Paris Victim Said: Israel is the Only Place to Freely be a Jew

Yoav Hattab, 21, a victim of Friday’s attack in Paris, traveled to Israel for the first time last month, a friend recalled at a gathering of French immigrants in Tel Aviv last night, Arutz Sheva reports.

“We met on a trip to Israel two weeks ago,” said Leah Elyakim. “It was his first time here. He was from Tunisia, and until recently it wasn’t possible to enter with a passport from there,” she explained.

“He learned Hebrew, he knew everything about Israeli history, more than any of us. Every day we traveled, he walked around with an Israeli flag on his back. He said that Israel was the only place he could walk freely with a Star of David or Israeli flag. In France, he never could have… His dream was to move to Israel and serve in the army,” she said, adding that he had been “so depressed when he had to return to France. He told me, ‘when I get to Paris, I’ll have to hide the flag.’”

Yohan Cohen a Hostage grabbed jihadi's Kalashnikov and fired... it jammed and cost him his life

It was a heroic act of self- sacrifice… and it cost a brave hostage his life.

Held captive inside the kosher supermarket, a Jewish hostage took what he knew would be his only chance to overpower Islamist killer Amedy Coulibaly.

In an instant, he managed to grab an assault rifle that the terrorist had left on the counter at the deli in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris, after storming in and killing three people.

But the bid for freedom turned to tragedy when the man discovered that the gun had been discarded because it was jammed.

And when Coulibaly caught sight of him, he murdered him in cold blood with another weapon from his lethal arsenal.

The Jewish man’s fate was revealed yesterday by another hostage in the Hyper Cacher atrocity on Friday afternoon.

A woman runs from the Paris kosher grocery store in tears as she is led away by French police after officers stormed the building yesterday

A man clutches a small boy close as they flee the Hyper Cacher store where they were held hostage yesterday (left) as a woman runs from the building in tears (right)

Last night there were unconfirmed reports which named the hero as 22-year-old Yohan Cohen.

The witness, who gave his name as Mickael B, told how Coulibaly, 32, rounded up customers and staff and took away mobile phones before calmly explaining he was part of the Islamic State terror group.

Mickael said: ‘Suddenly one of the customers tried to grab one of his guns which he’d left on the counter. It wasn’t working.

‘The terrorist had put it there because it had blocked after the first shots. He turned and shot at the customer who died on the spot.’

It is thought that the hero was the fourth person to die in the supermarket, with the first three gunned down as Coulibaly stormed in at 2pm, declaring: ‘You know who I am.’

One eyewitness said Coulibaly was smiling as he walked in, wearing a bulletproof vest over his T-shirt and jeans, and carrying a huge arsenal of deadly weapons.

Many of the others present in the shop, buying kosher food and drink before the Sabbath began, tried to hide at first.

Mickael’s plight was all the more desperate because he had his three-year-old son with him.

The witness said: ‘I was heading for the check-out with the goods in my hand when I heard a bang – it was very loud. I thought it was a firecracker at first.

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Police officers protect themselves with riot shields as a fiery blast explodes at the entrance to the supermarket in Porte de Vincennes

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One of the injured hostages is carried from the supermarket on a stretcher as medics quickly attempt to treat them for their injuries

‘But turning, I saw a black man armed with two Kalashnikov rifles and I knew what was happening.

‘I grabbed my son by the collar and fled to the back of the store. There, with other customers, we ran down a spiral staircase into the basement. We all piled into one of two cold rooms. But our door wouldn’t close. We were terrified.

‘Five minutes later a store employee was sent down by the killer. She said he said we were to go back up, otherwise there’d be carnage. I refused to go up. By now my son, understanding nothing, was panicking. Then minutes later the employee comes back down with the same message.

‘This time I decided to follow her up the spiral staircase.’

At the top of the stairs Mickael saw a man lying in a pool of blood, then encountered the ‘strangely calm’ terrorist and witnessed the execution of a fellow customer.

Some of the customers kept themselves hidden in the basement cold stores, spending three hours in below-freezing temperatures, yet still contacting loved ones outside.

One shopper, called Noemi, managed to call a friend and told him: ‘I am very scared. I hear some noise upstairs. Make sure the police get here fast.’

Other customers were able to flee the store amid the confusion before Coulibaly brought the heavy metal shutters down on the front door.

Devoted - the victim who worked in supermarket to save up for his wedding

Posing happily with his girlfriend, this is a brave Hyper Cacher employee murdered during the Paris supermarket hostage siege.

Yohan Cohen, 22, was named as one of the four Jewish victims killed by Amedy Coulibaly during the attack, possibly after grabbing a discarded gun. One of Mr Cohen’s friends revealed on Twitter that he had been working at Hyper Cacher to pay for his future wedding to girlfriend Sharon Seb.

Last night, as condolences poured in from around the world, Ms Seb posted on Facebook the simple message: ‘Je suis Yohan.’ And later, in an emotional tribute to her boyfriend, she wrote: ‘What am I going to do without you? How am I going to live without you? Why you?

‘My life is ruined without you. I will never achieve anything now. I need you in my life. We had so many plans.

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Yohan Cohen, 22, had been working at Hyper Cacher for a year to pay for his future wedding to girlfriend Sharon Seb (right)

‘I will never forget all our time together. You will remain the man of my life for eternity. I will remain faithful to you until my dying breath. I love you with an indescribable passion.’

Earlier she had changed her Facebook profile picture, posting an image showing her hugging her boyfriend.

A friend wrote in the comment field underneath: ‘An eternal love.’

Mr Cohen’s aunt, Aurelie Pluvinage, uploaded a hand-drawn sketch of her nephew to her own Facebook page.

Mr Cohen, who was from Sarcelles in the northern suburbs of Paris, had only worked at the supermarket for a year.

Francois Pupponi, the deputy mayor of Sarcelles, said: ‘His family are devastated. He was a very nice boy.’

Rest in peace my 'little angel': Friend's tribute to student  

Tributes to Yoav Hattab, one of the supermarket victims, poured in yesterday.

Avishalay Lauh, brother of Tunisian Mr Hattab, 21 – who was spending a year studying in the French capital – wrote on Facebook: ‘I am in shock. My darling brother was cowardly murdered. He did nothing wrong!’

Friend Marie Assous added: ‘May God avenge your blood and all the innocent heinously murdered in cold blood by barbarians, just because you are Jewish. Rest in peace little angel.’

Meanwhile, more details emerged about one of the other victims. Philippe Braham, who is believed to be in his 40s, was a teacher who lived with his wife Valerie and their three children in the town of L’Hay-les-Roses, about eight miles south of Paris. A neighbour described him as ‘a good man’. The final victim, Francois-Michel Saada, is believed to have been in his 60s.

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Both Mr Hattab (left) and Philippe Braham (right) were murdered by Islamic terrorist Amedy Coulibaly at the kosher bakery in Paris 

MUSLIM IN DELI SHEPHERDED HIS JEWISH CUSTOMERS TO SAFETY AND HAS BEEN HAILED A HERO 

A Muslim employee at the supermarket at the centre of the Paris terror attacks has been hailed as a hero for saving the lives of Jewish customers.

Lassana Bathily put his own life at risk to protect people from Islamic fanatic Amedy Coulibaly – by hiding them in a cold store in the basement of Hyper Cacher.

Bathily came up with his quick-thinking plan when the gunman burst through the front doors on Friday.

The 24-year-old shop assistant, who comes from Mali in West Africa, found six terrified customers a safe hiding place downstairs while the terrorist prowled the aisles above them.

‘When they ran down, I opened the door [to the cold store],’ Mr Bathily revealed yesterday.

‘There were several people who came to me.

‘I turned off the light, I turned off the freezer.

‘When I turned off the cold, I put them [hostages] in, I closed the door, and I told them to try to stay calm.’

The hostages had to spend three hours in the darkened room, with temperatures still below freezing, until armed police stormed the deli and Coulibaly went down in a hail of bullets.

When the hostages were eventually freed, they congratulated Mr Bathily.

There are now calls for him to receive an honour from the French state, after he was likened to Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who helped about 1,200 Jews escape the Holocaust. 

In a further show of unity between faiths in France yesterday, senior Muslims were cheered as they added flowers to a pile of floral tributes at the site of the Hyper Cacher massacre.

They were led by Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of the city’s Drancy mosque, and they were accompanied by a local rabbi and a woman wearing a sash in the French national colours of red, white and blue.

Their gesture of solidarity as they arrived was met with cries of ‘Bravo’ from the watching crowd.

Mr Chalghoumi made a similar tribute on Thursday at the site of the attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

On that occasion he described the terrorists responsible for the atrocity as ‘criminals’ and ‘barbarians’ who had nothing to do with Islam.

As the group left yesterday, the crowd, which included Jews, Muslims and Christians, began to chant ‘tous ensemble’, meaning ‘everyone together’.

Four Jews Named As Victims Of Kosher Market Terrorist Siege, French Jews Mourn

The names of the four victims of Friday’s standoff at a kosher supermarket in Paris were released on Saturday by the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF), a national organization representation French Jewry.

According to witnesses, Yohan Cohen (22), Philip Braham (40), Francois-Michel Saada (60s) and Yoav Hattab (21), were were shot in the early stages of the seven-hour standoff at the HyperCacher kosher market, which ended when police stormed the shop and killed the hostage taker — a 32-year-old man identified as Amedi Coulibaly.

Some media reports have identified Hattab as the son of the Chief Rabbi of Tunisia. A picture on his Facebook page shows him with a man bears something of a resemblance to Chief Rabbi Haim Bittan, although it is not clear if they are the same person and no link has been confirmed at this time.

Cohen was a resident of the Parisian suburb of Sarcelles, widely known as Little Jerusalem for its large Jewish population and studied at the Lycée ORT high school in Villiers-le-Bel.

Friends on Facebook described Cohen, who worked in the store, as strong and smart with a “heart of gold” as well as a calm person who rarely got angry and “always had a smile on his face.”

A witness, who did not identify Cohen by name, told France’s BFM-TV how one of the victims was shot in the head after struggling to wrest away one of the attackers’ guns. Other reports named Cohen as the one who attempted to confront the attackers.

Jeremie Agou, a regular shopper at the Hyper Cacher, told The Jerusalem Post that he saw Cohen every week when buying his groceries and that he felt “a little traumatized” after the shooting.

Men light candles during a tribute for the victims of the shootings at the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish deli, in Tel Aviv January 10, 2015. Reuters

“It could have been me,” he said, adding that his office was located adjacent to the site of a shooting of policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe on Thursday and had been placed under lockdown by security forces.

Both attacks made a “big impression” and like many French Jews he is reevaluating his future there.

“If it happened there it can happen anywhere,” he told the Post, adding that while he “always saw my future in Israel, now [the attack] makes it even more pressing and I’m pushing my parents to sell their house and buy in Israel.”

However, he refused to hide, even if he is more circumspect when he walks the streets, as hiding would be a victory for terror, Agou said.

“We are not going to hide at home.” he said.

Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky recently told the Post that fifty thousand French Jews inquired regarding aliya in 2014. Almost seven thousand French Jews out of a population of six hundred thousand immigrated to Israel last year, double the number that arrived the previous year.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (C) and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo (front row, 2nd L) arrive at the end of a demonstration at the end of Shabbat called by the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) near the kosher supermarket where an attack was carried out earlier this week, near Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris January 10, 2015. Reuters

Following Friday’s attack, the worst against a Jewish target in France since the 2012 shooting attack at Toulouse’s Otzar HaTorah school which also killed four, some Twitter users began posting the hashtag #JeSuisJuif, French for I am a Jew.

French Jews were paying homage to victims today.

Jewish community leader Roger Cukierman, urged French Jews to stay instead of joining a wave of emigration to Israel, saying “it’s very important that there will remain a Jewish community in France.”

He told The Associated Press, “we will go on exercising our Jewish lives, freely. Whatever our adversaries want to impose on us.”

Jewish community members held a vigil Saturday for four people killed in the market in eastern Paris on Friday by a radical Muslim gunman.

France has western Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim populations, which have seen increasing tensions in recent months.

A sign reading 'I am Jewish, I am Charlie' is held up as people come to pay tribute to the hostage victims in front of HyperCacher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes, a day after a gunman took hostages and opened fire, in eastern Paris,  France, 10 January 2015. EPA

4 Dead Including Gunman In Paris Kosher Grocery Hostage Crisis

Security forces stormed the grocery minutes after their counterparts assaulted the building outside Paris where two brothers suspected in the Charlie Hebdo killings had holed up.
The two police officials, who could not be named speaking about the quickly developing situation, confirmed the attacker died. One of the officials said three of the dead were hostages.
The gunman has been identified as Amedy Coulibaly.

Tehillim for Jewish hostages in France

מעודכן! בני הערובה היהודיים באיטליז כשר בצרפת

שמואל יצחק בן שרה
שרי (zarie) בת סוזן
אנדרה בת ג’וסיאן (josiane)
מרדכי בן מאיה
שרה בת לונה (louana )
נוח בן שרה
אריק (eric) בן יפה
סנדי (sandy) בן בריג’יט (brigitte)

בבקשה לאמר תהילים
נא להתפלל עליהם עכשיו דחוף בבקשה!!!!!
להעביר בכל הקבוצות!!!

Hostages-Taking In Kosher Market in France ...Women & Children

France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor says a shooting and hostage-taking attack is underway at a kosher market on the eastern edge of Paris. A police official said there are multiple hostages and wounded at the scene.

The French president ordered the country’s top security official to the scene, an official in the presidency told The Associated Press. The police official declined to be named when discussing the unfolding situation.

The events near Paris’ Porte de Vincennes took place as two suspects in France’s deadliest terror attack in decades were cornered near Charles de Gaulle airport.

Several people were taken hostage at the kosher supermarket after a shootout involving a man armed with two guns, a police source said.

There were unconfirmed local media reports that the man was the same as the one suspected of killing a policewoman in a southern suburb of Paris on Thursday.

A police source had told Reuters earlier he was a member of the same jihadist group as the two suspects in Wednesday’s attack at weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

The exact number of hostages was unclear. Local media spoke of at least five. The police source said the man was equipped with automatic weapons.

Police immediately cordoned off the area and a helicopter was flying overhead. Local media said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was rushing to the scene.

Muslim Immigrants to the USA a record 300,000 in 2013

Hey guys..... the "chickens have come home to roost"

Will Satmar be safe in Monroe? Williamsburg? 
Will Skver be safe in New Square?

Will Jews have to run again?
If yes .... where? France? England? Mexico? 
Oh OH   maybe Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, or Turkey?

Who is going to want millions of Jews?
 The State of Israel? Naaaaaaaa! 
You mean the Zionist State?   Chas V'sholom....

A new study shows that the number of immigrants in the United States jumped 3 percent in three years — to a record 41.3 million in 2013 — and that the nearly 300,000 who came from Muslim countries pose a major national security threat, the report's co-author told Newsmax on Thursday.

"All of that does raise national security concerns, and I don't think there has been any consideration of that," said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies.

The Washington-based nonprofit organization released the study on Thursday. It is based on an analysis of Census data from 2010 to last year. Camarota conducted the study and co-authored it with CIS demographer Karen Zeigler.

"The primary threat from a group like ISIS to the homeland is through our immigration system," Camarota said, referring to the Islamic State terrorist group that has beheaded three Westerners in recent weeks.

"No one's suggesting that they're going to launch a missile and hit New York, but rather they're going to board an airliner and blow it up," he added. "They're going to park a car in a public place, they're going to go on a shooting spree, or any one of those things.

Rav Mazuz is Concerned with the Future of Eretz Yisrael

Speaking at a Yarhzeit event, HaGaon HaRav Meir Mazuz Shlita expressed his concerns regarding the future of Eretz Yisrael. 

Mentioning Rav Kook Z”TL in his address. Rav Mazuz stated this is the reason the new Ha’Am Itanu party was launched, to fight to safeguard Eretz HaKodesh.

Thousands took part in the “hilula” for HaGaon HaRav Matzliach Mazuz ZT”L, Rabbi Meir Mazuz’s father. The rav explained “Moshe’s way was to bring those who are far away back to the fold, even those who throw stones at the Torah. 

Take the Moshe Rabbeinu of our generation too, Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L. Take Rav Kook ZT”L too. Both of them brought Jews back. Rav Kook met a young philosopher, David HaCohen, a young person who heard Rav Kook davening in the morning and took a liking to him. He became the rav/nazir under Rav Kook’s spell”.

Rav Mazuz continued, “There are those who state Rav Kook was not acceptable, those who forget what gedolim said about him. Rav Sonnenfeld and Rav Aryeh Levine. One may include Rav Elyashiv too, who was a son-in-law of Rav Levine and the chareidi gadol hador and admired Rav Kook. 

The Chazon Ish called Rav Kook ‘a holy man’. The Chazon Ish called him ‘Maran’. 

Once, at a large event, the chareidi rabbonim wanted to cancel because it was a kippa sruga event. Maran said ‘everyone is a Jew’. The roshei teivos of “Yachad” are “chareidim, dati’im and Yehudim” the rav continued.

The rav added “We hate machlokes and division but I saw there isn’t anyone standing firm on behalf of Eretz Yisrael. You should know this pained Rav Ovadia a great deal. We must fight for our land even if there are other comfortable places…”

Candidly Speaking: Haredim and the State, A possible turning point

Read a great article, that really spells out the issues confronting the State of Israel in the foreseeable future. 

I don't agree with every thing this author writes, but worth your time to read!

by Isis Leibler

Whoever ultimately forms the next government would be doing a great disservice to the nation and sowing the seeds of future disaster were they to allow themselves to be extorted by the Charedim.

Although election fever currently dominates the national agenda, we should also recognize that today the state is at a turning point in its evolving relationship with the haredim (ultra-Orthodox) – undoubtedly the most significant long term challenge to Israeli society.

In 2012, the Charedim accounted for one-sixth of the Jewish population. Currently they comprise 25 percent of school first-graders. They constitute the fastest-growing sector by far.

While frequently characterized as aliens, there is much in the Charedi lifestyle to emulate. They shun hedonism and live modestly, focus on family values and have an exemplary commitment to charity within their own ranks and maintain their high spiritual levels despite the materialism surrounding them.

Lamentably, Ashkenazi Charedi rabbis determinedly created a cordon sanitaire to protect their followers from contamination by the outside world.

Whereas successful waves of aliya have been integrated, Charedim move in the opposite direction by withdrawing further from the nation and educating their youngsters to spurn the state, displaying open contempt for Independence Day and Holocaust commemorations and even refusing to include prayers for the state or the well-being of the IDF in their synagogues.

Unfortunately Sephardi rabbis – despite bitterly resenting the condescending manner in which the Ashkenazim patronized them – nonetheless replicated them. They increasingly substituted their traditional tolerant Sephardi lifestyle with the stringent Ashkenazi Charedi approach, even emulating their black hats and Polish attire. They formed the Shas party in 1984, which at its peak in 1999 had 17 Knesset seats and today 11.

Charedi rabbis sought to compete in their display of greater zealotry. In their state-subsidized school system, even minimal secular education was banned. Ironically, today, Maimonides with his worldly knowledge would not qualify to teach in their schools.

This approach ultimately led to the disastrous Charedi rabbinical injunction urging their followers to devote themselves to full-time Torah learning, eschewing worldly pursuits such as earning a livelihood – a concept utterly unprecedented in Jewish religious life. This resulted in the impoverishment of the entire community with the majority unemployed and dependent on welfare throughout their lives. With the massive demographic expansion of this sector, if the tide is not soon reversed, the nation will suffer catastrophic economic repercussions.

The exemption from military service which David Ben-Gurion originally granted to 400 yeshiva students has mushroomed to 50,000, and the Charedi refusal to share the burden of defending the state enrages all sections of society. For a lengthy period, the one-dimensional Charedi political parties held the balance of power, enabling them to extort disproportionate funding for their coffers, massively expanding their educational networks which exclude any secular curriculum In recent years they have begun to impose their standards on the wider community. Despite their long-standing contempt for the Chief Rabbinate, they hijacked the institution, facilitating the appointment of puppets, some of whom were mediocre, incomparable in stature, piety or learning to former Zionist chief rabbis such as Rabbi Yitzhak Halevi Herzog and Rabbi Shlomo Goren.

The primitive depths to which haredi chief rabbis descended was exemplified by such comments by former chief rabbi Yona Metzger: “When yeshiva attendance is low, as on holiday evenings or prior to Shabbat, more IDF soldiers are injured and killed.”

The current chief rabbi, David Lau, was only elected after undertaking not to endorse any amendments to conversions or marriage procedures without the prior approval of the extremist haredi hierarchy, headed by Rabbi Avraham Sherman.

Despite the presence of some 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not considered halachic Jews and the urgent need for innovation and flexibility within the halachic framework to facilitate conversions, the haredi rabbinate has behaved inexcusably by placing every conceivable obstacle to deter potential converts. The total absence of compassion and the blind bureaucratic demands to prove Jewish ancestry back several generations create havoc especially among children of Holocaust survivors and Russian Jews who frequently lack access to such documents.

The haredi rabbinate also introduced an unprecedented and draconian approach whereby conversions may be retroactively annulled. Rabbi Sherman even sought (unsuccessfully due to High Court intervention) to annul the conversions of thousands who had already been converted by state-endorsed rabbis.

That such issues can be dealt with compassionately within the framework of halachah was demonstrated by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s courageous, innovative approach to the Ethiopian aliya. Had leading Ashkenazi haredi rabbis at that time had their way, none of the Ethiopians would have been considered Jews.

Resentment against haredim intensified as evidence of corruption and malfeasance within the rabbinate mushroomed, climaxing with the indictment of former chief rabbi Metzger on charges of bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Yet amazingly, despite widespread loathing for corrupt and extremist rabbis, the past two decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in religious tradition and observance, especially among Israeli youth.

Polls indicate that 80 percent of Israeli Jews believe in God, 61% favor conducting public life in accordance with Jewish tradition, 85% believe it is important to celebrate Jewish festivals in a traditional manner, 90% celebrate the Passover Seder, 68% fast on Yom Kippur, 67% have family dinners, light candles and make kiddush on Shabbat. These polls reflect a dramatic swing of the pendulum against the militantly secular Israeli society of half a century ago. The trend had been buffered by a burgeoning number of non-observant Israelis adopting a religious lifestyle.

No longer holding the balance of power after the last elections, the haredi parties were excluded from government. This has led to a review of some of the disproportionate funds siphoned to them and the introduction of policies designed to induce more of them into the workforce.

The outgoing government initiated important legislation designed to ensure that Charedim be obliged to share the burden of military or national service. However, at the insistence of Yesh Atid, the legislation included provisions criminalizing draft evasion – a populist measure only to be implemented in the future which merely provided ammunition for the Charedi zealots to gain support and threaten to fill the jails with their followers.

To proceed constructively in this area, this legislation should be refined and the government should rather concentrate on restricting the flow of funds to haredim refusing to serve or seek employment.

There are dramatic societal changes among the haredim. The implosion of Shas is not merely based on personality conflicts between Arye Deri and Eli Yishai but was inevitable after the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, whose charisma and standing were the foundation for the party’s unity and electoral success. Ethnic grievances aside, most Shas supporters are more traditional than haredi, passionately love the Jewish state and are not anti-Zionist.

Those who have not been brainwashed by their rabbis would serve in the IDF.

Among the more moderate Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox, who should be described as non-Zionist rather than anti-Zionist, the recent wars have made an impact and the shocking terrorist massacre at the Har Nof synagogue has jolted many into a realization that we are one people.

There is also the extraordinary impact of Bayit Yehudi. Naftali Bennett has brilliantly projected religious Zionism to the forefront and transformed his party to include traditional and nationalist secular elements into its ranks. He has succeeded in breaking down the iron barrier that separated the observant from the non-observant Jews and if this process continues, it could dramatically enhance the Jewish identity of the people.

We are today at a crossroads in which polarization between the Charedim and other Israelis could be reversed. This would nationally enhance traditional Jewish values and create a greater level of tolerance toward streams outside the strictly Orthodox framework. After all, what is preferable: a Conservative or Reform Jew who does not observe halachah but believes in God and seeks to include certain Jewish traditions and values, or an atheist, Hebrew-speaking Canaanite who has no knowledge or exposure to Jewish tradition or history? The new government will determine the outcome.

The haredim are likely to lose seats but will remain an important bloc, presumably still offering to sell themselves to the highest bidder. Both Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor leader Isaac Herzog will seek to accommodate them. If they join the next government without holding the balance of power, this would not be problematic. But efforts must be maintained toward altering the socio-economic structure of the Charedi community and directing it toward becoming a productive sector of the economy.

The same applies to Charedi control of the religious establishment. Haredim are free to adopt whatever standards they wish for themselves, but the Chief Rabbinate must cease imposing on the entire nation their stringent halachic approaches toward personal-status issues of conversion, marriage, divorce and burial. The recent legislation which decentralizes control of the rabbinate and authorizes the establishment of municipal conversion courts under the authority of local rabbis must be extended to provide additional scope for more moderate religious Zionist rabbis to service the people.

Whoever ultimately forms the next government would be doing a great disservice to the nation and sowing the seeds of future disaster were they to once again allow themselves to be extorted by the haredi zealots. They should agree to enable haredim to live their lifestyle while constructively creating conditions that will encourage them to share the burdens as well as benefits of Israeli citizenship.

The author’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ileibler@ leibler.com.

How Satmar Treated Chabad in the 1970's under the leadership of R' Yoel Teitelbaum

 The Lubavitcher Rebbe in Effigy on Lee Aveune corner Hewes on Purim in the early 70's

Yes, my friends these are the Baalei Chesed! These are the ones that call anybody that disagrees with them....
"Apikorsim and Meenim"

This was during the lifetime of the Tzadik Hador, the Heiliger Rebbe, R' Yoel Teitelbaum z"l, outside on the streets of Williamsburg in full view.

Notice the smiling faces in the crowd!
Notice the children! 
Notice the upside down sign on the tree on the left that reads Lubavitcher Rebbe in Hebrew!

These children are today's leaders of Satmar!

This act was not condemned by the Rebbe or his anti-Jewish Newspaper "Der Goy"!

This is only one of many pictures of the Satmar hooliganism against their fellow Jews!