JERUSALEM – Soldiers who object to settlement evacuation should hand over their weapons and defect to the settler camp, leading rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu says.
The former chief rabbi’s message was included in a weekly religious pamphlet handed out at synagogues in tens of thousands of copies.
Those who feel a need to join Gaza settlers and support their cause once evacuation time comes should do so, the rabbi said, but those who are afraid to join for fear of being jailed are excused.
We have to clarify that we are not talking about disengagement, but rather, about withdrawal, Eliyahu said, and expressed his confidence that the plan would not materialize.
“I say time and again, it won’t happen,” he said.
The rabbi also directed disengagement opponents to turn to the chief rabbis and convince them to come out against the plan and its implications.
“They should give exact instructions as to how we should conduct ourselves,” he said.
Yet despite the rabbi’s words, a Religious Zionist anti-insubordination convention took place in Jerusalem today.
Military insubordination threatens Israel’s well-being, said Major-General (res.) Yaakov Amidror during the session.
“We should say ‘no’ to insubordination in no uncertain terms,” he said.
Amidror, who clarified that he objects to the disengagement plan and believes it undermines national security, spoke out against settler leaders and rabbis who call for active resistance to settlement-removal and who back military insubordination.
“If we disobey orders today, we’ll shatter the only thing that safeguard’s Israel’s existence,” he said.