IDF rabbinate rapped for booklet advocating cruelty in Gaza war

The Defense Ministry has conceded that a controversial booklet distributed by the Israel Defense Forces rabbinate during the fighting in Gaza "evidently contained certain content unsuitable for military publication."

The admission came in a letter by an aide to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, attorney Ruth Bar, who was writing to MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz). Vilan had requested that Barak's office look into the matter and take steps against the chief military rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki.

The booklet included articles by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner explaining the need to sometimes show cruelty during fighting, and warned against giving up an inch of the Land of Israel.

Bar wrote Vilan that the booklet had been distributed near the end of the Gaza operation and in limited numbers.

She noted how IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi summoned Rontzki to discuss the pamphlet. After his meeting with Ashkenazi, which came after Haaretz reported on the booklet about two weeks ago, Rontzki reprimanded the officer responsible.

The booklet was distributed by the rabbinate's "Jewish awareness" section.

"After the mishap, Ashkenazi held a personal meeting with the chief military rabbi in which he was instructed to investigate the matter to ensure such incidents do not recur," Bar wrote.

Bar contended, as did Rontzki after the publication was reported, that "the booklet had not been approved by the chief military rabbi personally and in fact, he had not even seen it .... The chief military rabbi summoned the individual responsible for the distribution and severely reprimanded him."

Vilan told Haaretz: "The chief military rabbinate long ago broke barriers and turned the IDF's activity from fighting out of necessity into a holy war. If the chief of staff, his discussion with the chief military rabbi notwithstanding, does not set definite boundaries, he will very quickly be facing battalions of Jewish fundamentalists," Vilan said.

"The road from the army of the people to the army as a tool of sanctity is shorter than people think."