Manhigut Yehudit Responds to Critics of its Civil Disobedience Booklet (January 27, 2005)
www.jewishisrael.org/dbart.php?art=555

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Karnei Shomron, Israel (January 27, 2005 | Shevat 18, 5765) - Manhigut Yehudit, the conservative, ideological wing of Israel´s nationalist Likud party, has responded to critics of its booklet, "The Duty to Disobey". The booklet calls for non-violent civil disobedience as the most effective method for preventing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon´s "Disengagement Plan" that will expel thousands of Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip and in northern Samaria.

"I am unfazed by the Likud´s efforts to expel me from the party and to prevent me from running in the next race for Israel´s parliament", says Moshe Feiglin, the leader of Manhigut Yehudit. "Before we published the pamphlet, we knew that the party apparatchiks would try to use the booklet to expel us from the Likud."

"We did not enter politics in order to follow to the caprice of one politician or another. We came in order to lead the country on a different path, one rooted in authentic Jewish values. While other politicians can-and do-remain silent for tactical reasons even when the soul of the nation is at stake, we simply cannot. If we were to do so, there would be no point in our entering the political area."

Feiglin continues: "The attempt to get rid of the Manhigut Yehudit faction in the Likud by expelling its leaders is ridiculous. It is based on the fundamental assumption of small-time politicians that the motivating force behind Manhigut Yehudit is the same as theirs: personal gain. They are incapable of understanding that we are motivated by a common ideology. Even if they expel me from the party, there is a long list of belief-based candidates who will take my place."

"Members of Manhigut Yehudit, and veteran members of the Likud who support them, now represent more than 10% of all members of the party and the Likud Central Committee," says Michael Fuah, Managing Director of Manhigut Yehudit. "It is simply impossible to expel all of us."

About "The Duty to Disobey"
The "Duty to Disobey" is a 30-page booklet that includes a series of articles by Moshe Feiglin, Moti Karpel, Michael Fuah and Ronen Zafrir. The booklet calls for soldiers to refuse orders to uproot Jews from their homes, citing sources in the Hebrew Bible (the Torah), renowned Rabbis and even the early Zionist leader Ze´ev Jabotinsky, whose ideology forms the basis of the Likud party.

In one article, Feiglin writes: "Some say that civil obedience is a crime but the truth is the opposite, as evidenced by the American celebration of Martin Luther King Day. Refusal does not destroy; it builds. Military refusal and civil disobedience in response to the expulsion of Jews will not lead to the destruction of the army. It will build it up as a moral army and will strengthen the basis for its existence."

Feiglin argues that the country is being subjected to a tyrannical, undemocratic process which is leading the nation to a terrible disaster. "We are talking about an increase of the damages caused by the Oslo process, an indescribable crime against entire communities that will tear the nation to shreds and undermine the very basis for the existence of the state...."

"Conscientious soldiers who hold G-d in their hearts and will refuse to take part in any act of evacuation or assist it, will save thousands of Israelis from the death march which started in Oslo and is now gaining speed."

Michael Fuah, the Managing Director of Manhigut Yehudit writes that the difficulty in the battle against the "Disengagement Plan" is the knowledge that "There is a left-wing public that is interested in a civil war. This public does not see Gush Katif settlers as their brethren, but rather an enemy... the extreme left is preparing its provocation, in which it will blame the right wing for firing the first shot." Fuah adds that "A civil war will not take place if brothers will not fight one another, if fraternity will overcome blind obedience."

Ronen Zafrir, veteran of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, compares the Disengagement Bill to the Nuremberg Laws. "Sharon´s regime is no longer legitimate. Only mass disobedience of hundreds of thousands will return the state to a track of a parliamentary democracy and a sane regime. As during the peaceful revolutions of Eastern Europe, the moment soldiers refused to shoot at demonstrators, and when protesters put flowers in the barrels of troops´ guns, the dictatorships understood they had to go."

About 70,000 copies of the "Duty to Disobey" have been printed and distributed to synagogues nationwide where they have been eagerly received. Additional copies are being printed and will be distributed by Young Manhigut Yehudit, the organization´s youth movement at road junctions, bus stops, and public spaces.

About Manhigut Yehudit
Manhigut Yehudit ("Jewish Leadership") is the successor to Zo Artzeinu ("This is Our Land"), the protest movement that opposed the Oslo Accords with massive civil disobedience in 1994. Realizing that Israel needs a true political alternative rather than just alternative politicians who carry out the same suicidal agenda, Manhigut Yehudit seeks to strengthen the nation´s collective Jewish identity and its connection to its Land. In 1998, the Manhigut Yehudit movement was established with the aim of enlisting thousands of believing members in the Likud party, and electing a party leader who would be driven by Jewish ideals and values. As the Likud´s candidate for Prime Minister, this candidate would be the natural leader of the national camp and would be elected as the Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Visit Manhigut Yehudit on the web at www.jewishisrael.org.

###
Contacts

ISRAEL
Moshe Feiglin
Tel: +972-9-7929046
mfeiglin@manhigut.org

USA
Shmuel Sackett
Tel: 1-516-295-3222
shmuel@manhigut.org