From: cs364" <cs364@earthlink.net>
To: <national-journal@usa.net>
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:55:15 -0700

Why Orthodox Jews OPPOSE Zionism and the Zionist state and our standpoint on the Zionist oppression of the Palestinian people

1.) The terms Jews and Judaism refer respectively to a religious not racial entity, the ideology known as Zionism consists of -

a) an attempt to transform this religious entity known as the Jewish people into a racial entity of people bound together only by shared national characteristics such as language common history etc. irregardless of belief in the Creator and observance of His commandments,

b) Judaism, for all believing Jews denotes the system of beliefs, laws and teachings, etc. which we believe were given to our forefathers by the Creator (may His name be blessed) through Moses our teacher and other Prophets, this meaning of the word is transformed by the Zionists from a Divine revelation to a mere set of common traditions shared by a specific racial group. The above however, according to the Torah* could not be further from the truth, since according to the Torah the value of a person has no relationship with race rather with actions, example any Jew who denounces belief in the One Creator or in divine revelation through the Prophets or any of the other fundamentals of Judaism is no longer considered part of the Jewish people and loses his share in the afterlife, whereas on the contrary a non-Jew who because of belief in the Creator and his Prophets accepts upon himself to observe the basic laws which were commanded to all mankind such as the prohibitions of idol worship, stealing, murder etc. is considered from the righteous people of the world. In fact to be a faithful Jew and be faithful to ones country be it the US, Iran or any other country is no contradiction whatsoever.

Comments from the National Journal on present day events in the Holy Land:
Outstanding courage! Brave Israeli soldiers waging war against children!
Jewish soldiers of Israel are brave when they can safely aim their state-of-the-art weapons at stone throwing children but they cry when they are confronted with men like the fighters of Hezbollah, as the Jewish Chronicle reports: "Israeli soldiers in Lebanon are openly talking about being scared and have begun to question why they should stay there any longer. ... 'None of us wants to be the last one killed in it. One soldier added: 'The latest deaths make it hard to act. We are afraid.' ... OC Northern Command Major-General Gabby Ashke-nazy reportedly called the soldiers 'rags' - an Israeli term for cowards - and 'crybabies'." (Jewish Chronicle, London, Feb. 18, 2000, page 3) One of the world's smallest guerrilla forces, the Hezbollah, drove the Israeli army, one of the world's most powerful and technically advanced armies, out of an entire country. Thankfully for the security of Israel, Israeli soldiers are at least still able to cope with little children, provided the children are only armed with stones. They successfully murder Palestinian children every day, justifying their daily heroism by claiming that the children are threatening the security and existence of Israel, the third largest nuclear power in the world. Israel is fully supported in her acts of heroism by their German and American accomplices.

2.) Considering the above and the fact that the founders of Zionism were self proclaimed atheists the Zionist ideology considers the hope of the Jewish people in racial terms i.e.,, to have a state, army etc. Orthodox Jews, however, do not believe that we were exiled from our land app 2000 years ago because of military weakness rather as a result of sins which we committed while dwelling in the land, in fact we are instructed by the Creator through his Prophets not to try to remedy this exile ourselves through human means (see Talmud tractate Kesubos 111a), rather we must remain loyal citizens to the governments of the nations wherever in which we dwell. The hope of Orthodox Jews therefore is not for any such man-made redemption such as a state or army, rather our hope is for the spiritual redemption promised to us by the Creator through our Prophets and Sages which will on the contrary be a time of peace when all mankind with one heart, will come together to serve the One Creator, and in that time we will be able to serve the Creator his Holy Land. (Although throughout history, even after our exile, there have always been Jews living in the Holy Land this is no contradiction to the above since they have always lived peacefully subordinate to the ruling nation without making any attempt to create a state or army as the Zionists have done, in fact even now there are many thousands of Jews living in the Holy Land who oppose the Zionist state and even refuse to accept monetary aid from the government or participate in their elections, Rabbi Moshe Hirsch of Jerusalem regularly meets with PLO leaders to publicize that it is the will of Orthodox Jews in the Holy Land to live under Palestinian not Zionist rule).

3.) Unfortunately however, through money, propaganda and therefore media control the Zionists continue to portray themselves to the world as representatives of the Jewish people. In their propaganda they also continue to use the various groups of so-called 'religious' Zionists to fool the world into believing that their occupation of the Holy Land and their injustices against the Palestinian people have a foundation in Judaism. The murders and injustices which they commit and have committed against the Palestinians therefore hurt us doubly since by carrying such things out in the name of the Jewish people through misuse of Judaism they are profaning the name of the Creator and dirtying our faith.

It is for these reasons that we see it as our duty to proclaim to the world that the true Jewish people, i.e., those true to the Creator and his Torah, the world over, oppose the Zionists and the injustices they commit falsely in the name of our people. On the contrary we oppose the Zionists and their 'state' vigorously and we are deeply disturbed by these injustices and share in the grief of those stricken, and we continue our prayers for the dismantlement of the Zionist 'state' and peace to the world.

N.B It should also be noted that the above points have been expressed by us on many occasions in the past through protests (many times together with Palestinians) and advertisements in major newspapers etc. We also ask anyone who can to please pass on the above message so that the mistaken notion that Judaism and Zionism are related will not spread.

Rabbi E Weissfish
NETUREI KARTA,
Representatives of Orthodox Jewry, US, London, Palestine and worldwide.

* The word Torah in Hebrew refers to the laws and teachings given to the Jewish people by the Creator through Moses our teacher at Mount Sinai.