Stemming the tide of terrorism one vest at a time

In a small parlor meeting in Cedarhurst, a leader of a grassroots organization committed to helping civilians in Judea and Samaria explained his cause to a group of thirty intent listeners, delineating the history of Israel’s current precarious security situation and decrying the lack of awareness and support.

“No one is writing about it,” said Israel Danziger, director of operations of Mishmeret Yesha. “No one is speaking about it. We are taking for granted that whatever is there is still going to be there. Maybe the State of Israel won’t be there. Those maybes are real. Many things are going on day in day out.”

Danziger spoke at a late Melave Malka in the home of Leah and Efrem Schnoll attended by local activists, including Cedarhurst Village trustee Myrna Zisman and her husband Leibel. It was jointly sponsored by the friends and neighbors of Maple Avenue and Gourmet Glatt.

Mishmeret Yesha, MY, an organization that is principally involved in security related projects, has been around for 24 years, since 1988 and the first “Intifada,” said Israel Danziger. Their work involves training and equipping Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) or volunteer anti-terrorist (SWAT) response units, in Yehuda and Shomron, to protect and respond to any attacks on their communities and institutions there. They work in cooperation with the IDF, but are usually there first, being in their own town and thus able to respond before the IDF is called and arrives.

The IDF provides the volunteers with weapons, and values their eyes and ears on the ground. The volunteers are familiar with the terrain and residents there, and the RRTs work with the IDF to help prevent terrorist infiltrations. “Rather than respond to situations,” explained Danziger, “we formed an ideologically based organization, an umbrella for all things, to seek to change the situation.” Some of their projects include Nachalat Yehuda that designs and makes armored vests for distribution to RRTs, medics and families; Haganat Hayishuv that teaches defense and provides early warning detection systems; and security g’machim (community charity organizations) to lend protective vests and helmets to men, women, and children on the borders or in communities under threat, facing rocket attacks, or dangerous road travel.

MY provides medical aid before, during, and after an attack with portable trauma units and rehabilitative equipment, and legal assistance with the Matir Assurim progam, a Jewish legal fund. Project Ezri offers vocational training courses in organic farming, carpentry, metalwork, masonry, construction, organic raising of chickens, goats and sheep for troubled youth pre-, post and during army service. Another project is Ovdei Ha’aretz, helping communities redeem, secure, clear, cultivate and irrigate land for organic vineyards and olive and fruit orchards to enable agriculturally based industries and self-sufficiency in these areas.

Danziger was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and made Aliyah in 1972. He lived in Kiryat Arba and set up a business there and now lives in Efrat. He has been raising funds for MY in the U.S. since 2001 and he said that he, “discovered that people are misinformed; people have no idea what’s going on in Israel so it’s hard to explain what our organization is doing.” He pointed out that 93 rockets landed in southern Israel over Shabbat June 16th, with three quarters of a million men, women, and children forced to live in shelters, not being able to work or go to school, in towns and major cities, Beer Sheva, Sderot, Ofakim. People are afraid to leave their homes, to take a shower for fear of the siren going off and having only 15 seconds to run for safety. Why, he asked, aren’t the Rabbis talking about this, why don’t they announce tehillim for those under bombardment before shiurim? “It’s ridiculous that I have to leave my family and my business and travel to explain this,” he stated. “The Rabbis are not making an effort to transport the information, to get involved.”

He traced the current security situation back to the 1970s when, he recounted, Ariel Sharon set up Arab associations of mukhtarim, heads of large Arab families in their villages to control the population there and armed them and gave them work. In 1985, after the first Lebanon War, in the Jibril exchange, six Israeli prisoners were exchanged for 1000 Arab prisoners who were released into Yehuda and Shomron. “This broke the rule of not negotiating with terrorists,” stressed Danziger. “They organized in the villages, destroyed any semblance of Israeli authority and murdered 600 members of the village leagues. It happened over many years. Nobody cared or got involved. They took things for granted. That’s how we got in the situation we are in today.” He noted that there were further releases of Arabs and arming of the Arabs, creating an extensive terrorist infrastructure in Israel’s heartland. He also noted that major areas of Jerusalem are under control of the Palestinian Authority along French Hill and Ramat Eshkol in Shuafat, with the Israeli government wanting to give control to the Arabs all the way north to Ramallah, a continuous Arab neighborhood looking down on all the Jewish areas. He stressed that most people heard of the attacks in cities such as the Sbarro bombing and bus bombings, but are unaware of the attacks in the yishuvim, “day in day out.”

“”Their intent (Oslo accords, roadmap) is to set up a new Arab state in the heart of Israel, in Judea, Samaria and most of Jerusalem,” he warned. “It’s going on every day. That Saul Mofaz met with Obama is not haphazard. They are trying to pull off a Gush Katif in Yehuda and Shomron; it’s in the works, they may pull out.” He noted the many projects foreign NGOs have in Arab villages supported by the Israeli government and the security threat along the borders of Lebanon, Gaza, and North Sinai, with weapons “pouring in” there and the closing of roads 90 and 12 because of rocket attacks.

Ilana Shimon of Chavat Gilad, praised MY for providing them with the necessities of security including training and armored vests. MY also worked with Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) to build a playground there. Pointing out the need for security assistance, Shimon noted that they are surrounded by four hostile Arab villages and this past Tuesday, Arab infiltrators broke into and burnt the home of a newly married young couple there.

Gilad Matana of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron noted that MY trained RRTs and provided equipment for groups of students there to protect against terrorist infiltrations. The training, he pointed out, is in cooperation with the IDF. MY also provides them with armored vests and ammunition. The IDF gives reserve soldiers weapons.

“He gives every fiber of his being to the security of the people living in Yehuda and Shomron,” emphasized Scott Feltman, executive vice president of One Israel Fund. “I know he is dedicated and does good work. He cares tremendously.”

“He does fantastic, amazing work,” said Helen Freedman of AFSI, “that one person really spearheads the organization. I’ve been to the training center. It’s not a vigilante group, they train in association with the IDF. They train women as well as men.” She noted the “perfectly designed” vests manufactured in Bet El with “special pockets to carry equipment.” They began making them when reservists called up in 2006 in Lebanon weren’t prepared “because a lot of energy was put into the expulsion of Gush Katif in 2005, there was a gap in preparedness….They (MY) do endless good deeds.”

“If a minimal effort is done,” said Danziger, “major change can take place.”

For more information contact: guards24@zahav.net.il. To assist the family in Chavat Gilad contact ilanabcs@gmail.com.