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The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip (Yesha Council) met recently with activists associated with the extreme right and expressed interest in intensifying and uniting their mutual struggle against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza Strip disengagement plan. "Until now the council was considered the moderate voice among the different right-wing groups opposed to Sharon's plan," one right-wing activist who participated in the series of meetings said Sunday. "They have however realized that slogans such as 'We have love and it will win' are not achieving their goal." The meetings, three of which took place in...

The world has decided that the territories are beyond the pale for the Jews. In a crash course on Jewish literacy, dealing with the Pale of Settlement published by Aish.com we learn "From 1791 until 1915, the Jews living in Eastern Europe were confined by the Czars of Russia -- starting with Catherine the Great -- to an area known as the "Pale of Settlement" (meaning "borders of settlement"). "Jews were specifically expelled from Moscow and St. Petersburg and forced into the Pale. Later they were also expelled from rural areas within the Pale and forced to live only in...

To: President Bush Dear President Bush, We, the citizens of the United States of America, demand that the US Government fully recognize the legality of the Israeli communities situated in the West Bank and Gaza. The following declarations in support of the Jewish communities situated in the West Bank and must be made prior to the upcoming November elections. Settlements are Not Illegal! 1. The settlements are not located in "occupied territory." The last binding international legal instrument which divided the territory in the region of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza was the League of Nations Mandate, which explicitly...

Moderate settlers speak out "Settlers for Compromise" announces an organization for moderate settlers to speak out to balance voice of extremism on the right Uri Glickman Mizpe Yizhar outpost. P> settlement in the territories. In the wake of reports of a spike in extremist right wing activity, an organization that seeks to give voice to moderate settlers has been set up. "Settlers for compromise" has set up a hotline to locate settlers that are willing to be evacuated from their homes before the disengagement is carried out. "We know there are many settlers out there who are ready for...

Three terrorist attacks were prevented or failed this morning - along the Lebanon-Israel border, in Hevron and in Samaria (Shomron). In the first incident, IDF soldiers on in the north foiled an attempted terrorist infiltration and attack by several Hizbullah terrorists. At approximately 4:30 AM, soldiers detected three suspicious figures crouching-crawling towards the Gladiola military outpost in the Har Dov area. The soldiers opened fire, and the would-be terrorists - who were either poised for an attack or to collect military information - fled back deeper into Lebanese territory. Yesterday, Hizbullah attackers fired anti-aircraft missiles at targets over northern Israeli...

The Yesha rabbinical council of the West Bank and Gaza Strip issued a letter Wednesday attacking Likud ministers who support the disengagement plan and calling on them to oppose the plan in the Likud's internal referendum on May 2. The open letter called the Likud ministers "politicians who sell weakness and despair." The rabbis asked whether the ministers "agree that the children of Ophir Cohen's family, whose legs were cut off on their way to school and who have been rehabilitated and returned to Kfar Darom [a central Gaza Strip settlement], will be exiled from there, this time by Jews,...

Leading Israeli rabbis have agreed that a special prayer on behalf of the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea, Samaria and Gaza should be recited tomorrow, and every Sabbath, following the public Torah reading. The prayer was composed by Rabbi Chanan Porat of Kfar Etzion, and has received the blessing of Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Yaakov Ariel, Shlomo Aviner, Tzfaniah Drori, Dov Lior and others. The Hebrew text of the prayer: An abridged English translation of the prayer: "Our Father in Heaven, Rock of Israel and its Redeemer, bless your beloved children who dwell throughout Your holy land, from the Negev to...

The Security Council, Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East, Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security, Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter, 1. Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which...

“The disengagement from the Palestinians and the withdrawal from the territories must take place not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank,” said David Satterfield, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs earlier today (Thursday).

Thursday afternoon the Shin Bet released information regarding operational planning by Islamic Jihad aimed at launching terrorist attacks against Israeli targets from fishing rafts in Gaza. The Iranian-backed group had $500,000 allocated to the plan which involved the purchase of motorized fishing rafts from which it would conduct shooting and grenade attacks against Israeli civilian targets and military installations along the coastline. The group enlisted the assistance of Gaza fisherman Iyad Alwan to train and outfit the terrorists who would act under the cover of normal fishing activities off the Gaza coast. The plot was exposed when Israeli forces arrested...

Opportunity finally presented itself to read noted Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel's "Night," after hearing it mentioned by a well known Evangelical Pastor in a radio broadcast sermon. It is one of the more well known recorded accounts of that long nightmare, a short but graphic and powerful postmortem of one of the more infamous abominations to occur in the "enlightened," progressive twentieth century. I will leave the hideous details to the reader shrewd enough to take the time to read it, to go back these, what, sixty short years to that time? I was a little startled recently, while getting...

In response to the Geneva document formulated by the extreme left-wing, the Yesha Council has been at work on a plan of its own. The Council planned to release it only a couple of weeks from now, but word of it somehow reached the media this morning. It involves three stages - "it doesn't pretend to provide an immediate permanent solution like some other moonstruck plans such as Geneva," said former MK Chanan Porat, one of the formulators of the plan - and cannot proceed to one stage before the previous one has been fully implemented: a total end to...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to meet Sunday with a number of his senior cabinet ministers prior to the weekly cabinet meeting to discuss the gestures Israel should make toward Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei when the two meet later this week. According to several media reports, Sharon will tell the ministers that he plans to dismantle a number of settlements by next summer, a step that goes beyond the types of measures he has taken in the past to ease the humanitarian situation in the territories. Sharon has come under increasing pressure both domestically and from the...

Yaalon Supports Gestures to Abu Ala 13:42 Oct 03, '03 / 7 Tishrei 5764 Following the failure of the Israeli's government's gestures to Abu Mazen, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon now supports similar gestures to the new PA leadership headed by Abu Ala. Yaalon says that hundreds of terrorists should be freed, including those who took active part in attacks against Israelis, and says that almost all the checkpoints in Yesha should be removed. Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz and GSS head Avi Dichter oppose these moves, while Prime Minister Sharon's position is not yet known. In July,...

DETROIT - A senior U.S. diplomat said on Monday that Israel's refusal to stop building settlements in the West Bank threatened its future as a democratic Jewish state. The warning came in a speech by William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, at the U.S.-Arab Economic Forum in Detroit, a conference exploring ways of fostering growth, development and trade between the United States and the Arab world. "As Israeli settlements expand and their populations increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to see how the two peoples will be separated into two states," Burns said. "The fact is that...

The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShana, is marked quite differently from January first. Whereas the latter is celebrated in Times Square, at gala parties and the like, most of Rosh HaShana is spend in the synagogue. According to the Jewish calendar, a new ‘day’ begins at sunset, and so it is that we commenced our year on Friday night with evening prayers. Following the short service, each family returned to its home and began the first festive meal of 5764 (counting from the creation of the world), with the traditional ‘signs’ or symbols of the New Year, beginning with an...

India says `irresponsible` Israeli threats about killing Arafat could worsen uncertainty in the Middle East (Reuters)

The Yesha Rabbis Council issued a Halakhic ruling today not only permitting Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount, but even mandating it, contingent upon proper precautions. The Yesha Rabbis Council issued a Halakhic ruling today not only permitting Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount, but even mandating it, contingent upon proper precautions. Excerpts from the announcement of the ruling: "...One of the rabbis commented that by refraining from ascending, we are thereby declaring to the world as if we, G-d forbid, have no part in the Mountain of G-d - and we thus strengthen the Arabs' feeling that...

Two Jerusalem traffic policewomen were assaulted by a 40-year-old Palestinian in the city center Sunday afternoon during a routine id check, police said. The Palestinian assailant, who was first detained after crossing the street on a red light and then asked to produce his ID and a work permit, began beating the policewoman with a stick, while shouting in Arabic "Allah Akbar" ("God is Great"). A second policewoman who came to her help was subsequently bitten in the neck by the assailant. A back-up police unit arrived at the scene and arrested the attacker, while the two policewomen were given...