Sign Of The Times: US Jews Taking Paramilitary Training

Deep in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, Kitat Konenut is holding a paramilitary training class for American Jews, with IDF combat veterans as the instructors.

Kitat Konenut New York is modeled on the rapid response teams in the Yishuv (Judea and Samaria) that are often the first on the scene when Arab terrorists attack Israeli civilians. The group considers itself as religious-Zionist but nonpolitical.

The group was founded in the summer of 2006 in response to the shooting attack at the Jewish federation of Seattle premises by local Muslim Naveed Haq.

The training includes instruction in Krav Maga ( a martial art developed by the IDF), use of non-lethal weapons,basic counterterrorism, sharpshooter and assault rifle training, infantry exercises and endurance marches.

Yonatan Stern, the "Sgan Mefaked Hakita" (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut says that the groups sole agenda is to protect Jews wherever and whenever necessary and by any means needed.

American Jews have "felt a false sense of security in the United States," Stern says, "because historically there has been less anti-Semitism than in other countries."

"The threat is not from the American people or government," he adds, but from "terrorist sleeper cells that want to target Jews. These people are very dangerous and the FBI issues warnings against them very often," he said.

"The average American is friendly to Jews, but we're worried about those individuals on the periphery of society," Stern says.

"We realized there is a need for this kind of organization, and as Israeli combat veterans living in the US, we have the skills and ability to respond to this..We believe all Jews in the US must be legally armed and trained and towards this goal we hold paramilitary training camps to train and equip Jewish American youth." Stern says.

Is this the start of a growing trend? I think so, and I expect to see similar groups popping up in various cities with sizeable Jewish communities.

Looking at the growing number of incidents that involve Muslims here in America attacking Jews, I wrote over three years ago that a change in Jewish life in America was coming and that it would creep up almost unnoticed...except it will eventually affect all Americans, not just Jews. My signpost then was a group of Muslims who planned carnage in Los Angeles targeting Jews and their institutions in the city and were only caught by the merest chance.

Nothing has happened since to give me any indication to revise that, particularly when our president makes a point of appearing at a Saudi-funded jihadist mosque, CAIR and the MPAC are welcomed in the White House and and our government is actually trying to forbid its officials and employees from even mentioning the ideology of our enemies.

It may start with attacks on America's Jews,but it will not end there. Trust me on that.