24 JEWISH TELEGRAPH Thursday May 28, 2009

NEWS | PROFILE |
ALL JEWS SHOULD MOVE TO ISRAEL, SAYS RIGHT-WINGER GUZOFSKY

‘I’m no terrorist – why ban

me from UK?’, asks Mike
I
SRAELI Mike Guzofsky
was described by the
Home Office last month
as a terrorist – and was
banned from enterin g
Britain.
But American-born Guzofsky
refutes the claim wholeheartedly.
“It is a moral outrage and a
bizarre decision,” he told me.
“The British government was
just trying to show that they are
even-handed.
“They do not have a shortage of
Muslim ter rorists, but they
needed a Jewish scapegoat.
“They thought, ‘Let’s pluck a
Jew to put on the list’.
“My name has been put
alongside heinous terrorists who
support the destruction of Israel
and annihilation of the Jews.”
Guzofsky was accused of
supporting the assassination of
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin in 1995 and of glorifying
Baruch Goldstein’s murder of 29
Arabs in Hebron in 1994.
Raised in the New York
borough of Queens, Guzofsky
said: “Jewish ter rorism is a
fictitious concept.
“We do not have Jewish
ter rorists runnin g around the
world blowing people up.
“ I never supported Rabin’s
murder – I said a few weeks before
he died that he should be put on
trial for treason.”
He was also accused of running
Jewish militant camps –
something else he denies.
He fumed: “I was involved in
runnin g Jewish camps in
America where we encouraged
young Jews to find their Jewish
pride.
“Nothin g which took place
there was illegal.”
Guzofsky, who revealed he was
planning to sue Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith, also slammed
British Jewish leaders who
allegedly spoke out against him.
“Rather than align themselves
with their fellow Jew, they
aligned themselves with our
enemies.”
Born into an Orthodox family,
the 45-year-old first became
involved with Jewish activism
BY SIMON YAFFE
durin g the late 1970s when a
relative introduced him to the
Jewish Defence League.
Founded by the late Rabbi Meir
Kahane in 1968, the JDL’s
original aim was to protect
Jewish people and their interests
in America.
Guzofsky recalled: “In the late
1960s, Jews were starting to leave
the poorer areas of New York City
and movin g to the more
upmarket areas.
“Rabbi Kahane was the editor
of The Jewish Press in Brooklyn,
and he started to receive calls
from besieged, poor, elderly Jews
who were being targeted by other
ethnic groups.
“The police were unwilling to
help and so it became a necessity
that we help other Jews.”
A disciple of Kahane, who was
assassinated by an Egyptian Arab
in 1990, he feels that there are not
nearly enough Jewish militant
groups.
Guzofsky explained: “We need
more strong Jews.
“Kahane set out to change the
image of the weak Jew – it is not
a mitzvah to lose, it is a mitzvah
to win.
“Kahane always said it is better
to be hated by the world and alive
than loved by the world in and in
Auschwitz.”
Now living in Kfar Tapuach on
the West Bank, Guzofsky moved
to Israel in the early 1980s.
Kfar Tapuach, near Hebron, has
been home to many Kahanists
over the years.
Guzofsky said: “I do not call
where I live the West Bank – I call
it Israel. Hebron is Jewish.
“Abraham pitched his tent in
Hebron, not in Tel Aviv.”
Guzofsky believes it
is a “halachic
i m p e r at ive ”
that Jews
should live
i n
Israel.
H e
explained: “If we as Jews are to
survive, then we must all be in
Israel.
“There is no future for the Jews
in exile – we are witnessing the
alienation and assimilation of
the Jews.”
He points to last week’s events
in America, where four Muslims
were suspected of plannin g to
blow up two synagogues in New
York.
“New York is the heart of the
Jewish Diaspora yet we are not
safe there either,” he added.
Guzofsky, who is a member of
the Kfar Pituach Municip al
Council, does not like to divulge
too much about his private life,
but revealed his “day-job” is
working in Internet marketing.
Divorced, he has three children,
two of whom live in Israel while
the other one is in America.
And he prefer red not to give
their names.
His main bete noire, as
would be expected
from a Jewish
activist, is
the rise of
fundamentalist Islam, as well as
the high-birth rate among the
Arabs in Israel.
Of Barack Obama, Guzofsky
said: “I would be very worried if I
was a Jew living in America.
“He may be really popular, but
Obama has still to explain his
connections to (Nation of Islam)
leader Louis Farrakhan and the
Rev Jermaine Wright (who has
been accused of antisemitism).”
And Guzofsky believes any
Arabs in Israel who do not pledge
allegiance to the Jewish state
should be given the opportunity
to leave.
He continued: “Those who want
to live under Jewish sovereignty,
fine, but – judgin g from their
behaviour – they do not want
peace.
“The Arabs in Israel are a fifth
column, they know that.
“They have 20 states of their
own sur roundin g us. Do not
forget that Jordan is a bastard
state of the Palestinians – 70 per
cent of its population is
Palestinian.
“Most Arabs support the
replacement of the State
of Israel with Palestine,
and that is perfectly
understandable from
their point of view.
“They dream of the
day it will happen,
either though babies
because of the high
birthrate, or through
bombs.”
He is happy to be
called a militant and
believes that Jews
should use any form to
survive.
Many people may
think these are just the
words of a lunatic
fringe element,
but the far-
right is
PROUD: Mike Guzofsky
is happy to be called a
militant and believes
that Jews should use
any form to survive
growing in Israel, mainly because
of the large number of perceived
concessions the Israeli
government has given the
Palestinians.
Guzofsky said: “We need to
learn from the Holocaust – we do
not appease people who seek to
kill Jews.
“These people include (Iranian
President) Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Hamas.
“Israel should bomb Iran and
do whatever is necessary – even
nuke them.
“Make no mistake, I believe
Ahmadinejad is another Hitler –
his goal is the destruction of the
Jews.”
Kach, the political p arty of
Kahane, is banned in both Israel
and America, something which
Guzofsky cannot fathom.
He added: “We have been
declared a terrorist organisation,
but we just want to restore the
biblical borders of Israel.
“I support that kind of peace,
not the false peace processes that
have been signed over the last few
years.”
Guzofsky does not trust new
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu has no backbone –
he does not have the type of faith
required to stand up to US
pressure regardin g the
Palestinians,” he warned.
Despite labellin g himself a
militant, Guzofsky insists he is
simply a proud Jew who wants
other Jews to feel the same.
He said: “We need to build a
stronger Jewish identity in Israel
and we need to be proud of who we
are.
“But only when we return to
our faith in God will that follow.”
One of Guzofsky’s main wishes
is to see the Jews “stick to their
destiny”.
Otherwise, he stated, “we will
see more destruction of Jewish
land like in Gaza and that could
lead to the destruction of a
Jewish Jerusalem”.
He added: “Pulling out of Gaza
in 2005 was a horrible act of self-
destruction that led to the
deaths of many Jews.
“God willing, we will return
there.”

Rabbi Chaim Kanterovitz is

ASK THE RABBI minister of the Yeshurun Hebrew

Congregation, Gatley, Cheshire

ALTHOUGH I pray

Q for the rebuilding of

the Temple every
day, I just can’t seem to
accept animal sacrifice.
When the Temple is
Will there be animal sacrifice in rebuilt Temple?
following the giving of the expired could be changed. intrinsically have an Temple worship there will
Torah at Sinai, as the inherent importance and a be a full resumption of the
rebuilt, will there really still
be animal sacrifices? Rabbi Chaim Torah says in Devarim 4:2,
there will be no addition or
Indeed, Rambam himself
in the guide to the
perplexed 3:32, seemingly
mystical effect in the upper
realms that we could not do
sacrificial order.
So I do not know the
YOU are right in
Kanterovitz nullification of mitzvot,
not even by a prophet.
contradicts himself when without! answer to your question.

A
assuming that when
we pray for the
restoration of the
Temple and the service
in it, we indeed pray for
the restoration of the
entire avodah (rituals)
with the holy korbanot
(sacrifices) as well.
However, I should tell you
that the question of
whether or not animal
sacrifice will go on in the
third Bet Hamikdash is
dependent on another
crucial question.
That is: Will all the
mitzvot still apply during
the messianic era? Which
by the way, accordin g to
our belief, shall herald the
rebuildin g of the third
Temple.
Rambam Melachim 11:1-3
asserts that in the
messianic era we will
observe all the mitzvot,
even those that do not
apply nowadays.
Within this context there
can be no doubt that
Temple sacrifice is
included.
He further sets out in his
principles of faith that
Despite this
authoritative and weighty
position, Rabbi Yosef Elbo
in his classic Sefer Haikarim
3:14, argues that the Torah
prohibition of addin g
mitzvot or nullifying them
would only apply to the
details of the directives.
He goes on to say that
Hashem could chan ge
mitzvot and that a prophet
with a proven track record
could receive such a divine
proclamation.
Rabbi Yaakov Emden
also points out that certain
mitzvot with historical
value which have now
he rationalises sacrifices as
a compromise as it were
that Hashem introduced in
order to alleviate the
abandonment of foreign
worship.
In other words, he says
Hashem allowed animal
sacrifice only because this
was the way in which
people worshipped at the
time. But he does seem to
imply that eventually
animal sacrifice will cease
since it is not the ideal.
Ramban (Nachmanides)
p assionately disagrees
with the later position of
Maimonides (Rambam).
He argues that sacrifices
This specific approach is
shared by many significant
early authorities.
Rav Kook – and after him
others such as Rav Chaim
David Halevi, Chief Rabbi
of Tel Aviv – wrote that it is
possible the sacrifices in
the messianic era will be
from grains.
This was based on a
Midrash explainin g the
cessation of all sacrifices
except the “thanks
offerin g” in messianic
times.
However, most
authorities continue to
hold the opinion that with
the resumption of the
But this is – and remains –
an uncertainty which we
pray will be made clear
with the comin g of
Moshiach and resumption
of Temple worship.
Remember that when
Moshiach does come, our
understandin g and
communication with
Hashem should be filled
with clarity, which will
allow us to comprehend
and conceptualise in a new
and different way.
Perhaps then we will
view thin gs from a
different perspective and be
able to understand the
answers that we seek.