Tzedek-Tzedek

We have recently witnessed the eviction of Rav Eliezer Melamed's Har Bracha Yeshiva from the Army "Hesder" Program; the arrest two days ago of Rav Yitzhak Shapira, Rosh Yeshiva of "Od Yosef Chai "; and the appointment today of Rabbi Rafi Peretz as the new Chief Chaplain of the IDF. They all point to a concerted campaign, which is now underway. Rav Melamed was alleged to have supported soldiers who demonstrated against the eviction of Jews from their homes by the Army, and the rabbi was also accused of supporting the right of soldiers to refuse orders in a case of such evictions. The punishment for these 'offenses' was termination by the army (by instruction of Minister of Defence Ehud Barak) of the yeshiva's funding and its delisting as a Hesder Yeshiva – for which there is no precedent in over 50 years of the Hesder program. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira of the Od Yoseph Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar was arrested on suspicion that he knew about an alleged ...

In the current dispute between Ehud Barak, Minister of Defence, and Rav Eliezer Melamed the Head of Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, it is very unclear in the press reports what either Ehud Barak or Rav Melamed’s objectives are. It does seem that Ehud Barak’s insistence that there be "no insubordination" in the Israeli army is eminently reasonable. No other army in the world permits insubordination – the refusal to obey a lawful order from a superior. Nor can Rav Melamed reasonably expect a Minister of Defence to permit insubordination, which could undermine the effectiveness of the IDF in implementing its critical missions. An army doesn’t work by asking the regular soldier which combat missions he will or will not choose to carry out. On the other hand,. Ehus Barak surely recognizes and appreciates the important, indeed critical, role of National Religious soldiers in the armed forces (some 25% of Israel ’s crack combat troops) – and of the highly motivated Hesde...

Does the Army Need the Dati Leumi – or the Dati Leumi Need the Army? Over 25% of combat troops in the Israel Defence Forces are now National Religious (Dati Leumi). Many of these participate in the Hesder Yeshiva program, which was established in 1953 by the Keren BeYavne Yeshiva. The Hesder program typically last five years, of which some 16 months is army training and active service, while the remainder is spent in religious studies in over 40 yeshivot around the country. On the one hand, this program is the flag-ship of the National Religious camp – combining torah studies with fulfilling the practical mitzva of defending the Jewish people and the Jewish State – paid for by the Ministry of Defence. On the other hand, many of the Army's finest and most motivated troops are from the Dati Leumi camp in general, and from the Hesder Yeshivot in particular. Israel's military cemeteries attest to the awesome heroism of so many of of these young men in the battlefield. ...

"Today," Netanyahu said, "is the day Israel uprooted approximately 10,000 Israelis - men, women and children - from their homes. To our regret, Gaza has become a base for Hamas-led, Iran-sponsored terrorism. Thousands of rockets and missiles have been fired at us." (Binyamin Netanyahu, August 2009, who voted in favor of the "Disengagement" from Gaza in 2005) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1248277950920 I did not imagine that we would leave Gaza and they would fire Qassams from there; I did not imagine that Hamas would show so strongly in the elections. (Shimon Peres, President of Israel , 5/7/2008 ) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981392.html Olmert has already said that his convergence plan, which called for a unilateral pullout from most of the West Bank, has been shelved, and he has described the withdrawals from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as failures. (9/1/07) http://www.haaretz.co...