Posted on 07/27/2008 8:41:08 AM PDT by ChicagoHebrew
onatan Stern, the "Sgan Mefaked Hakita" (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut New York, insists his "paramilitary emergency armed response team" is no "group of vigilantes or a JDL [Jewish Defense League]." Members of Kitat Konenut New...
Members of Kitat Konenut New York pose in a photo posted on the group's Facebook page. Photo: Courtesy Slideshow: Pictures of the week
"The goal of the organization is to have a competent and professional group of armed volunteers ready to respond to a threat at a moment's notice in any area where Jews reside," explains the Israeli combat veteran.
"We do not carry out demonstrations or political activity of any kind as we have no political agenda. Our agenda is to protect Jews wherever and whenever necessary and by any means needed."
On Friday, the third session of the group's training camp will begin in the Catskills woodlands of upstate New York, on land belonging to a Jewish supporter of the organization. With tuition at $400, the group expects 15 participants and five instructors for the 10 days of training. Participation has doubled since the group began three years ago.
Kitat Konenut New York is modeled on the rapid response teams in the West Bank settlements that are often the first to act when terrorist attacks or other emergencies take place. The group bills itself as religious-Zionist but nonpolitical.
American Jews have "felt a false sense of security in the United States," Stern believes, "because historically there has been less anti-Semitism than in other countries. But there have been incidents - neo-Nazi terrorist attacks, Arab terrorist attacks. Jews have to be vigilant."
"The threat is not from the American people or government," he adds, but from "terrorist sleeper cells that want to target Jews. These people are very dangerous and the FBI issues warnings against them very often," he said, citing the FBI's warning, after the killing of Hizbullah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February, that the Lebanese group might carry out terror attacks on Jewish communities.
"The average American is friendly to Jews, but we're worried about those individuals on the periphery of society," Stern says.
The group was founded in the summer of 2006 in response to the shooting attack at the Jewish federation of Seattle premises by local Muslim Naveed Haq.
"We realized there is a need for this kind of organization, and as Israeli combat veterans living in the US, we have the skills and ability to respond to this," Stern says.
The group's MySpace page details the camp's regimen, which includes training in the IDF's Krav Maga martial art, use of non-lethal weapons and identification of suspicious objects, but also sharpshooter and assault rifle training, infantry exercises and endurance marches. Explanatory literature lists a large number of weapons with which participants can expect to train.
"We believe all Jews in the US must be legally armed and trained," Stern says, "and towards this goal we hold paramilitary training camps to train and equip Jewish American youth."
The group's literature notes emphatically that all firearms used in training "are 100% legal and in compliance with all federal, state and local laws."
"We strongly believe in the constitutional right to bear arms and we express this right to its fullest," it adds.
The group claims to be "well-connected with the New York police and fire departments" and it invites "all members of the law enforcement community to join in our life-saving activities."
Stern says, "We are all legally armed and carry radios and cellphones" during all hours of the day, and even on Shabbat, "as we need to be constantly ready to respond to any incident."
The camp literature also promises discussions on Torah and Halacha, understanding and confronting terrorism, fighting anti-Semitism, the history of the Zionist movement in the Land of Israel, and encouraging participants to "know your rights and learn how every American can and must be legally armed and how to express the Second Amendment" - the right to bear arms.
Funded by tuition money and a handful of private donors, the group does not exclude secular Jews, Stern says, but asks that they respect the Orthodox nature of the camp by observing Shabbat in public and refraining from bringing non-kosher food.
"We wouldn't have a problem with non-Jews coming either," says Stern, "but no non-Jew has applied thus far."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017252/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019925/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2022655/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037635/posts
what does this have to do with an attack in 2002
Sorry this does not pass the sniff test and reminds me of what is going on in Russia with paramitary bodyguards
wow
The anti Semite card
Excuse me for questioning the harboring of foreign troops on our shores
I say get the Israeli military out of the US now
You said: “That’s a lie
The artcle (sp) clearly states these are israeli(sp) military led forces”
I say: With grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors not considered, you could not show your ignorance any more clearly. The following is the pertinent info from the article introducing the cast of characters:
“Yonatan Stern, the “Sgan Mefaked Hakita” (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut New York, insists his “paramilitary emergency armed response team” is no “group of vigilantes or a JDL [Jewish Defense League].”
“The goal of the organization is to have a competent and professional group of armed volunteers ready to respond to a threat at a moment’s notice in any area where Jews reside,” explains the Israeli combat veteran.”
Please point us to the tidbit of evidence that this Israeli combat vet is not a U.S. citizen, or is still in the IDF. Who is obfuscating the issue?
You asked the question about Jews being attacked.
I provided indisputable evidence.
You weaseled.
How wonderfully predictable.
how does a couple muggings and rock throwing going back 20 years justify Israeli paramilitary in this Country?
“Excuse me for questioning the harboring of foreign troops on our shores
I say get the Israeli military out of the US now”
What a bunch of bomb-throwing hyperbole! Put down the energy drink and re-read the article.
Muggings? See El Al post. You are a real piece of work.
All I said was to keep an eye on CH and give you my back up since you were too lazy to take the hint I gave you in post #10.
Have a nice day.
You argue like a liberal.
Would you be in favor of Muslim militas? If so, maybe we can get the military of Jordan or Syria to train them.
” Good for the Jews to arm themselves.”
...I’m shoulder to shoulder with them on this...
“We should be doing the same thing.”
....indeed!....and many of us are.
people who have been putting off getting a gun/ammo might want to objectively consider their situation should Obama/Pelosi/Reid gain control in Nov.
Here is the Muslim training facility in Upstate NY...
Islamberg is a branch of Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization formed in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr," Gilani, has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat ul-Fuqra or "community of the impoverished," an organization that seeks to "purify" Islam through violence.
The 70 acre complex is surrounded with "No trespassing" signs; the rocky terrain is infested with rattlesnakes; and the woods are home to black bears, coyotes, wolves, and a few bobcats.
Venturing into the complex last summer, Douglas Hagmann, an intrepid investigator and director of the Northeast Intelligence Service, came upon a military training area at the eastern perimeter of the property. The area was equipped with ropes hanging from tall trees, wooden fences for scaling, a make-shift obstacle course, and a firing range. Hagmann said that the range appeared to have been in regular use.
Islamberg is not as benign as a Buddhist monastery or a Carmelite convent. Nearly every weekend, neighbors hear sounds of gunfire. Some, including a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, have heard the bang of small explosives.
Over the years, numerous members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra have been convicted in US courts of such crimes as conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers' compensation fraud. Others remain leading suspects in criminal cases throughout the country, including ten unsolved assassinations and seventeen fire-bombings between 1979 and 1990.
The criminal charges against the group and the criminal convictions are not things of the past. In 2001, a resident of a California compound was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff's deputy; another was charged with gun-smuggling' and twenty-four members of the Red House community were convicted of firearms violations.
By 2004 federal investigators uncovered evidence that linked both the DC "sniper killer" John Allen Muhammed and "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid to the group and reports surfaced that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and beheaded in the process of attempting to obtain an interview with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.
http://www.islam-watch.org/Others/Islamberg-Upstate-New-York.htm
it looks like the trolls are out again
Did you read the title or do you get paid to obfuscate
A Very Good Thing,,,
I’ve used nothing but facts, which is quite un-lib like.
There are already muslim militias. Just as there are christian militias in this country. The IDF is not training people here, or there. This is an individual, who could actually be an American citizen. Is there any proof otherwise??????? Even if he is not a citizen, is he still in the IDF?
I’m a veteran of our U.S. Armed Forces. If I train a member of a so called militia to shoot would it mean that the U.S. is training militias??? That is what you posit with your ridiculous comments.
IDF VETS. VETS!??!?!?!??!?!?!?!?
Does not mean it is the state of Israel. Damn, why is that so hard to understand?
As I stated in another post: I’m a veteran of the U.S. military. If I train someone in a militia to shoot, is that the U.S. training them? No.
Troll huh? Call names when your argument sucks? Great tactic, on the playground. Come on, sink my argument.
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