Dear Friends,

Our conference in collaboration with Nativ on November 29 marked the beginning of our efforts to renew the struggle against the new minority government. The conference hall was full to capacity with about 300 people. Based on the reaction of the audience the lectures were well received.

The following is a summary of the major messages of the lecturers:

• The vicious accusations of the leftists against everybody affiliated with the National Camp is generating a feeling that we are facing a period reminiscent of "witch hunts" and McCarthy era.

  The recent revelations about Eyal organization raise questions about the cooperation between the government, GSS head who is rumored to be anti-settlement, and the government controlled media in staging provocative acts to blemish the whole National Camp.

  The Media Watch headed by our member Prof. Eli Pollak [now abroad. AZ], and Director Israel Meidad have scored a victory as they prompted the Attorney General to initiate a police inquiry into the involvement of a TV newsman in staging an Eyal organization show for national Channel I TV news.

• Prof. Ben-Shlomo noted that Judea and Samaria are the cradles of the Jewish nation and civilization, and their surrender will lead to a very difficult period of cultural annihilation. The mention of major cultural, and historical sites and symbols will be considered "incitement for war or disturbing law and order" and will be suppressed. For example, he noted that at a ceremony at President's house a whole section of Naomi Shemer's famous song "Jerusalem of Gold" was omitted since it mentioned "the road to Jericho" which was recently surrendered to Arafat. Thus, he said that the withdrawal of the Israeli army to the Green line will not stop there but will lead to a continued regression in our rightful claims to live [independently. AZ] in Israel. He quoted leftists who are already calling the 1948 Independence war, a war of colonialism. A questionnaire distributed to the newly recruited soldiers included the question whether the soldier is against compromises in giving parts of the State of Israel in a "peace settlement". The questionnaire that included other political comments was withdrawn after wide spread protest.

• Arieh Stav, editor of Nativ, as the moderator of the evening summarized the points of Profs. Louis Rene Beres and Eliav Shochetman regarding the illegality of the Oslo agreements, and other aspects of the current negotiations. [See some relevant documents in our archive.]

• Mr. Yosi Ben-Aharon, former director general of PM office under Shamir, and the chief negotiator in talks with Syria, expressed his grave concern regarding the current negotiations with Syria. Yet he received the greatest applause when he noted that the People of Israel for generations will be grateful for the dedication of the Settlers in Yesha for being the real guardians of the Land of Israel.

An Israeli Radio representative recorded the whole conference but not a word was reported in the news about the conference.

The meeting concluded with a call to the newly appointed PM Peres to form a broader government based on a Jewish Majority.

The week of the meeting we woke up from the illusions of the New Middle East of Peres, to face the reality of the Middle East when we heard the news about the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Fatah members, and shooting from an olive orchard in Shomron that gravely wounded Israeli soldiers. The question is how many bullets, and Katyushas are needed to wake up the dormant people of Israel most of whom still pipedream as if they are in the Wonderland.

Israel Hanukoglu, Chairman, Professors for a Strong Israel