During Operation Cast Lead (the 2008-2009 Gaza War), the Jewish Identity Section produced and distributed a pamphlet that encouraged cruelty to the enemy. The pamphlet also promoted overtly political views, including claiming that it is forbidden under halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) to cede “even one millimeter” of the biblical Land of Israel for any purpose –including peace.
Above: Former IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Rontzki
IDF To Close Orthodox Military Rabbinate’s Jewish Identity Section
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The IDF has ordered the closure of the so-called Jewish Identity Section of the Zionist Orthodox-controlled IDF Rabbinate, and the plan – which has the backing of top IDF brass – is drawing outrage from the rabbis, Ha’aretz reported.
The IDF Rabbinate has repeatedly violated IDF policies in recent years, especially by couching battles between the IDF and Palestinian terror groups as a religious war.
As a result, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot recently issued an order to remove some of the power of the IDF Rabbinate, Ha’aretz reported. The closure of the Jewish Identity Section, which has only existed since 2001, is a direct result of that order. The IDF Rabbinate reportedly will strenuously fight the closure order.
The Jewish Identity Section, which operates with the stated objective of “strengthening the fighting spirit and sense of mission of the army’s combat units based on spiritual Jewish sources,” became especially problematic during the tenure of previous IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Rontzki from 2006 through 2010.
For example, during Operation Cast Lead (the 2008-2009 Gaza War), the Jewish Identity Section produced and distributed a pamphlet that encouraged cruelty to the enemy. The pamphlet also promoted overtly political views, including claiming that it is forbidden under halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) to cede “even one millimeter” of the biblical Land of Israel for any purpose –including peace. The IDF’s top brass condemned the pamphlet and found it violated IDF policy, but it did not immediately act against the Jewish Identity Section or Rontzki.
Israel’s state comptroller later found that the IDF’s chief rabbi had ordered monthly “Jewish awareness” sessions be held in all IDF units, sessions which apparently promoted similar views as those promoted in the Jewish identity Section pamphlet. The IDF Education Corps was also reportedly furious at the IDF Rabbinate for holding those sessions, which the Education Corps argued worked against the values it was ordered to promote – like, for example, democracy.
Rontzki is the head of the Zionist Orthodox yeshiva in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar.
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