Re: CONFISCATION OF RESIDENT'S WEAPONS & DANGER TO LIFE - copy of a seminal letter

Mordechai S.... sent this.

 

16 Cheshvan 5769

14 November 2008

To

: Rabbi of Yishuv Nachaliel, HaRav Uriel Houbara, shlita

From

: Mordechai Sones

Re

: Confiscation of Resident's Weapons and Danger to Life

Shalom u'Vracha,

We are hereby bringing before the Rav an urgent request for a ruling regarding pikuach nefesh (saving of endangered lives), detailed as follows:

Because our communities and the roads leading to them are constantly surrounded by danger, a sudden army or government order to confiscate our weapons would appear calculated to signal an official willingness to place our lives and the lives of our families in greater danger.

Recently, the army committed a surprise weapon confiscation that has stripped our communities of what little defenses we had. Therefore, it has become clear that there is complicity at the highest levels to abandon Judea and Samaria, including Arab attacks, targeted evacuations, and evictions of outposts and other yishuvim ("settlements" – "yishuv", sing.) to help maintain process momentum.

There are other indications that a Palestinian State is planned to be announced in the coming year. In the past, Israel government officials promised they would not uproot "a single yishuv". Their betrayal of that promise is especially significant as they also stressed that they never said they would not allow the Palestinians to chase us out themselves or slaughter us in a first strike attack. Credible military eyewitnesses have reported Palestinian first strike capability within 20 minutes of every yishuv in Judea and Samaria.

As the world's attention is focused on Gazan missiles, IDF counter-strikes, evictions of outposts, and Israeli political intrigue, the coming abandonment of Judea and Samaria is being obscured in a craftily orchestrated international protest against Israel's building of the wall – as if it were an Israeli trick for pushing back the Green Line here and there – and not an instrument to facilitate the carving off and eviction of the Jewish communities that should be protesting the fact that they happen to be on the "wrong side" of the wall to make a Jew-free Palestine.

All of the nine major tyrannical regimes of the twentieth century confiscated the weapons of the populations they planned to murder or terrorize en masse.

The nine regimes are listed below:

 

Ottoman Turkey

USSR

Nazi Germany

China

Guatemala

Uganda

Cambodia

Rwanda

Yugoslavia (the former)

Of the nine regimes, not one announced its intentions to its victims. All the victims were deliberately fed disinformation until the last minute in order to induce them not to resist.

This may explain the transparent story repeated by each ravshatz (Civilian Security Coordinator and IDF-Settlement Liaison), including our own, Mr. Ilan ben-Shabbat, that our weapons are "not actually being confiscated; they will merely be under lock and key with me in the gun rooms, to be distributed in an emergency". ¹

Although the IDF often promises weapons to be made available to the Yeshans (Judeans and Samarians) once a PA onslaught is imminent, the order to release and distribute such weapons would depend on an Israeli cabinet decision.

A PA first strike's chances of success would increase if a handful of IDF officers issued orders to the yishuv ravshatzim not to resist, but to evacuate. Such orders would have to come from the top, of course, i.e. the Prime Minister him/herself.

Knowledgeable disinformers may in fact not know the government's full strategic picture of implementing the betrayal, but have been briefed in meetings with IDF officials on talking points, and guided on what lies to put out facilitating such a betrayal to ensure maximum surprise and shock value against those being disarmed and attacked.

As a matter of fact, six years ago, this same Ilan ben-Shabbat, then able to speak the truth without the constraints imposed by his paymasters in the army, went on record in the community's weekly newsletter more than once, saying:

"Weekly Newsletter, Yishuv Nachaliel; Parshas B'Ha'aloscho (and also) Shelach, year 2002:

"Message from the Ravshatz:

"In light of the current situation and after investigations that were performed after all the infiltrations into yishuvim in the past months, the one who succeeded in stopping or significantly delaying the terrorists were those who encountered them first and were carrying their weapons. In light of this, I request of all those in the yishuv who have guns to always carry their weapon with them at any given time. I know that this is not easy but doing this could save lives.

"Shabbat Shalom, Ilan"

The Ravshatzim are therefore stuck in the middle; they have a difficult job, they are loyal citizens, and they are the constant target of kvetching instead of meaningful community support. This will only undermine their ability to stand up for you to make the clear and right decision at the vital moment.

The government's goal is the successful evacuation of Judea and Samaria, with as little casualties (to themselves) as possible.

The methods they are using against us to achieve this goal:

 

Planting false hopes for Yeshans to cling to and postpone plans to resist;

manufactured sense of hopelessness;

appearance of fait accompli when it has not yet occurred;

betrayal

of trust;

dividing yishuvim

against each other;

cut off support

from rest of Israel;

deception

;

element of surprise; and,

shock

of betrayal -

are all designed to produce one key end-result: Jewish paralysis to allow for the swift collapse of Judea and Samaria.

Meanwhile, on the frantic night of the eviction, several contradictory thoughts, emotions, pressures, and confused loyalties will have been calculated to create extreme psychological stress and paralysis for each ravshatz:

 

A phase of sustained killings, terror, and other harassment which is gradually demoralizing the general population and especially the ravshatzim and their families for years;

Sudden intensification of such incidents;

The ravshatz's knowledge of the yishuv's lack of independent defensive capability;

Recent orders from the IDF to leave;

Fresh demonization of "settlers" in Israeli and world media with newly invented stories of Jews caught planning attacks or atrocities under the auspices of the GSS "Road Safety Committee";

At a certain point of peak violence and stress the ravshatz may receive notification that truck convoys have been pre-positioned near the yishuv to evacuate families as Palestinian Authority armored vehicles advance toward yishuvim, as agreed upon in the Oslo Accords², is coordinated with the IDF retreat to clear the way for Palestinian declaration of statehood.

These same techniques used successfully to betray and abandon the SLA in Lebanon, and the residents of both Yamit and Gaza, are being used against us in Judea and Samaria. SLA Commanders could have saved Southern Lebanon but were given orders from the IDF to betray and abandon their positions. The ravshatzim may be given similar instructions in face of PA attack.

Just like the one night when SLA platoon commanders could have saved the SLA, so will the Ravshatzim have a brief chance to save Yesha (Judea and Samaria).

Under these circumstances, the ravshatzim will unfortunately be the ones upon whose shoulders will rest the terrible decision if our community will survive as a community after a sudden stroke of eviction or abandonment.

The day may come when the ravshatzim will have to give the orders to open the gun rooms and help – or at least allow - the Yeshans to engage in effective nonlethal resistance against an IDF-led eviction, or effective lethal resistance against an Arab first strike.

We must address these issues now, to ensure the survival of your community and Judea/Samaria as a whole – for as we know, Judea and Samaria must stand together - lest Israel fall.

Whether your ravshatz will stand with the group for abandonment and betrayal, or stand with us for the rescue of our yishuv and our country has become the question. We are not the ones forcing this question. The diplomatic appeasement by our government to many other nations sworn to our national destruction has created this question. For us the only question remains either to surrender, or to draw the line with our lives rather than going like sheep to the slaughter.

Because we Yeshans have not been providing the answer, the answer is being made FOR us, which will further demoralize us. So unless we draw the line, it will be drawn for us in an indefensible way. If we don't draw this line now, there are no other lines for Israel to draw.

The world recognizes people's right to defend their homes against aggression, and once they fail to defend those homes, the world also recognizes that they have forfeited the legitimacy of their claims to them. In 1948 the Arabs were told by their own armies to run and they ran. By the world's criteria, they lost their claim to the land when they ran.

Yeshan's willingness and preparation to defend themselves against lethal or nonlethal attempts to evacuate them is Yesha's key to survival at this point.

The amount of time people in yishuvim will have to hold will be temporary – it will be limited. The Iraqi army will not come against us – PA forces plus PA eviction units will have limited time.

If the first strike/eviction against yishuvim is not a fait accompli within a day or two, Yeshans still wavering whether to evacuate may begin finding the courage to resist.

The key factors affecting yishuv survival are the weapons, training, and organization to withstand an assault; the food, fuel, and ammunition to outlast a siege; plus an organized system to provide early warning for when an assault would take place.

We are asking the Rabbis to present this information to the ravshatzim, and to make clear to them that the laws of Pikuach Nefesh obligate them to commit to their historical role in saving Judea and Samaria. When the mad night of betrayal comes, they will be the ones who can empower, or at least not interfere in Yeshans self-defense. And effective Yeshan self-defense is what it will take to buy that crucial 24-48 hours for Israel to reject the policy of acquiescence in abandonment. While the battle to collapse the abandonment policy continues, those inside the yishuvim already understanding the threat can take practical countermeasures.

If the Yeshans do not summon the courage to take effective countermeasures against eviction, they will have acquiesced in their own betrayal by default.

And in the eyes of the world we will have forfeited the moral right to our homes and our land.

Because the hills on which our homes sit are the strategic backbone of Israel, our obligation to defend them goes beyond our obligation to protect our property from theft. The survival of Israel itself is at stake.

Despite official attempts to confiscate and limit the weapons and ammunition available to yishuvim, each yishuv still has more weapons, ammunition, and trained personnel on hand than was available for the heroes of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

In the historical sense, it was their heroism that placed these resources in our hands, and it would be immoral for us to squander them in paralysis when Israel's own survival is at stake.

But by exposing the covert eviction preparations, we can diminish the political support for the abandonment of Yesha and eliminate the element of surprise.

If we adopt effective countermeasures, we can neutralize the threat of eviction.

If all the Rabbis will cooperate, with full support of the community, in ruling thus to all the Security Coordinators, it will make it much easier for each ravshatz to know that he is not alone – on the contrary, many ravshatzim are extremely concerned about the situation – we understand the difficult situation in which they have been placed by the government, and we wish to strengthen and encourage them to do the right thing.

Therefore, we are urgently requesting an Halachic ruling from the Honorable Rabbis based on the unbiased, unbribed (former) testimony of the greatest yishuv security experts there are – the ravshatzim themselves - that confiscation of our weapons constitutes a grave and immediate danger to the people of our communities, both within the yishuv and on the roads, and pikuach nefesh overrides everything.

We therefore request that the Rabbis rule that as a matter of pikuch nefesh, the ravshatzim must immediately return all the weapons and equipment to all the residents like before, and to inform the army that they cannot be party to a deed that will endanger all the families who rely on them and trust in them, because it is the ravshatz's job is to protect them.

With much respect,

Mordechai S.....

cc.: Rabbis of the Jewish People in Every Place

Residents of Judea and Samaria