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(Haaretz) – The IDF rabbinate, also quoting Rabbi Aviner, describes the appropriate code of conduct in the field: “When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. ‘A la guerre comme a la guerre.'”
This view is also echoed in publications signed by Rabbis Chen Halamish and Yuval Freund on Jewish consciousness. Freund argues that “our enemies took advantage of the broad and merciful Israeli heart” and warns that “we will show no mercy on the cruel.”
In addition to the official publications, extreme right-wing groups managed to bring pamphlets with racist messages into IDF bases. One such flyer is attributed to “the pupils of Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg” – the former rabbi at Joseph’s Tomb and author of the article “Baruch the Man.”
The Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din has called on Defense Minister Ehud Barak to immediately remove Rabbi Rontzki from his post as chief rabbi.
The chief army rabbi, Brigadier General Avichai Rontzki, joined the troops in the field on a number of occasions, as did rabbis under his command.
Officers and soldiers reported that they felt “spiritually elevated” and “morally empowered” by conversations with rabbis who gave them encouragement before the confrontation with the Palestinians.
In Daily Torah studies for the soldier and the commander in Operation Cast Lead there is the statement: “[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it.”
In addition to the official publications made available through the army rabbinate, extreme right-wing Israeli groups also managed to get leaflets and messages into IDF bases. One such flyer sings the praises of Baruch Goldstein, who massacred unarmed Palestinians in Hebron. It is attributed to a group affiliated with Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg. It calls on “soldiers of Israel to spare your lives and the lives of your friends and not to show concern for a population that surrounds us and harms us. We call on you … to function according to the law ‘kill the one who comes to kill you.’ As for the population, it is not innocent … We call on you to ignore any strange doctrines and orders that confuse the logical way of fighting the enemy.”
“The Pope and the cardinals of the Vatican help organize tours of Auschwitz for Hezbollah members to teach them how to wipe out Jews,” according to a booklet being distributed to Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
Officials encouraging the booklet’s distribution include senior officers, such as Lt. Col. Tamir Shalom, the commander of the Nahshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade.
The booklet was published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, in cooperation with the chief rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu, and has been distributed for the past few months.
The booklet, titled “On Either Side of the Border,” purports to be the testimony of “a Hezbollah officer who spied for Israel.”
I always distrust anyone who proclaims that they are a Man of God. What that often means is “Believe in My God or you aren’t a real human being and we don’t have to worry about killing you since you aren’t a godly person.”
Oui, you might want to shorten the title. I had to shorten the subject line to post a response. Maybe Rabbis: Gazans Not Innocent
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(AP) – Smoldering trashcans and broken glass littered Jerusalem streets Friday as police prepared for a fourth day of rioting by ultra-Orthodox Jews enraged at the arrest of a mentally ill Hasidic woman who authorities say was starving her child.
Security forces armed with water cannon and backed by mounted units battled through the night protesters hurling bricks and bottles and blocking main thoroughfares with piles of garbage.
“We don’t have weapons, we don’t have tanks, we don’t have policemen or jails,” Shmuel Pappenheim, a spokesman for the protesters, told Israel Army Radio Friday. “But we are sending in our army to save a family, to save a Jewish mother who is raising five children with love and warmth.”
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Associated Press that 18 police officers were injured and 50 protesters were arrested during the overnight street battles and extra police had been drafted into the city from other districts.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish children block the road with burning barricades in the religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim as Jews clashed with police using horses and water cannon to control the crowd in Jerusalem.(AP Photo/Dan Balilty)Jerusalem court convicts ‘Taliban mother’ of child abuse
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."“sings the praises of Baruch Goldstein, who massacred unarmed Palestinians in Hebron.”
If one were to seek the most perfect analogy to the Gaza massacre of last December-January, which was mislabeled a “war,” it is the Goldstein incident.
Aside from minor issues of style, there doesn’t seem to be any substantive difference between what these rabbis are saying and what the extreme Islamist clerics say. This is another sad confirmation of Nietzsche’s warning about the danger of doing battle with monsters.
I say this as a stateless individual, since in my role as an American citizen, I don’t have any room to speak.
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No dual-citizenship?
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
h/t Shmarya Rosenberg
The first Beis Hamikdash, say our Talmudic Sages, was lost because of the grave sins of idol worship, sexual immorality and murder. These are sins which repeat themselves in every generation in gross or subtle forms. We may not be living in a time when Jews bow down to actual idols, but how many of our people have abandoned their ancient faith for other religions, cults or political ideologies? And do we share in their guilt by failing to properly reach out and educate them? Immorality parades before us in the permissiveness of dress and unrestrained interaction of the sexes, and reaches new depths with the efforts to legitimize gay activity. Have we done enough to condemn this mode of behavior which is wreaking havoc on so many families and society in general? Murder is the extremist form of violence but its subtler forms of physical and verbal abuse are so prominent that even in the secular schools in our Jewish state there is so much violence by pupils towards teachers and fellow pupils, and the number of battered wives and abused children keeps growing.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."