Yes Israel needs dedicated soldiers, and if the religious community is able to supply them, great. But if those soldiers are going to run around physically abusing Palestinians because they have the wrong skin colour or worship the wrong god, they're actually doing more to hurt their nation than they are to help it.

First the secular-leftists say that the religious aren't going into the army. Then they say that the religious are taking over the army. You can't have it both ways lefty. Get over it, this isn't the USA, this is Israel, Jewish Israel.

Well, if the only soldiers the religious community can provide are going to go ballistic on the Palestinians for having the wrong DNA, Israel would be far better off if they just stayed in their Yeshivas.

Comments by #1 Kanuk aside.

Jew loves to live as much as Arab loves to die. Does that Jewish moral code allow willingness to sacrifice?

You are an example of what Moti speaks of. The Israeli media is making it seem like the religious troops are less humane and more hateful than the secular ones. There are facts to support this claim.

Well from my own extensive personal experience with friends and family, as well as what I hear from other Jews and read in the news, the more religious Israelis also tend to be more intolerant towards others, big time. To a secular Israeli, the phrase "put yourself in their shoes" actually means something. When I try to reason in that fashion with more religious people, I get the true sense they actually think "God" loves them more than other human beings. Heck, if you guys don't like what I say, you can bury your heads in the sand all you want. I'm frightened that Israel is well on the path to total international isolation and what that will mean for you all when it happens. Israel needs to revise the way it behaves towards the Palestinians, or your traditional and very powerful friends are going to have a an awfully tough time justifying their continued support. Maybe some divine miracle will pop up and save you all in your most desperate hour, but I wouldn't bet my shirt on it much less my life.

I whole heartedly agree with all Kedar wrote. The seculars have long harassed the religious coz they dont hold their worldview and need to scapegoat their failures on. And yes they are decreasing in numbers big time simply coz each consecutive generation lacking jewish education see no reason to stay in "a state like any other" for the same price they may as well live elsewhere with less wars. But not so with the religious they are dedicated to the land and readily will die for it. And we have to differentiate somewhat we are not talking about the charedi but mizrachi dati, the kippah srugot. Though more and more we see charedi start to serve in special units like Nachal. And to Canadian dude, get off your soapbox you frankly dont know what your talking about and your just showing your bigotry and disdain for religeous jews, shame on you.

make the jewish people's ancestors and future progeny prOUD. we need you to speak moRE. I saw your speach with al Jazeera and it was 100% "right on" (as we say in the US). May the religious only increase their population and number of children! Amen v'Amen. However may they bring all their secular brothers and sisters to Jewish riches and values...

The Bogus news about incidents in Gaza were all done before confirmation that the stories were true. in many cases there is no confirmation ; it was 2nd hand news. That aside, the bigger problem is the rape of israel going on in the world in the un, in the Muslim world, in the leftist world, in the academic world. 1,000,000 dead black sudanese would love to have 1% of the media the palestinians get. Yes these palestinians that voted the equivalent of al qaeda into office. as for religious soldiers your are generalizing them "dude". you wouldn't want to be lumped into judgement so why do you lump a whole population into judgement. Im not very religiously observant either, but I am acutely aware that there are dozens of somewhat different paths in religious Judaism. Youd be shocked how diverse that world is...

Dear Mordechai: as you know, many people does not understand the meaning of your articule, so to be right, in all the groups we can see good soldiers,anyway, we need to be all together, in this matter we are in the same boat, what is clear is that we wish to live in peace. The hate have no place in our soul, we are a moral people, that are suffering from very long time ago,and i pray one day will stop. By the other hand, i am very clear , the enemy have no moral, and respect for the humanity. About the media, no comments, the world is thinking now. Shalom

Kedar is the first step to the Talibinized Israel to the detriment to all. This is ridiculous. He and his son must adopt civil secular enlightened codes. The home is enough to celebrate everybody's myths.

What are you talking about? Obviously you hate Jews and that is your problem. I do not believe Arab Canadians, like yourself, give money to Israel.

Motti, hi. Religious soldiers are dedicated to the existence of Israel and its defense. These young people because they believe are both optomistic and brave. In the difficult times that lie ahead they will be in the forefront of the defense of the state. I salute them and wish them kol hakavod.

Willingness to sacrifice has nothing to do with the love of death which you attribute to Islam. Sacrifice is about giving up something prized or desirable - such as physical pleasure, the pursuit of wealth, etc. - for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim, such as serving one's people; one's nation.

This has nothing to do with religion or with religious Jews on your part. I am not a particularly religious Jew. When I read Jews like you waning Israel of "international isolation" unless she commits to suicidal concessions to implacable enemies, I hear a Jew who is afraid of his or her own Jewishness; a Jew who trembles in his or her own Jewish skin. You can say whatever you want. It has nothing to do with liking what you say. But please do not project your own insecurities and fears on other Jews. We are not all afraid like you are in Canada.

Well from my own extensive personal experience with friends and family, as well as what I hear from other Jews and read in the news, the more secular Israelis also tend to be more intolerant towards others, big time. And it is quite the same in Canada. Isn`t it dude ?

The Wingrad report on the tragedy of the last lebanese war uncovered a big problem in the IDF. The military had been gearing up for pulling out the Jewish civilians from Gush Katif. Before being allowed to enter the officer's trainign course, a candidate was asked "Would you follow orders to forcibly evacuate a Jew from his house?" A negative answer meant the candidate would not follow orders and he was disqualified from the course. As a result, less qualified but more "loyal" officers were moved higher. This was true for many other courses, seemingly unrelated to a civilian operation. Gush Katif went smoothly with (relatively) few soldiers (openly) refusing orders. There is a fear amongst the non-religious that religious soldiers will refuse orders that conflict with their religious beliefs. That fear is valid. What it means is that the IDF will cease being an unthinking tool for the Left wing.

I READ YOUR COMMENT ABOUT MASADA TOURISM. NOW YOU DO NOT REALIZE THAT SOLDIERS MAY SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY. HELL, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?

ISRAEL LAND UNDER ARAB RULE. THERE ARE OTHER ARABS OF ISRAEL, WHO WERE PALESTINIANS (AND SO WERE THE JEWS), BUT THEY LIVE IN ISRAEL & SEEM TO ADAPT TO REASONABLE STANDARDS OF LIVING. SO COULD THE PALESTINIANS BUT THEY REFUSE. FRIENDS WHO DICTATE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY WHAT IT SHOULD DO ARE NO FRIENDS AT ALL.

Things have got tough for israel and are going to get tougher. There are those who are just not capable of dealing with the reality and their only answer is to retreat into primitivism. I am not surprised at the growth of reigious troops becuase only religion endorses the primitve racial myths of Judaism. Prof Kedar is very confused because Israel's only hope is to move forward to a progressive future in harmony with the rest of the world . it cannot exist as a shetl like island of backwardness .

If Jewish People have hard time believing in God and the Jewish connection to the Almighty then they should not need to live in Israel, not that I am saying they should leave. But the whole purpose of "Reestablishing" the State of Israel is because of our religious connection to that land otherwise we could have been better off in Argentina or other place that was offered to us. Religious Jews who read and abide by the rules of Torah, will never commit atrocities against anyone, if they did then they are not to be considered religious or perhaps they have mental problems. As for the willingness to sacrifice I don't think you have to be religious. You just have to be conscious after all Israel was built by those who were willing to sacrifice and it will remain only if there are those who are willing to sacrifice. I think that it would be a horrendous mistake to have a rift between the seculars and religious at this time or anytime for that matter when we need everyone to tackle the existential problems with which Israel is faced now. For more please visit: http://israelactnow.blogspot.com/

pray tell, what color is a religious jew in israel? repulsive, ignorant canadian, know of what you speak before you shame yourself some more...

Thank you, Dr. Kedar, for your excellent and courageous article!

Secular and Religious, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Russian, American, Israeli Jews, and so forth From North Pole to the South Pole, From Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere God is one and we shall be one nation under the Almighty. BTW I love your blog!

why is life exempted from the list of assets that can be sacrificed? doesn't God own all lives and man can't afford sacrificing his own life? but what about sacrificing for the sake of God? That's a good question; how one knows that his life-sacrificing is for the sake of making the word of God high? The answer is, that's the major difference between Muslims and Jews. In Judaism, the educated rabbi acts as supreme judge, as a middleman between God and man. But in Islam, man is directly educated to judge his own decision and encouraged to throughly seek knowledge about the correctness of that decision, no middleman involved.

for Palestinians. If ten Jews are killed in car accidents by other Jews in Israel, you don't hear much about it. But if one Jew is killed by a Palestinian, Israel is dropping bombs from F16s. This extreme use of force is unheard of anywhere else in the civilized world. Israelis must overcome their own racist intolerance. According to YNETNEWS, there was a survey takened last year that showed that most Jews would move out of their apartments if an Arab family moved into their apartment building. Well, I can tell you that that is not the situation in Canada. Over here, things are much more civilized than the reality you've created. The bottomline is this: If you treat people correctly, they will behave correctly. The only reason why Palestinians are shooting rockets is because they are not being treated right by Israelis (especially at the check points).

Zealots had first to massacre the guards of the Masada in order to conquer it. Masada was built by King Herod who was an Arab, on the paternal and maternal sides, massacred the Jewish male boys to keep his dominance over the Jews. Those Jews didn't recognize Herod's Jewishness even he was religious Torah observant Jew, but converted, who built the second temple and observed Jewish feasts. In fact those 28 skeletons who received official state burial honor cheated Israel because recently those were proved genetically to be Romans. The head & Plaits of hair were neatly cut by sharp instrument from an alive foreign non-Jewish woman who fell in the hands of inhabitants of the Masada to look non-pretty in men's eyes; that was not the habit of Jewish women. The IDF soldiers who swear the oath at the Masada do not recognize that the Skeleton, even if they were Jewish, did not fight a moment but were so coward that they escaped the fight through alleged suicide. The whole story and its only narrative were myth. All the story came exclusively only from Josephus Flavus, and even information about him came from himself only! So, how do you believe in his story when he says all the 1000 inhabitants killed themselves, so how did he knew about the story? I'll tell you: to fill the big gap he claimed that two women survivors told him the story. So, why he contradicted himself by inventing that there were survivors? why women? guess? because women only can give birth to Zionists who would bring the inception of Israel. That was not the last myth, but a site has been already excavated called Gamla on the Golan Heights, where, during the same struggle, some 5,000 Jews leaped to their deaths in preference to defeat by Rome. Was it self inflicted massacre? were those really Jews? wait for the next chapter by Israel; no Josephus involved!