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Last update - 10:40 09/03/2008
Heads to the right
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Israel

It is still unclear whether the terrorist who entered the Mercaz Harav yeshiva on Thursday night and killed eight of its students knew exactly what place he was entering. But the thousands of people who walked behind the coffins on Friday knew very well. "The flagship of religious Zionism" was the common expression used, the "holy of holies"; there was even a hyperbolic comparison to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in terms of sanctity. Some of the praise of the yeshiva is certainly well deserved, and nothing, of course, can justify the horrible killing of young boys in a library. Still, it would be appropriate to recall, even at this difficult hour, what this yeshiva has brought forth.

Mercaz Harav is the flagship of the last group in Israeli society still operating in the realm of ideas. Religious Zionists are the only group, aside from the ultra-Orthodox population, whose members are willing to lay down their lives for the collective and its worldview. It is a group that responds faithfully to its leaders - a group that even has leaders - and idolizes them. It is also a fairly homogenous group in terms of its thinking: Some 80 percent of its members define themselves as right-wingers. None of this is true of Israel's complacent, individualist secular public. And so we end up with a minority, 12 to 15 percent of the population, whose influence in certain areas is crucial and far exceeds its own relative size.

No one can explain in depth the magical powers of extortion this group has obtained. Nor can anyone ignore the damage it has caused the country. Without the settlement enterprise, peace might have reigned here already; without the Gush Emunim movement, supported by successive Israeli governments, there would be no settlements; and without the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, there would be no Gush Emunim. This institution, then, was the cradle of the settlement enterprise and its driving force. Most of the students killed in the terrorist attack were second-generation settlers. It should be said again, clearly and unequivocally: Their killing was a criminal act. (An unusual personal comment: On Friday I said in a radio interview, among other things, that the Mercaz Harav yeshiva was a fascist institution; right-wing circles spread a rumor on the Internet that I had said the slain students were fascists. This is not true. In any case, if my comment about the yeshiva offended people in their grief, I wish to express my sincere sorrow and apology).
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From Mercaz Harav emerged the rabbis that led the vilest move in Zionist history. Most of the delusional right-wing perpetrators and the mongers of hate for Arabs came from this flagship. Religious leaders such as Rabbis Moshe Levinger, Haim Druckman, Avraham Shapira, Yaakov Ariel, Zefania Drori, Shlomo Aviner and Dov Lior, all idolized by their students, raised generations of nationalist youths within those walls.

Rabbi Lior, for example, head of the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria, ruled in 2004 that the Israel Defense Forces was allowed to kill innocent people. How do these words sound now, after the attack in Jerusalem? Is the permission ours alone? Back then, Lior ruled that, "There should be no feeling of guilt at the morality of foreigners." He decreed that the Knesset could not decide to evacuate settlements, and that soldiers were allowed to refuse the order to evacuate settlers. Rabbi Druckman made a similar ruling.

In 2002, Rabbi Aviner, another graduate of the yeshiva, called for the execution of Israelis who refused to serve in the military. Back then the refusal came from left-wingers, of course. Aviner also ruled that war casualties are no cause for national grief, and he called for the abolition of Yom Hazikaron, the annual day of remembrance for fallen Israeli soldiers. He compared the road map peace plan to the appeasement of Hitler and considers the evacuation of settlements an "illegal crime."

The same yeshiva graduated Hanan Porat, one of the founders of Gush Emunim and one of those who returned to Gush Etzion. Another alumnus, Rabbi Levinger, beat him to it with the Jewish settlement at the Park Hotel in the heart of Hebron. These are the prominent figures that have emerged from this radical seminary and that is their legacy. From here they preached the application of different laws of morality and justice than the universal ones; yes, where the chosen people is concerned, there is such a thing.

With all the changes religious Zionism has undergone - from the time the Mizrahi movement joined the Zionist Congress, through its existence as a moderate stream that deftly managed to combine religion and modernity, to its transformation into the source of Israeli nationalism - the movement has managed to retain an exalted, inexplicable standing in Israel's largely secular society. There are still very many secular Israelis who view the religious Zionists, the students of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and the West Bank's so-called "hilltop youths" as a group of pioneers committed to noble values, as the pillar of fire advancing before the camp. Even those who deeply detest the Haredi public reserve a warm spot in their hearts for religious Zionism, the very group that has inflicted more calamity on us than all the Haredim put together.

The killing at the yeshiva is heartrending. No one deserved it. The innocents in Gaza and the victims at Mercaz Harav in Jerusalem were all an unnecessary sacrifice. They have already paid the highest possible price. Their families and those around them will probably adopt even more radical positions now, and so we will be led into another round of endless bloodshed.
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  1.   powerful 11:22  |  Shrek 09/03/08
  2.   Shame on you Gideon Levy 11:22  |  Zev 09/03/08
  3.   Settlers there due to secular leaders who sympathized with them 11:24  |  Sam 09/03/08
  4.   GIDEON Read your own headline! 11:28  |  PETER SM 09/03/08
  5.   How come Marcus doesn`t employ an arab who could cut Marcus throa 11:32  |  Absolute Sweden 09/03/08
  6.   GIDEON LEVY OR THE TALENT TO SAY 11:37  |  Robert 09/03/08
  7.   Talking of "vile"... 11:40  |  Mary 09/03/08
  8.   Correction 11:40  |  D Hirod 09/03/08
  9.   too easy 11:56  |  goupil 09/03/08
  10.   What all that has to do with the murder of kids? You are really 12:02  |  Former leftist 09/03/08
  11.   Levy, you are to be pitied 12:21  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 09/03/08
  12.   unbalanced articles 12:47  |  Ilana 09/03/08
  13.   Another apologist for Hamas and their ilk 13:07  |  Robert Haymond 09/03/08
  14.   levy ( we need an oncologist) 13:19  |  danny 09/03/08
  15.   gideon the fool 13:20  |  miriam 09/03/08
  16.   Haaretz, Have You No Morals? 13:26  |  Jane 09/03/08
  17.   jewish values 13:26  |  Norman Halfteck 09/03/08
  18.   Gideon and Amira Embraces ARAFAT!! 13:28  |  Dr eric 09/03/08
  19.   Gideon Levi - Author of protocols of Elders of Zion 13:30  |  Susan 09/03/08
  20.   Why don`t you just shut up 13:42  |  Shalom Freedman 09/03/08
  21.   Bravo Gideon 13:47  |  peacelover 09/03/08
  22.   Gideon Levy 13:47  |  Ceaser 09/03/08
  23.   Fair enough. 13:48  |  examiner 09/03/08
  24.   Who runs Israel? 13:49  |  Clickfool 09/03/08
  25.   This Yeshiva has sown the wind and is now reaping the storm 13:52  |  Kris 09/03/08
  26.   Gideon and Levy 14:04  |  Eliyahu 09/03/08
  27.   Cipora, piously preaching to the Peanut Gallery # 11 14:07  |  Clickfool 09/03/08
  28.   Look in the Mirror 14:12  |  George Kaplan 09/03/08
  29.   Envy 14:17  |  Nathan 09/03/08
  30.   It is Rabin that caused the mess 14:18  |  judith 09/03/08
  31.   Mr Gideon levi. 14:22  |  David Nigel Braham 09/03/08
  32.   A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE 14:24  |  indrajaya 09/03/08
  33.   gideon levy excuses terror 14:24  |  elliot 09/03/08
  34.   The use of the word fascist - degraded to a swearword 14:26  |  Geoff - Sydney 09/03/08
  35.   A morality guide spewed out by a morally bankrupt Levy 14:29  |  Proud Israeli 09/03/08
  36.   Gideon Levy is what is vile 14:33  |  Steven 09/03/08
  37.   How dare you 14:34  |  Slibovitz 09/03/08
  38.   Hebrew Union College 14:44  |  Johnny Weintraub 09/03/08
  39.   Sorry, Ms. Kohn 14:56  |  Gideon (not L.) 09/03/08
  40.   Gideon Levy is a Fascist Murderer 14:58  |  Zvi 09/03/08
  41.   israeli press fails in its journalistic function 14:59  |  Meir 09/03/08
  42.   Gideon Levy`s obituary... 15:03  |  Michael 09/03/08
  43.   Can Gideon Levy find religion? 15:11  |  Tosefta 09/03/08
  44.   Drivel 15:13  |  sam 09/03/08
  45.   Levy is Right 15:17  |  RMB 09/03/08
  46.   shame on you 15:18  |  szl 09/03/08
  47.   Gideon Levy has no humanity 15:21  |  Talia 09/03/08
  48.   Baruch Goldstein 15:22  |  Jeffrey 09/03/08
  49.   What Was Rav Kook`s "X Factor"? 15:25  |  Rowan Berkeley 09/03/08
  50.   I agree 15:26  |  Jonathan 09/03/08
  51.   Not Helpful 15:30  |  Harry D 09/03/08
  52.   Fair enough. 15:36  |  examiner 09/03/08
  53.   Gideon raises his head again 15:43  |  Steven 09/03/08
  54.   a palgue on you, Levy 15:43  |  noah 09/03/08
  55.   Can Gideon Levy find religion? 15:44  |  Tosefta 09/03/08
  56.   Cipora Kohn. We are watching the unfolding of a holocaust under 15:45  |  Benjamin 09/03/08
  57.   i consider myself left-wing, but gideon levy needs mental help 15:51  |  eli m 09/03/08
  58.   This article is most disturbing 15:51  |  KUTW 09/03/08
  59.   A reminder to Mr. Levy 15:52  |  KUTW 09/03/08
  60.   gideon levy 15:52  |  Norman Halfteck 09/03/08
  61.   Gideon is absolutely right! And I want to add that those 15:56  |  lakshmi 09/03/08
  62.   Levy is right 16:03  |  Benny 09/03/08
  63.   Levy is no Leftist: he`s a supporter of totalitarian ideas 16:11  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 09/03/08
  64.   #25, Tosefta 16:16  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 09/03/08
  65.   Well put but perhaps a bit too far?!? 16:17  |  Josh 09/03/08
  66.   An Evil Fool 16:24  |  David Samson 09/03/08
  67.   Gideon Levy you are despicable 16:26  |  Joey 09/03/08
  68.   Josh # 32, you are a fool. 16:38  |  Chris 09/03/08
  69.   #17 SZL, The real shame is on the Israelis 16:39  |  Dutch 09/03/08
  70.   Josh from TA #32 16:40  |  Joseph 09/03/08
  71.   Gideon Levi 16:43  |  iwantananswer 09/03/08