Temple of Anti-Zionist Rabbi Weiss Torched; JDL Arsonists Suspected of Terrorist Act

Mark Glenn | America Free Press

Neturei Karta (NK), a group of orthodox Jews well-known to readers of American Free Press for their staunch opposition to the state of Israel and Zionism, suffered the loss of its Monsey, N.Y., synagogue March 31 to a fire that has been ruled “suspicious” by authorities.

In addition to the synagogue, the residence of an NK member who occupied the top floor of the building was destroyed as well. The building was empty and as a result no one was injured.

The reason the fire has been ruled suspicious by the authorities is due to the group’s outspoken political positions that have attracted world-wide attention in recent years, and particularly after the recent Holocaust conference in Iran attended by members of NK.

Since the time of that conference, organized Jewish groups—including the dangerous and fanatical Jewish Defense League (JDL), which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, and the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO) have mounted campaigns to destroy the NK group.

According to the East Coast-based JDO, the members of Neturei Karta are “crackpots” and “traitors” to the Jews for “helping Iranian Hitler-imitator Ahmadinejad” who is “planning to wipe Israel off the map with nuclear weapons.”

In a recent JDO “Intelligence Report,” the names, addresses, phone numbers and other pieces of personal information concerning many NK members were published along with “suggestions” by the JDO headquarters as to what actions should be taken with them.

Code-named ‘”Operation Screwball,” the JDO has made it clear that their aim is to “wreck & ruin these self-haters and Jewish traitors.” Some of the mechanics involved in seeing this done are as follows:

Call them. . . . Keep them out of your shuls . . . . Do not hire them to do any work, toss them out of any store they come to. . . . Throw them out of your synagogues, boycott whatever companies they own, and ask any store they work at to have them fired from their jobs. Let’s teach these traitors a real lesson about those who desecrate the memory of 6 million real live Jews butchered in the Holocaust! We must run Neturei Karta out of their homes as well! The days of their antics going undisturbed have come to an abrupt end, as the JDO is going to cause them more disturbance than they ever imagined. Further, we demand the arrest of Neturei Karta members for collaboration with the Iranian Nazis and their extradition to Israel using the Eichmann trial as a precedent. . . .

It should be remembered that—in addition to threats, whether overt or subtle—arson has been standard operating procedure for groups such as these in terrorizing their political opponents into silence. As of the time of this writing, however, no group or individual has come forward claiming responsibility for this latest incident.

If this latest case involving the fire that destroyed the NK synagogue is indeed one of arson, then it would not be the first time that NK property was assaulted. In July 2002, the same building, as well as two cars, owned by the organization were defaced with graffiti on the Jewish festival of Tisha B’Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem. In this case the graffiti in question included Stars of David and Hebrew words glorifying Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s eternal capital.

More recent than this was the physical assault on Moshe Arye Freedman of NK by two Orthodox Jews in Poland, one Yehuda Meshi-Zahav of ZAKA (a Jewish organization that coordinates relief efforts in the wake of terrorist incidents where the victims are Jewish) and another unnamed member, who assailed Freedman with a barrage of punches and kicks.

As a reward for his actions, Meshi-Zahav was called up to read the Torah in synagogue on the following Sabbath. Rabbi Dovid Israel Weiss, spokesman for NK, said that arson “is assumed” because of previous threats the group has received.

“There’s no question that the issue is to stifle the opposition to Zionism,” he said.

NK is well-known for its position on Israel, Zionism and the other items swirling around the current Middle East situation. Their position is that Israel is not supposed to be re-constituted as a nation until the Messiah arrives, up until which time Jews are supposed to remain loyal citizens of the nations they presently occupy.

Since Zionism’s inception a century ago, there has been a continual and sometimes heated debate between groups who maintain positions similar to NK and those Jews who take a more secular position. One thing is clear: If this latest incident is indeed a case of arson, then what it constitutes is terrorism as the term is defined by that Zionist-engineered assault on the Bill of Rights known as the Patriot Act.

Furthermore, by looking over the rantings and ravings of Jewish extremist groups such as the JDL and JDO concerning those who choose to exercise their First Amendment rights by voicing their opinions, it is obvious that the U.S. government is wise to classify these organizations as dangerous and fanatical, and the American citizen, jealous of his God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness would be wise to see them in this light as well.