July 29, 1998

The following is excerpted from the latest newsletter of good friends who live in Israel:

MESSIANIC ACTION COMMITTEE UPDATE (excerpts from recent bulletins received from Israel)

FREEDOM REPORT NO. 50
July 28, 1998

When the Zvilli/Gafni religious literature-censoring legislation was first introduced, many here felt we were facing a "David and Goliath" situation. Others were of the opinion that it is our responsibility to exert whatever efforts we could to properly and lawfully oppose that legislation. What resulted was a campaign having two major thrusts, namely: foreign pressure to offset the internal political pressure tactics of the Ultra Orthodox and a domestic advertising effort presenting our case.

We were gratified to see that our efforts were far more effective than originally anticipated. Members of the U. S. Congress and Parliaments and legislative bodies world-wide responded to requests for mail to be sent to Israel (E-mail to government officials is often disregarded.).

Advertising in newspapers (Hebrew, English and Russian) gave us direct access to the Israeli public. Because the issues were legislative and political, we were able to obtain advertising space that would otherwise have been unavailable to us.

It has been interesting to see how sensitive the Israeli government has been to foreign political and diplomatic expressions of concern over the introduction of such legislation. Visits to U. S. Capitol Hill offices, European Members of Domestic and European Parliaments, Foreign Ministries and Embassies have really paid off. These have so far been conducted in Denmark, Finland, Holland, Germany, Norway, the U.K. and the U. S. Mail from individuals has also proven effective. The Israeli government has admitted that substantial foreign diplomatic pressure has been exerted.

Following many months of rigorous activity, we began to see back-peddling on the part of MK Zvilli, culminating in his withdrawal of co-sponsorship of the Zvilli/Gafni bill proscribing mailing or distribution of evangelistic literature. That was followed by MK Rabbi Pinchasi's more stringent bill seeking to preclude evangelistic discussions. Now Prime Minister Netanyahu, Coalition Whip Sheetrit and even MK Pinchasi are offering reasons why we should not be worried. For example, the Prime Minister says he did not know what he was doing when he backed the legislation. Meir Sheetrit says he opposed the legislation and only sought to buy coalition peace for six months. Pinchasi was quoted as saying he only introduced the bill so his party would not be overshadowed by another religious party.

It would appear that the prompt passage of the bill hoped for by Pinchasi has been temporarily put at bay. We must remain on guard, however, since a special session of the Knesset can be called, and once convened, any bill can be brought to a vote during such a session. We need to continue to work diligently to prevent its passage at any time and in any form.

Our many friends abroad who joined their action with ours deserve much credit and thanks. For our part, we are appreciative and grateful for your interest and help in our struggle to insure religious freedom and democracy in Israel.

ADVERTISING

During this last year we have placed over 60 advertisements (five different messages with multiple insertions) in Hebrew, English and Russian newspapers. Each message insertion reaches some one million subscription readers. That's almost half of the Jewish adult population.

At the outset, our ads explained who we were and attempted to correct both misconceptions and lack of correct information. In subsequent ads we stated why religious censorship was bad for Israeli society and destructive of its democratic nature. Each succeeding ad became slightly more bold.

Recently, a well-known news commentator (TV, radio and newspaper columnist) responded to one of our latest ads. The response is long on emotion and short on sound argument. It is included below so you can see the passionate reaction of a segment of Israeli society.

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Date: 18/07/98 Hour: 18:00

Channel No. 2 Tommy Lapide:

The Messianic Action Committee in Israel this week published an ad against the bill in which Member of Knesset Raphael Pinchasi from Shas proposes that all who preach their faith in public with the aim to persuade another of its correctness will be sentenced to three years' imprisonment or fined 50,000 Shekels. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has promised his Christian supporters in the United States that Pinchasi's bill will not be passed in the Knesset, but the bill worries the Messianic community in the land which is occupied with missionary activity. The statement asserts that this bill will return all of the residents of the country to the dark days of the Middle Ages.

The meaning of the bill, says the statement, is the trampling of freedom of expression and faith in Israel and the trampling of its democratic character. If tomorrow peaceful citizens would be sent to prison, says the statement, only on account of their faith that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel, no one will be able to say we didn't know. The expression "we didn't know", that the Germans used after the holocaust, is a hint that this is Nazi legislation.

The ad calls us to come out to defend democracy, and I refuse. I support Pinchasi's anti-democratic bill. From my perspective, all religion is superstition, but two thousand years of persecution have granted us the right to be left alone in our Land. If we hadn't been murdered, if we hadn't been forced to convert to Christianity, then today we would have been a nation of two hundred million people. The source of all anti-semitism is Christianity; all the troubles that have come upon us are because of that rebel rabbi whom Christianity sees as the Messiah. Let them enjoy him, let them adore him, let them pray to him and let them believe that he is God, but not in our schools. Here we have immunity. We bought it with our blood.

Regarding the claim that it [the bill] is undemocratic, every society places limitations on the freedom of the individual. Even in the most liberal regime there are laws which forbid the promulgation of racism. In my view, preaching about Christianity is a kind of racism. A Christian missionary tells a Jew that he is deficient, that his religion is not the right religion, like the racist who says about the Negro that he is deficient because the color of his skin is not right. I am sensitive to my right to be a Jew like the Negro is sensitive to his right to be black. No one forbids the Messianic community to believe in Yeshu.* All that the bill forbids is to preach to us that we should believe in Yeshu* as the Messiah. As a democrat and a liberal, I say to the missionaries, "Go to hell."

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*This alternative spelling {Yeshu} is a derogatory anagram in Hebrew, meaning "May His name and memory be blotted out". _________________________________________________________________

There are some who may think that our efforts in resisting proposed legislation seeking to impose religious censorship in Israel is making much ado about nothing. We do not agree.

Christianity is no more racist than Zionism or Judaism are. But there are Christian racists and Jewish racists, an example of the latter being Tommy Lapide. His sickening attempts to use bigoted generalizations against an entire religious community (the Christians") and then to paint the Messianic Community in Israel with the same tainted brush smacks of the very worst expressions of anti-semitism--using the same tools which our enemies have employed to justify the most diabolical attacks against our people. Lapide's willingness to support anti-democratic restrictions on basic human rights of a segment of Israeli society exposes his ignorance of one crucial historical fact: that true democracy--rigorously maintained--has been the only (and, to our sorrow, rare) protection for the Jewish people in the diaspora. With people like Pinchasi, Gafni and Lapide practicing their own forms of reckless demagoguery in the renewed Jewish homeland, our people require that same protection more than ever.

Please note the new e-mail and post office addresses and telephone/fax number for the MAC.

MESSIANIC ACTION COMMITTEE

Paul Liberman, Chairman
Noam Hendren
Charles Kopp
Marvin Kramer, Esq.
Nizar Touma
Daniel Yahav


P. O. Box 5462,  Herzliya   46100   Israel
Telephone/Fax:  972-9-951-6118
E-mail:  themac@netvision.net.il


Our news may be found on the "web" at :  The MAC Gallop Poll:
http://www.d10r10.com/Jerusalem_ gate/gate.htm  News headlines:
http://www.d10r10.com/Jerusalem_gate/news.htm   News details:
http://www.d10r10.com/Jerusalem_gate/feature.htm

 

See also:

AMFI's Religious Liberty in Israel Update Page

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