This is a guest post by Eyal
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Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak received this week a death threat letter, warning him against the settlement freeze by the Israeli government.
“If you think of destroying the settlements, you are mistaken, and I will kill you,” read part of the letter, which has been transferred to the Shin Bet Security Service for investigation, according to Channel 10.
“I will harm you or your children, be careful,” the letter continued. “If not now, then when you are no longer a minister and have no security around you.
Two months ago, Israeli news daily, Ma’ariv exposed a book written and endorsed by prominent right-wing and settler rabbis, advocating the killing of gentiles who endanger Jews.
The article on Ma’ariv’s website (Hebrew) was correct in describing this book as “the stuff of Jewish terrorism”.
In it, the authors, two rabbis from a settlement in the West Bank, provide religious justification for killing anyone who endangers Jewish lives, even if they are a child or a baby.
Shockingly, the book isn’t shy about endorsing revenge attacks. For example, it also allows harming the children of rival leaders in order to deter them from actions against Jews.
“Revenge is an essential [war] need to prove that evil behavior does not pay off.” Therefore, “sometime one must commit ruthless acts that are designed to create the correct element of fear.”
However the book doesn’t stop there, and also justifies killing anyone, Jew or non-Jew, who supports the opposite side, and even children if it is foreseeable that these children will grow up to be enemies of the Jews:
“Anyone who supports the evil army in any way is a supporter of murderers and is considered a rodef. A civilian who encourages the war gives strength to the [enemy's] king and soldiers to continue the war. Therefore, every civilian in the sovereignty fighting against us that encourages the combatants or expresses his satisfaction with their actions is considered a person with an intent to kill. Therefore, he can be killed. And anyone who weakens our sovereignty with his or her speech is also considered a rodef.”
The term rodef is a highly charged one. Literally, it means “pursuer”. In context, it is a murderer, or someone trying to commit murder. It is allowed and even required to kill a “rodef” in order to stop him.
In the past, right-wing religious leaders have been quick to use the charge of “rodef” against Israeli political leaders engaged in negotiations or the transfer of land to the Palestinians. This was heavily employed against Itzhak Rabin in the months before his assassination by an Israeli religious right-winger. Sadly, it is not surprising that it is reappearing now.
There is a fine line connecting theological support by religious leaders for such actions, and the actions of individuals or groups who employ violence against civilians and political leaders in order to achieve political goals.
This is how the people who sent the death threats to Ehud Barak and his family, or those who employ the “price tag” policy against Palestinian civilians feel secure in their divine backing.
This line of thinking has no place in modern society, no matter the denomination it originates from.
7 Comments
particularly in light of the recent arrest of jack teitel, this just goes to show how bad the situation is in ideological la-la-land (or “yesh’a”, if you prefer!) as per my earlier article on the ginsburgh book:
http://www.spittoon.org/archives/3566
b’shalom
bananabrain
*comment left initially at Harry’s place about this article which is featured there;
Harry’s place is an amazing blog but in an effort to show you’re “even-handed” and balanced and not picking on Muslims sometimes you exaggerate “jewish terrorism,” this is such a case. In 61 years I think there have been possibly 2 or 3 acts of “Jewish terrorism” ([Possible the King David Hotel bombing before] the Goldstone massacre, the assassination of Rabin and now the Teitel bombings. I am not even sure that there is such a thing as “Jewish terrorism” as opposed to terrorist acts by a few religious extremists? Do 3 acts constitute a phenomenon?
This isn’t a act of Jewish terrorism it is a threat of Jewish terrorism anyway. http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/ lists over 14,500 actual acts of Muslim terrorism since 911. Imagine we added to that all of the bomb-threats, fatwas, internet activity, hate/threatening letters and email, etc?
Every society has nuts and extremists but I don’t think 3 acts in 60 years constitutes “Jewish terrorism” in the same way there is a phenomenon of Islamic Terrorism. Further, In a search of this blog I cannot find any posts entitled “Islamic terrorism” leading me to feel that for reasons of political correctness you label it (probably correctly) as Islamist terrorism, an important distinction. Why is no such distinction made for Jews? Indeed it seems you are all to eager to find real or imagined cases of “Jewish terrorism” even before they have taken place. Maybe I’ve just invented a new term, “Jewist terrorism”?
This political correctness reminds me of how google is censoring search’s about Islam;
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c60bf53ef012876ab75d6970c-popup
Would you even regard them as right-wing Jewish extremists and religious supremacists?
I saw this at Harrys Place and as it was the first time I had visited I thought it was a balanced site! Good luck to you for trying to fight the ghouls
steve bronfman
## In 61 years I think there have been possibly 2 or 3 acts of “Jewish terrorism” ([Possible the King David Hotel bombing before##
This reminded me of Monty Pythons ” who can honestly say they havent set fire to some great public building…I know I have…or indeed killed 90 people as a political stunt ..? ”
You take care.
B
Berchmans wtf?
Hi guys, just wanted to say this was an excellent post.
Bananabrain – there’s a link to Jack Tytell through Rabbi Dov Lior, who endorses the legal group Honenu who are defending Tytell in court. Lior also backs Shapira’s theology:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/11/12/violent-words-lead-to-violence/
generally speaking, we at the spittoon do not get involved in the israel-palestine issue, as it i something of a troll magnet, however we are always keen to highlight excess, stupidity and unpleasantness wherever it may stem from in the religious world. as an observant religious jew (and, i would argue, a religious zionist to boot) i do not think my own co-religionists should be spared the rod. i also am not going to get my capacious knickers in a bunch defining the term “terrorism” so that comments such as the following can be made:
i dislike the way that the hardcore hardalim (that’s national-ultra-religious rightwingers) behave. i detest their hashkafa (worldview) and their blinkered, pig-headed bloody-mindedness. i am *well* aware of the beatings, the burnings and uprootings of orchards, the harassment and intimidation. i am *abundantly* informed of their sinat hinam (causeless hatred) and contempt for any jew who does not share their positions, their ” and their seditious undermining of their own government which, if it continues, will lead not only to further acts of violence and murder (see, i haven’t said “terrorism”) but inevitably to the first jewish civil war since the hasmonean era. all of these are *absolutely* forbidden by the halakhah. who do these people think they are – joshua bin nun? elijah the prophet? the messiah ben yosef? this is nothing but a chillul ha-Shem – a desecration of the Divine Name, a love for the Land that has been perverted into an idolatrous lust – and we all know what G!D Thinks of that.
i also have friends and family in the gush and elsewhere in the west bank that i am very fond of and do who i know do *not* share these views. i do not tar everyone with the same brush, but i will *not* participate in a whitewash. i judaism was founded by a patriarch who had the courage to stand against ignorance, bigotry and insane nationalism. i am with abraham abinu on this.
b’shalom
bananabrain