This day will live in infamy, like Tisha B’Av. November 10th was "Kristallnacht", the Night of Broken Glass in 1938 when the Germans’ first big pogrom raided Jewish homes and stores, leaving store front glass littering the streets of Germany and Austria. The world didn’t object so Hitler carried his plan to its Final Solution. The Jews had no legal recourse then and seem to have given it all up now.
In 1975 November 10th was the day of the infamous U.N. vote that "Zionism is Racism." The world slapped Israel and the Jewish people in the face, declaring they were "illegal" - again.
November 10, 1999, Israel’s Jewish own government, transferred Jews from their homes and Jewish land by declaring their farm ‘Illegal." As one settler named Motti said, "It is very sad to see Jews move other Jews from their homes. To deport Jews is a situation that I know from stories of my grandparents in Europe 55 years ago." (1) The soldiers said: "We’re just following orders."
Our stalwart Leftists (especially Yossi Sarid) said they would fight the army if they transferred people from their homes - but then they were standing up for the rights of Arabs not Jews. Now Minister Ran Cohen says "settlers have shown their disregard for the law, order, and "truth." He vowed that "all 42 illegal settlements should be evacuated now, even at the cost of fratricide." (2)
Prime Minister Barak said after the evacuation: "There were in Maon a few moonstruck and extremist people who do not understand what democracy is. No one will teach me what love of Eretz Yisrael is." (3) The voice may be Barak ’s but these twisty words were pure James Carville.
Just hours after Israeli troops evicted hundreds of Jewish settlers from Maon Farm, Ehud Barak’s Cabinet voted 17-1 to pull IDF troops back from another 5% of the West Bank. Barak told his cabinet: "What happened at the site was a test, and not a simple one, for democracy and a red light on the road to anarchy." (4) That morning Democracy took on a new meaning.
An international law professor, Louis René Beres says: "We should support Acts of Civil Disobedience Against the Barak government." because it is legal and the peoples’ right to do so. Professor Beres continues: "The right of civil disobedience can become an outright obligation when a government’s actions run counter to the Nuremberg Principles of 1946." "Israel’s agreement with the PLO, lack status of a treaty under international law because it calls for the surrender of territories which were absolutely essential to the survival of the Jewish State by opening the entire country to uncontrolled terrorism and to major acts of aggression by enemy states. Barak is under no obligation, according to international law, to proceed and Israel’s citizens are under an obligation to get Barak to abrogate this agreement."
Under international law a State is not required to commit suicide just to satisfy the demands of another entity or bigger power. In fact, a State is required to NOT commit suicide. Genuine individual acts to oppose this ongoing dismemberment and annihilation of the State in surrendering Israel’s security to enemy forces are actually LAW-ENFORCING. Prof. Beres also maintains that: "No crime [should pass] without punishment"- which he extrapolates to mean that we should not be negotiating with Arafat, but he should be arrested, tried and jailed [or executed] for his crimes of murder and terror. "Further negotiations with Arafat only legitimize his criminality. Actually, Israel’s citizens who support and sustain Oslo are in violation of international law." (5)
We have an Arab Member of Knesset Mohammed Barakei who has submitted a proposal that will deny the Jewish people their right to a Jewish State. He wants to use his power to change the definition of Israel from a "Jewish, democratic state" to a "democratic multi cultural state" contrary to Israel’ s Declaration of Independence. He wants to give the Palestinians a State carved out of a tiny Israel - along with Jerusalem as its capital. (6) In essence, he wants the Jews to vote themselves into a sea of hostile Arabs and virtually disappear as a people.
Barak has created a dangerous precedent. He has called Jewish settlements "illegal". Now its "kosher" for everyone else to call all Jewish settlements "illegal". And the Left lost no time. MK Ran Cohen of Meretz called all the settlements "illegal" and loudly demanded that they all be demolished. If Jews promote propaganda for the Arabs, why should anyone else in the world stand up for the Jews?
I was at Maon Farm on October 15th with bus and van loads of supporters from Gush Etzion and the Women in Green. We drove 30 minutes south of Hebron through mostly empty rocky land with only an occasional cluster of homes on the roadside. We went to give the Maon farmers moral support and to plant trees in true Zionist spirit. It’s a beautiful place! [Was]. Maon Farm is a few minutes walk from the Maon permanent settlement which looks just like any 5 year old Kibbutz - a cluster of small red roofed houses, 2 long cattle barns, and lots of kids. Maon Farm was where Dov Dribben was ambushed and killed by 9 Arabs. He left a young wife and four very young sons. He was defenseless because his gun had been confiscated by the army after a previous Arab attack. Depriving Israelis of the means to defend themselves is an ongoing process of teaching Jews to run rather than risk Israeli Leftists’ law.
His friends completed Dov’s stone house. The inside was finished with beautiful wood paneling over all the walls and up the high peaked ceiling. CNN showed army bulldozers demolishing it. 3 families lived there - 2 of the young 19 year old women had new babies. They were beautiful young people who should be our new heroes of Zionism but instead they were brutally evacuated from the homes they built.
The "children of the candles" who idolized Yitzhak Rabin would really find a lot in common with these young kids out on the pioneering front lines. Someone said: "The children of the candles would love these kids." But, will they ever meet? Again the pioneering settlers have been demonized, brutalized and had their rights to live in their own land trampled by their own soldiers and police. Their synagogue was destroyed. If that happened anywhere else in the world, what would Jews of today do?
The BBC TV reporter filming us all there said: "If Barak wants to make peace with the Arabs, he’ll have to confront the settlers, the toughest lobby in Israel." (7) He was right and Barak did. But, what did it teach the Israelis? And what did it teach the rest of the world? It taught that Israeli leaders genuflect to superior earthly powers, much the same as they did in the ghettos of Europe.
Only the settlers and their supporters know what and how to fulfill real Zionism. We have a lot to learn from them and their bravery. They stood up for themselves and used nothing more violent than throwing flour and eggs at the police who came to uproot them from their homes. Is there any place in the world where we can see such true heroism and patriotism?
A Jew who is willing to stand up for his piece of land is called a lunatic by Barak and the establishment. In Ben Gurion’s day a person who would go out to settle the land was considered a hero. Why has that changed? Why is that negative? It can only be a negative if they allow their minds to believe that this is somehow Arab land and the Jew’s have taken it. A Jew living anywhere in Israel is on legal ground. G-d gave the Land of Israel to the Jews. That’s a long-term, bona fide contract. It will outlast any Oslo/Hebron/Wye Agreement. Barak should not even negotiate. Nothing on the negotiating agenda helps Israel. It only helps the Arabs build another Arab/Muslim State and endangers Israel.
Barak has established a horrible precedent by using the "Illegal" word. Even Israel’s friends in the media and Congress cannot be more "kosher" than Barak by claiming that the state lands on which Jews have settled are legal.
No, Barak and his Labor/Meretz negotiating cabal have been bent over so long in submission to the American Superpower, he/they have forgotten how to stand up. They set a degenerate example for our young people. But, the Second Generation, Dor Hemshekh, these young people have organized to protest against the dismantling of the Jewish State. Many of them are the grown children of the original pioneers who settled Judea, Samaria and Gaza. They learned from the best.
The Barak government has applied a "transfer" policy to Jews, but it is forbidden, according to them to transfer Arabs. Yossi Sarid said in 1991 that he "would fight the Army if they came to transfer Arabs." So, the Maon Farm was bulldozed by Jews.
Now the State of Israel has authorized 13 "experimental" farms for the Palestinians in the middle of the Etzion bloc - an area considered by all in Israel to be the innermost core of the Israeli consensus for keeping. But, the 13 farms cover some 3000 dunams, from Mount Gilo in the north to Migdal Oz in the south. One of these farms verges on the Green Line in the western part of the Etzion bloc, where plans call for the future building of a "garden city." Some are on Israel State land with the help of the UN Development Programs who provide financial assistance to the Palestinian "owners" of the farm land. There are many signs up, attesting to the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry’s involvement and the governments of Japan and the Netherlands.
The Gush settlers are rightly furious as these Arab farms totally shred the territorial continuity for which the Jews have worked so hard for these past three decades. The deputy defense minister, Efraim Sneh, the Prime Minister’ s bureau and Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, Central Command’s CO had no knowledge that the Civil Administration had granted permits to Palestinians for 13 farms in the Etzion Bloc.
If this proves true and that, therefore, these Arab farms are illegal, will they be moved? I doubt it. Not today. No, the establishment is too busy re-writing Israel’s history and straining to be post-Zionists. They want to emulate America - not America in 1776 - not the patriotic, pioneering America - but rather the hedonistic, power-hungry materialistic America of the millennium. They’re throwing away their country, its lands, water and holy sites with both hands. Only the settlers and their supporters have shown what and how to fulfill real Zionism. We have a lot to learn from them and their bravery. They stood up for themselves and used nothing more violent than throwing flour and eggs at the police uprooted them from their homes. Is there any other place in the world where we can see true heroism and patriotism? The settlers of Maon and their supporters are my heroes.