MY SAY: AMERICANS FOR A SAFE ISRAEL
I have proudly been associated with AFSI virtually since its founding. We were right then and have been proven right by events. AFSI never grew into a major national organization, but it continues to be a beacon for those committed to the vision and nationalist spirit of the Zionist prophet and founding father Zeev Jabotinsky. Our budget is small, but our record of achievement is impressive and unmatched by any other group….rsk
Please read:Israel is 67 and AFSI is 44 Ruth King
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/israel-is-67-and-afsi-is-44-ruth-king.html
AFSI was founded in 1971 by Americans committed to Israel’s religious, historic and strategic claims–as well as those stemming from victory in a defensive war–to the lands conquered in the Six Day War of 1967.
Early on AFSI warned that Israel must never risk its security on faith in allies, including the United States. Starting with John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State to President Eisenhower, there have been hostile administrations and even friendly administrations (like that of Ronald Reagan) pushed bad policies for Israel. To be sure, all pale in comparison to President Obama’s unsheathed hostility to Israel.
After the 1967 war, Israel’s cabinet unanimously offered to return all the land it had won in war in exchange for a peace settlement. This enormously generous offer was met by the famous three “nos” of Khartoum–no negotiations, no recognition, no peace with Israel.. Nonetheless, this Israeli offer became the default standard for negotiations and Israel’s legitimate claims were forfeited in what would become a never ending effort to appease Arab demands.
AFSI provided an American political support group for the Land of Israel Movement and, as time went by, for the growing resettlement of biblical lands in Judea, Samaria, Golan and Gaza. Today the “settlements” are thriving cities and towns with schools, parks, hospitals and citizens determined to remain and continue to thrive. We at AFSI are proud of our early and ongoing support for settlement of Judea and Samaria. And, we are more determined than ever, after the surrender of Gaza proved that any territory vacated by Israel would be sacked and ruined and turned into a war zone, vindicating AFSI’s conviction that treaties and surrenders of territory are viewed by Arab enemies as temporary hudnas (truces) to consolidate power in order to destroy the state.
AFSI was the only, repeat, only, American support group for Israel to denounce the Camp David Accords in which Israel, hounded by the Carter administration, caved in to Sadat’s demands and surrendered the entire Sinai peninsula with its oil fields and strategic depth–-at a stroke giving up 92% of all the territories won in 1967. The most egregious offense of the Camp David Treaty is that it provided ”autonomy “ for the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, setting the stage for demands for Arab sovereignty in that area.
In areas subsequently ceded to Arab control Jewish shrines have been desecrated and destroyed. Joseph’s tomb outside Nablus, venerated throughout the ages by Jews, Samaritans, and Christians has been sacked and burned. The Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem is Judaism’s third-holiest site. The IDF reported in mid-2013 that about 200 firebombs and 90 IEDs were thrown at the compound of Rachel’s Tomb. Jews have been making pilgrimage there for more than 3,000 years. In Israel’s capital Jerusalem, Jews routinely suffer discrimination at the Temple Mount, which has remained under control of the Jordanian Muslim Trust.
We were also the only, repeat, only organization to denounce the disgraceful Oslo surrender, abrogating Israeli rights for a flimsy “recognition of its right to exist” by barbarians. Viewing Oslo as too sacrosanct in the public eye to be attacked openly, even others who shared our view simply demanded Arab “compliance” with the terms of the Oslo accords. Only AFSI denounced Oslo because it flouted Jewish rights on behalf of enemies whose goal remained the destruction of Israel.
AFSI was the first pro-Israel organization to reach out to Christian supporters in the evangelical community. The late Reverend Jerry Falwell was an honored speaker at an early conference and all subsequent national conferences featured addresses by national Christian leaders. AFSI has continued to have warm relations with leading evangelical religious leaders and evangelical Christians within Congress.
While AFSI was tardy in emphasizing Islam’s role in Arab hatred of Israel (Bat Ye’or was the pioneer here), we were first in holding a conference on the subject featuring experts on Islam like Ibn Warraq and Andrew Bostom in the aftermath of 9/11.
Thanks to Helen Freedman, AFSI’s Executive Director, for many years AFSI has organized bi-annual tours to Israel focusing on the communities in Samaria and Judea and the Jordan Valley. The tours Helen leads are unique in going to the heart of Israel and Judaism.
Our publications were timely then and remain timely now. (All can be read in their entirety on the AFSI website.)
AFSI’s first pamphlet, published in 1977, was Rael Jean Isaac’s Breira–Counsel for Judaism, exposing the radical roots and agenda of the first American Jewish anti-Israel organization.
In 1977 AFSI also published The Palestinians–a Political Masquerade by Arthur Kahn and Douglas Murray.
In 1979 AFSI published Sadat’s Strategy by Paul Eidelberg detailing Sadat’s plan in coming to Jerusalem–to disarm Israeli leaders and public opinion in order to destroy the state.
That year AFSI published The Friendly Perversion–Quakers as Reconcilers–Good People and Dirty Work by H. David Kirk. The American Friends Service Committee has been a pioneer in the long and disgraceful tradition of religious organizations taking up cudgels against Israel’s legitimacy.
In 1980 AFSI published Rael Jean and Erich Isaac’s “The Americanization of Peace Now” which described how Breira had morphed into Peace Now.
Before there was a CAMERA to expose media bias against Israel, AFSI published NBC’s War in Lebanon–The Distorting Mirror by Edward Alexander (1983), a companion pamphlet to AFSI’s documentary NBC in Lebanon: A Study of Media Misrepresentation, written and directed by Peter E. Goldman with research into thousands of hours of NBC footage by Jeff Benson and Ruth King.
In 1983 Rael Jean Isaac’s pamphlet The New (Anti) Jewish Agenda exposed yet another American organization posing as a pro-Israel group. The organization’s slogan “a Jewish voice among progressives–a progressive voice among Jews” gave away its agenda: expanding Jewish participation in fashionable radical left “rights and liberation” movements, foremost among them the “liberation of Palestine”.
In 1988 AFSI published The Hidden Alliances of Noam Chomsky by Werner Cohn. While Chomsky’s radical absurdities are now well chronicled, at the time this was a pioneering work. Cohn also exposed Chomsky’s connections to the neo-Nazi movement.
By 1990 Jewish American anti-Israel groups were growing like mushrooms. AFSI published The New Israel Fund-A Fund for Israel’s Enemies by Joseph Puder. The Fund masqueraded (and continues to masquerade) as a Jewish group working for “Israeli democracy”, religious “pluralism” and the rights of women.
Other important pamphlets were Dubious Allies – The Arab Media’s War Of Words Against America, compiled by Jeff Daube, with introductions By Rael Jean Isaac and Should America Guarantee Israel’s Security? by Irving Moskowitz in 1993.
In 2010, AFSI was proud to publish Jabotinsky–The Man and the Vision by William Mehlman. Mehlman wrote: “Like Theodor Herzl before him, he [Jabotinsky] was a man not merely of his own time but for all time. He defined Jewish statehood when the very term “Jewish State” was considered a provocation. He established a doctrine of Jewish self-defense when the idea of a Jew defending himself was still regarded as ludicrous or dangerous. He was the ‘old’ Jew – a throwback to the Maccabees and Bar Kochba – who heralded the coming of the ‘new’ Jew, fiercely proud of his ancient culture, free of the dark fears and inferiorities of the ghetto, fully capable of meeting the non-Jew on equal terms.”
All the above activities were initiated by AFSI’s late and beloved Chairman Herbert Zweibon who was himself inspired by the example of the late Shmuel Katz, AFSI’s mentor in Israel. Both remained faithful to the vision and prophesy of Zeev Jabotinsky. Herb’s last project, a history of Zionism through brief films, is being ably carried out by David Isaac (with his brother Raphael Isaac). The videos can be seen (free) by going to Zionism101.org.
Last, but certainly not least, there is Outpost to bring you a monthly dose of doom and gloom– but also hope and faith in an enduring Zionism.
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