On Wednesday night February 22, over 600 people gathered in Brooklyn to give honor and support to the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem and its director, Rabbi Sholom Dov Wolpo.
BORN OUT OF NATIONAL TRAGEDY
The museum’s story is a sad one, born out of a national tragedy. It is a tragedy recently memorialized in Israel’s educational curriculum. Today the Gush Katif Educational kit is taught in classrooms throughout Israel. Dubbed “Gush Katif Commemoration Day” by minister of Education Mr. Gideon Sa’ar, the Gush Katif Educational kit teaches the Israeli school child just what Gush Katif was – a garden of G-d destroyed by greedy men.
The Gush Katif Museum reminds Jews that Israel should “never forget,” that Israel should strive to keep Jews safe, guarding over Jews and protecting them. This is one thought missing in the minds of those pursuing “peace at all costs,” while those costs are being carried by Jewish life and limb.
TREACHERY
The cruelty of non-Jews is terrible, but it pales in the face of the treachery of Jews who turn against their own. Ironically, it was the Israeli citizens of Gush Katif who were accused of being traitors by not giving up their homes for peace. Headlines implied that resistance to government efforts for peace was nothing less than seditious. Overnight, Zionists from birth were vilified in the Israeli press. Overnight, the system they helped to build turned on them. It robbed them of their humanity. Their tenacity in simply wanting to live as others do became a declaration of war on the state of Israel. The full weight of Shabak and security leaders was brought to bear as they solemnly told reporters that they had “secret information” of plans by Gush Katif residents to rebel. “Milchemet Achim,” the dreaded civil war of Jew against Jew, became a national fear. Meanwhile, in Gush Katif itself, the peaceful farming residents went on with life as usual, never thinking for a moment that their own government would so deceitfully turn on them.
Today, it is clear who was the victim and who the criminal. Yet, nothing was learned. The lessons of yesterday are forgotten, as Israel embarks on more talks to give away the crown of Israel, Jerusalem itself.
While government leaders claim this is not the case, every map in the world testifies otherwise. Even the vaunted CIA maps of Israel show Jerusalem as “occupied” and the West Bank and Golan Heights as foreign countries. There, in the world of cartography, the hated Green line lives. Only in Israel is this claimed to be false. Can it be that the whole world is crazy?
GUSH KATIF MUSEUM – LIFE BORN FROM THE ASHES
Today, in the Land of Israel, this unusual museum celebrates the theme of life born from death.
It seeks to awaken and revive the values that brought Jews to the land of Israel. It seeks to retell the efforts of those Jews when they arrived: settling the barren wastelands; brave men who fought marauding Bedouin tribes and suffered extortion from despotic Turkish rulers; paying exorbitant prices to buy swamps and deserts from the locals and turning them into arable land after centuries of neglect.
GUSH KATIF LABELED: “EMBODIMENT OF ZIONISM”
Rabbi Wolpo and his Gush Katif Museum staff seek to revive that original ideology that brought people to settle the Land of Israel after 2000 years. After much work, their efforts are bearing fruit. This month the ministry of education called Gush Katif: “The embodiment of Zionism” and put into place the Gush Katif Educational Curricula.
Despite a theme that doesn’t celebrate growth but rather bemoans Israel’s victims, it brings Gush refugees hope for life. They feel that at least their suffering will not be for nothing. “If it keeps another ‘Gush Katif’ from happening, then perhaps it was worth it,” says one.
As another former Gush dweller put it: “I lived in Gush Katif so you can live in Tel Aviv.” These are victims of the Jewish state that is fighting against Jewish ideals. They are ideals that most former residents believe to be holy, ideals that even after all they have gone through they still espouse as religious Jews. Others have different feelings. As an older man put it: “I survived the Nazis as a partisan only to come here to the Jewish homeland and have my house taken away and destroyed by Jews.”
GATHERING TO HONOR A GREAT MAN
People gathered at the Gush Katif Museum Dinner to honor Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo, who, with his many programs, has succeeded in creating national awareness of the need for a safe Israel with all of its borders intact and protected. He promotes the need to re-annex all the land Israel has given away.
RABBI WOLPO’S PROGRAMS
What does he do that provokes such fierce loyalty to his cause? Perhaps it’s the reward money of $5000 he gives to soldiers who refuse orders to remove Jews from their land. Perhaps it’s his program that enables soldiers and police to ask forgiveness for being part of the expulsion. Perhaps it’s his group’s nonstop campaign of signs on busses across Israel that decries expulsion. Perhaps it’s his taking up the cause of the outcasts of the Zionist dream, the residents of Gush Katif. Vilified and harassed, their homes, livelihoods and belongings destroyed, they are even charged rent for their primitive huts that the government allows them to live in. They are even forced to pay mortgages for land and property forcibly taken away over five years ago.
INTERROGATED BY POLICE
In this spirit, Rabbi Wolpo’s interrogation by Israeli police a week before the New York dinner and their anxiousness about anti-government feelings that might result from the dinner in New York further angered Israelis and New Yorkers alike. Israel has, in their eyes, taken an increasingly tyrannical and repressive stance towards its own.
This stance is felt especially amongst Orthodox Jews. Ironically, it is the religious Jew who is the main funder of Israel today. It is the Orthodox Jews who make up over 75% of Olim. Yet it is these very Jews whom the Israeli government sees as its worst enemy. They are the only force capable of successfully standing against “Land for Peace,” a grave crime in the eyes of Israel’s ivory tower theorists.
MESIRAS NEFESH IS IN HIS BLOOD
Rabbi Wolpo was in Yamit when it was dismantled many years ago. No stranger to mesiras nefesh, he says: “It’s in the blood.” He’s not wrong. Himself the grandson of a four year old child survivor of the infamous 1929 massacre in Hebron, Rabbi Wolpo traces his lineage back to the Alter Rebbe, the founder of Chabad philosophy. It is a philosophy based on Ahavas Yisroel as taught by the Baal Shem Tov.
Rabbi Wolpo was first charged with this task by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who emphasized that the problem with Land for peace is one of safety. Agreements to give away even one inch of land put Jews in danger. Each agreement brings missiles of terror ever closer.
Last October, over 60 Katyushas and Grad rockets were fired on Israel from Gaza, with some even reaching Ashkelon.
SAFETY OF JEWS COMES FIRST
Other Orthodox groups emphasize that Israel is the land given to our fathers, and who gives away what G-d gave to us? But for Chabad this is all secondary. The life of a fellow Jew, “no matter where and no matter who,” comes first. Jewish law, explains Rav Wolpo, allows one to break every law of Shabbos to save Jewish life! What greater love can be demonstrated for a fellow Jew than to save his life? What greater honor can we give the King than to care for his son, as it says: “Banim Atem LaHashem Elokaychem” – You are sons of the L-rd your G-d.
OPPOSITION TO A TWO-STATE SOLUTION
The dinner was unique.
Rabbis and politicians, Democrats and Republicans, and even a Christian minister attended. Dr. David James Manning, an avid supporter of the anti-disengagement movement, joined the event over growing concern that Israel is creating a terror state by giving away land.
It is as the Rebbe put it so many times: “Each inch of land given away only brings more terror.”
First to speak was Rabbi Yossi Jacobson. He spoke very strongly about Israel’s need to distance itself from agreements that only bring death and destruction to Israel.
He was followed by the featured speaker Mr. Glenn Beck, conservative radio host, blogger, author, entrepreneur, and political commentator. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. He formerly hosted the Glenn Beck television program on the Fox News Channel.
GLENN BECK: “COMPARE IT TO 1938 – WHY ARE JEWS QUIET?”
Surprising the audience, Glenn went where Jews are afraid to tread, comparing land giveaways to the events that led up to the Holocaust. “Compare it to 1938, when the world had a madman spell out exactly what he was going to do. And they ignored him. Here we are again. Madmen are spelling out exactly what they plan to do and no one listens. Furthermore, this time around, it’s with the media aiding and abetting. This is exactly what happened in 1938.
“Why is the Jewish world quiet? All the signs are in the air,” referring to Israel’s ignoring Palestinian and Iranian genocidal threats.
Apparently, it takes a Gentile to point out truth that Jewish leaders ignore.
Congressman Lee Terry introduced Ambassador John Bolton, who spoke about Iran’s growing nuclear threat and America’s less than aggressive tone in dealing with it.
The focus of the dinner however was concern over Israel’s giving away its vital resources and defense to foreign entities at the expense of its own citizens who have and are becoming victims.
USING THE ISSUE OF IRAN TO HIDE THE DANGERS OF DISENGAGEMENT
There are those who feel that Israel has championed the issue of Iran in order to hide the far more disturbing problem of why Israel gives away valuable land and resources to Nazi-trained genocidal murderers. While Israel harps non-stop about troubles with Iran, it does nothing within reach about its own “Iran” in Israel’s backyard. It says nothing about rockets falling daily on Israel’s land from the PA areas Israel gave away. People wonder if Israel hasn’t lost sight of protecting its own people, instead preferring to curry favor with America.
As such, the question of “Should Israel attack Iran or not?” pales in light of the increasing military buildup in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, which was left with over 20,000 rockets when Israel retreated in the last war. Shockingly, this has become a non-issue for a country historically so concerned with security.
For most attendees, the question was simply: Why does Israel ignore the dangers of Land for peace? Every military expert acknowledges the mistakes of giving away Sinai and Gaza, which today are the launching pads for missiles fired on Israel and other terroristic purposes. So why does Israel continue with talks about the West Bank, Golan and Jerusalem?
Special thanks go to Helen Friedman, Director of AFSI – Americans for a Safe Israel, and her amazing crew for really making this dinner a success. Special thanks also to Robin Ticker. The dinner would not have been as successful as it was without the World Committee for the Land of Israel – Odelya Jacobs, Dr. Joseph Frager, and Dr. Paul Brody. And of course thanks goes out to the numerous wonderful people who worked and slaved to make this dinner a success!
Much more money still needs to be raised to support the Museum’s huge budget and Rabbi Wolpo’s crucial work. To become a partner with the Museum and Rabbi Wolpo, go to: www.sos-israel.com/en.html.
Checks can be made out to “Friends of Gush Katif Museum” and mailed to:
Friends of Gush Katif Museum Jerusalem
383 Kingston Avenue Suite 155
Brooklyn, NY 11213