Culture, Israel, Politics, Religion

Military Staff Rabbi incites Israeli soldiers to revenge

This has been reported in a few other places, no doubt you’ve seen it already. But for those who can read Hebrew, I want to make available the excerpts of the pamphlet which have caused (in some circles) righteous horror and (in disconcerting places) yawns of unsurprise.
IDF Chief Rabbi Avi Roznik Rontzki distributed a booklet to soldiers called Go Fight My Fight: A Daily Study Table for the Soldier and Commander in a Time of War, published for Operation Cast Lead. The text borrows the most war mongering traditions of Judaism — of which there seem to be plenty fodder, albeit a selective reading — and teachings from cheif fundamentalist Rabbi Shlomo Aviner. The purpose: “to fill them with yiddishkeit and a fighting spirit.”
Understatement. of. the year. Israeli groups Yesh Din, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Breaking the Silence have called for Roznik’s Rontzki’s resignation, and rightfully so. Excerpted pages in JPG and translated quotes below the fold, with the resignation request to Ehud Barack.
It’s worth remembering when confronting this material that this is fringe Judaism, a tiny and ugly hole within which the worst of our people festers, the same ugliness that can be found in any people. But the problem is, this is our people. And I will work to end this type of Judaism the same as I will this type of Islam, Christianity, or anything else.
And for those who are upset that I post ugly material like this, I’ll explain why next post.
Select quotes, courtesy of Yesh Din and Breaking the Silence
“When you show mercy to a cruel enemy you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers.”
“[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.”
“The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country.” (Quote from Aviner.)
“A comparison [between Palestinians and the Biblical Philistines] is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land … They invaded the Land of Israel, a land that did not belong to them and claimed political ownership over our country … Today the problem is the same. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence.”
“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.’ ”
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
 To:
Defense Minister Ehud Barak
By fax 03-697-6218
Chief of Gen. Staff
Lieut. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
By fax 03-569-8296
Re: My client Yesh Din — demand to dismiss Chief Military Rabbi Brig. Gen. Avi Rontzki
Dear Sir,
1. I am writing to you on behalf of my client, Yesh Din, a human rights organization acting to strengthen the rule of law and defend human rights in the territories occupied by the State of Israel.
2. My client recently received a booklet published by the Chief Military Rabbinate, the Jewish Awareness Department. The book was given to my client by members of Breaking the Silence, an organization of former soldiers working to bring credible and accurate information to the Israeli and international public regarding the security forces’ operations in the occupied territories and their treatment of the occupied civilians. According to the testimonies of soldiers provided to members of Breaking the Silence, representatives of the Chief Military Rabbinate distributed the booklet, as well as other written materials, to soldiers in the fighting units before they entered Gaza as part of Operation “Cast Lead.”
3. The booklet, entitled “Go fight my fight: a daily study table for the soldier and commander in a time of war,” is a collection of sermons, questions and answers, and concrete references to the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The booklet is arranged according to the yearly calendar, with a page devoted to each day. The editors of the booklet apparently thought fighting ought to last at least until February 10, and therefore the booklet contains sermons, questions and answers, and messages until that date.
4. The contents of the booklet include political messages on issues bitterly disputed in Israeli society, humiliating and degrading messages bordering on incitement to racism against the Palestinian people, as well as messages that can be interpreted as calls not to act according to the restrictions of the international laws of war.
5. For example, the booklet says the following:
Political messages:
Page 17 (our country):
“[…] But now the commandment of settling our land has come to bear again, as Nachmanides wrote in his comments on Maimonides’ Book of Commandments, Positive Commandments 4, where we are commanded not to abandon our land, not to leave one clump of its soil unsettled, and we are commanded not to leave it in the hands of any other nation but to keep it under our rule, so that our state be in this land, and this land shall be our state, and we shall leave no part of it in the hands of another. We are commanded by the Torah to build our state in it and forbidden by the Torah to give up even one millimeter of it to the Gentiles, in the form of any kind of impure and foolish distortions about autonomy, enclave or any other national weaknesses. We shall not leave it under the control of another people, not even one finger of it, not even a piece of a fingernail.”
Page 61 (is this the country our prophets prophesied?):
“We must be happy with every crumb of redemption. A nation is not born in one day. The Jewish people will not return to its land in one day, nor shall the whole nation fall in love with Judea and Samaria in one day nor in one day will all observe the Sabbath and eat kosher.”
Messages whose purpose is to create contempt towards the Palestinian people:
Page 37 (Philistines/Palestinians):
“Question: can the Palestinians of today be compared to the Philistines of the past? If so, can we learn from the military strategies of Samson and David for our times?
Answer: they can be compared because the Philistines of those days were not native to the land but invaded from a foreign country […] Just like we ascended from Egypt and returned to our land, so did the Philistines escape from Caphtor, from which they were expelled by the Casluhim […] They invaded the land of Israel, a land that was not theirs, and claimed political ownership of our land, as the Gaon of Vilna wrote: ‘The Philistines were very hostile to Israel and allowed them no government and rule.’
Today the problem is identical. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, whereas actually there never was here in the boundaries of our land a Palestinian or Arab state, besides the fact that most of them are newcomers who came close to the War of Independence.”
Page 45 (Israel: the heart of the nations):
“We do not want to make all of the nations become the same as the Israeli nation. But we want what is good for them according to their attributes.”
Messages that encourage cruelty in fighting:
Page 66 (self-sacrifice and caution against unnecessary danger):
“[…] As far as possible we must act from a distance in order to spare the lives of our soldiers. Of course we do not seek to spill the blood of the enemy but when there is no choice the blood of our soldiers comes before the blood of our enemies. He who has mercy on the cruel is thereby being cruel to the merciful. When you have mercy on a cruel enemy you are thereby showing cruelty to innocent and honest soldiers. It is a terrible immorality. These are not amusement park games where being a good sport means going easy. This is a war against murderers. And in war like in war.”
Page 67 (cruelty):
“If instead of fighting by the sword the sons of Judah could be taught to use bows and fight from a distance, that would be better. That would be a more sophisticated war in the sense that it would spare the lives of our dear soldiers and not necessarily by being merciful towards the evil enemy. To the contrary, sometimes from a distance the enemy can be obliterated more easily than from close up, with a sword and so on. Cruelty is a bad quality but it all depends when. The sages have said one must not be merciful towards the cruel.
Our master Rabbi Kook said real men of morals are not satisfied with preaching the good but fight against the evil (Ma’amarei HaRe’iyah 808). Therefore our holy forefathers sometimes fought cruelty against their enemies because that was the only way to fight against them (Igrot HaRe’iyah 1, p. 100). Maimonides repeats several times that one must not be enticed by the folly of the Gentiles who have mercy for the cruel (Guide for the Perplexed). That is the rule: cruelty is a bad attribute but when it is necessary it is a good attribute (Ma’amarei HaRe’iyah 428).”
6. It is hard to say which of the quotes cited above is the worst. They are all grave, they are all an exploitation by the Chief Military Rabbi of his status and the free access he has to the IDF soldiers, to preach a nationalist ideology and garner support for a particular political worldview.
7. The booklet is a collection of quotes from the books of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, one of the prominent spokesmen of religious Zionism and followers of the Greater Land of Israel, and the quotes relate to political issues surrounding/regarding the importance of settling the land of Israel and the prohibition against giving up its land.
8. As you know well, a basic principle of our legal and constitutional system is that the IDF is not allowed to be involved in politically controversial questions and that its officers are prohibited from expressing political positions. In this case, the Chief Military Rabbi, who is a settler from the settlement of Itamar, and until whose appointment as Chief Military Rabbi served as head of the yeshiva at Itamar, which the best of our knowledge is an illegal outpost called elevation point 664, has blatantly violated those basic principles and gravely exploited his status and powers.
9. Beyond the violation of the aforementioned principle of political neutrality, the booklet incites soldiers not to show mercy toward enemy civilians, and states that “when it is necessary [cruelty] is a good attribute.” That of course contradicts the basic principles of the laws of war and to the best of our judgment also contradicts the principles of Jewish morality in the name of which the Chief Military Rabbi is supposedly speaking.
10. My client’s position is that the actions of the Chief Military Rabbi stain the entire IDF and are so serious that there is no choice but to dismiss him from his office. Acquiescence by the IDF with a Chief Military Rabbinate that forces upon its soldiers an extreme right-wing discourse and messages that border on incitement to racism will compound the damage Rabbi Rontzki has already done.
11. Therefore, on behalf of my client, I ask you to order the immediate dismissal of the Chief Military Rabbi.
12. Likewise we also ask you to instruct all of the authorized parties in the Military Rabbinate to shelve the remaining copies of the booklet that is the subject of this letter and to immediately stop distributing any written material from the Rabbinate to soldiers, until there is a comprehensive probe into the publications of the “Jewish awareness department.”
13. I would appreciate your expedited action and response to my letter so that I may advise my client as to their legal options.
Sincerely,
Michael Sfard, Attorney

37 thoughts on “Military Staff Rabbi incites Israeli soldiers to revenge

  1. Do you know what it is like to go into battle and fight a war? What it’s like to face people that want to destroy you? What kind of courage and resolve it takes to do this?
    If an Israeli soldier wants to read the packet to find inspiration or courage or the fortitude to fight, then I will not question it. That is what it is for; it is not political.

  2. Noah,
    I agree with you that the intent of the concept of soldiers having literature for inspiration and courage is a positive thing. But if you read the Hebrew text, it is overtly political. Not just overtly political, but overtly reactionary and violent and non-conciliatory. Again, I imagine soldiers need to receive strength and resolve from wherever they can, but there’s more than one way to inspire–it doesn’t need to be violent, nationalist rhetoric advocating the type of worldview that feeds into this pamphlet.

  3. I have to respectfully disagree. I think that the groups, this site included, that publicize this stuff and put labels on it, are creating a political aspect which does not exist. Anything and everything can be politicized if utilized in a certain way or taken out of context. This is exactly what is happening here.
    I feel that the pamphlet was in the best interests of the soldiers who wanted to read it.
    What do you think Hamas fighters read or hear before going to fight Jews?

  4. Also, you say the material is “overtly violent and non-conciliatory.” Well, what the heck are the soldiers doing, going to a peace conference? Their reality is war, and the pamphlet is suited for just that.

  5. right, but noah, did you read the hebrew? there are concrete political statements. it’s not about politicizing, there’s no need to politicize politics.
    also, I’ve never understood the argument you presented “What do you think Hamas fighters read or hear before going to fight Jews?” I’m not a soldier, but I am a Jew, and as a Jew, from what I know of Judaism and Jewish culture, ethics and values, I don’t think any Jew should be reading or hearing anything remotely similar to that which Hamas engages in. Why do we even want to compare ourselves to them?

  6. It isn’t just poetical, it is hate propaganda, much the same as Hamas preaches against Jews, and flagrantly unbecoming of those looking to portray themselves as the most moral army in the world.
    Furthermore, how common is the misconception that most Palestinians “are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence”? Anyone can look at the records from the British Mandate period and prior to see how absurd that claim is.

  7. Noah, how is saying that it is forbiden by Torah to give land to the Paestinians, or that the Palestinians don’t deserve any land in Israel becaasue they are newcomers to the region not political?
    If that isn’t political, what is political?
    Please answer

  8. What. The. Frak?
    That’s it. To the bloggers of Jewschool: Whenever Avi Roznik pops up in the news in the future, I kindly request that you refer to him as ‘the insensitive clod and warmonger’.

  9. If you look at the legal complaint it gives two examples of “political messages.” But if you look at them, the first is centered around commentary by Ramban. The message is clear: defend our land. Do not give up an inch. I find this perfectly suitable for a soldier to read before going out to fight. It is nationalistic (that’s war), it is not overtly political. The second “political message” is about optimism and hoping for redemption and appreciating everything the land gives us. I don’t see the problem with it.
    In the piece about the Palestinians, what is basically said is that they did not ever have a state within Israel. Isn’t that true?
    And then what is done to the passages about sacrifice and war by the lawyer is a flagrant distortion. What these passages are about is understanding that war sucks, that the soldier must bear it, and that when confronted with cruelty (i.e. people who are trying to kill him) he has to fight back with the same fervor. This is an incitement to racism? The passage qualifies itself by saying it only applies in war when the enemy is being cruel. And what is wrong with saying it is it is preferable if an enemy can be defeated without our soldiers losing their lives?
    The sum total of the pamphlet is clearly about appreciating and defending the land (you really think the aim of the pamphlet is to get across a political agenda? We all know the position of religious zionism already) and understanding war and what it requires of them. It is to help the soldier should he want it.
    Sure, there are a few excerpts in there that may offend some people. Those excerpts have been taken out of context and have blown up this whole thing into something it never was.
    Try looking at it as a whole and putting yourself in the frame of mind of the soldier.

  10. Noah, offend “some” people? You mean like a few million Arabs? I don’t take that lightly.
    To wit:
    the first is centered around commentary by Ramban. The message is clear: defend our land. Do not give up an inch.
    The Rambam quotes says do not give up land to Gentiles EVER is a political position in Israel, and a minority one at that. Further, to never give up land BECAUSE the rabbis have said so by God’s decree is also a political message not supported by the majority of Israelis. Religion is highly politicized in Israel, don’t forget.
    In the piece about the Palestinians, what is basically said is that they did not ever have a state within Israel. Isn’t that true?
    The passage about Palestinian statehood posits that Palestinians have no right to a state in the Eretz Yisrael EVER, a political position. Furthermore, the “question” asks permission to treat Palestinians in the same way Samson and David killed and dispersed the Philistines. Those methods are blatantly against any modern war ethics. And once again, we don’t rely on the Bible as any basis for modern war ethics.
    This is an incitement to racism? The passage qualifies itself by saying it only applies in war when the enemy is being cruel.
    As for the rest of it, encouraging repeatedly “cruelty” to the whole of Palestinians is NOT in line with any modern military ethics, blatantly against the IDF Code of Conduct, and any sense of distinction Israelis might claim to have over their Arab combatants.
    Try looking at it as a whole and putting yourself in the frame of mind of the soldier.
    This was sent to me by Israeli combat soldiers. Very, very pissed off Israeli soldiers. Their names are Mikhael and Yehuda. They run an organization of 300 soldiers who made this material available, translated it, and are asking for the rabbi’s resignation.
    This is not the mind of a soldier of the modern State of Israel. The soldier in this pamphlet is a holy warrior of extremist Judaism.

  11. I wish you had specified initially that it was some Israeli soldiers that brought this issue to you. That makes one think a little more about it.
    I think the deeper problem is with the role of the chief rabbi of the IDF. Ultimately, the blending of the military and religion in Israel will be somewhat explosive. That’s life in Israel.
    The rabbi certainly serves a meaningful purpose for the military, as evidenced by reports in Israel (From Haaretz: The substantial role of religious officers and soldiers in the front-line units of the IDF was, for the first time, supported also by the significant presence of rabbis there…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.)
    I am sure that there was a desire on the part of many soldiers for the type of pamphlet that was distributed. I think that it should have been distributed with a lot more discretion and made more of a private matter for the soldiers who wanted it. The way it went, the fact was, it did become too public and it became too politically-oriented. And the chief rabbi of the IDF has to understand certain boundaries involved in his position.
    Your points are well taken.

  12. I think the deeper problem is with the role of the chief Iman of Hamas. Ultimately, the blending of the military and religion in Palestine will be somewhat explosive. That’s life in Palestine.
    The Imam certainly serves a meaningful purpose for Hamas, as evidenced by reports in Palestine.
    I am sure that there was a desire on the part of many terrorists for the type of pamphlets that are distributed. I think that it should have been distributed with a lot more discretion and made more of a private matter for the terrorists who wanted it. The way it went, the fact was, it did become too public and it became too politically-oriented. And the chief Imam of the Hamas has to understand certain boundaries involved in his position.
    /parody

  13. I am sure that there was a desire on the part of many soldiers for the type of pamphlet that was distributed. I think that it should have been distributed with a lot more discretion and made more of a private matter for the soldiers who wanted it.
    Are you saying that the IDF would have done the same for a left-wing oriented pamphlet? My eye. The chief of chaplains in the IDF is a certified nutjob – he wrote that medics should not treat gentiles on shabbat – and should be dismissed now.

  14. I should add, in the name of full disclosure, that the ??? ???? ????? calendar is published by the (nutjob) Yeshivas Shavei Chevron, and has been in print since (at least) 2003. All the army did – and this makes their actions no less problematic – was to print the days from the calendar until February 10th.
    Obviously, nobody had the time to actually write this. The quotes in the calendar are from other, older books (as attested by the term ?????????, which hasn’t been used since the 90s). But all this does not matter: in today’s context, this is hatemonging political literature which I don’t want to pay for or distribute in the military.

  15. I do not think that the quotes are hate or revenge literature in any way. They are opinions with which you disagree, but that does not make them hate literature. To take them one by one
    “When you show mercy to a cruel enemy you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers.”” I interpret this in the text of what Noah said above, i.e. “Do you know what it is like to go into battle and fight a war? What it’s like to face people that want to destroy you? What kind of courage and resolve it takes to do this? If an Israeli soldier wants to read the packet to find inspiration or courage or the fortitude to fight, then I will not question it. That is what it is for; it is not political.
    —noah · February 4th, 2009 at 2:09 am” But personally, I do not see a whole lot of logic to these “inspirational” statements and I would not give a pep talk to soldiers in this manner. But I do not think it is hate literature.
    “[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.” This is an opinion on the appropriateness of surrendering any part of Israeli land. I do not agree with it because I think that borders can be negotiated. But I do not understand why you would think this was a message of hate.
    “The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country.” (Quote from Aviner.) This is quite true. The word palestinian properly applies to all the people who live or lived in the administrative area formerly known as Palestine. Until rather recently most people in the world thought the word Palestinian referred mainly to Jews. A group of people can call themselves anything they want. But there really is no coherent people that can be identified as Palestinians. That doesn’t mean that the Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank could not form a state of their own. But in my opinion it would be best for most of these people to be resettled within existing Arab nations and for Israel to negotiate the final status of its boundaries with with such nations. There is a lot of disagreement on these issues but this is a legitimate opinion to disseminate to soldiers.
    “A comparison [between Palestinians and the Biblical Philistines] is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land … They invaded the Land of Israel, a land that did not belong to them and claimed political ownership over our country … Today the problem is the same. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence.” I would agree that it is possible to compare the Phililstines and the Palestinians in some ways, but it is rather far fetched. But again, it is true that there has never been a Palestinian state. There is not a separate Palestinian people. And most of the Arabs in the area of Israel migrated their as a secondary response to the return of the Jews. It is not a matter of hatred to say these things. There are complexities in this that are not well described by these simplified general statements but such statements are not examples of hatred.
    The last one is virtually the same as the first.
    “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.’ ” I interpret this in the text of what Noah said above, i.e. “Do you know what it is like to go into battle and fight a war? What it’s like to face people that want to destroy you? What kind of courage and resolve it takes to do this? If an Israeli soldier wants to read the packet to find inspiration or courage or the fortitude to fight, then I will not question it. That is what it is for; it is not political.
    —noah · February 4th, 2009 at 2:09 am” But personally, I do not see a whole lot of logic to these “inspirational” statements and I would not give a pep talk to soldiers in this manner. But I do not think it is hate literature.
    If it were up to me, I would not have expressed things exactly the same way, but I do not think these were inappropriate for Israeli soldiers prior to battle.

  16. “I don’t think Hamas and the Israeli army have quite the same goals.”
    Of course not, the Israeli army has been conquering Palestine since long before Hamas was conceived to liberate it. Are you suggesting that while the latter goal doesn’t justify hate propaganda, the former does?

  17. kyleb-
    read the 1988 Hamas Covenant and decide for yourself.
    I do not think the propagation of hate propaganda is justified. I don’t think hate is either involved or a motivating factor of the material.

  18. I am familiar with Hamas’s covenant, as well as context of Israel’s decades long conquest over Palestine which it was conceived in.
    I recommend you read the British records on population and immigration over the mandate period to see the clam that “most of [Palestinians] are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence” is one of many long standing misconceptions which has fulled this conquest, and keeps Israel perpetuating this conflict rather than bringing a peaceful resolution to it.

  19. How “familiar” with the covenant are you?
    “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).”
    “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”
    “For a long time, the enemies have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realisation of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.
    You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it. ”
    “The Islamic Resistance Movement calls on Arab and Islamic nations to take up the line of serious and persevering action to prevent the success of this horrendous plan, to warn the people of the danger emanating from leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism. Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying”

  20. It disgusts me that you find so much to hate about Israel and nothing to respect. You revel in the fact that you’re an unabashed Hamas apologist and you turn a blind eye to the real beliefs that drive them to hatred and murder and will never allow them make peace with Israel. You think your position ennobles you when it just shows how ignorant you are.

  21. I see much to respect about Israel, and I condemn Hamas’s hateful beliefs and actions, you are disgusting yourself with your own ignorant imagination.

  22. Noah, I’m going to address your last comment in my next post, about why on this blog you’ll hear a lot of criticism of Israel and why many of us who post and comment don’t see a need to caveat every critical thought with a “Don’t worry, I don’t hate Israel” statement. It’s a Jewish blog, a lot goes without saying. But I acknowledge it’s an omission that can confuse readers.

  23. I hope you might consider addressing the issue from the theological and historical perspective of idolatry in nationalism, crafting a graven image to serve in spite of God. And please don’t worry, I don’t hate, Israel or otherwise.

  24. I just came accross an update on this from Ha’aretz (it’s old though).
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059122.html
    In response to a Haaretz report about the Miliary Rabbinate distributing nationalistic materials to soldiers during the recent operation in Gaza, a number of officers said that the issue must be placed on the public agenda. The chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces, Rabbi Avichai Ronski, said yesterday that he neither approved nor knew about the distribution of the materials. (Amos Harel)

  25. Kyleb – There has never been a Palestine State so because a number of seemingly stateless persons who now call themselves “Palestinians” a name not adopted as such until 1964 whose cultural and historic links are more in Syria than in what was the Palestine Mandate happened to settle in what is now Israel does not give them a right to a state – on that basis the Bangledeshis now living in the UK would be entitled to set up an Islamic state in Yorkshire.

  26. “Concerned soldiers”… Yehuda… Organization of 300 soldiers…
    OK. Soldiers Against Silence. Yehuda is almost 50, heavyweight, and has not recently fought in combat, if ever.
    Here he his in Hebron arguing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-_s1JpqCro
    The voice in the background is asking: Where are the soldiers? Find the soldiers!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.