!FIRE FOR EFFECT! 
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."
How dare you tell me that all Jews are beyond reproach for anything and everything.
How dare you and your ping list accuse me of antisemitism because foreign IDF are training paramilitary in MY country.
Read something more your pings.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342999,00.html
You apparently do not understand what you read - it says that no non Jews have applied.
And it clearly states that only Jews are being afforded the protection.
Jews are not a race.
This group does not exclude even on the basis of religion. In the article they say that non-Jews are welcomed.
You are free to start your own group.
A.) I’m not a Nam vet. Got my hardware on Gonzo Station and Operation Earnest Will.
B.) As a professionally trained gunsmith (I have a gunshop + gunsmithing biz) I’d be glad to discuss the operating system differences between the M14 and M16, their development and histories. However, not on this thread, because I’m having too much fun knocking down your feeble anti-yid idiocy.
No,I'm from Isaacs' side of the Family.
Nothing, I don't know if they're Israeli citizens.
I don't know if they're criminals.
Any more than I know if you're a criminal.
Your really need to back up your accusations my cowardly fellow poster.
Start with your accusations against me, if you can.
Prove I'm a Communist mole operating on Freerepublic, who must be complicit, or simply accept the fact that to most people you're an irrational bigot.
It was a trick question and you answered incorrectly.
Get a life. I've said nothing of the kind.
You're welcome to link where I've said that, but you can't, because you're a liar.
How dare you and your ping list accuse me of antisemitism because foreign IDF are training paramilitary in MY country.
I don't remember accusing you of antisemitism, but yes, I suspect that show fits.
When I refer to you I'll call you a Jewhater though. Mostly your fixation on Jews posting here and my ping list, mostly pro-Israel Christians, but I'm sure they suck too.
My ping list, yes you have an obsession with that, don't you. Jewhaters on a couple other sites share that concern with you.
Jews, on a "conservative" site, how can that be?
Don't like my ping list, too damn bad.
Grow a set, whine to the people who run the site, they'll throw me off.
Honestly, you really lack creativity.
And yes, I note your article about Stalin's Jews, the scumbag Christian had plenty of scumbag Jews around him.
Your point is what?
BTW, still waiting for your proof I'm a communist infiltrator on FR?
Let's go spanalot, other than I'm a Jew, what else do you have on me?
!FIRE FOR EFFECT!
What's Your game?
you want my pedigree papers or something?
Maybe a note from my Grandma Roth?
There are Arab Jews you fool. From your response I call you a liar. You don’t know history nor the Jewish people. I couldn’t even give you a clue.
But the vast majority of them hate being called Arabs. My father's beit knesset is mostly people from Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. You do not want to call them Arabs.
...”As He shouts “Sieg Heil” and fires his Luger.!!!”...:0(
spamalot is a classic... if not in his own mind.
“brooklyn Jews” (”more here than in Israel”) - this phrase/delineation most oft used to refer to ‘foreign settlers’ by anti-takeYourChoicers.
Dragging in/up Gratuitously the old dead horse accident USS Liberty in a string in which it is otherwise off topic.
“Israel Firsters”
and more about “Only” Jews even tho it’s not the case.
YOU brought up your you are a semite and since you are taking the anti-Israel/Jew side— someone might reasonably assume you’re an Arab.
Of course, my Handle is based on an ‘Arab’ Jew. Or at least a Jew who lived in Arabia before Mohammed/Islam Killed them all.
Mecca (Yathrib) was a ‘Jewish Settlement’.
I am an Arab Jew & I take no offense to being an Arab, nor does anyone that I know. The reason people get angry, at least in Israel, is because “Arab” is not being said matter of factly, but as an intended insult.
Moroccans seem to be the most proud of their origins & former countries, Egyptians the least proud.
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