PRESS RELEASE:
Manhigut Yehudit Responds to Critics of its Civil Disobedience Booklet
(January 27, 2005)
www.jewishisrael.org/dbart.php?art=555

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Karnei Shomron, Israel (January 27, 2005 | Shevat 18, 5765) - Manhigut
Yehudit, the conservative, ideological wing of Israel's nationalist Likud
party, has responded to critics of its booklet, "The Duty to Disobey". The
booklet calls for non-violent civil disobedience as the most effective
method for preventing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "Disengagement Plan"
that will expel thousands of Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip and in
northern Samaria.

"I am unfazed by the Likud's efforts to expel me from the party and to
prevent me from running in the next race for Israel's parliament", says
Moshe Feiglin, the leader of Manhigut Yehudit. "Before we published the
pamphlet, we knew that the party apparatchiks would try to use the booklet
to expel us from the Likud."

"We did not enter politics in order to follow to the caprice of one
politician or another. We came in order to lead the country on a different
path, one rooted in authentic Jewish values. While other politicians can-and
do-remain silent for tactical reasons even when the soul of the nation is at
stake, we simply cannot. If we were to do so, there would be no point in our
entering the political area."

Feiglin continues: "The attempt to get rid of the Manhigut Yehudit faction
in the Likud by expelling its leaders is ridiculous. It is based on the
fundamental assumption of small-time politicians that the motivating force
behind Manhigut Yehudit is the same as theirs: personal gain. They are
incapable of understanding that we are motivated by a common ideology. Even
if they expel me from the party, there is a long list of belief-based
candidates who will take my place."

"Members of Manhigut Yehudit, and veteran members of the Likud who support
them, now represent more than 10% of all members of the party and the Likud
Central Committee," says Michael Fuah, Managing Director of Manhigut
Yehudit. "It is simply impossible to expel all of us."

About "The Duty to Disobey"
The "Duty to Disobey" is a 30-page booklet that includes a series of
articles by Moshe Feiglin, Moti Karpel, Michael Fuah and Ronen Zafrir. The
booklet calls for soldiers to refuse orders to uproot Jews from their homes,
citing sources in the Hebrew Bible (the Torah), renowned Rabbis and even the
early Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, whose ideology forms the basis of the
Likud party.

In one article, Feiglin writes: "Some say that civil obedience is a crime
but the truth is the opposite, as evidenced by the American celebration of
Martin Luther King Day. Refusal does not destroy; it builds. Military
refusal and civil disobedience in response to the expulsion of Jews will not
lead to the destruction of the army. It will build it up as a moral army and
will strengthen the basis for its existence."

Feiglin argues that the country is being subjected to a tyrannical,
undemocratic process which is leading the nation to a terrible disaster. "We
are talking about an increase of the damages caused by the Oslo process, an
indescribable crime against entire communities that will tear the nation to
shreds and undermine the very basis for the existence of the state...."

"Conscientious soldiers who hold G-d in their hearts and will refuse to take
part in any act of evacuation or assist it, will save thousands of Israelis
from the death march which started in Oslo and is now gaining speed."

Michael Fuah, the Managing Director of Manhigut Yehudit writes that the
difficulty in the battle against the "Disengagement Plan" is the knowledge
that "There is a left-wing public that is interested in a civil war. This
public does not see Gush Katif settlers as their brethren, but rather an
enemy... the extreme left is preparing its provocation, in which it will
blame the right wing for firing the first shot." Fuah adds that "A civil war
will not take place if brothers will not fight one another, if fraternity
will overcome blind obedience."

Ronen Zafrir, veteran of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, compares the
Disengagement Bill to the Nuremberg Laws. "Sharon's regime is no longer
legitimate. Only mass disobedience of hundreds of thousands will return the
state to a track of a parliamentary democracy and a sane regime. As during
the peaceful revolutions of Eastern Europe, the moment soldiers refused to
shoot at demonstrators, and when protesters put flowers in the barrels of
troops' guns, the dictatorships understood they had to go."

About 70,000 copies of the "Duty to Disobey" have been printed and
distributed to synagogues nationwide where they have been eagerly received.
Additional copies are being printed and will be distributed by Young
Manhigut Yehudit, the organization's youth movement at road junctions, bus
stops, and public spaces.

About Manhigut Yehudit
Manhigut Yehudit ("Jewish Leadership") is the successor to Zo Artzeinu
("This is Our Land"), the protest movement that opposed the Oslo Accords
with massive civil disobedience in 1994. Realizing that Israel needs a true
political alternative rather than just alternative politicians who carry out
the same suicidal agenda, Manhigut Yehudit seeks to strengthen the nation's
collective Jewish identity and its connection to its Land. In 1998, the
Manhigut Yehudit movement was established with the aim of enlisting
thousands of believing members in the Likud party, and electing a party
leader who would be driven by Jewish ideals and values. As the Likud's
candidate for Prime Minister, this candidate would be the natural leader of
the national camp and would be elected as the Prime Minister of the State of
Israel. Visit Manhigut Yehudit on the web at www.jewishisrael.org.

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Contacts

ISRAEL
Moshe Feiglin
Tel: +972-9-7929046
mfeiglin@manhigut.org

USA
Shmuel Sackett
Tel: 1-516-295-3222
shmuel@manhigut.org