Political correctness reins in IDF rabbinate
An 'investigation' by Israel's Hebrew Palestinian Daily into materials handed out by the IDF rabbinate to troops entering Gaza has resulted in curbs being placed on the materials that the IDF rabbinate will be allowed to distribute to the troops in the future. The Israel Defense Forces Personnel Directorate released a document limiting the military rabbinate's involvement in educational activities, after a Haaretz report exposed the right-wing political content mixed with religious material the rabbinate was distributing to soldiers.The 'mistakes' involved telling the troops what the Torah says about Jewish soldiers going to battle in Israel.
"We must display the utmost caution and sensitivity," a top IDF official said. "When the IDF deals with values, it must refrain from bringing in ideological exhortation or contamination by political content."
The official said the army would be monitoring whether the rabbinate follows the new guidelines.
"It's very important for soldiers to be familiar with ethical issues," he said. "But mistakes were made in this process, and the head of the personnel directorate has spoken personally to whomever he needed to."
Following are quotations from this material:The fact that these materials have now been banned shows that Moshe Feiglin is right. The country definitely needs help to be run by Jewish values.
"[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 excerpt from a publication entitled "Daily Torah studies for the soldier and the commander in Operation Cast Lead," issued by the IDF rabbinate. The text is from "Books of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner," who heads the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. [Deuteronomy 7:2 and the Rabbis' gloss on it says "you shall not give them a place in the land. CiJ]
The following questions are posed in one publication: "Is it possible to compare today's Palestinians to the Philistines of the past? And if so, is it possible to apply lessons today from the military tactics of Samson and David?" Rabbi Aviner is again quoted as saying: "A comparison 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." [That's a statement of historical fact. CiJ]
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.'" [Deuteronomy 20:13. CiJ]
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:31 AM
2 Comments:
I hope that the military rabbinate will be as brave as possible in confronting this attempt by Israel's self loathing Jews to endanger our children because of their own foolish politically correct ideas.
This should not go down quietly.
Leftists in the IDF want to prevent Jews from being contaminated with Jewish and Zionist values. This must be fought from within the military rabbinate who should see to it this foolish politically correct idiocy is eventually overturned.
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