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The Olmert government's assault on Zionism
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766045636&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull ^ | Caroline Glick

Posted on 07/23/2007 9:55:32 PM PDT by ventanax5

Jewish history throughout the ages has proven incontrovertibly that Zionism, the assertion of Jewish rights and control over the Land of Israel and the affirmation of Jewish national identity, is the solution to most of the problems that have beset the Jews since the time of Abraham. In the Land of Israel, as a nation of free men and women willing and able to assert and defend ourselves, the Jewish people flourish on every level.

Disturbingly, with each passing day it becomes more and more obvious that the Olmert government does not believe that Zionism is important. To the contrary, both in its domestic and foreign policies, the Olmert government consistently advances anti-Zionist, or post-Zionist policies, that unsurprisingly increase the dangers to the Jewish State and to the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora.

Zionism is built on four foundations: education, aliya, the Land of Israel, and national defense. As we saw in the war last summer and in the government's abject failure to contend with any of our enemies since, the Olmert government's policies directly undercut Israel's national security.

On Sunday it was reported that Education Minister Yuli Tamir approved a new social studies textbook for third grade Israeli Arabs. The textbook teaches children that the Jewish right to sovereignty in our land is not the truth, but just one among various competing "narratives." The textbook tells the children that while for the Jews the 1948 War of Independence - in which the infant State of Israel beat back five invading Arab armies bent on murdering all Jews in the Land of Israel, and so secured their independence - is a good thing, for the Arabs it was the "Nakba," or the catastrophe.

(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...


TOPICS: Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: editorial; olmerthaters; opinion

1 posted on 07/23/2007 9:55:33 PM PDT by ventanax5
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To: ventanax5

Well, Olmert’s going to think Zionism is important when Syrian tanks roll into the West Bank.


2 posted on 07/23/2007 10:34:26 PM PDT by americanophile
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To: ventanax5

this dope has got to go....

can’t wait for netanyahu to run Israel correctly and defend it the way it should be defended!!!


3 posted on 07/24/2007 3:25:14 AM PDT by nyyankeefan
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To: SJackson; Alouette; Salem; unionblue83; American in Israel; F15Eagle; Esther Ruth; ...

Ping!


4 posted on 07/24/2007 4:38:08 AM PDT by Convert from ECUSA (Presidente Jorge: "Y'all choose between Dhimmitude or Aztlantude!")
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To: Convert from ECUSA
Zionism is built on four foundations: education, aliya, the Land of Israel, and national defense. As we saw in the war last summer and in the government's abject failure to contend with any of our enemies since, the Olmert government's policies directly undercut Israel's national security.

Without national defense, the other three "foundations" are bupkis. The nature of Israel can only be debated if there is an Israel.

Dump Old-merde.

5 posted on 07/24/2007 4:46:44 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("You can't strengthen a zero, it will always equal zero." --Avigdor Lieberman)
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To: Convert from ECUSA

excerpt from rest of article...

AS OPPOSITION leader Binyamin Netanyahu pointed out in an interview on Israeli Radio Monday morning, Tamir’s view is both morally and intellectually indefensible. The history of the War of Independence that is taught in Israel’s schools is not a narrative. It is the truth. And the history of the War of Independence that is taught in the Palestinian Authority and throughout the Arab world, which claims that the Jews started the war, expelled the Arabs from their homes and stole their lands is a lie.

Netanyahu also noted that throughout Jewish history, violence against Jews has always been preceded by the dissemination of libels against the Jews. And here is the Education Ministry of the State of Israel actively working to propagate those lies.

Tamir was one of the founding members of the post-Zionist Peace Now movement. Over the past decade she has repeatedly argued that Israel’s school system is too nationalist and should make room for the Arab “narrative.” Two months ago she allowed an Arab-Jewish school in Jerusalem to both celebrate Independence Day and commemorate the “catastrophe” of the establishment of the Jewish State.

Through her actions and statements, Tamir has marked herself as a radical leftist and is considered the leftist fringe of the Olmert government. Unfortunately, her assault on Zionism is far from unique.

OLMERT AND his colleagues claim that their desire to surrender Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians is based on their desire to ensure that Jews continue to be the majority of Israel’s citizens. The government’s contention that Israel’s Jewish majority is endangered by the Arabs of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem is at best debatable.

But what is inarguable is that aliya, or Jewish immigration to the State of Israel, is the main guarantor of Israel’s Jewish majority. And yet, while loudly proclaiming its commitment to maintaining that majority, the Olmert government is actively undercutting efforts to encourage Diaspora Jewry to make their home in the Jewish state.

In a recent interview with Yediot Aharonot, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit laid down the gauntlet against aliya. Sheetrit claimed that Jews should only be granted citizenship “on the condition that they see themselves and their children as partners here in the future.”

As far as Sheetrit is concerned, Israel should stop reaching out to Jews and encouraging them to make their homes in Israel. “We don’t have to pressure Jews to make aliya. Jews who want to come can turn to Israeli representatives [abroad].”

He added that the Law of Return, which confers automatic citizenship on every Jew should be revised. Jews should be forced to pass citizenship tests as a means to ensure that they are worthy of citizenship. As he put it, “The State of Israel and the Minister of Interior need to assess how to ensure that a person coming into the country is a positive person.”

This is not Sheetrit’s first assault against Jewish immigration. In the 1990s, he repeatedly stated that he objects to unlimited aliya of American Jewry. Sheetrit argued that American Jews are too nationalistic and therefore, their citizenship should be conditioned on their willingness to abide by the government’s peace policies.

Sheetrit has a major ally in his offensive against North American aliya in the Jewish Agency. Until recently, the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency was the only organization engaged in bringing Diaspora Jewry to Israel. In the absence of competition, and with the waning of institutional support for Zionism with the onset of the Oslo peace process, the Jewish Agency has done little to nothing to encourage aliya from Western countries. Indeed, Jewish agency representatives have often discouraged Jews from making aliya.

This should come as no surprise from an agency that happily operated under the leadership of Avrum Burg in the 1990s. Burg, an anti-Zionist, recently authored a memoir in which he compares Israel and Zionism to Nazi Germany.

GIVEN THE Jewish Agency’s refusal to take any concerted action to encourage aliya from North America, it is not surprising that throughout the 1990s, when Israel’s economy was growing at breakneck pace due to the technology revolution, North American aliya dropped to all time lows.

All of this changed in 2000 when private donors got together to address the issue of aliya from a Zionist vantage point. Nefesh b’Nefesh, a private charitable organization stepped into the vacuum that the Jewish Agency created. It began actively encouraging North American Jews to make aliya. The results have been dramatic. Since 2000, aliya rates from North America have risen 90 percent.

Last week, the Jewish Agency decided it has had enough of Nefesh b’Nefesh and set out to destroy the organization. It cancelled its cooperation agreement with Nefesh b’Nefesh claiming falsely that the group only recruits Orthodox Jews. It then turned to the organization’s backers in Jewish Federations and warned them - again falsely - that Nefesh b’Nefesh is abusing its tax exempt charitable status and that funding the group could cause legal difficulties for Federations.

SO BETWEEN the Jewish Agency and the Olmert government, official Israel is going to war against aliya. Again, this from the same government that insists its desire to endanger all major population centers in the country by surrendering Israel’s heartland to Hamas, is motivated by its commitment to ensuring Israel’s Jewish majority.

And then there is the Land of Israel itself. The heart and soul of the Land of Israel is Zion, the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, and arguably the most important site in Western civilization, is being systematically destroyed by the Muslims.

This month the Islamic Wakf which controls the Temple Mount restarted their illegal destruction of the sacred site by digging a meter-deep, 80 meter long trench from the northern to the southern end of the Temple Mount. The destruction is being carried out with no archaeological supervision. As a result, as has been the case since the Muslim authorities began their systematic destruction of the Temple Mount 10 years ago with the illegal construction of the mosque at Solomon’s Stables, the Wakf is destroying both the holy site, and the archaeological heritage of the Jewish people specifically and of Western civilization as a whole.

And the Wakf is carrying out this cultural destruction with the full backing of the Olmert government. The Olmert government not only gave its approval to the destruction. Operating in accordance with the government’s policy, the Israel Police prohibits irate archaeologists from even bending down when they visit the scene of the crime, lest they manage to pick up some of the artifact-rich earth being carted away and destroyed. That is, the Olmert government is actively facilitating the destruction of the cultural, religious and physical heritage on which Jewish identity and through it, Zionism is founded.

TODAY IS Tisha Be’av, the most devastating day in Jewish history. It is the day on which both the First and the Second Temples were destroyed. As Jews in Israel and throughout the world fast and mourn the destruction of our Temples and the loss of our freedom in times past, it is deeply disturbing that we are today being led by a government that is actively working to destroy our future as well.


6 posted on 07/24/2007 5:07:39 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

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7 posted on 07/24/2007 5:18:36 AM PDT by SJackson (isolationism never was, never will be acceptable response to[expansionist] tyrannical governments)
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To: Esther Ruth
Ezekiel 36:24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Know therefore that the Lord the God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.

He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them.

He hath remembered His covenant for ever, the Word which He commanded to a thousand generations.

Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto His people Israel, according to all the He promised, there hath not failed ONE word of ALL His good promise.

The Word is true from the beginning and everyone of thy righteous judgments endureth forever!

My covenant will I not break, nor alter the things that is gone out of my lips.

Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it.

8 posted on 07/24/2007 5:21:56 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
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To: Esther Ruth

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766052384&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer
Bielski: Let 600 French olim land at B-G tomorrow

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 24, 2007

Jewish Agency director Zeev Bielski has asked Histadrut Labor Federation chairman Ofer Eini to allow two flights carrying some 600 new immigrants from France to land at Ben-Gurion Airport Wednesday morning, even in the face of a general strike, Israel Radio reported.

Bielski reminded Eini that Israel has never prevented aliya, even in times of war.


9 posted on 07/24/2007 5:38:46 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
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To: ventanax5
They will destroy Zionism, give up land, and persecute J?ews for promises of peace and the applause of European leaders.

What do you do when the government betrays the country and the people support it or stay silent?
10 posted on 07/24/2007 5:40:45 AM PDT by rmlew (Build a wall, attrit the illegals, end the anchor babies, Americanize Immigrants)
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To: Esther Ruth

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123175

600 New Immigrants From France to Arrive Wednesday

9 Av 5767, 24 July 07 04:04
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

(IsraelNN.com) Approximately 600 new immigrants (olim) from France will land in Israel on Wednesday morning, July 25. A gala welcome ceremony is planned.

On hand to greet the olim upon their arrival at the airport will be the President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Zeev Bielski, founder of the Aliyah et Meilleure Integration (AMI) organization Pierre Besnainou, Minister of Immigrant Absorption Yaakov Edri, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, mayors and other dignitaries. A festive welcome ceremony will take place at the airport.

The new immigrants, including many young families, will be arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport simultaneously on two separate planes. The flights will originate from Paris and Marseille. The coordinated operation to bring such a large group from France at one time is a joint effort of AMI and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Most of the immigrants arriving on Wednesday will be moving initially to Jerusalem, Netanya and Ashdod, according to the Jewish Agency. Many of them have family already living in Israel.

Since the beginning of 2007, there has been an increase of 10% in the number of new immigrants from France relative to the same period last year. By the end of the year, more than 3,000 new immigrants from France are expected to come to Israel. 2,900 Jews made Aliyah from France in 2006. %ad%

There are currently approximately 600,000 Jews in France, representing about 1% of the population. A surge in anti-Semitic attacks in the country has led to an increase in emigration, with a significant number opting to settle in Israel.


11 posted on 07/24/2007 6:05:49 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
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To: rmlew
What do you do when the government betrays the country and the people support it or stay silent?

You convert to islam, become the dhimi and pay the tax or have your throat cut.

Which is the platfom of democrats in this country, by the way.

12 posted on 07/24/2007 8:09:18 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: americanophile

I suspect Omerts plan is to take the money and run. A villa in Europe etc. The longer he stays in office, the bigger the villa.


13 posted on 07/24/2007 12:18:58 PM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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