When my friend JoeSettler called me up on Friday afternoon to tell me about this, I thought he was joking."Kitat Konenut New York" -- mimicks the counter terror units around Israel; from Northern Israel's border communties, to the settlement communities in Yehuda and Shormon on the West Bank, to the villages, kibbutzim and cities surrounding Gaza, even Modiin and Beit Shemesh have first response counter terror units which are trained and fully under the command of the IDF.
For some reason, this group in NY decided to form their own well-regulated militia which they called the "Kitat Konenut of New York".
The JPost wrote about the in their Friday edition.
Yonatan Stern, the "Sgan Mefaked Hakita" (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut New York, insists his "paramilitary emergency armed response team" is no "group of vigilantes or a JDL [Jewish Defense League]."
"We do not carry out demonstrations or political activity of any kind as we have no political agenda. Our agenda is to protect Jews wherever and whenever necessary and by any means needed."
On Friday, the third session of the group's training camp will begin in the Catskills woodlands of upstate New York, on land belonging to a Jewish supporter of the organization. With tuition at $400, the group expects 15 participants and five instructors for the 10 days of training. Participation has doubled since the group began three years ago.American Jews have "felt a false sense of security in the United States," Stern believes, "because historically there has been less anti-Semitism than in other countries. But there have been incidents - neo-Nazi terrorist attacks, Arab terrorist attacks. Jews have to be vigilant."
"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, citing the FBI's warning, after the killing of Hizbullah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February, that the Lebanese group might carry out terror attacks on Jewish communities.
"The average American is friendly to Jews, but we're worried about those individuals on the periphery of society," Stern says.
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.
"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," Stern says
"Kitat Konenut New York is a Religious-Zionist organization and we hold the ideology of the Bnei Akiva movement which is Torah Veavoda. Members of the Kita are well trained and well armed with the best gear and weapons available. All guns are 100% legal and in compliance with all federal, state and local laws."
