(Editor's note: Canada Free Press columnist, former US Army Colonel Marine William Mann sends this timely email from a friend Channa Kirshner, recently returned from Israel, saying he is certain that this news is not getting out to the Free World while Obama is betting the farm on his arm twisting negotiations with Netanyahu at the White House. "The Israelis need America more than ever and we are not even being given the real news!" )
- Channah Kirshner
I just received a letter written by my dear friend Nadia in Israel who heads up my group "Women in Green" for which I worked during my 3 years in Israel. Please read her story and try to understand as best you can what the world expects of our small little country Eretz Israel.
Unfortunately, I am realizing with tears flowing as I write that when it hits close to home and you know the people involved it hurts deeper and you aren't reading names or numbers of people, but about your friends who you prayed and worked with to hold on to Eretz Israel. I held one of Talya's babies on my lap and realize that this child will never have her mother or father's arms to hold her again or to tuck her into bed at night or see her bat mitzvah, all her birthdays and her wedding day.
On the eve of the peace talks in Washington this week, two of Geoffrey's and my friends from Hebron, who worked and traveled with us in the settlements, were slaughtered by the Arabs after we tore down the blockades which protected us from murders such as this but in good faith this was done for peace talks which Obama's administration requested Israel to do in good faith as requested by the terrorists Hamas and the Palestinian leader Abbas. Unless you saw PBS or heard a slight mention last night from Abbas and Obama about the misfortune, no other major networks addressed this issue. In a good faith gesture Israel quit building our homes that were already in the midst of being built in our own neighborhoods for ten months as requested by Abbas the Palastinian leader and Hamas, the Terrorist group which bombed our country. Remember 9/11? They had the audacity to demand Israel to continue to quit building our apartments on our own land so we obliged them for ten months in good faith to sit down and have peace talks. Meanwhile during these ten months Hamas has continued to bomb us in Sederot and Ashdod from Gaza and of course, nothing is ever written or reported on the nightly news over these "incidents" as they call them. So I ask you--who is doing all they can to sit down and have peace talks? At the same time we are being terrorized by Hamas we are supplying tons of aid daily to them, food, medicine etc.
Geoffrey and I are so happy to be back with our families and have returned to our beloved Shul in Stamford, but realize that this is the first year we will have not celebrated the New Year in Israel in a few years so our celebration is bittersweet. This incident has totally overshadowed the joy we have been experiencing since our return to our homeland so we ask our friends and family to pray this Shabbat/Sabbath for the four individuals that were slaughtered and for Yitzak and Talya's 7 children's lives which will be embraced by the others in the settlements but will not take the pain away of losing their parents. Below is Nadia's letter and to give you more insight to what is really happening in Israel and not what you are reading or hearing around the world...yesterday there was another drive by shooting killing more Jews. These roads that are experiencing the shootings Geoffrey and I traveled monthly to the settlements but there were blockades and soldiers protecting our journey - not anymore because we are having "Peace Talks"
Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova - Shea and Channah
SEVEN ORPHANS AND EXPULSION ORDERS AGAINST TREES
By Nadia Matar
In the past 48 hours we have returned to the nightmarish days of Oslo when we used to spend our time at funerals of Jews massacred by Arab terrorists. That is what happens when Israel sits down for "peace talks" with arch murderers like Abu Mazzen.
Tuesday night we heard the news about four Jews attacked in a drive-by shooting a few kilometers after Hevron, on the main road, road 60, that connects Jerusalem to Beersheva.
A bit later we found out who the victims were. Our dear friends Yitzhak and Talya Amis HY"D, longtime Erets Israel lovers and activists. They were driving from Jerusalem to their home in Bet Chaggai, in the southern Hebron hills. Talya was pregnant with their seventh child. With them in the car were two hitchhikers who also were murdered: Kochava Ben Meir HY"D and Avishai Shindler HY"D.
According to the news report, the Arab murderers had shot at them in a drive by shooting, riddling the car with hundreds of bullets. Kochava was a kindergarten teacher in Efrat. She leaves behind a husband and one daughter, for whom she had been waiting and praying for, for years, to get pregnant with. Avishai was newly wed, married just a few months ago to Moriah Bar Nitzan from Efrat.
Upon hearing that our friends Yitzhak and Talya had been murdered, Yehudit Katsover and I felt the need to drive out immediately to their house in Bet Haggai and try to comfort the children. Talya and Yitzhak had come on aliya from the former USSR, and built a wonderful family with their six children. Just recently they had become first time grandparents. Their youngest son, Oz David, is only 4 years old.
We met the Amis five years ago, in Gush Katif, where we had all moved to, to try and prevent its destruction. Since then we had been together at so many activities for the Land of Israel.
Yitzhak and Talya built a home of love. Love for Erets Israel, love for Am Israel, love for Torat Israel. They always, but always, were seen together. To all the Erets Israel activities they came together.
Even in their last moments they were together. The first witness who arrived at the scene of the massacre was quoted at the funeral, saying that when she looked in the car, riddled with bullets, she saw Yitzhak and Talya, dead, hugging each other. Together.
The ride to Bet Chaggai, which usually takes 30 minutes from Efrat, took a long time. The road was still packed with army and police searching for the murderers. Just a few weeks ago the government had once again made "confidence building gestures" for the Arabs and had removed even more roadblocks. We warned that this was a recipe for the murder of Jews but no one listened.
We arrived at the house. What does one say to six orphans?
The house was packed with friends and neighbors hugging and comforting Mount, organizing groups to go up, in holiness and according to halacha, to Har Habayit. They couldn't bear seeing the Jews' holiest place being desecrated by Arabs who control the Temple Mount. Yitzhak and Talya believed that we must bring thousands of Jews to the Mount, and work every day to prepare for the rebuilding of the Third Temple.
In fact the morning of the murder, Yitzhak had been on his weekly visit to the Temple Mount. At the house, four year old Oz David was crying saying: "My Abba is dead. Who is now going to bring me to the Temple Mount?" And he turned to Yehuda Glick, main activist for the Temple Mount and asked; "Yehuda, will you bring me?" Yehuda, with tears in his eyes, hugged him and said: "Of course I will."
At the house, friends told us that the police, months before, had taken away the gun licence of Yitzhak. As part of his activity on the Temple mount, Yitzhak had been arrested a few times for the "crime" of praying on the Mount (as you know, Jews are not allowed to utter prayers on the Temple Mount and if they do, they get arrested). Yitzhak had been arrested a few times accused of praying and thus had a few police files piled up. Because of these files, they took away his gun licence and thus prevented him from defending himself on the day the Arab terrorists murdered him, probably using guns they had received from Israel as part of the criminal Oslo agreements.
After Bet Chaggai we returned to Efrat, looking to comfort Moriah, may she have a long life, whose husband Avishai HY"D had been murdered too. Moriah's parents, Rabbi David and Zehavit Bar Nitzan from Efrat are also long time Erets Israel activists. Moriah had served her sherut leumi (national service) in Bet Haggai, fell in love with the place and the people, and it was only natural that after the wedding she and Avishai established their home there.
The next day, Wednesday, were the funerals.
Three funerals. Seven orphans.
The funeral, attended by thousands of mourners, started at Bet Chaggai where hespeidim (eulogies) were said to the victims. After that we all drove in a car convoy to the different cemeteries. Yitzhak and Talya were going to be buried on Har Hazeitim, facing the Temple Mount they so much cherished and worked for. On the way to the cemetary, hundreds of residents of nearby communities, Karmei Tsur, Gush Etzion, Efrat, Elazar, Neve Daniel, had come to the main road, holding Israeli flags, giving their respect and love to the victims.
Among the speakers at the funeral were; Rabbi Dov Lior, Knesset head MK Ruby Rivlin, Rabbi Israel Ariel, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, MK head of the coalition Zeev Elkin, the rabbi of Bet Chaggai, family and friends of the victims and MK Ayoub Karra who, despite his being Druze and not Jewish, gave the most passionate speech of all.
MK Karra said that as a descendant of Yitro, he turns to us and urges the Jewish leaders to stop being so naive. The Arabs do not want peace. All they are interested in is the destruction of the State of Israel and of the Jewish People. The only way the Jewish People will be able to survive is by being strong and not capitulating.
At the funeral there was a lot of crying. A lot of sadness. Anger. But also a lot of strength and determination.
Let our enemies not be fooled.
As all speakers said, and as we all felt:
Murdering our friends will not break us. On the contrary, it only strengthens us in our determination to safeguard our homeland and to fight for Erets Israel. We know that Erets Israel is bought with painful sacrifices. For each sacrifice, we will be strengthened and determined even more.
The message is clear:
This land is ours and only ours! We continue, now more than ever, to hold on to Erets Israel, to build, plant, expand and settle it. For every victim of Arab terror we will build more and plant more. In different communities they indeed, in reaction to the murder, started building already last night.
Amazingly, while we all were at the funeral, the Civil Administration was busy hanging expulsion orders against trees we had planted the night before in Netzer, in reaction to the murder.
The Civil Administration is that part of the army that is supposed to watch and safeguard the state lands in Judea and Samaria. Unfortunately though, over the past years, the Civil administration has become a pro-Arab and anti-Jewish body that somehow never see any of the tens of thousands of illegal homes the Arabs built, nor the tens of thousands of trees they plant on our lands in order to steal our lands and strangle the communities. But when Jews plant 30 trees, on Jewish state land, in order to prevent Arabs from stealing that land, the Civil Administration acts immediately and efficiently. Even during funerals.
As you know, we have started a campaign this past summer of redeeming land through plantings. In the summer we held an agricultural youth camp in which 60 youth participated and redeemed some 20 dunams of land in Netzer, in the heart of Gush Etzion.
On our way back from the funeral we went to Netzer to check on the plot we had redeemed, to make sure the trees we had planted the night before were ok. To our utter shock and disbelief, we saw that expulsion orders had been put up! Yes, you read correctly…expulsion orders against trees planted on state land. According to the papers telling us that we have 45 days to remove the trees or else they will do so, the Civil administration had put up those signs that morning at 12:00 noon, exactly the time of the eulogies. Pictures of the order can be seen by clicking on the Hebrew Arutz 7 article.
The Civil administration obviously had not heard the speeches by the members of Knesset who all clearly stated that we must strengthen ourselves now through building and planting in Erets Israel.
Upon seeing the orders, we called a few additional activists to come immediately and finish off the work at the site. Planting trees is done in different stages. First you clear the ground with a tractor, then dig holes, plant, connect the water pipes and then protect the saplings with cardboard so that animals won't eat them. We had planted the trees the night before but we still needed to put up the protective cardboards.
We decided there and then to name that piece of land "Netzer Yitzhak and Talya " in memory of Yitzhak Amis HY"D and the other victims we had just buried. For not only were Yitzhak and Talya active for the Temple Mount, they also were with us in all our activities in Netzer, Shdema, and Adurayim.
This coming Tuesday, at the end of the shiva (the seven day of mourning) we will, please G-d, redeem more lands in memory of the four Kedoshim who were murdered. We will plant tens of trees and show the authorities that the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. We urge you to join us.
In addition, on Monday September 13, a few days before Yom Kippur, we will, please G-d, have a very special and moving evening for women in the Machpela Visitors Center in Hevron at the foot of the Machpela Cave. An evening of Emunah (faith), Neshama (soul) and Erets Israel. We will show all that no Arab terror attack around Hevron will deter us. We are connected, forever, to our roots. To our forefathers and mothers. Hevron is where it all began. Hevron and Jerusalem are twin sisters. The struggle to safeguard Hevron and Judea is the struggle for the survival of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
To our political leaders who are now in Washington we say:
Draw your strength from quiet and humble proud Jewish heroes like Yitzhak and Talya Amis HY"D. Stop talking to Jew-haters and murderers. There is nothing to talk about. Come home and start avenging the blood of those who were murdered, by building four new communities in their memory, in Judea and Samaria.
As these lines are being typed, we received the news of an additional drive-by shooting by Arabs against Jews, this time in Binyamin.
We, the People of Israel in general and in Judea and Samaria in particular, are strong.
Now we must make sure our leaders will be strong too.
Hashem will give strength unto His people; Hashem will bless his people with peace. (Tehillim chapter 29)
Nadia Matar
Women in Green
William R. Mann, is a retired Lt. Colonel, US Army. He is a now a political observer, analyst, activist and writer for Conservative causes. He was educated at West Point [Bachelor of Science, 1971 ]and the Naval Postgraduate School [Masters, National Security Affairs, 1982].
