Neturei Karta Beat the Hell Out of Monroe Satmar Chassid ......

One thing I can say about Neturei Karta, at least they are consistent, whereas the Monroe Satmars are a bunch of hypocrites .....

Satmar Rebbe yells and barks that Israel antagonizes their Arab neighbors by provoking them, annexing the Golan Heights etc, while at the same time Satmar  themselves are annexing land in Monroe bordering Kiryas Yoel causing needless hatred from their gentile neighbors!

One of the men organizing a proposal to create a new village next to Kiryas Joel was assaulted outside Monroe Town Hall on Thursday morning by two fellow Hasids who oppose those plans and who grabbed the revised petition he came to file.

Moshe Hirsch The 2nd Tzaddik Who Beat Wagschal 

Herman Wagschal told the Times Herald-Record by phone after the attack that he had gone to Town Hall to resubmit the petition for the Village of Seven Springs after making a small alteration. He said the two men approached him from behind, hit him on top of his head, and punched and kicked him while he was on the ground until one of them wrenched the petition envelope away.

“They were trying to pull out the envelope from under me,” he said.

One man drove away with the petition in his car; the other ran into Town Hall and was apprehended by police, Wagschal said.

Village of Monroe police later verified Wagschal’s account and said they had charged Shlome Katz, 32, of Monroe, with second-degree robbery and fourth-degree grand larceny, both felonies. Katz was being held while awaiting arraignment in Monroe Village Court.

The second alleged assailant — and Wagschal’s petition — remained at large.(updated below)

Police said they responded to a call from Town Hall at 10:13 a.m., reporting a fight in progress that involved a handgun. The gun belonged to Wagschal, who told the Record it was in a holster and became visible when he was knocked to the ground and his coat fell open. Police said he had a proper permit to carry the gun.

Among the witnesses were Tony Completo, who works for the town’s garbage hauler, Marangi. Completo saw the attack while standing with a town employee outside Town Hall, a former synagogue at the corner of Orange Turnpike and Reynolds Road. He told a reporter afterward that he went to grab one of Wagschal’s attackers but backed off when he spotted the gun, yelling, “He’s got a gun!”

Wagschal said he didn’t brandish his gun during the altercation. Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone said in a statement that Wagschal “attempted to draw the firearm to defend himself,” which caused the two suspects to flee.

Wagschal first submitted a petition last August to form Seven Springs, a new village within the Town of Monroe that would include a Hasidic neighborhood west of Kiryas Joel and land tracts on both sides of Route 17. He filed an enlarged version last week that added the Monroe half of Harriman Commons Shopping Center and comprised 1.9 square miles, all of which would be subject to new zoning.

He said he brought another revision after a town attorney alerted his lawyer about a potential conflict with a 2.5-acre parcel of parkland that the Village of Monroe now wants to annex from the town. Wagschal acceded to that request, removing that parcel and gathering a fresh round of 118 signatures.

Wagschal said his attackers belonged to Neturei Karta, a strongly anti-Zionist group that protests against the State of Israel.

A fellow member of that group — a Kirays Joel resident who spoke on condition of anonymity — confirmed that, and explained the attackers’ motives while condemning their violence. He said they and others object to the Seven Springs proposal as another violation of the teaching that Jews must remain in exile until the Messiah comes. He said they also see it as a needless antagonism of Kiryas Joel’s neighbors, just as they opposed Kiryas Joel’s controversial land annexation several years ago.

Cardone said the two attackers had shown up at Town Hall shortly before the altercation to speak with him about the proposed village. He said they left after he told them he couldn’t discuss it, and appeared to have been waiting for Wagschal in the parking lot when he showed up.

Cardone thanked the Monroe police and state troopers “for their rapid response and for the highly professional manner in which they handled this tense situation.”

Village police on Friday charged the second suspect in an assault outside Monroe Town Hall in which two men reportedly accosted one of the organizers of an effort to create a new village next to Kiryas Joel.

Moses Hirsch, 31, of Monroe, turned himself in at the Ramapo police station in Suffern early Friday morning and was driven to Monroe to be charged, Monroe Police Chief Alex Melchiorre said in a statement. Hirsch faces four felony counts: second-degree robbery, fourth-degree grand larceny, third-degree criminal mischief and fourth-degree conspiracy.

He was arraigned and sent to Orange County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail or $30,000 bond.

Police say Hirsch and Woodbury resident Shlome Katz, 32, punched and kicked Herman Wagschal on Thursday morning as he was approaching Town Hall to submit a revised petition for the Village of Seven Springs, a 1.9-square-mile municipality that would be formed within the Town of Monroe. Katz was arrested afterward inside Town Hall; Hirsch allegedly drove away with the stolen petition.

The alleged attackers were trying to thwart the proposed village because they viewed it as a violation of Jewish law and a needless provocation of Kiryas Joel’s neighbors. Katz, free on bail and facing robbery and grand larceny charges, told the Times Herald-Record by phone on Friday that he was sorry he attacked Wagschal, and was eager to expound on the religious objections that drove him to do it.

UPDATED

Wagschal, who lives off Seven Springs road in Monroe, first submitted the village petition in August, filed a new version with more territory in it last week, and was delivering a second revision when the attack occurred. The latest version was prompted by the Village of Monroe’s request last week to annex 2.5 acres of land that it owns from the Town of Monroe - a parcel that Wagschal removed from the Seven Springs proposal.

After getting beaten and having the petition taken from him on Thursday, Wagschal emailed a copy to the Town of Monroe and then delivered a fourth round of petition signatures to Town Hall on Friday.

But minutes before his assault, the Village of Kiryas Joel petitioned the Town of Monroe to annex 70 acres off Larkin Drive on which it has several wells - properties that were also contained in the Village of Seven Springs proposal. It was unclear on Friday if Kiryas Joel could annex land that is not contiguous, and if that new proposal could interfere with the Seven Springs plans.