Meet the rabbi spurring IDF troops to refuse orders
Yeshiva head urges soldiers not to evacuate settlements, says IDF brass 'contaminated by politics.'
By Amos Harel and Anshel Pfeffer Tags: Israel settlements Israel newsThe head of the Har Bracha Yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, has written in a book distributed to all graduates of his yeshiva that soldiers are not allowed to participate in evacuating settlements. The book also accused senior Israel Defense Forces officers of being "contaminated by politics."
His statements have received renewed attention in light of Monday's protest by six soldiers of the Kfir Brigade. The six held up a banner declaring that they would refuse to evacuate settlement outposts.
The prime minister, defense minister and IDF chief of staff all condemned the soldiers' action, as did the Association of Hesder Yeshivas. The two ringleaders were punished on Monday, and the other four were given lighter sentences Tuesday, entailing incarceration or confinement to barracks.
The incident caused some senior army officers to reiterate their call for removing two extremist yeshivas in the northern West Bank - one in Elon Moreh and the other in Har Bracha - from the hesder program, which allows soldiers to combine Torah study with shortened army service. Some of the soldiers involved in this incident came from those yeshivas.
However, the final decision will be made by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has said in the past that he does not support closing down hesder yeshivas.
The six soldiers, from the Kfir Brigade's Nahshon Battalion, raised a banner saying "Nahshon, too, does not evacuate" at the Adurayim Base south of Hebron, at a time when security forces were razing structures in the nearby settlement of Negohot. This was the second incident of its kind: About a month ago, two new recruits to the brigade's Shimshon Battalion raised a banner reading "The Shimshon Battalion will not evacuate Homesh."
Then, too, the army responded with swift punishment: The two were were sentenced to 30 days' incarceration.
An extremist right-wing group calling itself the Organization for Saving the Nation and the Land has already announced that it will pay each soldier NIS 1,000 for every day they spend in military prison.
IDF sources said that in both incidents, the soldiers were egged on and abetted by right-wing activists from outside the army: Both acts were filmed, and the material was disseminated by right-wing activists and settlers involved in the efforts to reestablish the West Bank settlement of Homesh, which was evacuated during the disengagement in the summer of 2005.
The soldiers' commanders believe the protesters were also prepared in advance for the ensuing trials. For example, the officers noted, the soldiers all reiterated the same arguments in support of their actions.
And in both instances, some of the soldiers came from the two extremist hesder yeshivas: The most recent protest was the work of graduates of the Elon Moreh yeshiva, while the previous one was carried out by graduates of Har Bracha. Both yeshivas are located in settlements in the Nablus area.
The book published by Rabbi Melamed of Har Bracha was entitled "Revivim." In it, he offered answers to halakhic questions pertaining to "nation, land, army."
Melamed has repeatedly urged troops to refuse to obey orders during the evacuation of settlements, and he reiterated this in his book.
"A simple halakha [law] is that it is forbidden for any person, whether a soldier or an officer ... to participate in the strictly forbidden act of expelling Jews from their homes and handing over any portion of the Land of Israel to enemies," he wrote. "Those who violate this violate several commandments of the Torah ... Moreover, anyone who considers the situation realistically knows with certainty that any such action encourages those who hate us and endangers the lives of many in Israel."
In another part of the book, Melamed wrote in favor of serving in the IDF, "in order to carry out the extremely important commandment of defending the nation and the land. However, we must reiterate that an order that facilitates an expulsion must be refused."
In response to the question, "What if many soldiers refuse; will that not cause the army to collapse?" Melamed wrote: "If many refuse, no such order will be given. At most, senior commanders will have to resign. On the contrary, it would be good if this happened. The majority of the senior officers are contaminated by politics. They are not commanders who can lead the army to victory, as was shown in the Second Lebanon War."
The recommendation that these two yeshivas be removed from the hesder program was first heard following the disengagement, since many of their graduates, and some of their rabbis, were involved in clashes with the security forces and actively called for disobeying orders.
Then chief of staff Dan Halutz initially decided to expel four yeshivas from the program, but in the end narrowed his decision to removing only one yeshiva - Elon Moreh. However, the decision required the approval of then defense minister Shaul Mofaz, and discussions on the matter were halted following the Second Lebanon War.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking during a visit to a navy base in Haifa Tuesday, said that "refusing to obey orders means the breakdown of the state. It must not happen, and we will do everything possible to put an end to it. We survive because of the IDF, and the IDF relies on its ability to give orders and have them obeyed."
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Rabbi Eliezer Melamed. |
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You are mixing up two different things. There are lawful orders, authorised by the government and conforming to the rules of war. An order to remove illegal settlers who are breaking the law is a perfectly valid one to give an army, particularly if the settlers are likely to be armed or violent. Then there are unlawful orders, that either do not come from the proper authorities or ask the soldier to do things that are forbidden by international/humanitarian law. e.g. shoot civilians carrying a white flag, bomb civilian areas. The soldier is entitled to question such and ask for them to be put in writing. (In the Curragh 'Mutiny', officers who disagreed with the orders tendered their resignations). The German army in WW2 falls into the 2nd category. Illegal orders were issued which the soldierly in many cases carried out. But that is not the position the Hebron soldiers were in. The orders they received were valid, they had no excuse for refusal or mutiny.
"Rabbi"? He sounds just like all those jihadist mullahs.
We all need to remember what took place in Germany when the military blindly followed orders. Protecting the nation should not include persecuting one's own people.
Do not believe that the fanmatic Jews of Israel can overturn our democracy. They are less then 5% of the Jewish population. The Jewish fanatics and the crazy Nitorei Karta actually have the same goal as the fanatic Islamists. They do not mind turning our country to an end, as this is what is written that will hapopen to the world in the end, before the coming of Messias. I do not want to see them in IDF. They shall not have the knowledge of how to work with veapons. Let them screem to God instead. In Israel we have the law that is based partly on the values of The Torah. The state is the executor of the law, not the rabinate nor fanatic Jews.
The army`s role is to carry out lawful orders issued by the elected government and handed down by officers. It is not restricted to only defending the country against outside aggression. It may involve combating internal aggression, military support of the civil power, disaster relief, emergency control, etc. Regarding this Rabbi chappie, in any state, democratic or not, it is a serious offence to incite mutiny in the armed forces. (Refusing to obey a lawful order is mutiny, no two ways about it). The obvious starting point is that the Rabbi should be charged with doing so and sentenced accordingly, certainly involving imprisonment. That will be a good test of whether the army can uphold its duties or whether the political leaders are too scared to take on the extremist zealots of the right who seek to undermine discipline and the soldier's contract.
"A simple halakha [law] is that it is forbidden for any person, whether a soldier or an officer ... to participate in the strictly forbidden act of expelling Jews from their homes and handing over any portion of the Land of Israel to enemies," - Rabbi Melamed This guy sounds a bit like Major Hasan Nidal, US Army Except Nidal was twitting about Muslims not killing Muslims. Nidal had clearly lost touch with reality. "What if many soldiers refuse; will that not cause the army to collapse?" Melamed wrote: "If many refuse, no such order will be given. At most, senior commanders will have to resign. On the contrary, it would be good if this happened. The majority of the senior officers are contaminated by politics. They are not commanders who can lead the army to victory, as was shown in the Second Lebanon War." - Rabbi Melamed It appears so has the Rabbi.
Is there a difference? He also looks like a crazy guy wearing 18th century Polish clothes. Who says Muslims are weird?
What I find really odd is the fact that rabbi Melamed has not been arrested, charged and put in jail, he is the one that is really responsible for these soldiers refusing orders and as such he should be held accountable. On a different note, I don't understand why the army does not use non Hesder Yeshiva soldiers for these tasks, it might minimize if not eliminate this issue.
State of Israel endangered These protest actions inside the army are a very bad and dangerous sign of a more and more coming to head of an existing Kulturkampf between the political groups tending towards a more and more theocratic form of daily life versus the liberal and secular still majority population of the State of Israel.- Unfortunately we must reflect into our people?s history to be reminded how dangerous for the mere existence of our slightly above 60 years old state which is embattled also from outside.- No side can afford to deal with globs in this situation but here are strongest / hardest reaction by government at all signs of this Kulturkampf are needed to save the state of Israel as the general situation around us as well on the entire globe is involves in this tug of war were ??no quarters are given?? - The situation is developing, if it hasn?t already reach such proportions that here is a fight for survival being fought.
The word "Shabot" means nothing, not to haredim or otherwise. These soldiers are not haredim anyway and have nothing to do with the Sabbath desecrating rioters.
The army is an instrument of the state it is not only used for military defence or attack but to deal with internal civil emerengcies. The foundation of an army in a modern democracy is that its officers must follow orders given by the elected political leaders. Once non elected political interests interfere with the chain of command the democratic process is compromised as well as the functioning of the state machinery and any such action should be considered an attempt at coup d'etat. I hope the rabbi is prepared for the consequences. He should be arrested and charged
There never was a problem before between the Rabbis and the army. Why is there one now? The answer is that the army's purpose in a free society is specifically to defend the citizens of the country against outside aggression. So long as the IDF actualized this principle, there was no contradiction between the IDF and the Rabbis. However, beginning with the expulsion from Gaza, the army went from being charged with the defense of the country, to being a political tool in the hands of the government charged with abrogating the individual rights of the Jews of Gaza, performing ethnic cleansing of Gaza and continuing to do so around Judea and Samaria. At that point, the army became an offense not just to Rabbis, but to anyone who recognizes individual rights in a free society. It is not the Rabbis who have strayed from rationalism and morality, but the government of Israel. It is not the Rabbis who should be condemned for their defense of morality, but the politicians.
... without their evil goading voices there may have been no need for world-wide castigation...
Saturday is not the "Shabot" anymore, as far as I understand. On Kislev 1, 5770, the "Shabot" is nearer to Tuesday.
IF the army continues to go against Jewish morals and values by expelling Jews from their homes , the entire fabric and foundation of the army will crumble.
If the government keeps on using the Israel Defense Forces to throw Jews out of their homes then those that are against this should not join the IDF. This will be unfortunate but if they truly believe this, it is the only alternative. They can not join and then choose what they want to do. The government will have to take this into consideration when they make their policies.