At the Luxe Hotel in Brentwood in Los Angeles, I had the good fortune of attending a brilliant presentation by David Haivri.
David Haivri is a Jew from New York who made Aliyah to Israel. He lives in areas of land that enemies of Israel and other well intentioned but ill informed individuals refer to as “occupied territories.” Those with knowledge of history refer to these areas by their proper name: Israel.
Mr. Haivri is married with eight children, and he lectures around the world, determined to educate people as to the true nature of the land of Israel.
This particular event was put on by the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Los Angeles, which is run by Doris Wise Montrose.
While I recommend that the entire world hear Mr. Haivri’s presentation, even the Luxe Hotel does not have rooms that big. So for those that could not attend in person, I present the vitally important remarks of David Haivri.
“‘Never Again’ must remain more than a mere slogan.”
“Stanley Fischer of the Israeli National Bank was asked in one word to describe his feelings on the situation in Israel. In one word, he said, ‘Tov.’ ‘Good.’ Yet when he was asked to describe the situation in Israel in two words, he replied, ‘Not good.'”
“The situation in Israel is greater than it was 100, 200, 500 years ago. Israel has its own country, and its own army. We can go to the supermarket and pay with shekels. That is good.” When I see a Jewish air force jet flying over, that is an incredible feeling.”
“Yet a lot of things in between are not so good.”
“There are Yemeni Jews, Polish Jews, Russian Jews, Peruvian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and American Jews in my Synagogue. That is good.”
“What is not so good is that we have not reached an understanding of our independence that we reached.”
“We are frustrated by the Chutzpah of Obama and other world leaders to intervene and tell Israel what to do.”
(“Chutzpah” means audacity. This fits President Obama perfectly. Apparently his “Audacity of Hope” was his wish to bully Israel, which his current policies reflect.)
“The only country in the world where the international leaders can legitimately suggest ethnic cleansing is Israel. Anywhere else there would be an outcry.”
“I have eight children. I have two boys and six girls, ages one to twenty. I made Aliyah (pilgrimage) as a child. A grandmother has 40 grandchildren living in our community.”
“Many families in our community grew up in our community. These communities were liberated by the Israeli Defense Forces in 1967.”
“Judea and Samaria are wrongly called ‘settlements.’ Yet the West Bank is actually the West Bank of the Jordan River. All of Israel is the West Bank. Both sides of the Jordan River belong to the Jewish people. That was the British Mandate. The British reneged and created TransJordan east of the river.”
“In 1948 the United Nations suggested the establishment of two states west of the river, one for Jews and one for Arabs. The Arabs said no. They attacked.”
“TransJordan means ‘East of Jordan.'”
“Jordan occupied the West Bank for 19 years, from 1948 to 1967. There never was a Palestinian state, a Palestinian nation, a Palestinian Prince, or a Palestinian King.”
“One of the Palestinian founders of the Palestinian National Movement was a Nazi. Even then, it was all about killing all Jews, and wiping them from the face of the Earth.”
“In 1948, Jordan occupied the West Bank. Egypt occupied Gaza. Palestinians did not ask for independence.”
“Peace movements and leftist movements that say that Israel is practicing Apartheid are engaging in outright lies.”
“There is Apartheid going on. It is being practiced by Arabs against Jews. There are areas in Israel where Jews cannot even enter, and roads that Jews cannot drive on. In North Jerusalem, there is a big red sign. It says, ‘No entrance to Israelis.’ By Israelis they mean Jews.”
“There are no areas that are banned to Arabs. Those that claim that there are “Jewish only” roads…that is a lie.”
“The Shomorn area represents 40 communities. The Shomorn Regional Council is the largest council in all of Israel. It represents 11% of Israel.”
“In 2005, Israel decided on a policy of ‘disengagement.’ This should be known by what it actually was…ethnic cleansing.”
“Gush Katif is land that was bought and owned by Jews before the State of Israel was ever created. Yet Jews were forcibly removed from their homes.”
“In 2009, the Obama administration has adopted a policy of banning natural growth. There is no expanding of the family allowed, simply for being Jewish. In Los Angeles, picture not being allowed to live here for being black, or Asian, or Mexican, or Jewish.”
“Let’s say a new couple gets married, and wants to live near their family. Obama says no.”
“Imagine that all Arabs in Israel were put on buses and sent to Saudi Arabia. Yet those who advocated that policy would be considered racist. With Jews, there is a double standard.
(My position on this idea is well known. I would drive the bus myself. I sleep perfectly well feeling this way.)
“How can there be rights of Palestinians? Who are they? They don’t even know where they came from.”
“Before ‘peace’ broke out, Jews could go everywhere in Israel.”
“Picture watching a movie in reverse. The peace process was run like a movie in reverse. It started with rockets being fired on our cities, and ended with a handshake on the White House Lawn.”
“Picture the land of Masada. Walk 350 meters up the snake pit to the top. It is the equivalent of a 120 story building. 960 Jews committed suicide there to die free, not as Roman slaves. Yet the end of the story is not the suicide. It is the state of Israel.”
“President Obama said in Cairo that ‘We must acknowledge Israel.’ Thank you so much for that.”
“He then said that we deserve a state because of what was done to us during the Holocaust.”
“We deserve a state because we were murdered by Nazis? Israelis are offended by this. If that is the case, then why Israel? Why not Uganda or Texas? Why place us there?”
“On this issue, we are to blame. We are to blame because VIPs and tourists are taken to Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial), and given a Yarmulke. They are then taken to the Wall, and they stick a note in the Wall. Then these VIPs go to the Knesset, announce that they visited the Memorial and stuck a note in the Wall, and express sorrow. It is not shocking that they link the Holocaust and statehood.”
“The Holocaust was a wakeup call to get us to return to our land that we were removed from since the defeat to the Romans in 73 A.D. There was no independent nation there since then. The only legal claim to the land is from the Jews.”
“That is the Message of Masada. The survivors of the Holocaust came in 70 A.D. They didn’t leave due to financial difficulties or to check out America.”
“The message to children and VIPs is the message of Masada as our history, and that our right to the land starts there, not at the Holocaust.”
“If we don’t have rights to the West Bank, then we have no right to Israel.”
“The peace plan is a piece by piece plan.” The goal is to drive all of the Jews into the Sea.”
“Since 1948, and 1967, the problem is that they are smarter now and we are dumber now. They are smart enough to know that we believe that we want peace, and we are dumb enough to believe them.”
“Joseph’s Tomb, which is 10 minutes north of my home, was destroyed due to the peace process.”
“The tomb was attacked by Palestinians during the Second Intifada. Palestinians promised to protect it. The moment the IDF left, it was attacked, vandalized, and burned by Palestinians.”
“As part of the peace process, Jews were to have access to holy sites. They now get one visit per month to Joseph’s tomb, only at night, in limited numbers, only for a few hours.”
“The New York Times and LA Times say that Judea and Samaria are the problem. The notion that they are obstacles to peace is propaganda.”
“Religious and non-religious people live there, the area represents overall Israeli society.”
Passions ran high, and the people in the audience asking questions challenged Mr. Haivri. He was more than up to the challenge. One questioner wanted to know why Israel doesn’t just build the Third Holy Temple right now.
(There are several views on this in the Jewish community. Some believe that it would start World War III, since Muslims claim it as their own. Naturally, I remain unconcerned about this. Others say that since the Messiah and world peace will come, and only then can the Temple be built, I say start grabbing hammers and nails and bring world peace already. We have waited long enough. If that does not work, the hammers and nails can be used on the foreheads of our enemies, and perhaps to drill common sense into leftist Jewish peaceniks.)
“Build the Third Temple? I actually wrote an entire book on that. My book on that very subject is entitled ‘Reclaiming the Temple Mount.'”
I then asked my question that focused on another problem Israel has.
“Mr Haivri, your presentation was fabulous. We need many more of you. My concern is about public relations. When the Palestinians end Noura Erakat to UCLA, she is attractive, polite, and speaks perfect English. Yet we have, and forgive me, Shimon Peres talking about the ‘P*ss Process.’
(The crowd laughed)
What are we doing to get more people like you and Benjamin Netanyahu on television? Americans don’t want to hear fractured ‘Heblish.’ Fairly or not, they want crisp, perfect English. What is being done in Israel to make the case in a clear manner? The product is fabulous, but our public relations are terrible. What is being done?”
(Mr. Haivri gave a lengthy answer to my question that was every bit as brilliant as his entire presentation. I stopped writing so that I could pay close attention. I offer only bullet points, but I am now assured that this situation is absolutely being dealt with.)
“Read about Yuli Edelstein of Hasbara. He is working on this. Also, the Dale Carnegie School is training an entire group of Israeli leaders in communications in English.”
Mr. Haivri offered some final thoughts on the entire situation in Israel.
“Moti Gur was a secular general, but he was the one who said, ‘The Temple Mount is our land.’ That phrase is like the Pledge of Allegiance to us.”
“Our argument is that God gave us the land.”
“David Ben Gurion refused to send soldiers to pick oranges. He said that they were ‘soldiers, not slaves.’ Soldiers should not be used to remove Jews from their land.”
“Throughout the West Bank, there are plenty of illegal Arab buildings not being dealt with. Police are not sending letters to Arab municipalities. There is a double standard on the issue.”
All I can say is that I thank almighty Hashem for men like David Haivri.
He is not a settler. He is a man living on his land. The land will one day belong to his children, and his children’s children. The world will not stand up to protect him. The world will not help him defend the land of Israel.
We must.
Never again.
Hineni. Here I am. Jewish and proud, forever.
eric
While I think that a partial Israeli pull back from the territories that it has controlled since 1967 would be a pragmatic move, demanding an Israeli pull back as the price for any action on Iran is about as moral as insisting your neighbour chop down his overhanging tree and sell you his car cheaply before you help put out his burning house. In any case, Obama’s demands are clearly an attempt to delay any action against Iran. If Netanyahu actually carried out Obama’s wishes you can bet more conditions would suddenly arise – and that any actions would probably be along the lines of a “strongly worded letter”.
As I’ve said before, after nearly two hundred days in office Obama’s aims and strategy are both pretty clear. Obama came into office wanting to pull troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately and do nothing about Iran. However, pursuing this strategy directly would come with significant political costs and would be inconsistent with his rhetorical move to the centre after the election. Obama has therefore adopted a strategy that pays lip service to success in the Middle East but makes failure in these three areas inevitable. In Iraq he has reversed the “broken windows” strategy underpinning the surge and intimated that he won’t intervene if violence starts to increase (as is happening). In Afghanistan he continues to send mixed signals and has floated the idea of negotiating with the Taliban. In regards to Iran, Obama also continues to run out the clock with futile negotiations.
Regarding Iran, a lot has been written in the press about the parallels between what is happening in Iran and the popular uprisings in the late 1980s. While this is clearly true in terms of the street demonstations, the picture might be slightly different in terms of the turmoil amongst the clerical establishment. After reading several articles (including George Friedman’s latest article), I think there are are strong similarities between what is happening with Ahmadinejad, Mousavi, Khamenei and Rafasjani and what happened with Stalin, Beria and Khrushchev in 1953. Both Valdimir Naumov and Sergo Beria (Beria’s son) have argued that, on the eve of his death, Stalin was about to directly confront the US – a clearly suicidal policy – and one that might have paved the way for Beria’s (temporary) rise. Similarly, the sudden emergance of clerical opposition of Ahmadinejad may not to be do so much with the election (although it was certainly rigged) but with fears that Iran could move from indirect confrontation with the US and Israel though terrorist proxies – to a direct all-out nuclear attack which could kill millions on both sides. So it seems that, apart from Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, Obama is the only person who is still blase about Iran getting the bomb.
Let me be perfectly clear, I am a proud Jew (Conservative both
in my religious affiliation and economics (US). I favor both the US and Israel pursue WMD, and the delivery systems (like F-35 Eagles). I want
both democracies to stop apologizing ( see Obama), to our enemies like yesterday.
I favor the US sending 22,000 troops to take over Iran’s oil fields,
bombing their 30 nuke sites..and destroying the Republican Guards.
I favor Israel sending in 100,000 IDF troops to finally rid the Gaza Strip
of Hamas. I would send 100 F15s and F16s to fly over Damascus..as a
warning to Assad.
I favor Greater Israel. from the Med.to the Jordan River (let Jordan have
the so-called Palestinian Arabs in their land).
I would not give back one inch of the occupied territories ( in fact they
are disputed).
However, lets be realistic. The US gives Israel 2.2b dollars worth
of state of the art weaponry. Israel cannot make it’s own jet engines.
It can make drones..but cannot make “deals” with China or India,
w/o US permission (often times not given).
Israel has no clout at the UN, with it’s 60 plus Muslim nations..1.4
b Muslims and 300m Arabs. Israel is one half the size of San Bernadino
Country in California. It is the size of New Jersey. My county has twice
it’s population. (10m).
Israel’s survival is dependent upon the strengh of it’s Bar Lev line, (
it’s military). Had it lost one war..we would not now be talking.
Israel’s leaders have admitted that one Iranian nuke over Tel Aviv
and it’s all over.
What then?
The US wants Israel to stop building nursery schools..( this is a
slippery slope). Okay, then hows about using the B1 and B2 bombers
to bomb Iran’s nuke sites…and a few over Ahmad’s palaces.
Now that would be something for Obama to consider, while
he is involved with promoting socialized medicine (for illegals and their
children), at our expense….I mean at our children’s expense.
Folks, if you want to keep the US free and capitalistic…think next time
you pull that lever for a Democrat.
Ridiculous. If the Ocuupied Territories are really “Israel” then Israel should claim them. But Israel WON’T so the OCCUPIED TERRITORIES are NOT. The only way Israel could claim the land and still be a “Jewish State” would be to drive the Palestinians off of THEIR homeland. It would be bloody and Israel would lose all support from all of it’s allies and friends. The settlers should get off that land. It is not theirs and probably never will be.
JMJ