About six months ago Aryeh Zelasko's plan below appeared on Arutz 7. He had told some of us about his plan before that. I was intrigued, and have working toward this goal for a while now.
In February, I started a job which paid its employees by check, a rarity in Israel. In my last job, I also received my salary in check form, but had to beg for it. I took my new job's payment policy as a sign that I was on the right path....
After receiving a notice from my bank last week about "account inactivity," even though I actually have money in the bank, I thought it was time to do more to help publicize Aryeh's plan. It is republished below, with his expressed permission. His plan can also be found in Hebrew, if you prefer, by clicking here (עברית).
I don't know about you, but I don't like having my bank tell me what to do with my money, Qal weHomer (even more so, the government).
How about you?
A Modest Proposal
by Aryeh Zelasko
The time has come to use a serious weapon.
It seems that the consensus of all the experts is that we are in for another major betrayal by the Powers That Be. There is to be a new Sharon-style pogrom expelling 300,000 Jews from what is left of Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem is to be divided or
We have tried demonstrations. We have tried elections.
internationalized, and the Arabs are to be given yet another large chunk of Israel to control and use to destroy what little is left over of the State of Israel.
So, what to do?
We have tried demonstrations. We have tried elections. We have tried behind the scenes pressure and deals. None of it has had the slightest effect, nor did any of it prevent the expulsion of a single Jew from his home or increase the safety of those Jews still allowed to live in theirs. So why should any of that work now?
The time has come to use a serious weapon. One that will force the situation. The time has come to use money.
My modest proposal is that we withdraw as much cash as possible from Israeli banks. Also, if you have Israeli bonds, cash them in. It would also be helpful to stop using credit cards and pay for everything in cash. I was recently told that if as little as 1% of bank assets were withdrawn, this would send the system into chaos. I further suggest that, at the time of withdrawal, the bank manager be given a letter explaining that you are removing your money in protest of the Oslo Treason, and will not return your cash until such time as it is officially ended, the Palestinian Authority is null and void, and Judea, Samaria and Gaza are officially annexed to the State of Israel. As I said, a modest proposal.
This approach has four major virtues:
*It is totally legal.
*It is nonviolent.
*It does not require any fancy organizations.
*It will work!
I have attempted to anticipate and answer some questions about this idea. I am sure there are many others, but I do not promise that I will have the answers or answers that will satisfy.
Question: I have outstanding checks and bills to pay. How can I possibly do this?
It is your money that should be withdrawn, not your common sense. Of course you must pay your bills, and keep your business and other activities functional. No one is asking you to commit financial suicide. However, every agurah above that - take it out of the system and put it in a shoe box under your bed.
Question: But won't this seriously hurt the economy? Is it really the right thing to do? Isn't this anti-democratic?
Yes it will. When the Histadrut calls a general strike, the economy is hurt. When the dock workers staged a strike a number of years ago, it wrecked the economy for nearly a year. For over fifty years, the government subsidized the kibbutz movement with billions of dollars in free hand-outs and communist protection laws, and the economy was crippled. In short, there have been no lack of self-serving, greedy people willing to use all sorts of "anti-democratic" means, and to cause all sorts of serious damage to our economy, so long as they personally benefited. So, what is wrong in doing this with the intention of saving the country?
Will placing all of Israel's industrial, transportation, energy and population within easy range of Arab mortars and cheap, home-made missiles be good for the economy? Will the Arab murderers ask the Jews to vote and approve before they open up on us with their guns and artillery?
Question: I will lose a lot of money if I do this. Most of this money is either for my retirement or for my children's future. Is it really fair to jeopardize the future to make a political point?
I suppose that if you really believe we and our children will have much of a future here after the government expels nearly 300,000 Jews from their homes and gives the property over to Arab murderers, then, by all means, hang on to your interest payments and coupons. However, if you suspect living in a beat up caravan and not having any means to support your family (as happened to the victims of the Sharon pogrom), or that having a Kassam crashing through your roof (as is happening in Sderot and the Negev today), might ruin the tranquility of your retirement or annoy your children, then consider my proposal. This is not about making a political point, it is using a powerful weapon to archive victory.
Question: Isn't it pointless to try? As soon as this would start to be effective, the government would outlaw it.
No it is not pointless. In fact, this has a very sharp and deadly point. One that will accomplish what all the demonstrations and elections have not: force the end of Oslo and the annexation of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Furthermore, they can not outlaw people removing their own money from a bank without causing a serious crisis and jeopardizing Israel's international financial status.
Question: If I do this, I will have a very large amount of cash around. Won't that make me the target of thieves? It will turn me into a nervous wreck, I just can't take the risk.
It is perfectly legal, and not too difficult, to transfer your money to a foreign bank. Any lawyer or CPA involved with corporate law should be able to advise you how to do this and where it is the safest. You don't really have to put it all in a shoe box.
6 comments:
Why is it no one will do the one thing that will help until it's the only option left. I have yet to hear anyone say "We have sinned and our fathers have sinned" and beat their breast in sincere contrition. Until that happens, nothing will change. If you think this plan has a snowball's chance of succeeding...well, let's just say I'm disappointed.
B"H
Just so that you know, I published this comment w/o knowing which post you were commenting on,...because I trust your opinion.
Will this work? I have no idea.
I do know that Aryeh is an ally, and wants to do something. I want to do something, and if it means not supporting banks and bankers, then it sounds good to me.
I have no doubt he would be interested in constructive criticism, and alternatives.
The bottom line is that the gov't is controlled by the shadow gov't of Shimon Peres and Aharon Baraq, and the people are powerless to do anything about it.
Even if democracy was remotely connected with Torah, we don't have a fair one.
So, until we do the "right" thing, creativity is what we've got.
You could post a response on your blog and I could send him the link to it.
My frustration is not directed to you personally Ben Yehudah. I know of this person and a thousand more just like him. He's an old man and should know better by now.
You wrote: "The bottom line is that the gov't is controlled by the shadow gov't of Shimon Peres and Aharon Baraq, and the people are powerless to do anything about it."
The bottom line is...Hashem is in control of everything. We hold in our hands the greatest power of all...teshuva. If we would just use it!
The main trouble with us is everyone thinks he's a tzadik. No one has anything from which to repent.
Yirmiyahu, chapter 8
"...why is this rebellious people of Jerusalem eternally rebellious? They hold fast to guile; they refuse to repent. I have listened and heard. They speak untruth; no man relents of his evil, saying 'What have I done?' They all follow their course like a horse racing headlong in war...."
Yirmiyahu 25
"...'Repent now each man from his evil way and from the wickedness of your deeds, so that you may remain on the land that Hashem gave you and your fathers forever and ever....' "
I have yet to hear one person from Gush Katif take any responsibility for their present condition. Do they bear no blame at all? If so, then Hashem is just cruel to His children, chas v'shalom!
In fact, we brought it upon ourselves.
For forty years Hashem waited for us to fulfill the other half of the mitzva of yishuv ha'aretz...that of driving out the former inhabitants. Instead we brought them into our homes and insured them parnasa to remain.
Bamidbar 33
"...But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land before you...it shall be that what I had meant to do to them, I shall do to you."
The Erev Rav government did not dictate who we must employ or from whom we must buy or whom we can visit and have coffee with. It doesn't prevent us shunning fellow Jews who insist on consorting with the enemy. No! There was plenty we could do, but we are so blase and uncaring about Hashem's desires, only concerned with our own.
The insistence on conforming to "democratic" means and norms is another example. Rav Binyamin Kahane,z"l Hy"d, already told us nearly ten years ago to stop supporting elections. Along comes Moshe Feiglin and once again, right-wing religious Jews are off on a wild goose chase wasting precious time and energy on a DISTRACTION from doing anything real and meaningful like making mass teshuva.
Before we set the world right, we have to first set our minds aright.
Some spiritual truths are in order.
The Erev Rav are klipot. They are parasitic in nature. They cannot exist without an attachment to kedusha from which they get the energy to survive. As long as Jews are mixed among them, they survive. When the Jews separate from them (and from their system) then that system will collapse and die. This is why we must abandon the system and separate from them. If we don't do it voluntarily then Hashem will bring it about and it won't be pleasant.
Just look at what has had to happen in order to distance good Jews from the government, the police, the courts---to disabuse us of the notion that we can bring the Erev Rav to the side of kedusha. It's not going to happen. It's not in their nature. They are not fitting vessels to contain it. (Another meaning to the phrase from Yirmiyahu---"my people has fashioned for themselves broken vessels which cannot contain water.")
The Torah is our instruction book for Life. It has everything we need and it tells us exactly what we need to do and how the world is run. Why do we not do more than pay lip service to it???
We should stop already with the schemes and keep repeating this simple message---Repent and Separate.
Cleanse your hearts and minds of foreign ideas. Cease the rebellion against the will of the Creator. Stop with the pragmatic cheshbonot and simply submit to the Torah's instructions. Separate from everyone and everything which contradicts it.
In the end, there is no other choice. At Sinai, we sold our souls back to the One who gave them. From that point on, our free will no longer included whether we would fulfill our destiny or not. Our free will only extends as far as deciding whether we will reach it by the long, hard road, or the short, easy one.
Haven't we suffered enough already? Let's just put down the toys and go in to supper. It really could be that simple, if we are willing.
No more games.
Shabbat shalom~
I think you or Geulah said it to me once, that HaShem keeps trying to bring Geulah, and we don't want to accept it.
I guess that answers the question of willingness.
(sigh)
Regarding "Eruv Rav" I guess I would have called them cancer requiring surgical removal, but I think we're on the basically the same page with that.
There just never seems to be a doctor in the house when you need one,...or at least none willing.
People from Azza taking responsibility? Nope, not at all. It's a big problem. I'm hoping that after three years they'll be ready to hear it.
After speaking to several after the expulsion who used to hang out at the Internet Cafe where I worked, it seems like some were waking up,...too late of course.
One guy's father (Tashnady) wrote an article on Hebrew A7 about how he went to the Azza Council to ask how they were preparing to fight. He was told to pray, and that's it.
These people still didn't get it (although he did, I think).
So, no arguments here.
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