NGO Monitor on eliminating human rights monitoring of Israel entirely and smearing anyone who supports this vital activity". The 2013 Menachem Begin Prize was awarded to NGO Monitor, "a leading organization defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people." The Begin Prize is awarded for “extraordinary act(s) for the benefit of the State of Israel and/or the Jewish People.” Natan Sharansky said, “NGO Monitor is the leading organization defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people.” Leonard Fein, writing for "The Forward" in 2005, said that NGO Monitor is "an organization that believes that the best way to defend Israel
Asher Ben-Natan February 15, 1921. His father, Natan Piernikartz, operated a clothing business in the Austrian capital. He attended a Hebrew High School and was a member of the Young Macabbi. His father bought five-acres of land in Mandatory Palestine in 1934 in response to the emergence of Nazi Germany and the growth of Antisemitism. The family drew up plans to flee to Palestine in 1938 following the Anschluss of Austria. Asher Ben-Natan fled Austria first. He boarded a Panamanian-registered ship in Piraeus, Greece, from which he sailed to Palestine. The ship dropped the passengers off at Tantura, where he swam to