The Battle Goes On

By Rob Muchnick

Yesterday, there was an election to determine the fate of the Likud Central Committtee. The results of the election were not what we had hoped for. But, to paraphrase the famous American naval captain John Paul Jones, “We have not yet begun to fight!”

Imagine if Barack Obama went in front of the United States’ Congress and said, “You guys are gonna vote on whether or not you get to stay in office without having to face a new election every two years. If you vote for my proposal, you’ll never have to have another of those pesky little re-election campaigns.” How many of us think that all of the Congressmen would vote for this proposal? Well, this is EXACTLY what Bibi “the former defender of democracy” Netanyahu did today. The Likud Central Committee was mandated by Likud by-laws to have had elections to re-elect the entire body well before today. Anyone who wanted to run for the body could have run, and every incumbent would have had to stand for re-election. But the Israeli “Supreme” Court - officially the “High Court of Justice”, but as there is no justice there, I cannot call it by its name - told Bibi that he can change the Likud by-laws RETROACTIVELY to repeal the mandated elections. The High Court of “Injustice” told Bibi that if he can change the Likud’s charter with a 2/3 vote, then it can be as if he made this change two years ago. Is this justice? Is this democracy? Is this ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’? Excuse me, I digress, as I live in a country which actually has a Constitution with a Bill of Rights, and politicians have a harder time destroying liberties here than they do in Israel, which actually has no constitution and the leftist Supreme Court ‘justices’ actually select their own members.

Bibi put his full-court press on the Central Committee members and they came out for their master who promised them their eternal positions, and alas, Bibi won the day. And I do mean ‘eternal positions’, because even though Bibi said that his proposal would ‘only’ delay the election to this body -which put up the strongest battle against Sharon’s Expulsion from Gush Katif - by 20 months, he actually attached detailed provisions to when future elections would be held. The last time his criteria would have been met was way back in 1973, so for all intents and purposes, there will be no more Central Committee elections.

The point of Bibi’s fight today was to keep the Central Committee from shifting further rightward, as all polls showed that it would have done so after the new elections. To Bibi, this shift would be unacceptable because it would have made his planned destruction of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem that much harder to implement. And even though every sane person (who looks at the picture through logic as opposed to with or without a biblical view) can see that the Oslo “Peace” Process has failed, and we can all see that Mahmoud Abbas is nothing more than the reincarnation of the Jew-murderer Arafat except that he wears a suit and uses a razor, Bibi perseveres on the path of pretending Abbas is a man of peace so that he can rip out the biblical heartland of Israel and set up the destruction of the Jewish state. There are those who insist that Bibi has the best interests of the state of Israel at heart, but it is getting much harder for those people to make their argument. It is clear that he is leading Israel on the path to her doom. His own Foreign Minister announced today that direct “peace talks” will restart with the people that call themselves “palestinians” in two weeks. So much for all of those Bibi supporters who told me that they loved everything Feiglin stands for but they had to support Bibi two years ago because they were sure that Bibi had “learned from his mistakes of the past”.

Netanyahu also pledges constantly to “defend Jerusalem”, as if a heart can be separated from the other internal organs of a body. However, multiple Israeli newspapers have documented this week that Bibi has made a secret agreement with Obama to halt all Jewish construction in Jerusalem, as this will make the future handover of our sacred capital city that much easier for “the Betrayer”.

But today is just one day, and this has been just one battle. We shall overcome this. We will be smart and we will be relentless. And we shall win in the end. There is no other choice

It's Over, Bibi

By Jason Gold

Bibi:

I write this to you on the eve of a fateful internal vote of the Likud party. A vote that as Moshe Feiglin correctly predicted months ago, will determine the fate of both Jerusalem and Yesha. Bibi, you have been fighting this vote tooth and nail because you know that if the Likud Central Committee votes to finally have Central Committee elections, elections that you have postponed again and again against the Likud charter, the strength of the nationalist bloc, the true soul of the Likud headed by Manhigut Yehudit and Moshe Feiglin, will increase dramatically.

And yet, in a sense Bibi, you have already lost. Yes, it's over, Bibi. Regardless of the outcome tomorrow, you are in a lose-lose situation. If the referendum to retroactively modify the Likud charter (wonder if they ever tried that with the Magna Carta) and postpone the vote for two years is successful, then the Likud will no doubt be flooded with leftists and your cronies/thugs, former Likud/Kadima rejects etc. to dilute the nationalist/Manhigut bloc. In addition to tearing the Likud apart and in all probability resulting in the formation of a new nationalist Likud, your government coalition will fall resulting in new elections. If you lose the referendum Bibi, it is quite probable that your ego and attempt at political survival will demand that you will follow the Sharon trajectory and leave Likud to form "Likud Left" or "Likud Lite" or another Kadima clone, a party whose sole raison d'etre was to facilitate the forced evacuation of Gush Katif.

The parallels are ominous Bibi as your secret dealings with and groveling to the unholy trinity of Obama/Biden/Clinton have once again exposed you for the Likud poseur that you are, and for your desire to use a hijacked nationalist party/platform to surrender parts of Israel. As I have said before, you are a man without a molecule of Likud DNA in your body. Your desire to rule from the center-left and appease the US in carving up Israel was evident right after the Likud primaries last year when in collusion with a corrupt Supreme Court, Feiglin was summarily and illegally demoted off the Likud ticket allowing Avigdor Leiberman, Katzeleh, Michael Ben-Ari, Aryeh Eldad and others to get a whiff of political relevancy, but not enough to stop you from their parochial, sectoral, and impotent positions outside the Likud.

The bottom line? Feiglin is right again. Right about how the battle for the soul of the nation is inside the Likud and that the other rightist parties are irrelevant. Right that you Bibi, had seeds of greatness in you but without faith, you cannot be the leader that Israel needs. Right that the religious nationalists fall for the same trap again and again looking for the secular messiah to lead them, while they themselves are too afraid to lead because of what the "goyim" might think. It is sad/pathetic that rather than helping determine the fate of the vote tomorrow, Ben-Ari, Katzeleh, Eldad, and their ill-advised followers, good people all, will sit utterly powerless to act on behalf the nation they love.

So, as I hate long goodbyes, I will say goodbye to you now Bibi because no matter what happens tomorrow, you have lost. If you lose the referendum you lose faster and if you win, you lose a bit slower but ultimately you lose. You will be consigned to the dustbin of political history just as Sharon has been and follow his arc of disgrace in trying to both steal a critical election with thuggery, trickery, and Chicago-style politics (ala guess who??) and then hand parts of Israel to thieves and murderers. It is sad to see what you have become because you could have been so much more. You actually had some people believing that you had changed and would be a real leader the second time around. You were a great finance minister and ambassador but you are not and never will be, a leader. It is clear you will never rise to the level of your formerly great potential. I wish you and your followers a healthy but speedy exit from the Israeli political scene. To paraphrase Marlon Brando, you could've been a contender, a somebody. Sadly, you chose the path of the pretender.

What’s your proof, Feiglin?

by Shmuel Sackett

International Director, Manhigut Yehudit

I spend most of my day speaking about Moshe Feiglin. I believe very strongly in him and in his dream to become Prime Minister of Israel. I love his ideology, his vision and his burning desire to turn Israel into a strong, proud and authentic Jewish State!

Lately, Moshe has been writing about the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu plans on dividing Jerusalem, extending the building freeze in Yehuda/Shomron and is working on a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Naturally, I have been passing this message on. As International Director of Moshe’s organization, I am in contact with people from all over the world. As in the past, I have loyally forwarded Moshe’s warnings about Bibi to each and every person, but this message has not been received well. I constantly hear the question; “What’s his proof?” or “How does Feiglin know this?”

People who call themselves “right wing” are actually happy with Bibi. They applaud the fact that he has stood tough against Obama and that he has declared how Jerusalem will remain Jewish forever. Most of these people have even told me how brilliant the 10 month building freeze was. In their opinion, it appeased the Americans and Europeans and gave us good PR in the court of world opinion. These people believe that very soon, the building freeze will expire and the beautiful noise of construction crews and cranes will soon be heard in Bet El, Elon Moreh and Kedumim.

Against all these people stands a lone soldier named Moshe Feiglin. He doesn’t see it this way. In his weekly email, sent to over 50,000 people Moshe wrote the following; “The Likud Central Committee vote scheduled for next Thursday (April 29^th) is not a simple internal Likud vote. It is much more fateful. It is essentially a referendum on the future of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. It is a vote on whether Israel will retreat to the 1967 borders, with minor territorial adjustments. It is a vote on whether Jerusalem will be internationalized. What is really on the agenda is the destruction of the State of Israel.”

As written above, the overwhelming reaction to these lines are; “What’s your proof, Feiglin???” Allow me now, to answer that question.

Many years ago, a non-Jew walked up to a famous Rabbi and asked, “Why do Jews always answer a question with another question?” to which the Rabbi replied, “Why do you really want to know that?”

I will answer the “Feiglin proof” question in a similar way. Just how blind are you???

For many years, I was very close to Rabbi Meir Kahane. I accompanied him on many trips and spoke together with him in dozens of Jewish communities. On more than one occasion, people would refer to him as a “prophet”. All of his predictions were in fact coming true and people likened him to the great prophets of old. His answer was always the same; “I am not a prophet. I am simply a Jew whose thinking is clear and whose eyes are wide open. How can I not see what is happening?”

The same is true today. Open your eyes fellow Jews. Clear your head from the media brain-washing you read every day. Take a deep breath of fresh air and look at the facts. A top minister in the Israeli government told me that Binyamin Netanyahu is spending more time fighting Feiglin than in dealing with Iran!

A simple, innocent Likud law states that Central Committee delegates are elected for a term of six years. After that term, new elections for the Central Committee must take place within one year after general Knesset elections. According to this simple, innocent law that very few people in the world care about, elections for this committee was due to take place by February 2010.

But it didn’t happen. Instead, the Prime Minister of Israel, who should be putting all of his energy into bringing home Gilad Shalit and Jonathan Pollard has gone to court four times to fight against this election. The Prime Minister of Israel, who should be helping Israel’s poor and making sure that Katyusha rockets don’t fall in Eilat is putting every ounce of his strength into making sure that these silly elections don’t take place… but if they do, then – at least - he win them convincingly. What exactly is going on?

All experts agree that elections in the Central Committee of Likud will mean a much more right-wing party. The 93,000 voting members of Likud are expected to elect a Central Committee that will be very hawkish. These new delegates will oppose the creation of a Palestinian State, will oppose the extension of a building freeze and will oppose the division of Jerusalem. If the head of the party wants to move more to the left then he will obviously do every thing in his power to prevent the party from moving to the right. Who is the head of the Likud party? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Interesting…

These elections are proof of the fact that Bibi is cooking up something big. He simply wouldn’t be fighting them if he wasn’t. Had the political process run its course these silly, internal elections would have been over and done with three months ago. But here’s what Bibi has taught us: These elections are not silly at all! They are the fight for the heart and soul of the party. They are the potential deal-breaker in what he is doing and this is why he cannot allow them to take place.

This coming Thursday, April 29^th, a one question referendum will take place for all Likud Central Committee members: Should new Central Committee elections take place now - as required by Likud law - or should the law be changed so that elections take place in three years from now?

Think about it. If elections are postponed for three years, Bibi has three years of “Shalom Bayis” in his own party. No right wing Central Committee to stop him, no forced votes, no referendums, no public meetings, no negative media.

We already know that no Ministers plan on stopping him.

We already know that there is no opposition within the Knesset.

If this last hurdle is overcome, Bibi Netanyahu goes from Prime Minister of Israel to Dictator of Israel.

In the past Bibi supported the Hebron Agreements. He supported the Gush Katif Expulsion Plan. He supported Oslo. He has spoken publicly about the creation of a Palestinian state. With no opposition from within his own party, what will he give away… or should I ask, what will be left?

It’s called “HOW” – Handwriting On the Wall. Moshe Feiglin sees it and therefore writes and speaks about it whenever he can. He is not an “alarmist” nor is he standing on a soap box screaming about the end of days. His mind is clear and his eyes are open and therefore he sees exactly HOW Bibi plans on changing the map of Israel forever. I assure you that once you follow his lead, you will see the proof as well.

The Temple Mount: Moshe Feiglin's Response to a Supporter

I was very moved to see how you - on the other side of the globe and from an entirely different background than mine - reach the same conclusions about which I have been writing for the last fifteen years. The fact that you understand the true significance of the Temple Mount is particularly compelling. I wish that here in Israel, there would be more people who would reach your level of understanding.

The Jewish Nation is the strongest testimony to the fact that G-d exists. "You are children of Hashem, your G-d," it says in the Bible. Those are not empty words. The Jews are the sons whose very existence testifies to the existence of the Father. That is also the root cause of anti-Semitism. "The Jew brought conscience to the world," said Hitler. "That is why he must be destroyed."

The State of Israel is attempting to detach Jewish identity from Israeli nationality. It would like to be the "Singapore of the Middle East," in the words of Shimon Peres, or a state of all its citizens, as per the proposal of ex-Chief Justice Aharon Barak - with Judaism relegated to the status of quaint folklore.

Well, we established a really successful Singapore, in many respects more successful than the original. Israel is strong and economically sound. The only problem is that we can no longer justify the fact that we exist. The greatest danger for Israel today is not the Iranian nuclear missiles threatening our country, but the international illegitimacy of our existence as a Jewish state.

The Temple Mount is the key to this issue. Our testimony as a nation to the existence of G-d, of a moral Archimedes point outside of man - begins and ends at the Temple Mount. Just as you perceive the inner significance of the Temple Mount, the rest of humanity subconsciously understands the physical and meta-physical connection to G-d that is at its inner core. It is no coincidence that whoever controls the Temple Mount sees himself as the herald of (his version of) Divinity.

When Israel surrendered sovereignty of the Temple Mount to the Moslem wakf, it empowered Islam. There is only one way to stop the Moslem conquest of the world: Israel must re-claim its sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

I thank you for the compliments in your letter. Clearly, my path will triumph simply because the Nation of Israel is eternal. It has no choice but to choose leaders who are committed to G-d's directives and the visions of the prophets. That is the only way that we will ultimately merit peace and prosperity in Israel and the entire free world.

I am happy to see that there are those outside the Holy Land who understand this as well!

May we merit to perfect the world in the Kingdom of Heaven!

Blessings and best wishes,

Moshe Feiglin

The Jerusalem Referendum is Now

By Moshe Feiglin

Remember the Likud referendum on Gush Katif? Suddenly, everybody understood that a process was under way in the Likud that could determine the fate of Gush Katif. The entire National camp enlisted to convince the Likud members to vote against Sharon's plans.

The misleadingly technical Likud vote scheduled for next Thursday is much more fateful. It is essentially a referendum on the future of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. It is a vote on whether Israel will retreat to the 1967 borders, with minor territorial adjustments. It is a vote on whether Jerusalem will be internationalized. What is really on the agenda is the destruction of the State of Israel. Ladies and gentlemen, the Jerusalem referendum is now.

Sounds like an exaggeration? This is exactly what Ariel Kahane reported in Hebrew in the Makor Rishon newspaper on Jan. 28th, 2010, quoting three reliable American sources to back up his claims. On the eve of Independence Day, journalist Ari Shavit wrote an open letter to PM Netanyahu, (Hebrew) exhorting him to retreat from Judea and Samaria. Between the lines, it is obvious that Shavit's piece is part of a campaign to prepare the public for Netanyahu's retreats.

Sharon held the referendum on Gush Katif, unexpectedly lost and then ignored the results of the vote and destroyed Gush Katif - despite the will of his party. At the time, Netanyahu was a senior minister in Sharon's government. He could easily have leveraged the right's victory in the referendum, openly rebelled against Sharon and saved Gush Katif. Most of Sharon's ministers and Likud MK's were convinced that he would do just so. But Netanyahu is a coward. He remained in Sharon's cabinet and only when the bulldozers were already at the entrance to Gush Katif, resigned from his position, as if that would absolve him of his responsibility for the Expulsion.

Sharon was an experienced politician. He knew that there was no alternative to his leadership. With no fear for his political future, he ignored the results of the Likud referendum and destroyed Gush Katif.

The conclusion is simple. There is no reason to wage a political battle without offering a leadership alternative. Thus, there is no reason to ask the Likud Central Committee members to vote against Netanyahu unless there is somebody who boldly announces that he is a better alternative. The only person in the Likud who has done that is yours truly.

If Netanyahu wins this vote, he will step up the diplomatic process with Obama and with Tzippy Livni. He will explain to the public that this is a national emergency and a historic window of opportunity to achieve peace and to solve the Iranian crisis. The media will rally round him and Tzippy Livni will have no choice but to join the centrist bloc headed by Netanyahu. That, in a nutshell, is Netanyahu's plan.

But all it will take to topple Netanyahu's house of cards is one small mistake that will lead to general elections. With such a complex plan that does not take the strong feelings of the Israeli public toward Jerusalem into account, that is bound to happen. If there are general elections, the Likud will have to choose a new chairman. Ever since I joined the Likud, I have openly stated my goal to lead the party. With G-d's help, my chances to win the next primaries - on the background of Netanyahu's total capitulation - are excellent.

The other scenario is that Netanyahu will manage to destroy the Likud before the elections, and the National camp will not have a leadership party. The resulting vacuum will open many new options.

Clearly, Manhigut Yehudit is well-positioned to save Israel from this impending crisis. With or without the Likud, we will win!

This is Justice???

By Moshe Feiglin

You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; you shall not favor the poor, nor favor the mighty; but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
(From this week's Torah portion, Kedoshim, Leviticus 19:15)

Would a court that would allow the Knesset to extend its term for eternity conform to the definition of justice as per the above Torah directive? Would it be acting righteously? Or would it be favoring the mighty at the expense of the weak?

Clearly, the "High" Court that is working hand-in-hand with Netanyahu to allow him to change the Likud constitution and to essentially eternalize the tenure of the entire Likud Central Committee is not a just court. Actually, it is no more than a gang of scoundrels who espouse a blatantly anti-Jewish agenda. Now this gang is helping Netanyahu to eliminate the leadership tool of Israel's National camp.

Why are they doing this? The reference point of the Anat Kam/Ha'aretz gang is not the Nation of Israel or those who have tied their fate to it. They do not see themselves as our brothers, as part of the Jewish Nation. On the contrary - the Jews are a burden on their backs. They have to somehow manage the Jewish "rabble", to control it and to rule over it against its will, using all sorts of tricks and shticks.

The High Court judges would have us think that next Thursday's Likud Central Committee vote is not over Jerusalem. They would have us think that it is nothing more than a secondary, technical issue - that elections for the new Likud Central Committee will be held three years after elections instead of one. In actuality though, Netanyahu's proposed amendment will ensure that internal Likud elections will no longer be held. If his amendment had been law, there would not have been Likud elections since 1973. In other words, Netanyahu's proposal will turn the Likud Central Committee into nothing more than a rubber stamp for his leftist policies and for the leftist "masters of the Land."

After he was elected with his false campaign promise that "the fate of Netzarim will be the same as the fate of Tel Aviv" Sharon was at least forthright about his intentions. He declared that he would destroy Gush Katif and then prepared to wage his political battles. Netanyahu and the High Court judges are working in the reverse order. They have not declared their true intentions. First, they will set the stage politically and then, when all the avenues to oppose their plans are shut tight, they will state their true intentions; the Mother of all Disengagements.

As of now, the large Jewish majority in Israel insists on deceiving itself. It seems to honestly believe that Netanyahu is standing firm against Obama and that we must strengthen him. Netanyahu, for his part, continues to make declarations about unified Jerusalem, while all those people slated for the next Expulsion defend him. When the Likud will no longer be able to oppose Netanyahu, the National camp will wake up and understand that it has been duped.
It is time to act now, before Netanyahu steals Jerusalem from the Jewish People!

As this is being written, ex-US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, has verified on Israel Army Radio that the Likud is the only obstacle between Bibi and the internationalization of Jerusalem. Listen to this chilling 2:53 minute interview here.

If you are in Israel and speak Hebrew well, you can volunteer to contact Likud Central Committee members and convince them to vote against Netanyahu's proposal. Write to shaimalk@gmail.com.

Shabbat Shalom

Moshe Feiglin's Letter to the Likud Central Committee

28 Nissan, 5770
April 12, 2010

Dear Likud Central Committee Members,

Once again, the High Court has mobilized for Netanyahu. It has accepted his appeal against the Likud constitution and the Central Committee decision to hold elections for a new Central Committee on April 28th.

As per the High Court decision, Netanyahu must hold a Central Committee vote on the change that he proposes for the Likud constitution by the end of May. His proposal states that elections for the Likud Central Committee are to be held three years after Knesset or municipal elections. (In the last 25 years, three years did not go by between elections for the Knesset or for the municipalities.)

If this proposal is adopted, it means that there will no longer be elections for the Likud Central Committee or for the Likud institutions. All of us will become members of the Central Committee of a party without a voting public that will soon be swallowed up by a new "Kadimah" - and rapidly disappear off the political map.

Have you asked yourselves why Netanyahu is proposing this change to the constitution? Have you wondered why the High Court has gone to such great lengths to help him?

As reported in Ha'aretz and Makor Rishon on Jan. 29th, highly reliable American sources assert that Netanyahu has already committed himself to a return to the pre-1967 borders - including East Jerusalem - with minor adjustments and territory exchange. Netanyahu is supposed to pass his decision into law by the end of the settlement freeze - this September. The last thing that Netanyahu and his allies in the High Court need is internal elections that will invigorate the Likud.

Netanyahu will gladly promise to hold internal Likud elections toward the end of the settlement freeze. But by then, it will be too late and there will be nothing to save. Not Jerusalem and not the Likud.

By asking for your support for his proposal, Netanyahu is actually asking you to vote in favor of the elimination of the Likud and the partition of Jerusalem!

Pay no attention to Netanyahu's declarations of loyalty to Jerusalem. They are directed only at local ears. Instead, pay close attention to his deeds. Even now, before you have voted, all building in East Jerusalem is totally frozen. The process that we are experiencing now is exactly the same process that brought us the Disengagement and that almost destroyed the Likud.

Sharon said - Netzarim and Tel Aviv will share the same fate.
Netanyahu says - Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will share the same fate.

Netanyahu's intentions are the same as Sharon's and he is using the same methods!
First, he gets elected by the votes of the Right. Next, he brings the Labor party into his coalition, veers sharply left and declares that he will establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. In exchange, he is handled with utmost delicacy by the High Court, with whose help he can squeeze consent for his dubious conduct of Israel's foreign affairs from the Likud - with pointed insinuations that if the Likud does not toe his line, he will abandon the party. Ultimately, when the Likud will become a lifeless political structure, Netanyahu will bring Kadimah into his coalition and the Likud will be destroyed. That is exactly what Sharon did during the Disengagement and Netanyahu is following his disastrous pattern.

If you want to save Jerusalem and the Likud, I call upon you to vote against Netanyahu's proposal!

Call your friends from the Central Committee and convince them as well. Don't give up! Too much of our precious homeland has been surrendered to the enemy by the Likud. We will not allow Netanyahu to do it again - this time in Jerusalem!

He will threaten you, he will call you extremists, he will declare his loyalty, he will have a major terrorist eliminated - he will do everything to get you to vote for his proposal.

But you will watch over Jerusalem and Jerusalem will watch over you!

"May G-d bless you from Zion and you will see the goodness of Jerusalem all the days of your life." (Psalms 128)

Moshe Feiglin

Lessons Of The Holocaust

By Moshe Feiglin

5 Iyar, 5770
April 19, 2010

Translated from the NRG website

I am very ashamed of the Holocaust. How my people were taken, stripped, humiliated, tortured and led to their deaths - before the eyes of the joyous Poles, Ukrainians, French and other offspring of Christian enlightenment; how newborn babies were impaled on pitchforks on the way to the death pits; how millions were led to the factories of death, and suffocated and burned, fertilizing the fields of Poland and Europe with our people's ashes - with almost no resistance.

I am very proud of the Holocaust. If the German Asmodeus - the most explicit essence of absolute evil ever revealed in history - sees me, the Jew, as its ultimate enemy, then that means that I am on the other end of the scale. In other words, there is something very good about my people. If the German Asmodeus represents absolute evil, then it is very afraid of the absolute good - G-d - that I represent.

There is no way to explain the Holocaust. I know survivors who are not on speaking terms with G-d. I know many who are the opposite. I have no right to go there - and I have neither the ability nor the desire to do so. But irrespective of the theological questions surrounding the Holocaust, one thing clearly occurred in its wake: Jewish history stopped being written in exile and started to be written in the Land of Israel.

Very soon, for the first time since the First Temple period (!), the majority of the Jewish People will be living in the Holy Land. This fact constitutes a spiritual critical mass. Jewish law changes in several realms by virtue of the demographic fact that "most of its sons are on [the land]." The absolute number that we are approaching in the Land of Israel is chilling. Six million.

G-d, Who chose us to be His eternal people and to attest to His existence, has made us a target for extermination by every evil in the world. It is certainly understandable why there are Jews who constantly try to escape this fate. As individuals, this may be possible - an individual may be able to assimilate and rid him/herself of this trouble. But as a people, we cannot escape our destiny. We cannot exist without it.

When the time of national awakening comes, when the gates of the Land open before us but we insist on remaining merely the bearers of religion in exile - the ground burns under our feet. And when we flee to the other extreme, create an alternative Israeli nationalism and shun Judaism and the Torah, then even if we have decided that we are no longer Jews, but only normal Israelis, even if we have established a modern state and hold 200 atom bombs in our nuclear arsenal - we are still six million Jews under the mounting danger of annihilation.

Our obsessive need to maintain international recognition of our normalcy forces us to pay in the hard currency of homeland and security in exchange for the peace process - or in other words, the process of our "acceptance" as a normal people among the nations.
There are two historical lessons that we should remember well from the Holocaust:

One is that the armies of Czechoslovakia and France - both much stronger before the war than the German army - went down like dominoes because their leaderships failed to understand the nature of the conflict and based their policies on peace processes.
The second lesson, which pertains directly to us as Jews, is that before physical destruction, a spiritual destruction takes place. Before we are murdered, our dignity is murdered, and we are rendered illegitimate. Der Stuermer always precedes Auschwitz. When you agree to be humiliated, you have not forestalled your end; you have brought it closer.

When the state's leadership lets Biden or Erdogan humiliate us, it sows hope and uncontrollable desire to destroy us. When Ahmadinejad started to talk about Israel's destruction - it should have been clear that from Israel's standpoint, he had lost his right to breathe in this world. Since we did not eliminate him, he has been gaining strength. He and his ministers roam freely around the world, while Israel has become a pirate ship that has lost the legitimacy for its existence, its ministers fugitives in European capitals. We have returned to the days of the "Jewish Question." We are no longer in 2010. It is now nineteen thirty-something.

Whoever warns against a preemptive strike in Iran and prefers to let the world do its work, is behaving just like the Jewish community leaders who denounced anyone who tried to resist the German annihilation machine. It is clear that resistance had a terrible price. But the price of appeasement and cooperation was a thousand times more horrific.

Looming Shadows

By Moshe Feiglin

And when the king of Israel read the missive, he tore his clothes, and said: 'Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends me to cure a man of his leprosy? But know and see that he plots against me.' (From the Prophets portion for this week -
Kings 2, Chapter 5:7)

Yehoram, king of Israel, is afraid of his own shadow. In his wildest dreams he cannot imagine that the Chief of Staff of the Aramite army - that had already wreaked havoc on the Kingdom of Israel - was returning to Israel at the head of his army just to consult with the prophet Elisha on a personal medical issue. Yehoram had already turned his back on the G-d of Israel in an attempt to be normal and to join the enlightened family of nations that surrounded him. How could it possibly be that Na'aman - the renowned Aramite general - was specifically seeking the G-d of Israel? "Why is he telling me tall tales? What am I? G-d, Who kills and brings people to life? I smell a plot."

Just imagine if after he had roundly scolded and humiliated Netanyahu during his recent trip to the US, Obama would have sent him a fax saying he would like to come to Jerusalem on a private visit to consult with a particular rabbi.

The verse in Kings reflects the confusion, impotence, fear and breakdown of sovereignty that plagued the kingdom of Israel after it had disengaged from G-d.

*

We have marked Israel's Memorial Day, and will soon celebrate Independence Day - two sides of Israel's sovereignty coin. Never has Jewish sovereignty in the revitalized Land of Israel cowered in the shadow of such a large question mark.

Ironically, Israel's physical might has never been greater. Economically and militarily, Israel is a regional superpower and even more. But the State of Israel's disengagement from G-d has led to its inability to justify its existence. It has brought about its broad international de-legitimization, its loss of military deterrence and the rapid progress of weapons of mass destruction of all types to our doorstep - met by nothing more than Israeli impotence.

All the options offered by Israel's leadership - from the Likud, Labor and Kadimah - are captive to the erroneous assumptions that have brought us to this point. " He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how," Nietzsche explained. The current Israeli leadership cannot answer the 'why.' It does not understand our destiny in the Land of Israel and as a result cannot draw the strength it needs from that destiny to preserve our existence here.

Pointing to Auschwitz as an answer to the 'why' used to be an easy solution. But it no longer works. Israel divested itself of its role as representative of the Jewish Nation - after all, we are a state of all its citizens - and in the March of the Living, Israel's VIPs speak in English. The generation of murderers and their victims has by and large passed on, the international community no longer has a guilty conscience and the compulsory rounds of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum do not prevent the world's leaders from asking difficult questions for which Israel's rootless leaders have no answers.

All the platitudes of the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff about never again depositing our fate in the hands of others are no more than lip service. Netanyahu's entire policy on Iran's nuclear program is one large deposit of our security in the hands of others.

Instead of reaffirming its sovereignty by strengthening its Jewish identity, Israel's leadership turns time and again to the mirage of international acceptance in exchange for pieces of our homeland. The result is always the opposite of what the leaders tell us to expect. Their knee-jerk reflex is a given in a vicious cycle from which they cannot extricate themselves. He who is not firmly entrenched in his Jewish destiny above and beyond present reality cannot pull himself out of the quicksand of the normalcy ethos that Israel's leadership has created.

Perhaps the denial of Jewish identity was a necessary departure from the long years of exile, a clean slate on which to build a real state with economic and military might. But now that those goals have been achieved, we must remove the scaffolding that was (maybe) needed for the establishment of the State. Now it is choking us. The State of Israel must begin to run on its inherent strength; not only its economic or military prowess, but first and foremost, on its moral might. The only way to connect to our intrinsic moral strength is to connect to the Jewish roots of the Nation of Israel.

Binyamin Netanyahu is a perfect example of a leader completely enshrouded in the old mentality, with no ability to cut himself free. He does not differ on this fundamental point from any of the other national leaders on the scene. The fact that Netanyahu has already agreed to the American/Arab demands to a total retreat to the Green Line - including in Jerusalem (with the exception of some minor territory exchanges) should come as no surprise. This is the necessary outcome of the process described above. Any Israeli leader who denies the Jewish destiny of the State of Israel would do the same. As far as they are concerned, reality leaves them with no other choice.

Only faith-based leadership inspired by our Jewish destiny can extricate Israel from its current crisis, confusion, fear and impotence. When Israel will have faith based leadership, the shadows looming over its sovereignty will give way to universal appreciation for the G-d of Israel and the Nation of Israel's pivotal role in perfecting the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty.

I Blame You, Ron Lauder

By Shmuel Sackett

Most of the Jewish world is applauding the bold and brave move by World Jewish Congress president, Ronald S. Lauder, who printed an open letter to US President Obama in today's Wall St Journal and Washington Post. In this letter, Ron Lauder asked the president to end the public feud with Israel, to focus more attention on the Iranian nuclear threat and to commit to Israel's security.

While the letter sounds nice and defensive of Israel, it is actually nothing more than a hypocritical bunch of nonsense written by one of the people mainly responsible for the dangerous situation in which Israel finds itself!

Allow me to explain - using the same style as Mr Lauder - only this time writing a hypothetical open letter from US President Obama to WJC President Lauder:

15 April 2010

Dear President Ronald S. Lauder,

I read your open letter today in the Washington Post and have the following reply:

By the time I was born, you already had a degree in International Business from the prestigious Wharton School of Business at the University of PA.
In 1984 you were appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy at the Pentagon.
In 1986 President Ronald Reagan appointed you as US Ambassador to Austria.
In 1989 you ran for mayor of NYC.
In 1998 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed you as his personal representative in peace negotiations with Syria. During your tenure at this position, you authored the work, "Treaty of Peace between Israel and Syria," which advocated Israeli surrender of significant amounts of land in exchange for peace.

I write all of this to show that - clearly - you are a man of the world. You are a trusted advisor to both Presidents of the United States and Prime Ministers of Israel. Many top leaders in both the USA and Israel consider you their personal friend.

Today, among your many other jobs and responsibilities, you are the president of the World Jewish Congress, whose slogan is, "Representing Jewish communities throughout the world".

Clearly, you are a leader in the Jewish world, and have been for many years.

When I became interested in politics, I realized that I had to learn from experts in the field. Those experts would help me shape my foreign policy, especially regarding the most volatile region in the word; the Middle East. While you may not know it, I chose you as one of my leading role models. You had the experience, the knowledge and the respect of exactly the kind of people I needed on my side. I therefore studied your policies very closely.

YOU, Ron Lauder, supported - and continue to support - the Oslo Peace Process, which brought about the death of over 1,000 Israelis. In addition, over 250,000 Israelis have been seriously harmed either physically or emotionally because of this process. That number is growing as Jews in Sderot, Ashkelon, Beersheba and Ashdod live in constant fear of attack.

YOU, Ron Lauder, supported the destruction of Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses in the South West Coast of Israel. 10,000 Jews were forcibly dragged from their beach-front property, houses of study and kindergartens in a process that YOU said was necessary in order to achieve peace.

YOU, Ron Lauder, advocate forced removal of Jews from their homes, businesses and Yeshivot in the beautiful Golan Heights as a method of achieving peace with Syria. You further support the digging up of Jewish graves in these areas as a gesture of good will to the peace process.

YOU, Ron Lauder, speak openly and publicly about the need to create a Palestinian State within the tiny State of Israel. In your open letter to me you actually used that expression, "tiny State of Israel" yet you support dividing that tiny state in half!

YOU, Ron Lauder, write about the need to focus on Iran and their threat to the region yet you ignore the FAR bigger combined threat to Israel by Hizbollah, Hamas, Syria and Egypt! These armies border Israel and in some cases are inside Israel, yet you ignore their threat as if they don't exist. These 4 armies have tens of thousands of missiles that can reach every coffee shop in the country and can cause 10 times the damage of nuclear weapons. Your response to these threats? Land for peace. And you accuse ME of appeasement?

President Lauder, I could go on for many pages but allow me to simply say that you were the one who convinced me that the land of Israel does not belong to you. After all, if it was truly your inheritance - and given to you by God Himself - why would you so easily be willing to part with it?

As a matter of fact, NOT ONCE in your open letter to me did you write the word GOD. You wrote about "freedom" and "democracy" and "security" and "peace". Never once did you mention that God gave this land to your father Abraham, who passed it down an unbroken chain of 3,300 years directly to Ronald S. Lauder. Never once did you mention the Torah, the Bible, the Jewish tradition or state 4 very simple but awesome words: This Is My Land!

Until you - and every other Jewish leader in the world - can say those words, you have no business writing to me. Go and study your heritage. Go and study the one religion - YOURS - that taught the world about God and spirituality and then become a true and authentic Jewish leader. Until then, leave the Middle East to me - with what I learned from you!

Sincerely,
Barack Obama
President
United States of America

Feiglin Leads the Fight Against Netanyahu's Attempts to Divide Jerusalem and Israel

April 14, 2010...

According to Likud law, elections must take place immediately to seat a new Central Committee in the Likud party. Current Israeli Prime Minister and Likud chair Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu has tried mightily to permanently postpone these elections, as he fears this powerful internal Likud organ will move strongly to the right and foil his attempts at dividing Israel and Jerusalem.

The Manhigut Yehudit faction of Likud under the leadership of Moshe Feiglin has battled him in the courts every step of the way. Three weeks ago the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Bibi could postpone Central Committee elections for three years – but only if the existing Central Committee votes to change the Likud's own Constitution and thereby retroactively give its stamp of approval to the postponement.

Moshe Feiglin has been saying all along that Bibi wants these elections postponed because he needs quiet. “He has horrible plans which include Jerusalem that will make the Gush Katif expulsion look like a joke in comparison – and none of these plans can go forward if there are new elections in the Central Committee.”

For this reason, Netanyahu recently sent his personal envoy to visit the Feiglin camp to try to bring about an agreement for this vote being postponed until sometime in December. The Feiglin camp refused this offer.

The vote on whether or not to postpone the Central Committee elections is currently scheduled for April 22nd.

The following is an article which appeared in today's edition of Israel National News. It explains the entire scenario.

Feiglin vs. Netanyahu Over Likud Elections

Nisan 30, 5770, 14 April 10 12:09

by Hillel Fendel

(Israelnationalnews.com) Opposition to Netanyahu’s apparent yielding to American pressure is seething within the Likud. Moshe Feiglin, leader of the party’s Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction, warns that Netanyahu is following the path of former Prime Minister and Likud leader Ariel Sharon in preparing to give up large parts of the Land of Israel.

The issue at present is when to hold party elections. Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit say that if elections are delayed, it could cost Israel its united capital.

“Don't pay attention to Netanyahu's declarations,” Feiglin wrote in a letter to Likud members on Tuesday, “but rather to his actions. Construction in eastern Jerusalem is already completely frozen. The process we are going through is exactly what led up to the Disengagement from Gush Katif, which nearly killed the Likud.”

Likud Shrunk in 2006
After Sharon pulled off the expulsion/withdrawal from Gush Katif and northern Shomron in the summer of 2005, resentment and opposition to him within the party grew so strong that he felt compelled to quit and start a new party, which he named Kadima. Over a third of the Likud’s MKs quit and joined Kadima, which trounced the [Netanyahu-led] Likud in the next elections. The Likud dropped from 38 Knesset seats to 12, while Kadima won 29.

Elections: Before or After End of Freeze?
Support and opposition for Netanyahu within the Likud is critical at this time, when political party issues are being determined. Elections for the Likud Central Committee are scheduled for next month, but Netanyahu wants to postpone them, in order not to see his influence there drop.

Specifically, he is worried about the Feiglin supporters gaining a stronger presence in the Committee in time for the end of the Jewish construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, scheduled for this September. Netanyahu wants to be able to have free reign to extend the freeze, in accordance with U.S. pressure, but he will not have an easy time passing such a decision in a Feiglin-strong Central Committee.

Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv District Court has ruled that the elections must be held on time – unless the Central Committee changes the party constitution, which Netanyahu would like, but is also unlikely. Netanyahu has offered a compromise date in September for the elections, but Manhigut Yehudit rejects this, saying it will be too close to the end of the freeze.

Michael Puah, Director-General of Manhigut Yehudit, told Israel National News on Tuesday, “We want two things: The elections must be held by the end of May – three months later than they should have been held, but it’s the deadline set by the court – and that the voters’ rolls be ‘kosher’, and include only dues-paying members, not those who stopped paying four or five years ago.”

Puah: "Netanyahu is Already Dividing Jerusalem!"
Puah explained why the coming elections are so important: “It’s not only that he’s already decided to extend the freeze in Judea and Samaria – he’s already dividing Jerusalem! He has given the order to the police not to allocate manpower to the razing of any more illegal Arab buildings in eastern Jerusalem; this will be publicized today or tomorrow… It could be that our fight over the Likud elections will end up saving Jerusalem!”

Asked how he explains that Netanyahu, whose commitment to Land of Israel ideology and strong stance against terrorism have been life-long ideals, would be anxious to yield to Obama’s pressure, Puah said, “It’s clear that he’s not a bad person or a traitor, but the fact is that we must ask ourselves this question: Why is it that Israel has never been so strong economically or militarily, yet we’ve also never been so weak politically? Why is it that our leaders are treated worse around the world than Ahmedinajad and other terrorists? The answer is that we’ve lost the most important thing that any country needs – its own sense of justice and self-justification.

"Bibi [Netanyahu] showed that he lost this when he told the world that he agrees to ‘two states for two peoples.’ He’s basically saying that we are criminal conquerors and that though we deserve our own country after the Holocaust, we really took it from someone else. And the reason this happened to him is because, like all other prime ministers before him, he is not connected to Jewish roots or to G-d as he should be, and therefore he thinks he’s in charge, and therefore he goes the way of all Jews throughout our Exile – bending his head to be slapped… If our leaders were to say proudly that the Land of Israel is ours, period, we would not be in the position we are in now.”

Puah was asked: “Wouldn’t Netanyahu want to be able to tell Obama that his hands are tied from within and that his party is not letting him extend the freeze, etc.?”

He responded, “Your question is the proof of what I have been saying. If he truly wanted to deflect Obama’s pressure, he wouldn’t be fighting us regarding these elections.”

In the News: Bernie Quigley on Moshe Feiglin

Bernie Quigley on The Hill writes about Moshe Feiglin. Take note of Mr. Quigley's time-proven insight, which defines Jewish history over the millennia: "Just when you think it’s all wrapped up, something happens and it all changes."

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/religion/90925-temple-mount-next-year-in-jerusalem

Temple Mount: Next year in Jerusalem
By Bernie Quigley - 04/07/10 08:29 AM ET
Just when you think it’s all wrapped up, something happens and it all changes. Like when the glorious arrival of the millennium was officially declared at Barack Obama’s Democratic nomination, biblically staged at Mile High stadium. Then barely 12 hours later Sarah Palin showed up and ruined everything. We may face another such turning, but on a quantum scale, if and when Israelis begin to rebuild the Temple Mount.

As Wikipedia reports, according to Judaism, the Temple Mount is the place where God chose the Divine Presence to rest, and it was from here that the world expanded into its present form and from where God gathered the dust used to create the first man, Adam. It is also the centermost place from which the Western churches emerged. And it was the central office of Knights Templar, from which they take their name. Viewers of the TV show “Lost” have reasonably speculated that the show’s temporal mysteries are ultimately sourced at a mythic Temple Mount.

Haaretz reports that the Our Land of Israel party (Eretz Israel Shelanu) said it intended to mount an extensive bus campaign, with the slogan "May the Temple be built in our lifetime," along with an artist's rendition of the completed temple.

"The mosque on the temple mount is temporary," said Baruch Marzel, one of the party’s leaders, referring to the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques, "and it's only a matter of time before the Temple which the entire people of Israel are waiting for will be built."

The fate of Israel is tied to party elections this month. If Moshe Feiglin’s Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) group, the largest faction in the Likud, comes into power, Israel will be “a Jewish state” instead of “a state for Jews.” In any event, the day is just ahead. Time is quickly passing when the “authentic” Israeli leadership we have long viewed on Jim Lehrer’s “The News Hour” appears to hail from a suburb of Philadelphia.

Youth wants to know: How does Sarah Palin feel about Manhigut Yehudit? Mitt Romney? Rick Perry?