And they signed their names:
…In notices posted along Jerusalem's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, near the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, the rabbis wrote: "Each and everyone is required to imagine what the enemy is plotting to do to us, and to match it measure for measure.
The rabbis' announcement calls on Jews "to work to create a proper Jewish leadership," and envisions the day when "Jews will congregate in thei cities... and strike those who wish upon them ill," - in reference to a verse from the Book of Esther, which will be read next week on the Purim holiday.
Who are these geniuses who are clearly calling for another Purim Massacre ala Baruch Goldstein? Here's a partial list:
The long list of rabbis who signed the notice includes Daniel Staveski, Itzhak Shapira, David Drukman, Yaakov Yossef - son of Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef - and Uzi Sharbaf, who killed several Arab college students in Hebron 20 years ago and was recently pardoned from a life sentence.
The list of rabbis also includes figures who are linked to the ultra-right Kach movement which was banned in 1994.
What do these rabbis want? A theocracy:
The statement also says that the massacre at the yeshiva was "the direct result of the lack of a proper government, which should have acted according to the 'Shulkhan Arukh' (a 16th century rabbinical codex) which states that one must not forgive goyim who harm Jews or their property." *
"The governing leaders have decided to appease the Arab enemy. Only the real Jewish leadership can send the country to war knowing that it is a righteous battle against the enemies of Israel and God."
"In going to war," the rabbis write, "the Cohen fills the people with motivation by giving him the knowledge that he is going to fight his enemies and he must not show compassion or mercy."
One of the rabbis who signed this clearly seditious poster tried to spin it in a kinder and more gentle way than the text allows, but says this as a personal opinion and not as representative of the many other rabbis who signed:
Rabbi Gadi Ben-Zimra, one of the Rabbis who signed the statement, told Haaretz that the message did not refer to private acts of vengeance since avenging the dead is the job of the proper Jewish leadership that must be established.
Regarding the 'blessed local actions', Ben Zimra said that they were referring to the return to Gush Katif and Homesh and not revenge.
"Private vengeance is damaging and I for one am not calling for it," Zamra said. "I don't think that this message implies that one must go out and get revenge."
Really? Perhaps this rabbis should have written a more thoughtful wall poster.
The message is clear: Murder Arabs. Commit Jewish terror.
Mark my words. This is the beginning of civil war, not between Arab and Jew, but between Taliban rabbis and their followers on one hand and democratic Israel on the other.
And the blood will be on these rabbis hands.
*If anyone has a citation for this, please post it in the comments section. Thank you.
Here is the Jerusalem Post's report:
Jerusalem's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, near Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, which suffered a terror attack last week, posters were put up Wednesday calling for "correct Jewish leadership, in addition to localized actions, which are welcome." The writers of the gilui da'at, or official announcement, did not specify the "localized actions," but added "Every one of us is called to go to war; to imagine in his heart what the enemy is dreaming of doing to us, and carry out the same against him measure for measure."
Eleven rabbis' names appear at the bottom of the Giluy da'at, including Rabbi David Druckman, Rabbi Ya'akov Yossef (Shas's spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yossef's son), Rabbi Yehuda Kreuezer, Rabbi Gadi Ben Zimra and Rabbi Shmuel Yaniv. All are known as spiritual leaders of the Right, and also oppose Mercaz Harav Yeshiva's identification with the state and its institutions.
The poster claims also that "the institutions and regime controlling the Holy Land today are walking a path of increasing appeasement of the Arab enemy … and thus give them an illusion that they will one day be able to destroy Jewish existence in the Holy Land. Worst of all, the regime even supplies the enemy with weapons which are then used to spill Jewish blood."
The poster ends with a paraphrased quote from the Book of Esther, "... and the Jews gathered in their cities to defend themselves against those who tried to hurt them."
Tuesday evening, Channel One reported that students from the yeshiva were planning a revenge attack against a senior Arab official affiliated with a mosque at the Temple Mount.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, asked by MK Zevulun Orlev (NU-NRP) to look into the matter, said Wednesday that the Shin Bet Security Agency and the police were not familiar with any such schemes.**
"The report is baseless, and the fact that no arrests were made testifies to this," sources at Mercaz Harav said, and on Wednesday, the yeshiva announced that it would sue Channel 1 for libel if it did not suspend Ayala Chasson, the reporter who broke the story, forthwith.
* Note that, like the Arutz 7 report it is apparently lifted from, the Jerusalem Post does not put Dichter's remarks in quotes or cite a source, unnamed or otherwise.