Large numbers of Chabad Chassidim from World Lubavitch Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York, are expected to join in a massive protest against the creation of a Palestinian state on Monday, traveling to Washington DC by bus to express their outrage in front of the White House.
Publicized on the popular Chabad website Chabad.info, Chabad Chassidim are invited to board free buses from Crown Heights and Manhattan for a day-long excursion to Washington, marked as a protest and show of support for Israel.
Timed to synchronize with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's first diplomatic visit in Washington since the assumption of the US presidency by Barack Hussein Obama, the May 18 protest will elaborate spiritual and security reasons why the establishment of a Palestinian Authority state on land biblically assigned to the Jewish people would bring disastrous results.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the spiritual leader of Chabad Lubavitch and a rabbi accepted by many as the greatest of the last generation, adamantly opposed the surrender of Israeli land tracts to other nations, and argued that Israeli politicians should not even discuss the possibility.
In the book 'When Silence Is a Sin,' published hastily by Sichos in English in 2005 in a bid to thwart the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza region's Gush Katif communities by the Sharon government, Rabbi Schneerson emphasized the spiritual value of Jews uniting in protest against schemes of enemy nations.
He also urged Jews to settle all parts of the Land of Israel, establishing synagogues, Torah study centers, and mikvahs wherever they go, as a means of forestalling international pressure and providing security for Jews in the Land of Israel. Furthermore, the Lubavitcher Rebbe suggested that settlement of all parts of Israel by Jews would even affect the other nations of the world, who would come to reject evil and assist the Jews as a result.
Monday's protest will seek to impart these and other messages to the Israeli and U.S. leaders in Washington.
According to organizers and co-participants in the demonstration, U.S.-based AMCHA and well-known activist Yosef Rabin, numerous reasons should encourage Netanyahu to reject U.S. pressure to create a Palestinian Authority state.
To set up the world's 24th Muslim state, say organizers, approximately 300,000 Jews would be forcibly expelled from their homes in Judea and Samaria. The surrender of the Judea-Samarian mountain range would leave almost all of Israel's major cities exposed to attack, not to mention the Temple Mount and its environs. Also at risk, say protest leaders, is Israel's water supply, one-third of which would be transferred to Arab control as a part of land concessions.
Convicted murderers, criminals, and terrorists would also be released back to Arab society as part of a state deal, further endangering Jews.
Those interested in joining the protest are encouraged to meet the group at Lafayette Park across from the White House from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, rain or shine.