Rabbis: War for a clean conscience
Chabad newsletter claims war is Olmert government's way to clean their conscience, by proving that appeasement doesn't lead to peace. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu: No mercy for murderers, even if they hide behind children
The crisis on the northern border has featured not only in the nation's major newspapers, but also in weekly newsletters of synagogues across Israel. Chabad rabbis, in their most recent newsletter, nicknamed Israel's fight with Hizbullah, which broke out only days before the anniversary marking the implementation of disengagement, as a "war for a clean conscience."
Another newsletter, published by former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, stated that "if we want to defeat these Gentiles, we must offer ourselves to the Torah and not only rely on bombing roads and bridges. We must not have mercy on these murderers – even if they hide behind children. Remember, when they bomb us, they have no compassion for our babies."
In his 'Maayani HaYeshua' (Springs of Salvation) newsletter, Rabbi Eliyahu wrote: "know, says the Holy One Blessed Be He, that the goyim (gentiles) will not be satisfied with what you give them. Tomorrow, they will want to banish you from Tel Aviv, Haifa, Safed and Jerusalem."
"Only if you banish the encroachers of Israel from this land, will you be able to exist in it. Today, more than two million Israeli citizens are in mortal danger because we did not listen to the Torah. It seems that it is those gentiles who live within Israel who are persecuting us the most," he continued.
Rabbi Eliyahu, along with head of the 'Mercaz haRav' (Center of Rabbis) yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, wrote that "it is the duty of Jews at this time to be strengthened by the Torah, by faith and by security."
Clean Conscience – A wolf remains a wolf
A Chabad newsletter called 'Weekly Conversation', that attributes the current conflict to the government's appeasement tactics, is the one who came up with the crisis' new nickname. "Notice the amazing phenomenon," runs the letter. "All governments who tried to create peace through concession and withdrawal brought upon us the threat of war."
"The Rabin government wanted to bring peace with the Oslo accords and brought instead an unprecedented rash of terror attacks in our cities. The Barak government wanted to bring an end to the crisis with the most controversial concessions at Camp David; instead, they brought bloodshed that has lasted until today. The Sharon and Olmert government, who applied for peace with 'Disengagement and Realignment', brought us instead the difficult battles of today," the newsletter elaborated.
"They say to us 'we had to try in order to feel that we had missed an opportunity for peace,' but there are things that you don't have to try in order to know what their consequence will be. A foolish child must get burned in order to understand that fire will hurt him, but someone with a little intelligence in his brain doesn't have to shove his hand into the flame. The government tried to force the predatory wolf to turn into a dove of peace and now they have a clean conscience: they proved that a wolf remains a wolf."
Rabbi of the former Gush Katif, Rabbi Yigal Kaminsky, wrote in the 'Small World' weekly newsletter for youth, that "a short time has passed between our departure from Gaza and Lebanon and our forcible return to them.
"The Holy One Blessed Be He gave us these areas of our sweet land and, sadly, we are destroying them. We refrain from accepting the holy will and therefore this holy will comes into existence the hard way."
Despite their criticism, rabbis from all the factions ask the public to pray for the wellbeing of the fighting soldiers, the residents of the north, and the kidnapped soldiers. Many congregations have added a special prayer for the safe release of the kidnapped soldiers to their regular order of prayer.
