Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., March 11, 2008 Adar2 5, 5768 | | Israel Time: 16:02 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Last update - 21:47 10/03/2008 Illegitimate use of mourning By Haaretz Editorial tant policy in Gaza, was expected, but it suffers from distorted logic and a lack of fairness. The belligerent politicians are well aware that a military operation in Gaza is liable only to intensify the motivation for painful attacks in Jerusalem. They are also contradicting their own version, to the effect that terror strikes indiscriminately, and without any connection to policy (because "it is known that Esau hates Jacob"). All this does not prevent them from exploiting the pain and mourning to chalk up a political achievement of pressure on the government. Advertisement But the voices heard after the murder in the yeshiva itself and in circles close to it are no less infuriating. Had the attack taken place in a university, said one of the rabbis, the secular public would have been more shocked. Such a statement and similar ones do not stem, as the right explained, from pain and sorrow and a sense of humiliation at the supposed rejection of the religious public by the middle ground in Israel. Like the politicians, the rabbis are also well aware that the general public was deeply shocked by the massacre, and its heart goes out to the bereaved families. This feeling does not contradict or conceal the abyss between the various parts of Israeli society. This is a profound ideological abyss, at whose foundation lies the most central question of our existence. The religious right, whose motivating force is Gush Emunim, and the heads of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva as the spearhead of this force, have led one government after another, and in retrospect the entire State of Israel, on a destructive political and social path. The Israeli left, and with it the not inconsiderable moderate public, has been battling this trend since the early 1970s. The debate about peace and the territories, and the differences of opinion between proponents of Greater Israel on the one hand, and those who favor territorial compromise and oppose the occupation on the other, is genuine, but there is no connection between it and mourning the lives of innocent young boys that were cruelly ended. Furthermore: The attempt to accuse the political rivals of the Greater Israel rabbis of indifference toward the tragedy borders on cynical pornography. A terror attack is a terror attack, and murdered children are murdered children. Using them to prove how inferior the religious community is, presumably, in the eyes of some imaginary left-secular elite, and attempting to measure with imaginary rulers the attitude of the secular public toward acts of heroism of a skullcap-wearing soldier or officer, and to determine in advance that he is "less admired" than a hero without a head covering, are unacceptable. The deceit of the leaders of the national-religious community, who are appropriating the murdered boys and the mourning to themselves, and at the same time actually crying out that the left is not a partner to their mourning, is superfluous. Worse than that: It is undignified and destructive. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Bring down the house Knesset speaker calls for wrecking of yeshiva killer's family home. Frum and fabulous Beauty salons offer Haredi women a unique brand of modest glamour.   1.   Left claims the middle: sells land out from under their feet 22:07  |  Efox 10/03/08   2.   Why the sugar coating? 22:48  |  l 10/03/08   3.   Typical Leftist hipocrisy 22:50  |  Binyamin Dissen 10/03/08   4.   Hypocrites 23:57  |  j10 10/03/08   5.   the right wingers reaction to the leftist minister 00:51  |  yossy h 11/03/08   6.   All to justify the killing of Palestinians 01:23  |  BERG 11/03/08   7.   #2 you did not sign your comment, coward 03:19  |  Ariel 11/03/08   8.   This mentality led Jews to the gas chambers 07:38  |  Avraham Reiss 11/03/08   9.   gideon levy is a slime 07:43  |  Zody 11/03/08   10.   Imaginatives. 08:53  |  M. Franks-Lhermann 11/03/08   11.   Who Gave The Terrorists Those Weapons? 09:05  |  Yishai Kohen 11/03/08   12.   Only thing illigitimate is Tamir using this to push her agenda 09:12  |  Zev 11/03/08   13.   Illegitimate use of mourning 09:15  |  Ben 11/03/08

Today Online Editorial: Sign peace deal quickly with PA Responses: 53 Yoel Marcus: Bush's last chance for a two-state solution Responses: 23 Shahar Ilan: We've learned nothing from Rabin murder Responses: 20 Israel cements grip on Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City Responses: 23 Britain bans Likud's Moshe Feiglin from entering country Responses: 170 Police holding body of yeshiva terrorist in dispute over funeral Responses: 25 More Headlines 15:43 Rocket on Ashkelon ends four day lull in violence 16:01 Justice Min. says he'll freeze bill to restict Supreme Court power 09:57 Infrastructures Min. Ben Eliezer warns of next political murder 12:01 N.Y. Gov. Spitzer in sex scandal; pimp said to hold Israel passport 11:58 MKs approve Merkel's request to address Knesset in German 14:26 Histadrut, 'Coffee Bean' sign breakthrough labor agreement 15:04 Jewish club reopens in Vienna 70 years after Nazis seized it 14:09 PA official: W. Bank construction threatens peace process 15:27 ANALYSIS/ Diplomatic bind not of our own making - for a change 11:52 Police arrest 2 Jisr al-Zarqa teens for allegedly throwing rocks on road 09:40 Brother shoots sister in suspected 'honor killing' attempt Previous Editions Select Day 10 mar 09 mar 07 mar 06 mar 05 mar 04 mar 03 mar 02 mar 29 feb 28 feb 27 feb 26 feb

Special Offers Advertisement FAREWELL ISRAEL New Film The Coming War for Islamic Revival - View Movie Trailer READY FOR PURIM? BUT - Who Will Guard The Hamentasch? Free the Palestinians from: Corrupt Kleptocracy, Tyrannical Theocracy, Abysmal Anarchy Long-term Israel programs MASA is your gateway. More programs. More grants. NEW! Dan Boutique Jerusalem Hotel Hip Dan Hotel in Jerusalem. Attractive Introductory Rates 7589 rockets fired so far HELP US TO HELP THEM FREE JEWISH HISTORY COURSE Berel Wein's best selling lectures. 5000 Years in Five hours /CD/MP3 Marina Royale Herzelia Pituach Your Luxurious Suite While Staying in Israel Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. ISRAEL BONDS Build Israel Israel bonds - a multi-purpose way to celebrate Israel's 60th Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved