Articles

Imagine

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by Rabbi Yisrael Kaniel — Aug. 2006

Imagine your home and all of your belongings whisked away in a natural disaster. We shudder at the thought. We hope that it will never happen to us. Unfortunately, though, a similar disaster has befallen our brethren once residing in Gaza / Gush Katif.

The homes of families from Gaza / Gush Katif were destroyed. Almost nothing remains of their belongings. They have to buy new furniture, new housewares and new appliances. The government demands that they pay rent on small, shabby quarters that they have been shuttled away to, while the banks demand that they continue to pay the mortgages for the homes that were destroyed. Most have still to receive their promised compensation. And many have been unable to find employment in their new venues, far away from major cities. In short, a very unenviable situation.

In the course of caring for the needs of our brethren in Israel, B'Ahavat Yisrael has over the past year been assisting the unfortunate expellees from Gaza / Gush Katif. B'Ahavat Yisrael representatives have been distributing food and all sorts of badly needed items to these families, thereby making it easier for them in their struggle to rebuild their homes and their lives.

With the help of generous donations from our more fortunate brothers and sisters, B'Ahavat Yisrael representatives hope to provide our brothers and sisters from Gaza and Gush Katif with a festive beginning to the New Year.

Please donate generously; and spread the word to fellow congregants, family and friends. And may we, in the merit of caring for our fellow Jew, merit much health and happiness in the coming new year.

Don't Believe The Hype

by Yosef Ben Tzion (Joel Busner) — Sept. 2006

I don't remember who it was, but a very successful businessman once told me that a small positive article, perhaps no more than a single column in the New York Times, is worth far more than three (3) pages of advertisements in the very same newspaper. "People believe the press" he said. His point was that an article is perceived to be more objective than an advertisement. Unfortunately the vast majority of Jews long ago forgot where they came from, and with that how to differentiate between fact and nonsense. They allow themselves to be led astray instead of informing themselves of the pertinent facts and then deciding in an intelligent and objective way.

Avigdor Leiberman is being labeled as a right wing fanatic extremist by the Israeli press as well as by the extreme leftists in the Knesset. One member of Knesset recently claimed that Lieberman is a Kahanist. By labeling Lieberman as a racist they hope to deplete his popularity, and if that fails, as it might, then perhaps figure out a way to ban him or at least censure him. If it weren't so sad, it would be comical. What is all the fuss about Lieberman?

Lieberman is saying something that threatens the whole concept of universalism as espoused by the extreme left. He says that Jews and Arabs as a whole cannot live together. He claims that Israel must be a Jewish, Zionist state with the majority of its citizens being Jews. We are now living in the days of Kadima, you remember, the party without an ideology. Ehud Olmert the Prime Minister and head of Kadima can sit with Amir Peretz and his Peace Now camp and then he can sit with the so–called monster of the right Lieberman. When Olmert says that we must expel Jews because we can't live with too many Arabs, there's barely a peep out of our media. Perhaps they don't take our Prime Minister too seriously as he also talks about the loyal Arab Israeli citizens (loyal to what?; only he knows). Still, why all the uproar about Lieberman?

Avigdor Lieberman openly shows his desire not to live with Arabs. If you would saunter off to the enlightened liberal neighborhood of Tel Aviv's Ramat Aviv Gimmel, you will find many an Arab lover but very few Arabs. If you would be honored enough to get a tour of the Knesset you would see many Arab members of Knesset along with many sympathetic Jewish members to their plight. However, in the Knesset dining room, where our beloved Knesset members gorge themselves on our tab, you won't find Arab workers.

The lie of coexistence has been shoved down the throats of the Israeli population for decades. Through the education system, the courts, and the media, the population has been lied to by the elitists who control this country. Slowly but surely the Arabs have taken more and more control of this country. The cities of Akko, Lod, Ramle, large chunks of Haifa, Upper Nazareth, etc. are being taken over by the burgeoning Arab population. The last large Arab demonstration in Lod had huge Hamas flags displayed in public view. Anyone who lives near an Arab village knows that he / she will hear gun shots from that village several times per week. The stench that emanates from virtually all Arab towns and villages every evening from their burning garbage is nauseating. We watch this as the same Arabs literally steal more and more land and build more and more houses without permits on land that was never purchased — much of it land of the Jewish National Fund. What does the government do? The government along with Israel’s Supreme Court give the Arabs more rights and enforce virtually nothing against these obscene violations! Let a Jew fire his registered gun at a party and see how fast he's arrested. Let a Jew build a small section to his house without a permit and see how quickly the authorities come down on him. Let a Jew burn garbage in any Jewish dominated town in Israel and every environmentalist group will rightfully be up in arms.

Lieberman has hit a chord. He is another one who has challenged the lie. Only now he is deputy Prime Minister. This worries the elitists. Only I think that they are overly worried. You see, although Lieberman is honest about his feelings towards Arabs, his proposed solutions and ideas concerning the future of Israel are really not that dissimilar to those of his leftist opponents. Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitanu party have made their views crystal clear if only people would take the time to learn them and understand their potential consequences.

1) Lieberman is against transferring hostile Arabs. That's right. He wants to exchange lands and populations. He is ready to give up parts of Jerusalem, the Galilee, the Triangle, etc., wherever there are large pockets of Arabs, in exchange for areas with large pockets of Jews. He would keep some of Judea and Samaria but give away huge amounts of other sections of Eretz Yisrael. This is a right wing fanatic? Hardly. Fifteen years ago this policy would be considered extreme left! Imagine Joshua entering parts of the land of Israel and telling the Nation that we can't settle in this place or that as there are too many Canaanites!

2) Lieberman is for civil marriages. As part of his dream of a secular run country, Lieberman is for reducing the powers of the rabbinate in favor of secular laws, especially regarding marriages. By reducing the rabbinate's powers in marriages, we will be increasing the number of mixed marriages in Israel.

3) Lieberman is for continued non–Jewish immigration to Israel. Every time the issue has come up to curb aliya from the former Soviet Union of non–Jewish olim, Lieberman, like Natan Sharansky, have opposed it. Due to the policy of letting almost anyone into Israel, more than half of the olim from the former Soviet Union are not Jewish and most have no intention of being Jewish. Former Knesset member Michael Kleiner proposed legislation which would have reduced this problem by some 90%. Lieberman was vociferously opposed. Why? Because he didn't want to lose their votes. What kind of Jewish Zionist state will we have with all these Gentiles being full citizens?

4) Lieberman is not reliable. Lieberman's positions keep changing. Five years ago he was screaming to bomb Tehran. Now that he's in power he says that it's no longer five years ago. Did Iran become less of a threat in the last five years? Lieberman's land swap policy is a new one. Only a few years ago, he was talking about moving out some Arabs and of Israel keeping most of the territories and whatever Arabs would stay would live in certain cantons. His now much weakened policy shouldn't be trusted either.

Dear Jew,
While Mr. Lieberman's remarks about the Arab population tweak those in the Establishment, don't be fooled. Many of his positions are against Judaism. We can't give up parts of the land to sworn enemies, period! The overwhelming majority of Jews in Israel don't want to live with hostile Arabs. That's understandable. Giving away land and giving up Jewish values in governing the state won't make Israel more Jewish and certainly not stronger. Faith in G–d and a return to our roots is the only way to fulfill a real Zionist dream of a Jewish State in our Land. Amen.

Faith and Love

by Yosef Ben Tzion (Joel Busner) — Nov. 2006

Dear supporters of a Jewish state of Israel,

A moment or two after a katyusha rocket comes close to killing you is a good time to reflect on one's life. We had been delivering supplies the entire day to the beleaguered residents of the village of Shlomi, on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border. Several times we ran for cover as katyushas kept falling all around the area. I estimate that around 75% of the village's residents had fled in pursuit of safety. Many who remained did not leave because they did not have where to go. We were departing from our last delivery for the day, which one of our crew had been filming, when, suddenly, a loud blast made everything around us shake. We panicked and ran down to the building's bomb shelter that we had just ascended from moments earlier (the actual film of this occurrence can be seen on our website). After several minutes had passed, we were relieved to learn that no one around us was injured or, G–d forbid, killed.

After the incident mentioned above, I sat looking at my friend Zev, who was definitely not his usual upbeat self and I began to reflect as to why we do these types of activities. I suppose this is for the same reason that B'Ahavat Yisrael has made so many food deliveries deep into the Shomron without bullet proof vehicles and without armed security (which we would have welcomed were funds available). Perhaps it is for the same reason that B'Ahavat Yisrael still makes deliveries to the expelled residents of Gush Katif when their plight is barely making a mention in any of Israel's media and the Jewish establishment’s Diaspora newspapers. Maybe it is for the same reason that B'Ahavat Yisrael continues to go to hospitals to sit with injured Jews and their families while bringing them generous gift packages even though we have to struggle with the administrations of most of these hospitals before and during those visits.

True it is scary to dodge katyusha rockets. It is also scary to be a soldier sworn to defend your land and your people when at the same time your army under the direction of your "what will the world say?" government puts more and more shackles on its soldiers, prohibiting you and your comrades from winning.

It must have been very discouraging in the pre–State land of Israel for Irgun and Lehi fighters who were hunted by both the British occupiers and the false leaders of the establishment Left in those years. After all, all they wanted was to secure the Jewish home for the Jewish people in our land.

While the masses of Diaspora Jews concerned themselves with keeping up with the Cohens or Schwartzes, or whatever Jewish equivalent to the Joneses, there were those who spent time in jail for being guilty of fighting to free their brothers and sisters in the former Soviet Union from the late 1960's until the mid–1980's. It is not their fault that today the Israeli government and Jewish agency by design have encouraged hundreds of thousands of non–Jewish Russians to make aliyah. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Jews from Russia were freed and have made Israel their home is testimony to the fact that their efforts paid off even if the average Jew has no idea who most of these heroes were.

And … for over 20 years, he sits and waits. Jonathan Pollard, whose biggest crime was caring about Jews and Israel too much. From the establishment types, we cannot expect anything. But … those who claim to believe, where are they? Pollard is the symbol. His endless and cruel incarceration is proof positive that the Jewish people have not done what needs to be done in order to be redeemed. There are the few who demonstrate in Israel and America. There were those who tried to block the roads to his former prison. There are those who travel great distances to visit him and give him hope. It will take a united front, not a majority, but it will take a leap of faith to free Jonathan. Are we ready to break the barricades?

When one goes to Tzfat, there is a very large cemetery. On any given day, you can visit there and see many locals and tourists visiting the graves of some renowned rabbis. If you wander down a little more, there are seven graves. They are not the graves of rabbis. They are not the graves of politicians. They are graves of seven young Jews who voluntarily gave their lives fighting British and Arab Jew–haters and they were hung by the British humanists in Akko. Some of them were given the option of living by the British if only they would plea–bargain. None of them did. It is because of Jews like them, with the help of G–d, that we acquired a Jewish state.

It is up to all of us to have faith and "ahavat Yisrael" (love of one's fellow Jew) to overcome petty differences and make this country great as was promised by the Creator.

A State Of Dichotomies

by Yosef Ben Tzion (Joel Busner) — Sep. 2008

The U.S. dollar is taking a beating against world currencies. The Israeli Shekel is one of the best, if not the best performing currency in the world. Airfares to Israel have skyrocketed as a result of the weakening dollar and the huge increase in the price of a barrel of oil.

On the other hand…. you must reserve flights to Israel way in advance if you want to be assured a seat. Israeli hotels which are going for 50% to 100% more per room per night in U.S. dollars from only two years ago are so booked up that there are plans to add 10s of thousands of new rooms over the next few years to accommodate the record number of tourists to the Holy Land!

Israel is amongst the world leaders in high tech and bio tech. Yet… there is a tremendous brain drain as many techies, researches, and doctors, leave the country for greener pastures. Efforts are being made through financial incentives to attract young and middle aged Western Jewish doctors to make aliya. Yet… you can make an appointment with your family doctor the same day you call and you almost never hear of the American horror stories of people losing their homes because of a long stay in the hospital that the insurance only ’partially’ covered.

The university students are continuously upset about the lack of government funding and many young people from poor Sephardic homes can’t afford to go to college. Yet… every time we go to visit injured people at various hospitals around the country I hear American Jewish medical students talking. Why are the majority of them studying here? Because the quality of learning is good and the price is, you guessed it, far less expensive than their native country!

Israeli fruits and vegetables are amongst the best in the world. Israeli innovations in agriculture and especially in maximizing output of land and water are examples imitated by the rest of the world. Yet… due to lack of leadership, overall water preservation is not prioritized and many projects that can ensure Israel’s long term water requirements are constantly procrastinated, resulting in forced cutbacks in water usage by farmers which assures many bankruptcies.

Israel once proudly stated it would build Jewish communities anywhere in the Land of Israel that it pleased. Today formerly Nationalist pro Land of Israel politicians are at the forefront of the policy of retreat which means destroying vibrant Jewish communities without even pretending to have a ’peace’ agreement.

Israel is the country which beat three (3) Arab armies in six (6) days in 1967 and expanded its area of land several times in the process. The same Israel did the impossible in Entebbe in 1976 by flying half way around the world to free almost all of the hostages before Idi Amin even realized what had happened. It was little Israel that stood up against virulent criticism by the both its ’friends’ and enemies and blew up Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981 and in the process did the rest of the world a big favor.

Today, not so many years later, Israel is trading the most vicious unrepentant murderers for dead soldiers’ body parts. The government of Israel stands powerless as a group of cowardly thugs whom they originally armed to ’police’ themselves, sit in Gaza (which is Eretz Yisrael!) and launch home made missiles at the hapless town of Sderot and its environs.

To be a free Nation in our Land? Ask the citizens of Sderot!
Summer 2006 Hizbollah rockets shut down the city of Nahariya

The same Israel only two (2) summers ago was brought to its knees as the genocidal Hizbollah led by the cowardly Nasrallah (may G-d obliterate his name) launched 200 Katyusha missiles a day for over a month and turned the entire Galilee into a giant ghost town.


Summer 2006 Hizbollah rockets shut down the city of Nahariya
Deliveries to bomb shelters

Israel which was built by Jewish labor that had a Histadrut which forbid Arab employment today almost exclusively employs non Jews in construction and agriculture and many other forms of manual labor, resulting in thousands upon thousands of blue collar types of Israeli Jews either collecting welfare or living abroad doing what? Blue collar work for better wages.

Israel is a country that was funded and developed by benevolent organizations such as the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund whom today are forced by a self hating media and Supreme court of jesters to go against their very raison d’etre by giving lands and funds to Arabs. The same so called Israel Arabs whose vast majority are against the very essence of a Jewish State of Israel.

Now there is a movement to change the National anthem Hatikva to be more inclusive of Arabs. Demographically, the state’s Jewish majority is shrinking and this includes inside the so-called Green line. On the other hand, every day there are more Jews living in Israel and less Jews living in the Diaspora. This is further proof that our time of redemption is near. As a people our future is Israel.

Dear Friends of a Jewish State of Israel,

There is despair and there is hope. B’Ahavat Yisrael Organization is a modest organization that aims to unite the Jewish People in building a better a better Israel through various activities such as:


Gifts for sick children 		 
Magician in hospital
-When we go to Sderot to sit with traumatized families and hand out food for Shabbat (Sabbath) and holidays we give them hope and the knowledge that they are not alone.

 
Moshe Rubenstein with Sderot residents

 
Purim packages for Sderot
 
 
Preparing Passover packages in Sderot for Sderot

Sderot resident and volunteer Jacques Cohen 		 
Director Joel Busner taking a break in Sderot, July 2008

 
Another Sderot food drive July 2008

-When we bring hundreds of Jewish students to the Galilee olive orchards to pick olives during the autumn harvest we give both the farmers and the youth hope we the Jewish People can physically do what we once did to build the country. It is in our hands.

-When we take visiting American Jews to volunteer for various activities including renovating bomb shelters alongside Israeli volunteers we are promoting ‘Achdut’ Jewish Unity.

When I first made aliya I kept getting asked by Israelis why I came to live here when I had been living comfortably in the States? I said “Because I am a Jew”. I’ve been asked that question hundreds of times over the last ten (10) years. My answer hasn’t changed. B’Ahavat Yisrael organization with your help and participation will increase its activities and whenever and wherever our members will go the logo will be displayed on the t-shirts “Because I am a Jew”.

  Shana Tova,

Joel Busner (Yosef Ben Tzion)
Founder and Director, B’Ahavat Yisrael










B.Y. Volunteers preparing packages
Unite With Beleaguered Families In Sderot!


The financial distress in Sderot didn't begin with the Israeli government's belated decision to finally do something about the incessant rocket attacks on Southern Israel. Currently the entire southern region of Israel is under the threat of rocket attacks from Gaza. Preceding the 2005 Disengagement Plan (which expelled all 8,000 Jewish residents from Gaza/Gush Katif) the Jewish communities of Gush Katif as well Sderot were the main targets of rocket attacks from the Palestinian Authority controlled areas of Gaza. After the expulsion of Gush Katif rocket attacks on Sderot and its environs increased. Ashkelon started to become a target last year and now that Israeli Defense Forces are fighting with Hamas the rockets are hitting Netivot, Beer Sheva, Ofakim, Kiryat Gat, Ashdod, Gadera, Gan Yavneh, Yavneh, and more.
B.Y. Field Manager Rafi Franco & "Zehava" Management of Victory Supermarkets - Sderot



Sderot is somewhat unique in that the city has been on the receiving end for 8 years! This has made the economy suffer drastically. Who in his/her right mind would want to invest in a business there? There are businesses that make virtually no income. Even when it's been quiet, it's only been temporary. There has been no sustained quiet in Sderot for 8 years!


Many people who could leave Sderot have left. Many 'official' figures talk about the city losing 4,000 to 5,000 people out of an original 24,000 people. Others in Sderot tell us that if 17,000 people remain, it's a lot. There are many people who remain because they have no choice. Banks won't forgive mortgages and those who have paid off homes can't find any buyers in order for them to relocate. The very poor who live in very cheap rented apartments have no real options either. It is for these reasons that we at B'Ahavat Yisrael have done many food drives over the last couple of years.
B.Y. Associate Director, Moshe Rubenstein, at a Sderot Home




Our food drives are special because we purchase all the food from local Sderot businesses. We work with volunteers from Sderot who show us who the really deserved people are. We then personally deliver the food packages right to the recipients' homes. When there are individual sponsors of complete packages we include the donor's details.


We have decided to postpone some of our other activities in order to concentrate on getting as much food and toys/games for children to Sderot. We are offering 3 types of packages for sponsorship each with its own price. This way virtually anyone can sponsor a package and show unity with someone in Sderot.

B.Y. Sderot Rerisentitive, Jacques Cohen, Supervising packgaing food boxes





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