April 15, 2005 US Jewish Right to step up anti-pullout campaigning By URIEL HEILMAN NEW YORK As Israeli settlers from Kfar Darom to Shavei Shomron gird up for the fight against disengagement, many like-minded Jews in America are meeting to plan their own campaigns against Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. The Zionist Organization of America is planning a media blitz in Israel in the coming weeks, US Orthodox synagogues are putting together missions over Passover to visit Gaza's settlements, and a few high-profile opponents of disengagement are traveling around the United States trying to drum up resistance to the prime minister's withdrawal plan among Jewish and Christian audiences. Many more American Jews simply are waiting for some direction about what role they can play to help block the planned withdrawal, said some anti-disengagement activists. "I think there are a lot of people who want to do something but don't know what they can do," said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, an Orthodox synagogue umbrella organization. "These are people that are waiting for someone to come up with an action point. When that happens, I think there will be a groundswell." Lerner helped organize a recent visit to Gush Katif by several dozen American Jews, including a number of well-known right-wing activists. The trip included US multimillionaire Irving Moskowitz, a staunch supporter of Israeli settlements in Arab-populated areas, including eastern Jerusalem, and Joseph Frager, chairman of the board of American Friends of Ateret Cohanim. Others are raising money for Gaza's settlements, trying to launch letter-writing campaigns to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to US politicians, and planning special trips to Israel. Polls show that most American Jews support the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in roughly the same proportion as Israelis-65 percent, according to a poll published this week by the Zionist group Ameinu. But some segments of the American Jewish population are as vociferously opposed to the Gaza withdrawal as are their counterparts in the settlements. They typically are Orthodox, many have family members living in Gaza and the West Bank, and many simply believe Israel's withdrawal from Gaza will encourage Palestinian terrorism and harm Israeli security. "Whatever your position is on disengagement, not to feel the difficulty, the pain of the people living in Gaza-they're innocent victims really," said Dov Hikind, a New York State assemblyman and Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn who returned recently from a weekend mission of some 43 people to Gush Katif. Hikind said he has some of his office staffers working on the campaign against disengagement. They are organizing trips to Israel, purchasing advertisements in US Jewish newspapers and on the radio, and mobilizing support among key rabbis from synagogues in New York, particularly Long Island. Hikind also hosts a weekly radio show in New York, which gives him a platform to rail against the withdrawal plan. He says most Israelis know virtually nothing about the people who live in the settlements in Gaza and don't understand the settlements' strategic value to the State of Israel. "Many Israelis don't visit Jerusalem, much less Gush Katif," Hikind said. "They haven't been to the synagogues that I have been to." Despite the vehemence of people like Hikind, they represent a relatively small proportion of American Jews, and even many supporters of the settlements are staying out of the internal Israel squabble over the dismantling of Gaza's settlements. Such people say they have found it difficult to argue with Sharon's leadership, and that in any case it is not their place to tell Israelis that they should continue to die to defend the embattled coastal strip. "It is a very complicated issue that breaks my heart, and yet I understand the dilemma that Mr. Sharon is facing," said Benjamin Brafman, a celebrated criminal-defense attorney and strong supporter of the Israeli community in Hebron. Brafman has represented such clients as Michael Jackson, P. Diffy (a.k.a. Sean Combs, or Puff Daddy) and a host of Orthodox rabbis accused of financial malfeasance. "I think those of us who live in the United States really do not have the right to interfere in [Israel's internal] decision, even if in our heart we support the settlers," Brafman said. "Because I think if you really are serious about supporting them, you should live where they live rather than voice your opinions from 7,000 miles away. And I think some of the political figures in the United States who have gotten involved in this issue are, in my judgment, not accomplishing very much and are viewed in many ways by the settlers as hypocrites because they rally others to take decisive action but do the rallying from the relative safety and comfort of the United States." That hasn't bothered Israelis seeking broader support for their campaign against disengagement. This week, Moledet's Benyamin Elon came to the United States to meet with Jewish supporters in New York before going to churches in San Diego, Denver and San Antonio to drum up support-financial and otherwise-for the battle against withdrawal. At the same time, Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, said he was visiting Reform and Conservative synagogues on a weekly basis to convince them that withdrawal is the wrong move for Israel. After New York's Salute to Israel Parade in May, an annual march down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue that draws hundreds of thousands, Ateret Cohanim's Frager will host a concert in Central Park dedicated to Gush Katif. Frager said he also is trying to organize weekly trips to Gush Katif by American Jews so that Americans can be with the Israelis there every Shabbat. "You cannot be a rational human being and surrender this," he said of the Gaza settlement bloc. Sources said discussions also are under way at the Orthodox Union, the umbrella organization for US Orthodox synagogues, about what to do to help Gaza's settlers. An OU spokesman denied that any meetings on the issue were taking place, though he said, "Although it's not our policy to comment on the actions of the government of Israel, we're very concerned about the situation." So far, it does not seem that the campaign in the United States to block Israel's withdrawal from Gaza is broad-based or coordinated, but that could change as the date for withdrawal nears. "When they learn what the truth is, they move in the direction of supporting the Jews of Gaza," Klein said of American Jews.