Free Speech Under Attack in Israel
Israel likes to pride itself on being a Western nation, and in
too many ways (idolatry and immorality) it is.
However, in too many other ways their bought and paid for
leaders act like they're old-style Russian Communists who hate
religion and the religious and will exert a brazen
double-standard in enabling the left to get away with
murder (remember Yitzhak Rabin?) and persecute the right for
any trumped up charge or wild accusation.
Those precious Israelis of American descent are particularly
"troublesome" to the hardcore leftists who aren't used to
such independent thought (1 Kings 18:17), who abhor any who dare
question the State, and who cherish their God-given rights of
freedom of speech and religion. Israel is blessed to be like a
Western nation in this regard, to the extent that those of
American and other Western Israelite democracies are free to
live and prosper in the Jewish homeland, free to set a noble
example for the nation to follow, and free from
politico-religious persecution.
Nadia Matar is one of the precious Israelis of freedom-loving
American origin who is now under fire for expressing her
heartfelt Jewish opinion in the letter that appears below,
something that would be considered harmless in the United
States. Yet, in today's quickly disintegrating Israel, Nadia
Matar (Co-chair of Women For Israel's Tomorrow/Women In Green)
has been indicted for it!
The outrageous charge in the insulting indictment is "Insulting
a Public Servant." More than a year ago, Nadia wrote her open
letter, a public plea, to Yonatan Bassi (head of the
Disengagement Authority -- the man responsible for forcibly
evicting Jews from their homes in Gush Katif/Gaza/Samaria). Is
this further proof that Freedom of Speech, and legitimate
discussion is verboten (forbidden) in Israeli-style
democracy? Judge for yourself:
Fast of Gedaliah 5765 (2004),
September 19,2004
To Mr. Yonatan Bassi,
Head of the Deportation Administration
Re: Help in writing your letter to the Jews of Gush Katif
I read on the Internet that in the coming days you will send a
personal letter to each of the inhabitants of Gush Katif who are
designated for deportation. Your letter contains a "personal
appeal and initial explanation of the evacuation process."
According to the report in YNet, the final version of the letter
has not yet been formulated, and therefore I am volunteering to
"help" you formulate the letter. I am attaching a document that
is chillingly similar to what you are about to send - and,
actually, all you need to do is to change the date (from 1942 to
2004) and the place of the deportation (from Berlin to Gush
Katif) and, here, your letter is ready.
The document is a letter from 1942 to the Jews about the
upcoming deportation from Berlin. The letter was sent to the
candidates for deportation by the Jews of the Judenrat (the
Disengagement Authority), in cooperation with the Nazi
authorities. The document goes into great detail as to where the
people will be transferred, what they are to take with them, and
what they are to leave behind. The letter can be found at Yad VaShem.
The document ends with an emotional appeal by the heads of the
Jewish community in Berlin to act calmly, and thereby facilitate
the work of the deportation. "We fervently request that you obey
the orders and perform all the preparations for the transport in
a calm manner. The members of our community who are designated
for immigration should be aware that they con decisively
contribute to the smooth implementation of the transport by
their personal conduct and orderly compliance with all the
orders. Needless to say, we will do all that is in our power, to
the extent that this is permitted us, to stand by the members of
our community and offer them all possible aid" [Council of the
Jewish Community in Berlin, 1942].
How similar is this to your words, when you say in various
interviews how much you "identify with the pain of the settlers
of Gush Katif," and how important it is that you, specifically,
are involved in their deportation, in order to ease the process.
But all of your declarations will be of no avail, Yonatan. The
truth is that you are a modern version of the Judenrat -
actually, a much worse version, because then, during the
Holocaust, this was forced upon those Jewish leaders by the
Nazis, and it is extremely difficult for us, today, to judge
them. Today, no one stands with a gun to your head and forces
you to collaborate in the crime, without any conscience pangs.
Yes, I know. There is a difference between then and now. The
goal of the Nazi monster - that also annihilated most of my
family - was the physical annihilation of the Jewish people, a
physical Holocaust. But let's not pretend to be innocent: the
goal of the deportation from Gush Katif and northern Samaria is
the annihilation of the entire Jewish settlement in Judea,
Samaria, and Gaza, as an interim stage of a spiritual Holocaust:
the elimination of the state as a Jewish state, and its
transformation into a secular state, a state of all its
citizens, without any Jewishness. Not to mention, of course, the
bloody price that we will have to pay for our retreat. If the
criminal Oslo accords cost us more than 1000 victims, Sharon's
deportation plan will give such a push to the Nazi Arab terror
(for the Arabs will see that Israel's folding is proof that
terror pays) that I fear to think how many Jews will pay with
their lives for Sharon's "disengagement."
In conclusion - I wish to correct the empty words by Minister
Poraz, who said today that "a Jew, too, may be an anti-Semite."
This sentence should be: "History has proven that Jews are the
biggest anti-Semites." And, Yonatan, you should know that there
is no escape from the simple truth: whoever participates in the
deportation of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Samaria -
participates in an anti-Semitic act, and will be remembered as
such, for everlasting shame. It is still possible for you to
resign from your abhorrent post and arrive at Yom Kippur, the
Day of Judgment, clean and at peace with your conscience,
without being part of the modern Judenrat - the Deportation
Authority.
Nadia Matar, Co-Chairperson of (Women in Green)