Our Meeting With President Katzav
Women in Green 26 January 2004
womeningreen.org

Women In Green have been aware for some time that the overwhelming majority
of the Jewish People, after living with continual Arab terror for three
long years, are against the creation of another Arab State within Biblical
Israel. The problem was how to get the general public to become aware that
these are the facts. Certainly, you can not get this information from the
general media. It goes out of its way to give the impression that the
majority of people go along with Prime Minister Sharon in his advocacy of
another Arab State in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. This in spite of the fact
that the Arabs in a truly racist and anti-democratic fashion support that
the Jews be uprooted from their homes. Traditionally and historically,
Judea, Samaria and Gaza and the Jewish communities located therein, have
always been part and parcel of the Jewish Homeland. Sadly, it is this area
that is to make up a major part of the new Arab state that is to be created.

Accordingly, the 350,000 signatures that Women In Green have gathered by
visiting the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Gat, Haifa, Tel
Aviv, Jerusalem, Herzliyah, Netanyah Petach Tikva, Kiryat Ono, Tiberias,
Safed , Kiryat Shmonah and many, many others is truly representative of how
the Jews in Israel feel about the creation of another Arab State alongside
of Israel. That is why we welcomed the opportunity to visit with President
Katzav to convey to him these facts. Prime Minister Sharon has
deliberately and totally ignored the wishes of his people in that
regard. He has been faxed each and every page of the Petition, directed to
him by 350,000 citizens of Israel. They have implored him not to support
the establishment of another Arab state in their midst. Sharon has
furthermore disregarded the Likud Party Platform on the basis of which he
was elected. That Platform specifically rejects the creation of an Arab
Palestinian state within Biblical Israel.

Our Jewish People have witnessed Arab terror at close hand and properly
concluded that the majority of the Arabs wish to destroy the Jewish State
of Israel. To establish another Arab state alongside of Israel is not only
a reward for Arab terror, but it will encourage and promote such Arab
terror in the future. In the schooling of their children and in their
propaganda the Arabs refuse to recognize the Jewish State of Israel, nor
are they willing to live in peace with it. It is thus reasonable for our
Jewish citizens to conclude that the Arabs will not change their stance in
the foreseeable future.

At the time our delegation from our organization, of men and women, met
with President Katzav, we conveyed to him the following:

1. We presented him with a sample of over 100,000 of the over 350,000
signatures we had previously obtained. The President's office had called
us not to bring the entire amount of signatures, but merely a sample of
them. The President's office suggested we bring 5 such boxes, but we
actually brought them 7, because we wanted there be over 100,000 such
signatures. We pointed out to President Katzav that these signatures
reveal the true feeling of the Jewish People in Israel, with regard to the
creation of another Arab State in their homeland. This attitude of our
Jewish people is not properly reported in the media. Many people are
unaware that they are part of a great majority who feel that way. When
Prime Mister Sharon advocates the creation of such an Arab state, he is
acting in a dictatorial fashion. The Will of the People is opposed to what
he intends to do. By the way, the electorate had chosen Prime Minister
Sharon in the last election, on the basis of his Party's Platform. This
platform specifically states that it is opposed to the creation of another
Arab State in our midst.

2. Recent polls in America, clearly indicate that approximately 70% of
Americans are opposed to the creation of another Arab State within Biblical
Israel. This reflects the sentiment of millions of Americans who do not
support President Bush's present "Road Map" Proposal. During our meeting a
letter written by the Presidents of American Committee for the Preservation
of the Land and People of Israel and National Unity Coalition, representing
over 200 groups of Christians and Jews who are opposed to the creation of
such an Arab State within Biblical Israel, was presented to President
Katzav. A Full Page Ad to that effect appeared in the Jerusalem Post's
local and international edition as well as the French edition of that
paper, on the Friday, January 23, 2004, preceding our meeting with
President Katzav.

3. At this meeting we presented to President Katzav a Historical and
Archeological Map of Judea and Samaria showing the Jewish Biblical roots to
their homeland. This map was meticulously made up by two of our devoted
members, who spent hundreds of hours of research verifying the facts stated
therein.

4. Our spokesperson Nadia Matar urged the President to do all in his power
to obtain the release of our Prisoners of War Ron Arad, Zecharia Baumel,
Yehuda Katz, Zvi Feldman, Guy Hever, and Jonathan Pollard.

The President responded to this latter plea of Nadia's by saying that just
today he had mentioned the release of these prisoners while he was paying a
shiva call to a family of a soldier in the north, killed by the
Hizbullah. However, he indicated that the media does not always relay such
statements he makes in that regard. As to Jonathan Pollard, the President
stated that both the left and the right were unanimously united in their
efforts to bring Jonathan home.

Referring to the massive number of signatures we had obtained against the
formation of an Arab state, President Katzav was of the opinion that Prime
Minister Sharon would bring the question of such importance to the People
for its decision. He thought the procedure for this would be a Referendum,
submitted to the People of Israel for its decision.

Nadia and several of our women responded that no one has the right to give
any part of the Land of Israel to a foreign entity. Ben Gurion as early as
1937 recognized this fact at a World Zionist Conference, and it has been
often repeated since then. Esther Beit Halachmi, one of our women,
expressed this view to the President, in an eloquent manner. The banners
that were posted on the boxes we presented to the President carried the
message that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People of Israel
eternally.

President Katzav urged our organization to remain steadfast in our national
beliefs, and praised our organization for its courage and convictions. As
a result we, in Women In Green, were strengthened by the words and
encouragement that the President gave to our delegation.

Jerusalem, January 26, 2004 Ruth and Nadia Matar

You could also read a report of this meeting, by Greer Fay Cashman, in
today's on-line edition of The Jerusalem Post:
www.jpost.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=
1075097282327

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