Haaretz: Torah law is above the army

By Chaim Levinson, Haaretz Settlements Correspondent

Rabbis and teachers from Hesder yeshivas, which offer Torah studies alongside military service, released a letter to students in which they reiterated their assertion that soldiers must refuse orders if they are commanded to evacuate settlements. The Rabbis are arguing that Torah law is above the Israel Defense Forces.

The letter emphasizes the importance of enlisting to the military, but instructs soldiers to adhere to Jewish law when it conflicts with orders handed down from superiors.

This letter comes as yeshiva heads closed ranks around Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, whose declarations in support of soldier insubordination caused Defense Minister Ehud Barak to oust his Har Bracha yeshiva from its hesder arrangement with the IDF.
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"Unfortunately, the IDF has been used for purposes unrelated to Israel's defense and directly opposed to God's wishes for quite some time," the rabbis wrote in the letter. "This situation faces IDF soldiers with a contradiction between Jewish commandments and commanders' orders."


"We are committed to teach that loyalty to the lord comes before any other loyalty, whether to the army or to the government," the rabbis went on to say.

The document concluded with the rabbis' assertion that they are guiding their students to "be loyal soldiers through their commitment to the word of God."

Earlier Thursday, Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin addressed the rift between the IDF and the hesder yeshivas, calling on Barak to devise a solution and to avoid political motives.

Rightardia comment: The Christians call it God's law, the Muslims call it Sharia and now we have Torah law. This is the sort of thing that happens when you mix church and state. Israel is a quasi-theocracy.

source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1135864.html

source: http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-12-11/stalin-letter-sothebys-auction.html# Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

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Gideon Levy: Let's face the facts, Israel is a semi-theocracy

By Gideon Levy
 
The storm over remarks made by Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman is in many respects a tempest in a teapot, which has for a long time taken on holier aspects than it seems.

Neeman wants Torah law, or in other words, he wants Israel to be a country governed by Jewish religious law, halakha. In any event, Israel is already a semi-theocracy.

The Israelis who were frightened by the minister's remarks and who love viewing their country as liberal, Western and secular are forgetting that our life here is more religious, traditional and halakhic than we are prepared to admit.

Between Stockholm and Tehran, Israel of 2009 is much closer to Tehran. From birth to death, from circumcision to funeral, from the establishment of the state to the establishment of the last of the illegal outposts in the West Bank - we are operating in the shadow of the commandments of religion.

We should be honest with ourselves and admit it already: The country is too religious. Neeman just wanted to take this one step further, something one can and must come out against; but the religious-nationalist campaign began a long time ago, and it is still going strong.

It begins, of course, with the fact of our presence here. Among other things, it is based on theological reasoning. Abraham the Patriarch was here, so we are, too. He bought the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, so we, too, are in Palestinian Hebron.

People who are entirely secular also cite religious and biblical explanations for the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. We can't even say whether Judaism is a religion or a nationality - and in any event, there is no other country in the Western world where religion has its holy iron grip on the state as it does in Israel.

We don't need Neeman. There are no civil marriages or divorces, and there are almost no secular funerals. The Law of Return and the definition of who is a Jew - the most fundamental and significant of Israeli precepts - are based on halakha, even without our religious justice minister. Only 44 percent of Israelis define themselves as secular, as opposed to 64 percent of Swedes who define themselves as atheists; and this is reflected in all aspects of our daily life.