Jewish Scene
'Public not ready for religious IDF chief'
Moriah Zeltser-Volshtein
Published: 18.04.11, 16:22
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9 Talkbacks for this article
1. With all due respect....
David ,   Israel   (04.18.11)
His musings on religion and what he thinks the Israeli "public" would accept are opinions that would be best be kept to himself. I don't think either opinions are accurate and both strike me as cynical and self-serving. As Barak has proven, being a great soldier does not make you a great thinker.
2. Fool
Ralph Levy ,   USA   (04.18.11)
Fool
3. leaders and generals
alexi   (04.18.11)
So long as aspiring leaders have a positive self conviction and in the land and are not afraid of blood and war, then such leaders can be good for israel. Generals on the other hand without real conviction or who view everything through the battlefield lense can be bad for israel. Ben gurion, meir , begin and shamir were good for israel. They were not afraid of casualties, had a sense of the land and its security and were not afraid to take action. Rabin thought that Israelis did not have any more stamina and was really proved wrong in 2006 as they took 30 days of missiles to allow the idf to go in and clean out nasrollah while olmert fretted about casualties and blood and wasted an excellent opportunity. Israel lost deterrence because of olmert, perhaps the weakest and most cowardly leader in israel'shistory, a PM who trusted erdogan with israeli golan????!! Livni is cut fromt he same cloth and is totally unfit to be PM.She considers lebanon resolution to be her crowning achievement and it is worthless. Barak has no conviction for the land, is arrogant and was an absolute disaster as PM. Sharon was better but again was persuaded by olmert to abandon gaza without securing the philadelphi route. Mitzna was part of the advocacy of unilateral withdrawal and would be a disaster going forward.I do not trust his judgement at all, not even 1%. Bibi, while uncertain, is not afraid of blood so hits hamas for every shot they throw at israel. He has conviction in the land, cares about it and so has been adequate as PM, though he tends to succumb to pressure. Israel would do well to avoid voting for generals like mitzna and barak and pacifists and cowards like peres, herzog, beiliin, ben ami, olmert, livni and ramon. Israel has leaders who have conviction and courage, like landau, lieberman, gillerman, kara, begin. And there are others. Another category of candidates that israel should be wary of is self absorbed individuals who think they have all the others. Yair lapid is one of them who thinks he has the answers just like olmert and livni before him. He will solve all the problems cause he knows what arabs wants-hogwash. His father was a disaster as MK and so would be just like all of haaretz writers, levy, verter, amir oren. They are such cowards that as a jew, it is hard to take their submission. They say if only bibi did this or that, the arabs woud behave. The arabs want to kill 100,000 jews, keep a few token dzimmi and kick the rest out of the land period-end of story. So Israel should avoid voting for generals or pacifists/writerss/journalists for PM. Using this template, israelis would never have voted or vote for beilin, olmert.,peres, livni, barak and lapid senior,haber.
4. Religious Zio9nists
Michaelpielet ,   Boca, usa   (04.18.11)
Religious Zionists are the backbone of the country and the army. As they grow in strength, israel will grow in strength.
5. #4
Jack ,   Usa   (04.20.11)
completely agree with #4, roughly 17 % of the Jewish population is Dati Leumi in Israel and Charedi is 8% , as these two sectors grow Israel will become a much stronger country.
6. This article disturbs me deeply.
adam eliyahu   (04.20.11)
It is scary to see it finally in print that the de facto position, that a religious Jew in the Jewish state is unaccetable for a high position in government because he is religious. This seems acceptable. I don't think it is valid to clkaim that religious people are fananics. Left wing seculars are much more fanatical and we have had many of them for generals. The left wing seculars demand separation of church and state in Israel, the Jewish state, yet what they really mean is they want freedom to oppress the religious and exclude them from the government. The army is becoming more religious and much more right wing yet the higher ranks are almost exclusively secular left.Just as an election that reflects the beliefs of ther majority of Israelis being right wing is suddenly declared right wing fascist.
7. Schism in Dati Leumi
adam eliyahu   (04.20.11)
Dati Leumi has always straddled the fence, trying to sit with secular zionists as well as Haredi. Secular zionists made a condition that Dati leumi hate charedi like they do, do the army like the do, and work at building Israel like they do. The expulsion from Gush Katif was secular zionism turning around and stabbing a long time ally in the chest. While nursing our wounds, we woke up to the fact that secular zionists no longer do the army and the only thing they are interested in building up is their own credit rating. Religious zionists are no longer able to straddle the fence. A few (very few,in my experience) strengthened their ties to secular zionism, now an oxymoron. After hating the charedi for so long and for many serious ideological differnecse, the dati leumi can no longer sit with the charedi. There is a new brand of dati leumi growing in "the territories". The new jew is awesome.
8. Stand upto religious coercion
Haim ,   Tel avfiv   (04.20.11)
You will not and cannot forec religious rulings on non belivers end of. Religion is a belief and a faith not a fact. It is a basic human right to be free from other peoples religion so stop judging and slandering others based on a religious belief.
9. far worse
i ,   jerusalem   (04.20.11)
The secular fear of dati is not nearly as scary as the sight of a public servant that will not step down faced with a unconscionable task, the lack of posse comitatus, and militarized, robotic police. The disengagement and its aftermath was by any standard (uncluttered by local bias) a crime against humanity. Kipa or not, he is disqualified as spineless.
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