Excerpted from Moshe Feiglin's letter to this week's Makor Rishon newspaper:

Two weeks ago, you published an article on Mr. Joel Bell, an American living in Israel who goes to great lengths to help Israel's Right. In the article, my name was mentioned as a recipient of his financial aid.

I met Joel and Pamela Bell when I went to live in Gush Katif prior to the Expulsion. We developed a warm friendship. From our discussions, I understood that Joel was a non-Jew who believed in the G-d of Israel and the Torah. As such, I had no problem accepting donations from him for Manhigut Yehudit and Joel indeed gave generously.

When I discovered that the Bell couple had their own religious agenda that contradicts the Torah, I cut off relations with them. For years, we have not received a cent from them.

It is important for all the Jewish nationalist and religious organizations that accept Christian financial aid to know that by their very nature, Christian organizations have a missionary agenda. There are no free lunches. When you accept a donation from a Christian organization - no matter how friendly to and admiring of Jews - you have turned your organization into a pipeline for missionary influence.

Shmuel Sackett's letter to a US pastor who offered to support Manhigut Yehudit:

Thank you for your email offering help. We believe in conducting ourselves honestly, which is certainly not easy in the world of politics - but it’s especially difficult when the dynamic of interfaith relations enters the picture. We therefore ask that you consider and respect the following:

We are not proponents of a Judeo-Christian culture, interfaith theological endeavors, or an Israel-Evangelical alliance. Rather we are inspired and directed by Torah values and the Jewish faith. We believe that good relations can be built on a respect for differences and boundaries rather than a quest for commonality. This necessity for religious separateness is not a matter of political ideology or prejudice. It is a matter of Jewish Law.

We also believe it is imperative that the nation of Israel learn how to stand as an independent, sovereign Jewish entity, and we therefore do not, as a policy, accept financial assistance from Evangelical Christian sources. Nor do we encourage meetings and associations with those entities branding themselves and their mission as Christian in nature. We do, however, welcome sincere, intelligent and moral commitment from Gentile friends who have a grasp of historic events and the current challenges we and the world at large face - and who appreciate the unique role that we as Jews have in this world.

Our destiny to be "a light unto the nations" requires that we as a nation have the degree of solitude needed to generate the kind of redemptive solutions that can help all of mankind and which will allow us to contribute to the world community in our own unique way.

Manhigut Yehudit encourages Gentile parties who truly appreciate and respect the Jewish people and their national aspirations. We have no doubt that those
righteous non-Jews, who have mankind’s best interests at heart, will continue to stand with Israel during these challenging times.

Thank you for your understanding and consideration.

Shmuel Sackett
International Director,
Manhigut Yehudit