Zionists Out of the Peace Movement: April 2008

Friday, April 04, 2008

worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs

The acorn, it is said, does not fall from the tree. This would help explain the father-son duo of the killer-enabler rabbis Eliyahu. Wednesday, I quoted the remarks of the Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu. Today, comes the remarks of Papa--former Sephardi chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu:

Former Sephardi chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu called on the government to decree that for every life lost in the attack [on the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva] another yeshiva and township will be formed.

"Even when we seek revenge, it is important to make one thing clear – the life of one yeshiva boy is worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs.

"The Talmud states that if gentiles rob Israel of silver they will pay it back in gold, and all that is taken will be paid back in folds, but in cases like these there is nothing to pay back, since as I said – the life of one yeshiva boy is worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs," added Rabbi Eliyahu.

Less than a year ago, the Jerusalem Post reported of this mainstream Judaic man o' god: "Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza."

All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.

The letter, published in Olam Katan [Small World], a weekly pamphlet to be distributed in synagogues nationwide this Friday, cited the biblical story of the Shechem massacre (Genesis 34) and Maimonides' commentary (Laws of Kings 9, 14) on the story as proof texts for his legal decision.

According to Jewish war ethics, wrote Eliyahu, an entire city holds collective responsibility for the immoral behavior of individuals. In Gaza, the entire populace is responsible because they do nothing to stop the firing of Kassam rockets.

The former chief rabbi also said it was forbidden to risk the lives of Jews in Sderot or the lives of IDF soldiers for fear of injuring or killing Palestinian noncombatants living in Gaza.

The same article from last May also quoted the son:

Eliyahu's son, Shmuel Eliyahu, who is chief rabbi of Safed, said his father opposed a ground troop incursion into Gaza that would endanger IDF soldiers. Rather, he advocated carpet bombing the general area from which the Kassams were launched, regardless of the price in Palestinian life.

"If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop."

In the letter, Eliyahu quoted from Psalms. "I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them and I will not desist until I have eradicated them."

Eliyahu wrote that "This is a message to all leaders of the Jewish people not to be compassionate with those who shoot [rockets] at civilians in their houses."

Returning to the more recent article, we are treated to a "more moderate" message of another rabbi who shared the platform with the elder Eliyahu:

Ramat Gan's chief rabbi, Yaacov Ariel, chose to deliver a more moderate message: "We do not seek vengeance, we seek retaliation. The terrorist's house should have been demolished immediately, regardless of the law. It should have been done because it was a matter of life and death – the deterrence could help save future lives."

"We are against killing innocent people or harming children," he added, "but once terrorists hide behind children, we have to strike back. The blood of those living in Sderot is worth just as much as the blood of those the terrorists hide behind."

Stick your heads in the sand if you like but this is mainstream Judaism, folks. These guys are prominent orthodox religious leaders in a country where the government finances religion and orthodoxy is the only state-sanctioned form of Judaism. And they've been saying this kind of stuff for months, if not years.

No Judaism, No Zionism
Know Judaism, Know Zionism

Here's another Jewish Israeli description of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva.

How to describe the fact that the ideas and actions emanating from Mercaz Harav have fashioned the Israel of today? From promoting the thought of Rav Kook to the philosophy of settling Judaea and Samaria to ... sending the best students to serve in the top IDF combat units---all this, and more, may be attributed to Mercaz Harav.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

until they scream, 'Enough!'

On March 6, 2008, 26-year-old Alaa Abu Dhein carried out an armed attack on the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. That same day, the Jerusalem Post accurately characterized this attack on "the flagship institution of the religious Zionist movement" as an "assault on the heart of Zionism."

Less than three weeks later, in another article from the Jerusalem Post, the chief rabbi of the Galilean city of Safed nicely brings together many of the ideas variously addressed in this blog regarding Judaism's culture of death. Safed was violently ethnically cleansed by Jews of Arabs in 1948. Here's an excerpt from the JPost article:

Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu called on the state to use brute force as a deterrent to future terror attacks, following the shooting at the capital's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva three weeks ago that killed eight students.

"A state that really respects the lives of its citizens would have hanged the 10 sons of the terrorist on a tree 50 amot [25 meters] tall, so that others would see it and be afraid," wrote Eliahu, referring figuratively to the Book of Esther's depiction of how the Jews of ancient Persia took revenge against Haman and his 10 sons.

PM: This "revenge" is celebrated in the Purim holiday and, according to the book of Esther, Jews killed more than 75,000 Persians.

Eliahu's comments will appear this weekend in a Hebrew-language pamphlet called "Eretz Yisrael Shelanu" [The Land of Israel Belongs to Us] that is distributed in thousands of synagogues across the nation.

"I am not talking about individuals," stipulated Eliahu. "I am talking about the State of Israel, which needs to make them hurt until they scream, 'Enough!' - until they lie sprawled on the ground groveling, 'Help us!'...

"We have to exact a revenge that is so painful, it will burn into their souls the message of all our enemies that Jewish blood is more valuable than gold and platinum."

Eliahu stressed that the aim of the revenge was solely to achieve deterrence. He added that the Torah's prohibitions against revenge referred solely to individuals, not to states.

"On the national level, "revenge is necessary. Every state that is attacked takes revenge. The US, Russia, Turkey and India, all European states and even Third World countries take revenge. Does the entire world have it wrong and only the Israeli Left have it right? The Israeli Left is tired. It has lost its will to live. We have to remove those tired leftists from political leadership and send them to the old age home, and choose leaders who know true morality," Eliahu continued.

On the attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, see: