided that the Judge would get written summations. The pros. is to complete hers for the Judge by Jan. 17, Baruch Ben-Yosef will complete his by Jan. 24. After the judge reviews the summations, a date will be set for the verdict.

Thus ended an exciting session, with many of the people in the court contributing money to me towards Jeff's defense and expenses. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to talk to Jeff, who was led away in hand and leg cuffs rather quickly from the courtroom.

Again, if anyone who was in court today has anything to add, please post it.

Stay tuned for a post about the verdict date, and anything else important about Jeff's case, which will soon be concluded, im yirtzeh Hashem, in his favor.

Kol Tuv till next time,
Dina

VAYIGASH: Beginning of Exile, Potential for Perfection, by Daniel Pinner

2006-12-29T00:02:00.000+02:00

"And Joseph said to his brothers: 'Approach me;' and they approached. And he said: 'I am Joseph your brother - me, whom you sold to Egypt. No, do not be sad, and do not take it hard that you sold me to here; because God sent me ahead to be a source of life.'" (Genesis 45:4-5)

There is a fundamental principal in Judaism that God creates the cure to all suffering before the suffering itself begins. "God never smites Israel without already having created the remedy." (Megillah 13b) The Talmud here refers to a specific incident. In Megillat Esther, King Achashverosh promoted Haman (Esther 3:1) only after Mordechai had already saved the king's life (ibid. 2:21-23), thus laying the foundation for the later redemption from Haman. But this principle applies on a cosmic scale: "Seven things were created before the universe was created. They are: the Torah, repentance, the Garden of Eden, Gehinnom, the Throne of Glory, the Holy Temple and the name of the Mashiach." (Pesachim 54a, Nedarim 39b). All of these serve for tikkun olam - whether on a personal, a national or a global level. Before He even created the world, God already created the tools that would correct all that could go wrong, the cure for all sins, and the ultimate Redemption.

Joseph's sale as a slave to Egypt, too, was - in the short term - the cure that God prepared in advance of the seven years of famine that would smite Egypt and all of the surrounding countries (including Canaan) 20 years later. In the longer term, Joseph was placed in a position to lay the infrastructure that would cushion the centuries of slavery and oppression that lay ahead.

It was because he knew that God had decreed a period of harsh slavery in exile that Jacob was so reluctant to go down to Egypt. He knew that 220 years earlier, God had told his grandfather Abraham: "Know for sure that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and they will enslave them and oppress them for 400 years." (Genesis 15:13); and now, Jacob found himself manipulated by events into taking his entire family - the whole House of Israel - into that long-dreaded exile. He was, as the author of the Haggadah expressed it, "forced by the [Divine] decree." And God Himself had to reassure him: "I am the God - God of your father; do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, because I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will assuredly bring you up." (Genesis 46:3-4) Only with this guarantee was Jacob willing - or even able - to leave the Land of Israel.

Everything had been prepared in advance to ensure that the Family of Israel would survive in Egypt with their identity intact, in spite of slavery, oppression and attempted genocide: the Egyptians found it abhorrent to eat together with Hebrews, even in times of peace and coexistence (Genesis 43: 32); the Egyptians worshiped animals, while the Hebrews were shepherds, forcing them to raise their livestock - the Egyptian gods - far from hostile Egyptian eyes; Joseph decided that his family would reside in the Goshen region (Genesis 45:10), some 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of the settled regions of Memphis, Nof and On (along the river bank at the confluence of the Nile Delta), and a similar distance south of Raamses, isolated in the desert.

All these precautions ensured that every Hebrew who wanted to retain his identity would have this option; there was no guarantee that no Hebrew could ever assimilate. The parasha ends with the ominously ambiguous phrase, "and Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the land of Goshen, and they seized it, and they were greatly fruitful and multiplied." (Genesis 47:27) The phrase vayei'achazu bah can mean "they seized it" or "they were seized by it." As they put down roots in exile, so the exile seized them in its death-grip. The Targum Yonatan renders this phrase: "Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt; they built themselves study-halls and palaces in the land of Goshen, and they established granaries and vineyards in Goshen."

The lesson is clear. Joseph was indeed sent ahead of his family to be a source of livelihood; God designed every detail - from the Israelite life-style to Egyptian geography to the Egyptians' social attitudes - to give every Jew maximum opportunity to survive as a Jew. But he had to seize the opportunity. The remedy always exists, but it is useless unless and until the Jew decides to avail himself of it. "It is a tree of life for those who cling to it." (Proverbs 3:18)

The Torah, by which we sanctify the physical world, repentance, the capacity to repair all spiritual damage, the Garden Eden, the incentive and reward for all mitsvot, Gehinom, the cleansing fires that atone for all sin, the Throne of Glory that rules over all, the Holy Temple, the locus of the nation that atones for sins, and the Mashiach, the ultimate perfection - all were created before the physical world was created.

We need but seize the Torah and be seized by it, we need but do genuine repentance - all of which is well within our grasp. And we can rebuild the Holy Temple and bring Mashiach. All has already been created, the way has been prepared, the foundations have been laid, and we can bring all to fruition.

SHABBAT SHALOM

JEFF'S TRIAL ON WEDNESDAY DEC. 27 - WHAT HAPPENED PART 2

2006-12-28T23:24:00.000+02:00

Now for the prosecution's cross-examination:

The whole approach of the prosecutor, in general, was one of trying to get Jeff to appear violent, connected to "illegal" organizations, and trying to get him to contradict himself in the courtroom with what he had told his interrogators. She portrayed Jeff as an avid hunter of lions, bears - and "cats" (of course, Jeff hunted the wild and dangerous kind, not the house variety, but she failed to mention that distinction).

The prosecutor pointed out to Jeff that his whole life revolved around weapons, and Jeff replied in the affirmative. But Jeff sold the weapons to help pay debts and support his mother after his father died. She asked him how he kept abreast of what was happening in Israel, and he replied, through websites. She mentioned to him that he knew the security situation in Israel was bad - and Jeff replied that this is why he brought the bullet proof vest for himself.

The prosecutor proceeded to question Jeff about his feelings about the IDF ("the best army in the world"), and his participation in Sar-El and whether he had maintained connections with the people he met in it. She also pointed out, and Jeff confirmed by replying "Baruch Hashem", that he was saved by a miracle from certain death in a terror attack in Jerusalem by the first female suicide bomber.

The prosecutor asked Jeff why he waited so long (almost 4 years) from his return to North Carolina after his Sar-El experience, to his aliya in March of 2006. Jeff replied that friends of his had died (one by suicide) and that he was still paying for his father's funeral.

Jeff confirmed the prosecutor's statement that he wanted to immigrate because he loves Israel. She pointed out that he told his interrogators he wanted to save Jews' lives and train dogs to find bombs. When she asked him whether he thinks Arabs shouldn't live here, Jeff replied that it's up to the government, not him, to decide that.

The prosecutor brought out her big guns by pointing out that during his interrogation, Jeff was recorded saying that he would do anything to save lives, but that he laughed and said only Jewish lives when his interrogators asked him: Any lives? She emphasized Jeff's statement during his interrogation that he thingks the Arabs should be sent to Arab countries and that Israel is not their country, they all want to kill the Jews, and that he doesn't respect the Arabs.

Jeff's reply to this attempt to trip him up: This doesn't mean that I want to kill Arabs! He also mentioned that he has lots of Jewish websites on his computer, including those of Rabbi Kahane, Chabad, etc., but that doesn't mean he is a follower of these people or movements.

The prosecutor then plugged away at trying to establish Jeff's connection to two people in Kahane Chai and the Jewish Legion, even before he made aliya, but Jeff stressed he only communicated with them on-line before his aliya, mostly on general topics and about the dogs. The pros asked Jeff whether he knew that both of these men belonged to an organization which is not legal in Israel. Jeff: No. Jeff also said he didn't know anything about a cafe belonging to one of these men that was shut down, or about one's arrest for activities in the Jewish Legion.

The prosecutor pointed out to Jeff the government's claims that one of the men is an activist in, and the head of, an illegal organization (Kahane Chai) and asked Jeff whether he knew that. Jeff: No.

At this point Judge Bar-Ziv angrily interrupted the prosecutor, saying that Jeff is the one on trial, not these two men, and that the prosecutor - has not thus far proven any motive on Jeff's part! The prosecutor, getting more and more flustered, tried to get the judge to accept the circumstantial evidence of Jeff's "extremist" ideas, quantity of weapons he has dealt with as well as what he brought in, alleged membership in certain "organizations", etc. The judge, however, wasn't prepared to buy any of this, saying that Jeff's membership in organizations is IRRELEVANT.

After a 15-minyute break, it was decided to suspend the prosecutions's cross-examination to allow for the testimony of Ms. Linda Wolf, the AACI representative who helped Jeff at the airport the day of his aliya. She explained her role that day and that she remembers Jeff saying he had dogs to give to the IDF to help in the war on terror (but didn't remember him saying anything about guns). She remembers Jeff for his distinctive accent, which made it hard for her, originally hailing from Los Angeles, to understand him at first. Her testimony, although she really didn't add very much to Jeff's defense, did provide an element of back-up credibility to his claim that he did bring things for the IDF.

After a long and sometimes tense two hours of testimony, Judge Bar-Ziv announced the continuation of Jeff's testimony and possibly that of another witness, for next Wednesday, January 3 at noon, and adjourned the session.

If anyone who was there would like to post anything important that I inadvertently left out, please feel free.

Kol Tuv,

Dina

JEFF'S TRIAL WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 27 - PART 1

2006-12-28T23:22:00.000+02:00

Shalom all,

In this post I will try to give the highlights of yesterday's trial, starting with the defense lawyer, Baruch Ben-Yosef's questioning of Jeff:

The trial started at 1 p.m. (an hour late) - with our "orange Russians" from Haifa and others who braved the bad weather to travel there - but without the translator (a substitute translator appeared some time later and sat next to Jeff during his testimony). Jeff's original lawyer when he was first arrested in Haifa, Lior Bar Zohar, made a brief appearance before the trial started, consulting with Baruch.

The trial began with Jeff sitting in the "hot seat" to tell his side. Baruch questioned him about his family life and background and his interest in Judaism starting at ag 15, as well as about the jobs he held in North Carolina. Baruch also questioned Jeff about his pasttimes away from work - collecting guns (he possessed 300 rifles) and hunting down dangerous animals. When questioned why one person owned so many guns, Jeff replied that he collected them as a hobby and used them for target practice, and that it's not uncommon for people to collect guns. When asked whether all of these guns were legally acquired and possessed, Jeff replied in the affrimative.

The relatively easy process of obtaining a license to possess and carry a gun in North Carolina was described by Jeff, who stressed that only if the weapon is concealed on one's body is a permit needed to carry one.

Baruch asked Jeff why he purchased the particular rifle he brought in his lift. Jeff replied that it is the most accurate rifle in existence, shooting a bullet 5200 feet per second, and that being it was very new in America at the time, he thought of bringing the rifle to the IDF as a test weapon so they would purchase more of them. Being that this brand of rifle had only been produced in small numbers about 6 months before he purchased it, and therefore it was experimental and hard to get, Jeff said he knew that the IDF did not have this rifle yet.

When Baruch questioned him as to what his purpose was in buying this particular weapon, Jeff further explained that he bought the weapon because it shoots extremely accurately, up to a mile.

Jeff, upon being questioned what his connection is to the IDF that he felt he had to contribute to it, explained that he was raised in a religious home with a strong sense of duty to support Israel and to help the IDF stop terrorism. In addition, in 2002 he had volunteered for the IDF in the Sar-El program at a base near Tiberias for about 3 months, and also contributed money through his synagogue in North Carolina to the IDF.

When questioned what else he brought for the IDF, Jeff replied that he had brought ammunition and 3 rifle scopes and was surprised that when his room in Tapuach was searched, that only one of the scopes was found (the cheapest one of the three). He mentioned the name of someone he says wanted to buy them and whom he suspects of taking them. He also brought a mask to protect his own face from shrapnel, and a bullet-proof vest to protect himself when he did guard duty in Tapuch (using a dog, not a weapon). Jeff also described the dogs he trains and uses for guard duty - mostly plothounds, the kind that can run down wild animals and are very bold.

Baruch then asked him that if he wanted to bring the weapon to the IDF, why did he hide it? Jeff replied that he didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands, in case the lift was opened en route. - and that he wanted to have all of his contributions to the IDF packed away in one neat package. When asked why he didn't declare the gun and ammo to US Customs before he left for Israel, Jeff replied that they would have been confiscated by Customs.

When questioned whom he asked, once arrived in Israel, re how to connect with the IDF, Jeff mentioned one of the prosecution's witnesses, the representative of the Absorption Ministry at the airport, who testified at the previous hearing that he didn't remember Jeff saying anything re stuff for the IDF. A volunteer for the AACI helped translate for him at the time. Jeff also remembers asking advice from Shaul in Tapuach (who also testified at the last hearing that he didn't remember this), but doesn't remember everyone he spoke to. Once he was arrested, a friend of Jeff's did connect him to someone from the IDF, who told him nothing can be done until the court decides Jeff's fate.

Baruch then brought up the real "clincher": Your interrogators claim that you want to kill Arabs with the rifle. Why would they claim that? Jeff replied that he heard their claim, and has no desire to harm anyone. He remembers that the Shabac hammered away at him with this accusation, but eventually gave up. As to why they would suspect him of this - Jeff replied because he lives in Tapuach.

When Baruch questioned Jeff about the 2 computers confiscated from his room, Jeff said they were not his. In his own computer (from his lift) were found websites of the Jerusalem Post, some of Rabbi Kahane's writings, Chabad websites and many others.

(I have to say at this point that we all felt very proud of Jeff when he told the court that Rabbi Kahane was a great man and teacher, that he didn't talk violence in his writings - but just words of Torah.)

When asked whether he is a member of an organization connected to R. Kahane, Jeff replied that he just trains dogs. He had nothing to say about the Jewish Legion, saying he's not a member, just a yeshiva student.

At this point Judge Bar-Ziv interrupted to ask for information about the Jewish Legion (HaGdud HaIvri). Jeff said all he knew about it is that it ran kennels, but the latter were shut down. His job was simply to train dogs and do guard duty with dogs. When asked, he said he moved to Tapuach simply because it's much cheaper to live there than elsewhere.

So much for Jeff lawyer's questioning. TO BE CONTINUED: Stay tuned for the prosecutor's cross-examination in my next e-mail...

IF YOU'RE PLANNING TO GO TO JEFF'S TRIAL TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY) --

2006-12-26T21:35:00.000+02:00

I called Jeff's lawyer today, who assured me that the trial will be going on in Haifa District Court tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon, even if it snows in Jerusalem.

Just reminding that the Defense has its day in court tomorrow, the main witness being Jeff himself, who will be testifying in English. Hopefully the other 2 witnesses will make it there, too.

Anyone needing clarification can call me either at 02-6250324 or 0508-751145 tomorrow morning.

Alternatively, try the centralized info. phone number (from 8 am) to get details of the trial: 02-6593333, then press 6. You will be asked which court (Haifa Machozi [District]) and whether "ezrachi" (civil) or "plili" (criminal), and of course you will tell them "plili". You must then give them the tik (file) number of Jeff's case, which is under the name Jeffrey Emanuel Seath, and the number is 5128/06.

I haven't tried this myself, it's a long shot, but maybe worth a try if you need to know whether the trial is taking place as scheduled.

HAIFA DISTRICT COURT - 12 NOON - ROOM 601, 6TH FLOOR, JUDGE BRACHA BAR-ZIV.

Hope to see you there!

Dina

DANIEL PINNER'S URGENT NEEDS

2006-12-26T16:21:00.000+02:00

Daniel Pinner phoned me today and we discussed his current situation in jail. Following are his needs:

1. FINANCIAL AID: Daniel, being in jail, has no outside or inside income or means of supporting himself.

A. Israelis: Deposits into his canteen account #4628436: Daniel's current balance is very low, and he still needs to purchase day-to-day items in jail. If enough deposits are made into his account, he gets to take any remaining balance with him when he's released, and that can go to legal fees, etc. Please go to the post office and deposit a generous sum into his account (cash only, no checks).

Daniel's special request is that in order to have some idea of how much money is in his account, anyone depositing money into his canteen should then send the receipt (or copy of it) to him in jail, to the following address: Daniel Pinner, Political Prisoner, Ma'asiyahu Prison, Agaf HaHitnatkut, P.O. Box 13, 72100

B. Overseas supporters: Donations in any currency by check, made out to me, Dina Moskowitz, can be sent to me at: P.O. Box 6355, Jerusalem 91062. Upon receipt of any donations from abroad, I will turn them into shekels and then consult with Daniel as to where the money is needed most: his lawyer, the rent and utilities on his house, care of his dog, etc. Please be generous - let's ease the burden on his family and neighbors!

2. Israelis: TELECARDS: Daniel's father, as we know, is now alone and lonely (due to the loss of Daniel's mother Z"L), so Daniel calls him in England every day. This costs him MANY units on his telecards, and he desperately needs people to either send him cards (see above for the address) or to bring 2 cards when visiting him. Please buy the largest cards if possible (120 units, costs ~60 shekels), and you can send them in a card or letter to the jail.

3. Call Daniel's home phone - 03-9068079 (from outside Israel: 972-3-9068079) - to leave messages with your land-line phone number, arrange for visitations, etc.

Thanks and tizku l'mitzvot in advance, both from Daniel and from me.

Kol Tuv,

Dina

TRIAL OF SHIMSHON CYTRYN

2006-12-25T11:23:00.000+02:00

Shalom friends,

Unbeknownst to me, Shimshon's trial was postponed yesterday. I found out only many hours later and was told that quite a few people had already shown up in the Beersheba District Court where it was to take place.

I had sent a reminder notice about this hearing the day before (Motzei Shabbat), and I suppose that is what brought some people to the hearing.

I feel badly that since I didn't know, I couldn't have informed anyone in advance about the postponement, and I apologize for those who were inconvenienced.

At any rate, the next trial date is scheduled for Sunday February 18 at 1:30 p.m., and I will do my best to keep all of you posted re reminders and/or any changes.

Blessings,
Dina

A SHIKMA KIND OF CHANUKA

2006-12-21T23:46:00.000+02:00

Today a Chanuka party was held at Shikma Prison in Ashkelon, where Shmuel Zetham/Jeff Seath is being held. Each prisoner was allowed to invite five guests, and I had the honor of appearing on Jeff's "VIP" list... ;^} After the usual search of each person and a very long wait, the party finally got started around 3:15 pm (it was called for 2 pm).

The officers' dining hall (complete with a real toilet and not just a hole in the ground) was the scene of the party, decorated with a large paper Chanukia on the wall, and other assorted Chanukiada. All the tables were set and laden with lots of nosh and drinks, and a real Chanukia was waiting for someone to light it later on (Jeff was picked for this task, but unfortunately never got to do his thing, as you'll read later).

One of the guards made a little speech in the beginning, during which he said that the prison was not the natural place of the "dayarim" (tenants, a.k.a. prisoners)... my suggestion to therefore release them to the far more natural environment of freedom was ignored.

There were many children in attendance, who were given wooden dreidles to decorate and paint. Both adults and children were given the opportunity to display their singing "talents" in a session of Karaioke, during which DVDs were shown with the music and the words on the screen, and people were invited to sit in front and sing the words into a microphone, to the delight of all (unfortunately for the attendees, neither Jeff nor his three guests were invited to sing...). The songs were Israeli classics (such as those of Zohar Argov) and Chanuka songs. Some of the kids danced a cute dreidle dance, to the tune of "s'vivon, sov sov sov".

Unfortunately, those prisoners/detainees who hadn't invited any family/friends were not allowed to attend the party, and this included a few I wanted to meet, whose names and canteen numbers I had posted on this site.

One of the guards there told me that Jeff drives him crazy, and I graciously replied to him that Jeff is only doing his job...

The party, which had originally been set to last for 2 hours, ended when the same guard announced that all of the "dayarim" would stay and clean up the place, while the guests had to leave - at 4:30, barely an hour and a quarter after it got started. Which explains why Jeff never got to light the menora, because the party wasn't allowed to go on till dark.

True, we got jipped time-wise, but it was as nice a little party as is possible in a jail...

Chag Urim Sameach - Shabbat Shalom.

Dina

REMINDER: TRIAL OF SHMUEL ZETHAM/JEFF SEATH CONTINUES

2006-12-21T23:21:00.000+02:00

REMINDER: Next Wednesday, 6 Tevet/27 December, 12 noon: The trial of Jeff Seath/Shmuel Zetham continues.... Show your support by being there in great numbers!

Next Wednesday is Defense's day in court. Testifying will be Jeff himself, as well as two other witnesses. Judge Bracha Bar-Ziv presiding.

Where: Haifa District (Machozi) Court, 6th floor, room 601, 12 Palyam Street (port area), Haifa.

This should definitely be one of the most interesting sessions of his trial.

It's SO important to be there, and very heartening for Shmuel/Jeff himself, to see so much support - and it may influence the judge, too.

PLEASE RESERVE THIS SUNDAY FOR SHIMSHON CYTRYN!!!

2006-12-20T22:47:00.000+02:00

This is from Shimshon's grandmother, Marilyn Cytryn. PLEASE show up in great numbers - the judges are influenced positively by the amount of support they see in the courtroom for the defendant. I know from personal experience, having witnessed this during Daniel Pinner's trial.

Dear Friends,

The last and most important trial in the case of Shimshon Cytryn will take place this Sunday, December 24th at 1:00PM sharp in the Beersheva Courthouse (Beit Mishpat HaMachozi).

Following the trial, the 3 judges will determine the fate of this young man who was jailed two weeks after his 18th birthday, being accused of "attempted murder" for partaking in a confrontation between Arabs and Jews.

The judges often take into consideration the number of concerned people that show up at the courthouse when they make their decision and therefore your presence in support of Shimshon is greatly needed.

Please help us to ease the pain of this young man and his family who have experienced this torment for 1 1/2 years.

Many Thanks,
Marilyn Cytryn

MA'OZ TZUR, by Daniel Pinner

2006-12-20T15:30:00.000+02:00

MA'OZ TZUR

Reveal Your holy Arm

and hasten the end of the Redemption;

avenge your servant's arm

from the evil nation.

For the redemption is so far from us

And there is no end to the days of evil;

Cast out the Edomite to the nethermost shadow

And raise up for us the seven shepherds.
(The final stanza of Ma’oz Tzur).

The six stanzas of Ma’oz Tzur constitute a Midrashic overview of Jewish history and weltanschauung in its entirety. It opens with a prayer that the Holy Temple be rebuilt, and that we slaughter sacrifices and our oppressors: and continues by recounting and thanking G-d for the various redemptions from Egypt, Babylon, Persia (Haman’s decree) and Greece; and ends with a plea for the final Redemption.

The clearest message of Ma’oz Tzur - which is the overriding message of Chanuka- is that there is a purpose and a direction to history. Every redemption of Am Yisrael, from Egypt to the Final Redemption, is not happenstance and is not a result of the chance whim of a benevolent king. Other nations may be enslaved and emancipated without the world being shaken: other peoples can be conquered and disappear, and join the ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians the Romans and the dinosaurs as relics of the past in the museums.

But when Am Yisrael - “this Nation that I formed for Myself to declare My praise” (Isaiah 43:21) - is conquered or redeemed, the results reverberate throughout the world for the rest of time. “Yehuda will dwell forever and Yerushalayim from generation to generation” (Joel 4:20), and when Israel is redeemed the Name of G-d is sanctified throughout the world.

Mordechai, the author of Ma'oz Tzur (the initial letters of the stanzas spell out his name), teaches us that for the redemption to be complete, it is not enough that Israel merely be emancipated physically. Israel’s emancipation is a function of sanctifying the Name of G-d and therefore perforce has to include a return to their land, the building of the Holy Temple, and vengeance being wrought on the nations who persecuted them. “Though I have cleansed, their bloodshed I do not cleanse - and Hashem resides in Zion” (Joel 4:21), and vengeance for the rivers of spilled Jewish blood is an intrinsic component of Redemption.

At the time of the first redemption, when Israel entered the Land under Joshua, the Cana'anite woman Rahab, made clear to the two spies why she, and all the Cana'anites feared Israel: “I know that Hashem has given you the Land, and that fear of you has fallen upon us…because we have heard how Hashem dried up the waters of the Sea of Reeds before you when you left Egypt, and what you did to the two Emorite Kings on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and to Og, whom you annihilated” (Yoshua 2:9-10).

In our days, it often feels as if “the Redemption is so far from us, and there is no end to the days of evil”. But if we can but look to the ketz, to the end, then we see Hashem. The Hebrew words hint at this: “Ki archah lanu hayeshua” (“for the redemption is so far from us”). True - it is far. Indeed, if “there is no end”, then all that remains is “the days of evil”.

But look to the end - the final letters: Ki ends with a yud; archa ends with a heh; lanu ends with a vav; hayeshua ends with a heh. At the end – after the days of evil, after the evil nation, after all the suffering - stands Hashem.

And who are the seven shepherds? The prophet tells us: “If Assyria will come into our Land and tread in our palaces, then we will raise up seven shepherds against him” (Micah 5:4). “ Who are these seven shepherds? David in center; Adam, Seth and Methuselah to his right; Abraham, Jacob and Moses to his left” (Sukkah 52b). Rashi (ad loc) addresses the obvious question: “And to where has Isaac disappeared? To save his children from the judgment of Gehinnom”.

We have returned to our Land; the end of the Redemption is approaching fast. As our Father Isaac defends us in the Heavenly Court, and our Fathers Abraham and Jacob, with the other shepherds, arise to defend us from the invaders, may we soon merit to see the light of the pure gold Menorah in the rebuilt Holy Temple.

CHAG CHANUKA SAMEACH

CHANUKA: LIGHT, PEACE AND THE VICTORY OVER EVIL, by Daniel Pinner

2006-12-14T22:54:00.000+02:00

"What is the real meaning of Chanuka? – The rabbis taught [in Megillat Ta'anit]: On the 25th of Kislev begin the eight days of Chanukah… when the Greeks entered the sanctuary, they desecrated all the oil there. When the Hasmonean monarchy overpowered them and defeated them, they found a single jar of undefiled oil, still sealed with the High Priest's seal. It contained only enough oil [to light the menorah] for a single day, but, miraculously, they lit the [menorah] from it for eight days" (Shabbat 21b).

It is this miracle of the one-day supply of oil burning for eight days that most instinctively springs to mind as a reason for celebrating Chanuka. But in fact, this is only one of three facets of the festival. The Rambam, in the Mishneh Torah, emphasizes other aspects: "During the Second Temple , the kings of Greece enacted harsh decrees against Israel , revoking their religious laws and banning Torah and mitzvot… They burst their way in to the Holy Temple , and defiled its sanctity… Israel suffered terribly because of them…until the G-d of our fathers had compassion on them and redeemed them from their hand and rescued them. The Hasmonean high priests overpowered them and killed them; they saved Israel from their hand, and raised up a king from the priests, and the Jewish Monarchy was restored for more than 200 years… And Israel overpowered their enemies and destroyed them on the 25th of Kislev" (Laws of Chanuka 3:122). In these terse words the Rambam laconically summarizes decades of oppression, culminating in twenty five years of guerilla warfare against the mightiest superpower in the world at the time. Only after these two reasons for rejoicing - the military victory and the restoration of the Temple service - does the Rambam proceed to mention the miracle of the cruse of oil. And significantly, the Al Hanissim prayer mentions only the miraculous military victory and restoration of the Temple service, and barely even alludes to the miracle of the oil.

To understand the scope of the miracle of this military victory, we have to understand the sheer might of the Syrian-Greek Empire. Seleucid soldiers ruled from Greece to India . Hellenistic cultural influence dominated ideologies from Spain to Persia . No power in the world - not even Rome - yet dared to challenge Greece . And in Modi'in, an obscure village and a Seleucid province, a single family started a revolution. Twenty five men against this vast superpower. That they dared even begin was a miracle. That other Jews joined them was inconceivable. For them to win was impossible. And yet, win they did - and it is that victory, that impossible, miraculous victory that we celebrate.

And it was self-evident to the Maccabees - and, apparently, to the nation as a whole in those days - that the purpose of Jewish national independence was to rededicate the Temple , to restore its service. Without the restoration of the Temple , the entire war had no purpose; it was the restoration of the Temple that defined the victory of Torah over Hellenism. After all, the Temple was liberated near the beginning of the Maccabean revolt in 3597 (163 BCE). The war continued for a further twenty four years, until the final military victory, when Hellenistic rule was vanquished and the Sanhedrin appointed Mattityahu's sole surviving son, Shimon as Nassi. But it is the liberation and restoration of the Temple , not the political or physical victory, that we celebrate.

The miracle of the oil, which has become so central in our collective consciousness, serves to emphasize this: The physical size of an army, or of a jar of oil, is not what defines its potential. Its inherent holiness, its purity, its undefiled status, are what define its potential.

It was the Hasmoneans' holy goals and Torah-based ideology, not their numbers, which ensured the victory over the Greek idolaters. Likewise, it was what each side represented - purity versus desecration, God versus idolatry - that made the victory eternally significant. This is why the Hasmoneans are described as having "overpowered and defeated" the Greeks on the day that they liberated the Temple, even though the fighting would continue for almost a quarter of a century more: It was the Temple, and control over it, that represented all that both sides were fighting for.

It is interesting to note an anomaly in the Mishneh Torah. The sequence of the festivals through the year is Pesach, Shavuot, The Ninth of Av, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, Chanuka, and finally Purim; and, indeed, it is this logistical order that the Arba'a Turim, the Shulchan Aruch, the Kitzur Shulcha Aruch, and most other works follow. The Rambam, however, makes just one minor change: he puts the laws of Purim before Chanuka, such that the third book of the Mishneh Torah, Zmanim ("Festivals"), concludes with the laws of Chanuka.

This was surely a deliberate decision of the Rambam's, and we can learn an important lesson from what he writes. The Rambam concludes each of the fourteen books of the Mishneh Torah with a halachic insight that also serves as a homily, an overall lesson for life, as well as applying to the specific halachic topic under discussion. And the "flourish" with which the Rambam concludes the halachot of Chanuka, and thereby the entire book of festivals is: "If someone [is so poor that he] has to choose between either a candle to light up his house and a Chanuka candle, or else a candle to light up his house and wine for Shabbat morning Kiddush, the candle to light up his house takes precedence, for the sake of peace in the home. After all, even the Name [of G-d] can be erased for the sake of making peace and marital harmony between husband and wife [see Numbers 5:11-31, in particular verse 23, and the commentaries thereon]. So great is peace, that the entire Torah was given to make peace in the world, as it says: `Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its pathways are peace (Proverbs 3:17)'".

Apparently, the Rambam deliberately changed the sequence of the festivals in order to put this homily at the conclusion of the laws of Chanuka. Let there be no mistake: The Rambam makes it clear that Chanuka celebrates victory over evil, the destruction of evildoers, and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple . That is what brings peace to the world. Not compromising with evil, not accommodating enemies, not allowing the site of the Holy Temple to be desecrated and defiled, but the physical and ideological annihilation of Israel 's enemies, and the subsequent purification and rededication of the Temple Mount , will bring peace to Israel and to all mankind.

SHABBAT SHALOM AND HAPPY CHANUKA

ANOTHER PRISONER AT SHIKMA TO HELP

2006-12-11T21:27:00.000+02:00

(From Chaya Witkin:)

Shalom,

There is another prisoner (Amnon Cohen) in Shikma. A while ago, police found an unregistered gun in his home, and he had been judged by the court with "intent to kill Arabs" (sound familiar?!) - sentence: 1-and-a-half yrs jail. At the moment he is to spend another 5 months in prison, and is now waiting for an appeal in 2 weeks (Be'er Sheva Courthouse, 27.12.06, 09:00). His wife and 3 small children need help; for instance, she can't afford 1,800 shekels/month (about $430/mo.) for religious nursery school for their 2 smallest, who are at home with her so she can't go to work. They are no longer living in their own place, but with the in-laws, a precarious situation. If you can help, please send a check to Amnon's wife Moran:

Moran Cohen, 11 Adam Yekutiel Street, Kiryat Malachi, ISRAEL

If you are in Israel, and you would like to donate to Amnon Cohen's "canteen" (prison account) via the Israeli Post Office, his number is 4651772.

Be well,
Chaya

URGENT EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR DANIEL PINNER

2006-12-11T21:25:00.000+02:00

Shalom all,

Daniel Pinner is in jail, for anything from 5 to 13 more months, to serve out the rest of his sentence due to losing his appeal against being convicted of staying alive.

Can we stop for just a moment and grasp the big picture of what this means to him - and to his family and friends?

Daniel still rents a home in Tapuach, to which he will return after he's released. The utility bills - water, electricity - still have to get paid. The rent still has to get paid every month. Daniel's beloved dog Cassador has to be fed and otherwise cared for. All of these expenses add up to a very large burden.

Daniel is stuck in jail, with no source of income or way to earn any income. His mother a"h, who was a source of much support for him (including financial) has passed on, and his father is back in London and must dedicate his time to cope with and make the hard adjustment to the tremendous loss of his wife and Daniel's mother and getting affairs in order.

Some people who helped Daniel meet these expenses out of their own pockets during the first 10 months of his imprisonment, are no longer in the picture. That leaves the remaining neighbors in Tapuach, who are stuck with the burden of paying the above bills, including the care of Cassador.

During the previous 10 months of jail, there was someone living in his house who took care of the dog. Now the house stands empty and the neighbors let Cassador out of the house for some exercise when they can, and make sure she has enough food as well. It's very hard - both on the neighbors and on Cassador.

Ideas are being floated to clean up Daniel's house and to put most of his stuff in storage - a project which would also cost money, but would make it possible for someone to live in the house temporarily and take on the expenses and the care of the dog, but, in the meantime...

I am starting a special campaign to collect emergency funds to pay bills and for dog food and other expenses while Daniel's in jail. PLEASE find it in your very large and generous hearts, once again, to send me a check, in shekels, dollars, or whatever foreign currency, to help reimburse Daniel's neighbors for the enormous expenses they are burdened with, and thus ease the pressure on them. NOW - while you're still reading this - make the check out to me (Dina Moskowitz) and send it to me at P.O. Box 6355, Jerusalem 91062. If it's in foreign currency, I will turn it into shekels (as I did many times during his first 10 months in jail) and send it to his neighbors. If in shekels, I will send the neighbors a shekel check of the same amount. But PLEASE - rush me your check TODAY!

(Of course, now that Daniel has a canteen number, you can still contribute shekels to it via the post office - but that won't help his neighbors pay his bills back in Tapuach!)

Please also forward this message to your own lists.

In the merit of this big mitzvah, may you know only smachot and good health and go from strength to strength.

Kol Tuv,

Dina

THEY NEED US TO MAKE THEIR HANUKKAH A LITTLE BRIGHTER!!!

2006-12-10T22:58:00.000+02:00

Shalom all, I again post the names and canteen numbers of young men in Shikma Prison, whose families are suffering, either because the breadwinner is in jail, the family is poor, and/or there is no other source of income for them.

Although each one does have a canteen account, please keep in mind that in most cases, each of them is allowed maximum two visits per month to the canteen (when the authorities remember to let them go to canteen!), so on each visit he has to be able to buy a considerable amount of items to last till the next canteen visit - meaning that each of them is in great need of donations from the outside.

Please, during this Hanukkah season of our freedom from oppression, won't you help them and their families feel a little less oppressed, by donating to their canteen accounts?

Ran Yosefi (a young soldier accused and convicted of attacking and robbing Arabs and damaging their property in Hebron, in the wake of 12 Jews murdered on the path between Kiryat Arba and Hebron a few years ago. He received a sentence of 18 months imprisonment): 4580222

Three of the 20 "expellees" from Judea & Samaria who received orders to vacate for weeks or months, refused the orders and who are now doing jail time for this refusal:

Arye Tessler: 4672663

Elad Keller: 4609050

Meir Bertler: 4682868 (*NOTE: Jeff says he might have been released already)

Uri Richland (a teenager who saw a good friend killed by a Katyusha this past summer and who is being accused of attacking Arabs): 4638172

PLEASE BE GENEROUS TO THESE DESERVING YOUNG MEN, AND IN THE MERIT OF THIS GREAT MITZVAH, MAY YOU AND YOURS ENJOY A HAPPY AND BLESSED HANUKKAH!

(Please don't forget Jeff and Daniel, either - See previous e-mails or ask me for their canteen numbers.)

Kol Tuv,

Dina

VIDEO ABOUT AND BY DANIEL PINNER

2006-12-09T20:18:00.000+02:00

Many do not know the fact regarding Daniel's case.
Please send this interview with Daniel to anyone who is interested or
might wish to help Daniel in some way.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9105314787601842651

Menachem

VAYISHLACH: RETURN TO ISRAEL, by Daniel Pinner

2006-12-07T14:28:00.001+02:00

“Ya'akov was complete when he came to the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan on coming from Padan Aram; and he encamped within sight of the city. And he bought the part of the field on which he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem for 100 kesitah. And there, he erected an altar which he called G-d, the G-d of Israel” (Genesis 33:18-20).

Whether the 100 kesitah that Ya’akov paid for this relatively small piece of land was the value of 100 fattened sheep (Targum Onkelos), or 100 precious jewels (Targum Yonatan, Jerusalem Targum), or a recognized coin of negotiable currency (Rashbam, Rosh Hashana 26a, Me’am Lo’ez quoting Imre No’am), it is clear that Ya’akov paid in full for the site that would one day become Yosef’s tomb. Even though G-d had promised the entire Land to the entire nation, Ya'akov insisted on buying this plot of land from the Hivites who were occupying it at the time. And so, as the Midrash emphasizes, “this is one of three places which the nations of the world cannot possibly claim that Israel stole. These are the Machpelah Cave , the Temple Mount , and Yosef’s tomb” (Genesis Rabbah 79:7). More than one hundred and twenty years earlier, Avraham had bought the Machpelah Cave for negotiable currency (Genesis 23:16 ); and more than seven hundred years later, King David would buy the site of the future Temple (2 Samuel 24:24, 1 Chronicles 21:25 ).

The lesson for our generation is crucial: The nations of the world, and in particular those who are occupying the Land of Israel , deny our right to the entire Land of Israel . Concerning these three places, their denial is even stronger. Had the present-day occupiers of Israel accepted our claim to these three sites, then we might have concluded they are at least honest about claiming all the rest. But since they deny our right even to places we bought for money, this shows that their entire claim is false – whether to Beit-El, to Haifa , to Gaza , to Damascus .

Upon buying this field for the nation, Ya’akov immediately built an altar. And the Sforno’s comment is a single, deceptively simple sentence: “As it says, how shall we sing the song of Hashem in a foreign land?" (Psalms 137:4).

It is obvious to Sforno that in exile with Lavan, Ya’akov was unable to build an altar to Hashem, but as soon as he settled in Israel , this was his first action. The straightforward halacha is that Israel is commanded to build the holy Temple upon entering their Land (Rambam, Laws of Kings 1:1). True, it took four hundred and forty years from entering the land under Joshua to the building of the first Temple (1 Kings 6:1); but, as the Rambam is careful to point out, “when they entered the Land, they erected the Tabernacle in Gilgal for fourteen years while they were conquering and dividing [between the tribes]. From there, they went on to Shilo, where they built a stone structure … which stood for 369 years … from there they went to Nov … from there to Givon” (Laws of the Holy Temple 1:2). Even before King Solomon built a permanent Temple , there was always a functioning Tabernacle.

And so, it was obvious after the first exile, after a seventy-year hiatus, half a millennium after King Solomon, rebuilding the Temple was an integral part of returning to the Land (Ezra Chapter 3). As it was obvious to Ya’akov on his return to Israel, as it was obvious to the Jews who returned to Israel after the Egyptian exile, as it was obvious to the Jews who returned from the Babylonian exile, so, too, it should be obvious to us today: We return to Israel joyfully, leaving the tears of exile behind us by the rivers of Babylon, longing to serve Hashem at the altar of the rebuilt holy Temple. Then we can sing, as this Psalm continues: “Remember Hashem, for the sons of Edom , the day of Jerusalem , when they said, destroy, destroy, to its very foundation. Oh desolated daughter of Babylon – happy is he who repays you what you deserve for what you have done to us. Happy is he who seizes and smashes your infants on the rocks” (Psalms 137: 8-9). Whether addressing the Babylonians or the denizens of Shechem or any other persecutors of Israel – truly happy is he who seizes and smashes their infants on the rocks.

Immediately after decimating Shechem, “G-d said to Ya’akov, arise, ascend to Beit El" (Genesis 35:1). Come, take my hand, and walk with me in the footsteps of Ya’akov from Shechem to Beit El. Let me show you the sites and let us see who are the true masters of this Land. We see Shechem behind us, the city whose Arab occupiers today call Nablus. Where, you ask, does the name Nablus come from? Well, when the Romans occupied the country, 2000 years ago they renamed Shechem "Neapolis" and the Arabs, unable to pronounce ‘p’, corrupted the name to Nablus. Start heading south, and after a few kilometers we see to our right the village of Yasuf. This obviously is named in honor of our ancestor Yosef, buried in Shechem. A few kilometers down the road, we pass through the not-so-picturesque village of Luven Sharakiyeh. Luven is a corruption of 'levona' and Sharakiyeh is Arabic for "east", hence the name denotes “East of Ma'ale Levona”. And indeed, immediately after this village, we see the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Levona; hence the Arabic name testifies that their presence came after the Jewish presence. We continue our journey southwards and on our left we pass the Arab village of Turmus Aya. This was the area where the turmus grew (the turmus being a small aromatic plant, the same family as the levona). Just as the place where sandals are made is called a sandalerier, so, too this place where the turmus was processed into herbs and medicine was called in Aramaic the Turmusaya.

Immediately after this on our right we pass the Arab village of Sinjil; this began as a crusader fortress about 900 years ago and was named for a christian holy man, St. Giles (the French pronunciation gave the modern Arabic name of Sinjil). Sinjil’s claim to fame is that Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Robert Kennedy in 1968, came from this village. Continuing our journey south, we turn right, following the signpost to Ramallah (the site of the biblical Ramat El), and just before approaching Beit El, we see on the right-hand side of the road the Arab village of Beteen – this name is a corruption of the original Beit El.

And so having followed our Father Ya’akov from Shechem to Beit El, we have seen how most of the Arab villages have names which testify to the Jewish presence in the Land long before the Arabs entered it, and the few which do not were taken from the European invaders.

DANIEL PINNER'S CANTEEN ACCOUNT

2006-12-07T14:28:00.000+02:00

Shalom all,

Please add the canteen account of Daniel Pinner to the list I sent out previously: 4628436. Deposits can be made in any post office branch.

I don't know whether checks will be accepted, so please deposit cash shekels only. If anyone tries to deposit a check (made out to Daniel Pinner), please let me know what happens.

For those who would like to donate from abroad, you can send me a personal check in foreign currency made out to me (Dina Moskowitz), and upon receipt I will turn it into shekels and deposit it into the above account. My address: P.O. Box 6355, Jerusalem 91062.

Daniel's canteen money will be both for purchases he makes in the canteen, and if there's enough money left in it, for legal fees.

Stay tuned for Daniel's Parshat Vayishlach, to be sent shortly.

Kol Tuv,
Dina

THESE POLITICAL PRISONERS NEED OUR HELP!

2006-12-05T21:10:00.000+02:00

Shalom all,

Here is your big opportunity to help participate in the mitzvah of pidyon shevu'im in a big way. Following are the names and canteen numbers of several political/ideological prisoners in Shikma Prison (as I was informed by prisoner Jeff Seath, who made an effort to obtain these numbers), so that these very deserving young men of limited means can buy the things they need at the prison canteen. (Please keep in mind that in most cases, the prisoner is allowed maximum two visits per month to the canteen, so on each visit he has to be able to buy a considerable amount of items to last till the next canteen visit - meaning that each of these prisoners is in great need of donations from the outside.)

Jeff Seath (under the name Shmuel Zetham, pron. "Zatam"): 4667799

Ran Yosefi (a young soldier accused and convicted of attacking and robbing Arabs and damaging their property in Hebron, in the wake of 12 Jews murdered on the path between Kiryat Arba and Hebron a few years ago. He received a sentence of 18 months imprisonment): 4580222

Three of the 20 "expellees" from Judea & Samaria who received orders to vacate for weeks or months, refused the orders and who are now doing jail time for this refusal:

Arye Tessler: 4672663

Elad Keller: 4609050

Meir Bertler: 4682868 (*NOTE: Jeff says he might have been released already)

Uri Richland (a teenager who saw a good friend killed by a Katyusha this past summer and who is being accused of attacking Arabs): 4638172

Daniel Pinner's number will be posted in the very near future. In the meantime, any donations to him can be mailed directly to me (P.O. Box 6355, Jerusalem. Make the check payable to Daniel Pinner).

It's a very simple matter to deposit into the prisoner's canteen: Just go to any post office and tell the clerk you want to deposit X shekels into account number ---- in the name of ----. (Cash only, I'm not sure checks will be accepted). Present ID and get a receipt at the end.

This list will be updated as needed.

Kol Tuv,

Dina

MOST IMPORTANT TRIAL - DECEMBER 10TH

2006-12-05T19:38:00.000+02:00

This is from Marilyn Cytryn, Shimshon's grandmother. PLEASE SHOW UP IN GREAT NUMBERS! (The courthouse is very close to the Beersheba Central Bus Station - within easy walking distance):

Dear Friends,

The last and most important trial for Shimshon Cytryn will take place this Sunday, December 10th at 12:30PM in the Beersheva Courthouse (Beit Mishpat HaMachozi). Following the trial, the 3 judges will determine the fate of this young man who was jailed two weeks after his 18th birthday, being accused of "attempted murder" for partaking in a confrontation between Arabs and Jews.

The judges often take into consideration the number of concerned people that show up at the courthouse when they make their decision and therefore your presence in support of Shimshon is greatly needed.

Please help us to ease the pain of this young man and his family.

Many Thanks,

Marilyn Cytryn

THE TRIAL OF JEFF SEATH/SHMUEL ZETHAM: THE PROSECUTION'S DAY IN COURT

2006-12-04T00:12:00.000+02:00

12 Kislev/Dec. 3: The session, which had been called for noon, didn’t start until approx. 1:25 p.m., when Judge Bracha Bar-Ziv entered the courtroom and Jeff was also led in at the same time. In spite of the discomfort of being cuffed around his wrists and ankles, Jeff was visibly moved and smiled when he saw that his supporters filled the courtroom.

The Judge opened the session by calling some of the supporters to order and threatened to send them out of the courtroom unless they kept quiet. The prosecutor also asked the Judge to tell one of the supporters who had photographed one of the witnesses, not to make use of the photo in any way, and the Judge agreed and informed the photographer accordingly.

The testimony of the two prosecution witnesses can be summed up in two sentences: “I don’t know” and “I don’t remember”. The first of the witnesses was Shaul Levine, a resident of Tapuach for the last three years. To the prosecutor, he admitted not having much of a connection with Jeff, not remembering when Jeff first came to Tapuach, not seeing him very often or talking to him all that much – at most, 4 or 5 conversations, and having been in Jeff’s home only once, during which Jeff had showed him the scopes for his rifle (but Levine doesn’t remember Jeff telling him where he got the scopes, or why he brought them). Levine said that Jeff told him he had tools in his lift, but does not remember him saying anything about bringing weapons for the army. He saw that Jeff had brought a protective mask and thought it strange, but not particularly unusual. He does remember that Jeff told him he’s a Zionist who wants to live in Eretz Israel.

The prosecutor pointed out that during his interrogation Jeff said he wanted to give the rifle, etc. to the army, and that Jeff accuses Levine of lying when he said Jeff didn’t tell him anything about donating to the army.

Jeff’s lawyer, Baruch Ben-Yosef, then questioned Levine by first asking how he viewed Jeff: mentally sound, etc., and whether he had trouble understanding Jeff’s strong southern accent (being that Levine is from New York). He reminded Levine that he told the police that Jeff seemed strange and noisy. When Baruch asked Levine whether he related to Jeff as a good friend, Levine answered no.

Levine’s testimony ended, the Judge reminded the court to reimburse him for his travel expenses to and from Tapuach.

The next witness for the prosecution was Anatoly Zeldin, who works for the absorption office at Ben-Gurion Airport. He speaks several languages, among them Spanish and a little Japanese. He described his job as taking the immigrant through the first stages of absorption after his arrival, explaining their rights to them and giving him documents such as teudat oleh, medical insurance, and a form to fill out from the Interior Ministry to obtain a teudat zehut.

When asked if he remembers Jeff, he turned around to look back at him and identified him. Zeldin described his conversation with Jeff at the airport as “regular”, nothing unusual. He also testified, when asked, that a representative from the American/Canadian Immigrant’s Association (AACI) was with Jeff, but no one else. Zeldin was also asked who picked up Jeff from the airport, and he remembered that he was picked up in an old van by two men in their 20’s or 30’s with knitted kipot.

When asked what Jeff told him during their conversation at the airport, he mentioned that Jeff pointed out Tapuach on a map to him since he didn’t know where it was, also that Jeff said he was a truck driver and hunter. The prosecutor recalled the police report in which Zeldin was asked whether Jeff spoke about weapons. Zeldin said Jeff didn’t mention anything about his intentions or plans and that he doesn’t remember Jeff mentioning anything about the army, or asking Zeldin questions about donating things to the army. When asked whether anything in the encounter with Jeff seemed unusual, he replied no.
The prosecutor referred again to the police report, in which Jeff claims he told Zeldin that he wanted to give something to the army, but Zeldin insisted he doesn’t remember Jeff saying such a thing.

The prosecutor asked him whether any other immigrant had ever mentioned to him that he has something for the army, and Zeldin replied no. When asked what he would have done if the immigrant had mentioned or inquired to him about bringing something to the army, Zeldin replied he would have told him to go to the Draft Board or the local military officer, not to him, as that’s not his job as an absorption clerk.

Baruch, in turn, pointed out to Zeldin that he told the police that Jeff was hard to understand because of his strong Southern accent. Baruch then asked Zeldin whether he remembered the AACI representative, Linda Wolf, who accompanied Jeff and translated for him, or any of the ensuing conversation. Zeldin replied that he doesn’t remember Wolf asking him any questions. Baruch claimed that the AACI representative (who has agreed to testify in Jeff’s defense) understood the conversation (and therefore Jeff) better than Zeldin, the prosecution witness.

Baruch informed Jeff in English that for the next court date, he would be giving his testimony, as well as two other witnesses (one of whom is the AACI rep, Linda Wolf).

Judge Bar-Ziv announced that the next court date is Wednesday December 27 (6 Tevet) at 12 noon - the Defense’s day in court, and adjourned the session for the day at approximately 2:15 p.m.

Taking this opportunity to remind anyone out there who still hasn't sent a letter to the Judge (see previous e-mails re the letter-writing campaign on Jeff's behalf) - NOW is the time! Please take a few minutes of your time NOW to write a letter - in English or Hebrew - to Judge Bracha Bar-Ziv of the Haifa District Court to give Jeff a lenient sentence!!

Fax it IMMEDIATELY to 03-9068478 or e-mail to: mishallyisrael@yahoo.com

Kol Tuv,
Dina

VAYETZE: EXILE, FOUNDATION AND RETURN by Daniel Pinner

2006-11-30T20:57:00.000+02:00

"And Ya'akov went out from Beersheba, and he went to Haran; when he encountered the place, he slept there... and he dreamed, seeing a ladder set on the ground, with its head reaching towards the heavens. And behold! Angels of G-d were ascending and descending on it." (Genesis 28:10-12)

This is the second time in the Torah that we see a structure linking Earth to Heaven. The first was the Tower of Bavel: "The people said to each other... 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its head in the heavens.'" (Genesis 11:3-4) There is a subtle, but very important, difference between the two. The people of Bavel, led by Nimrod ("let us rebel"), wanted their tower to have its head bashamayim ("in the heavens"); Ya'akov dreamed of a ladder whose head reached hashamaymah ("towards the heavens," the heh at the end of the word denotes "towards").

To understand the difference, we look to the Talmud: "One should not bid farewell to his friend by saying 'Go in peace,' but rather 'Go to peace.' For we see that Yitro said to Moshe, 'Go to peace' (Exodus 4:18) and [Moshe] became exalted and successful; David said to Avshalom [before he rebelled], 'Go in peace' (2 Samuel 15:9) and [Avshalom] went and was hanged.... One who bids farewell to the dead should not say 'Go to peace,' but 'Go in peace.'" (Brachot 64a)

The Meiri explains that so long as a person is alive, he has to go to peace. Peace is perfection, and one has to strive constantly for ever-higher levels of spiritual perfection. Only one who is dead can no longer increase his spiritual level, so he is in peace. Peace - perfection - is not something static, but rather a dynamic, ever-advancing process. This becomes clearer when we realize that the word shalom (peace) is no less than the name of G-d (Shulchan Aruch, Orech Chaim 89:2).

The people of Bavel saw Heaven as something static, and G-d Himself as something that they could contain and limit; so they aspired to build their tower "with its head in the heavens." Understanding that Heaven - sanctity, the abode of G-d - can never be achieved in this world, but that to strive for Heaven is to increase in holiness constantly throughout one's life, Ya'akov dreamed of a ladder "with its head reaching to the Heavens."

Thus began Ya'akov's exile. True, he left his aging parents, with none but the wicked Eisav to look after them; true, he suffered the humiliation of fleeing for his life from his own brother; true, he left Eretz Israel; true, he placed himself in terrible spiritual danger by being subservient to his sly and devious uncle Lavan (indeed, the Midrash [Genesis Rabbah 63:4, Leviticus Rabbah 23:1] makes it clear that Lavan's very identity as an Arami (Aramean) connotes rammai [liar]) - but Ya'akov went into exile knowing that he had to ascend ever upwards towards Heaven, towards G-d, towards perfection.

And indeed, upon reaching Uncle Lavan's house, within a month he already demanded to marry Rachel. He immediately began his seven-year tenure, and immediately when this seven-year period expired, he demanded of Uncle Lavan: "Give me my wife, because my days have finished, and I will come to her." (Genesis 29:21) His impatience was from pure motives: "G-d has told me that I am to establish 12 tribes. Look – I am already 84 years old, and if I don't start establishing them now, then when will I ever start?" (Genesis Rabbah 70:17)

True to his mission of striving for ever-greater holiness, Ya'akov spent the next 14 years establishing the tribes. In spite of being overworked like a slave by Uncle Lavan, 12 of his 13 children were born in Padam Aram.

Though he had spent 21 years in Padam Aram with Lavan, when G-d told him to return to Israel, he up and left immediately (Genesis 31:3). One might have expected that after 21 years – during which he had built himself up from a single man whose worldly possessions were the clothes he wore and his wooden stick, to a wealthy patriarch with two wives, two concubines, 11 sons, 1 daughter, uncounted hundreds of sheep, goats, cows, bulls, rams, and camels – he would have built emotional ties to his uncle's house. He could easily have justified delaying his Aliyah.

But no. Ya'akov always knew that his sole reason for going to Aram, and the sole reason for his family and wealth, was to advance and become elevated spiritually. So, when G-d told him to return to his homeland, he did not even wait long enough to say goodbye to Uncle Lavan. Significantly, Lavan misinterpreted his motives: "What have you done? You deceived me, and you led away my daughters like captives at sword-point. Why did you run away in secret?" (Genesis 31:26-27) In fact, Lavan was really projecting his own dishonesty and cunning onto Ya'akov.

Eventually, the covenant that the uncle and nephew sealed revealed the way of life that each one chose for himself: "They took stones, they made a heap, and they ate there on the heap. Lavan called it Yegar Sahaduta and Ya'akov called it Gal'ed." (Genesis 31:46-47) Lavan emphasized that he was an Aramean, estranged from the family of Avraham, by calling it "a heap of witnesses" in Aramaic; Ya'akov emphasized that in spite of 21 years in Aram, he still identified with his grandfather Avraham, by calling it "a heap of witnesses" in Hebrew, "the language of the holy household." (Targum Yonatan, loc. cit.). So that no doubt at all should remain, each one clarified his beliefs: "Lavan said to Ya'akov... May the G-d of Avraham and the gods of Nahor judge between us - the gods of their father. And Ya'akov swore by the Dread of his father Yitzhak." (Genesis 31:5-53) Lavan's attitude is ambivalent. He recognizes the G-d of Avraham (according to Genesis Rabbah 74:14 and Sofrim 4:5), but he does not reject the idols of Avraham's father. Ya'akov makes it clear that he fears only the One G-d, whom his father Yitzhak feared.

And the following morning, the uncle and nephew parted. "Lavan returned to his place" (Gen. 32:1) - Aram, the place he made his own. "And Ya'akov went on his way, and the angels of G-d encountered him." (v. 2) Ya'akov had advanced tremendously towards perfection in his decades of exile. When he had left Israel, he could merely dream of seeing angels. On his return, he saw actual angels - the angels who had accompanied him so long ago until he left the Land, and now came to welcome him back home.

REMINDER: JEFF'S TRIAL THIS SUNDAY!

2006-11-30T12:03:00.000+02:00

Make your plans NOW to be there for Jeff/Shmuel and give him all your support - he's really going to need it!

When: This coming Sunday 12 Kislev/December 3 at 12 p.m. NOON

Where: Haifa District (Machozi) Court, 12 Palyam St. (port area)- 6th floor, Haifa

What: The prosecution presents its witnesses and evidence (police reports, Shabac reports, Customs reports, etc.), trying their best to prove what a dangerous terrorist Jeff is...

How to get there: From Jerusalem, bus 940 or 947 (the 940 is faster, takes about 1 hr. 50 minutes as opposed to the 947 in 2 hours 40 minutes). From Tel Aviv, take the train. Check the Egged and train schedules on-line or call them.

Once arrived in Haifa, local bus 103 goes past the courthouse - it's about a 20-30 minute ride from the Hof HaCarmel Central Bus Station. Alternatively, take a taxi there for about 35-40 shekels. Traffic is heavy.

As of this writing, the next trial date is December 23, during which the Defense will have their day in court. Stay tuned for details.

Please contact me privately (dinamoskowitz@yahoo.com) for further information, and for any changes.

Kol Tuv, Dina