The above article is a fine theoretical analysis. It ignores the fact that at least two of the refuseniks were themselves victims of a violent eviction from their homes two years ago. The commander who chose these soldiers to perform an eviction knew they would not be able to carry out these orders. Mr Sherlo should be asking why such a command was given to these soldiers who volunteerd to serve a country that has forced them to live in a refugee camp.

If it is immoral to disobey an order because it is inconsistent with Jewish law, then certainly why on earth should anyone have been punished for their crimes in World War II. After all, they were all following orders as well. Or is only immoral when it concerns Jewish law? How shameful. What this Rabbi has done is actually give validation to to anyone who was courageous enough not to have followed orders that were immoral and sanctions all the rest. What is the message here Rabbi? That Jewish law is perhaps immoral?

re; "A person's conscience is a compass that should direct his or her life." This "Rabbi" should worship less his conscience and "morality" and follow more morality of Hashem that is outline in Torah. Instead of serving IDF and the State he should concentrate on serving G-d, that in the situation of expelling Jews from their homes is contrary to Torah Law.

This is one of the things I like about Israel. Jews have moral standards; and they are bearers of goodness in this nmisrable world. I only wish they are not slective in applying morality and act justly always. It is fairness towards everyone even their enemies that can save Israel. Yet, it is non-application of the same justice and morality that will destroy their newly created state.

The morality or immorality of following orders depends on the morality or immorality of the orders. ALWAYS to disobey orders is theoretically immoral and illegal. ALWAYS to obey orders can theoretically be immoral as we have seen in fascist countries like Germany during the Second World War. And ALWAYS to follow orders in the IDF can be symptomatic of a fascist political regime in Israel, which morally needs to be resisted by all citizens with a minimum sense of morality. For example, it would be immoral and criminal for an IDF soldier to obey an order to kill unarmed citizens be they Arab or Jewish. It would also be immoral to obey orders to expel Jews from any part of their homeland. And it would mandatory for Jewish soldiers in the IDF to disobey such orders outright, because giving land to the enemy is one legal basis for an indictment of treason in addition to being immoral; and Jewish soldiers in the IDF who obey such orders should be put on trial for treason together with their commanders and senior government officials who hand down such orders. Moreover, articles appearing in the media in Israel that suggest that soldiers in the IDF should be obey every order (including those to expel Jews from any part of their homeland and apply force to those who do not comply) are supporting an immoral and treacherous government that would give such orders. As such, they are part of the immoral, fascist and trecherous government that needs to be toppled by any means possible... for the sake of morality.

I think you mean unconscionable , not "unconscious". You didnt mean that the soldiers are meant to remove the citizens from their homes WHILE SLEEPING? DID YOU. One word off, and you missed the boat.

This one is very theoretical , but without basic Torah foundation, and therefore suspect of being conservative in origin

The United States Massacre at My Lai Vietnam was carried out by US Forces Obeying oders of superiors. In 1968. After that the US Military changed its approach our code of Military Justice was amended to allow the right of a service member to object to an order if that order is without conscience or against religous belief. Granted after the fact an inquiry will be held and if neccessary the person or persons refusing to act on the order may be held liable in a military court. But NO ONE NO ONE can force a person in the military to act against Moral or Religous belief. Lets remember the nazis were an army without moral code..when it came to our mothers and fathers. The real tragedy isnt when a soldier decides not to follow orders because of moral compass..rather it is when the compass is removed and shattered by his/her superiors. That is the tragedy.

not to take this mamzer seriously. The only people who listen to him are his 4 talmidim.

Let's go back to the pre-Shoah period in Europe. One of the factors which helped the Nazis along was quite simply the division of European Jewry. The more modern, more secular westerners and the more old fashioned easterners viewed each other with suspicion. Well, orders such as Hebron are dividing Jew against Jew. Even if you disapprove of settler lifestyle, you have a duty to live and let live, to refuse to evict.

to Armageddon when the land God calls MY LAND is divided, which is Jerusalem. Orders must be obeyed,but the international community which is causing the dividing of Jerusalem and non-recognition of God's land grant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants will face Armageddon when God has had enough. At Armageddon can be avoided by NOT dividing Jerusalem and by honoring the land grant from God to the Jews. At Armageddon, the blood of the armies of all the nations of the earth (USA will collapse after Iran is defeated) will flow to the horse bridals in the Valley of Jehosepophat. Vultures will eat the flesh of Captains and Kings and others who come against Israel and the Jews whose Messiah will appear at that time to deliver them.

Moral is moral. You cannot wind like a snake on an issue here and there on an issue. The statement "much graver things, such as killing people?" is backwards. The killing is from the enemy aggressor or in response to it. If you know you Torah pashoot (a big assumtion on my part) then you know the Israelites waged war to get the land orginally. Once you get it and then you give it to your enemy, you are destine watch them grow stronger. (you might have also read this in Torah pashoot - they will grow stronger as you grow weaker) On the issue of following orders, so to did the Nazis use this excuse. There must be a middle ground of wisom. I did not see this in your article. Soldiers must be relied upon to do thier duty. The Isralei Defense Force is just that a "defense" force. It is not a political wing of the UN or US policy. Even in Torah you read of wars where those who did not want to fight were allowed to go home. Of course this was in a battle that G-d supported. when G-d is not behind your war, you need every man you can get. Your argument losses its legs because it is clear that the job was done without the objectors so the moral decision did not jeopordaize the operation of the state. It should be everyones duty to follow through with morals, including the government. The entire pictured gets skewed because of propaganda and media spin. Morals go out the window as lemmings run for the ocean at the whim of the media. It really is sad. You say the land is stolen. It is clear that it is not stolen, but that we gave it to the Palestinians who are planning our elimination. How moral is that? Giving to your enemy? How many deaths will that bring? And the biggest question is why? Because we want top help build a non-Jewish state. It is not about political control over the land. If it was the Jews that live there could become citizens of Palestine and be policed and ruled by Palestinians. No it is about getting rid of the Jews to appease the world and the Palestinian. Our tax money is doing this - how moral is that? Now before you consider me an extremist, put another note down, the govement is the extremist here as it is getting objection in its own ranks - soldiers who have high moral fiber are saying enough. You really write well, its just that you shift from foot to foot and that makes your point of view lef-right-left-right. This makes me believe you really have no heart in what your writing, but are writing it because you were told to. Sell out. In my final opinion, it is doing the will of G-d that is moral and doing anything else is imoral. G-d is just and righteous. (I am not talking a religion or religios leader's will but truly G-d's will) Suprised you haven't learned this in your studies. Torah Pashoot

I agree with everything you write and I hope that there are many more like you who will speak up for the IDF's higher principles of morality and loyalty to the people of Israel, instead of loyalty to a treasonous government. Please continue to actively support those higher principles. People like you are extremely needed now.

The author uses insidious symentry. He attempts to have us believe that it is as much the duty of a soldier to expel Jews and destroy their homes as it it the duty of a soldiers to DEFEND fellow ciiizens with whom they may differ politically, and as it is the duty of soldiers to act defensively even up to and including the taking of a human life in time of war or great danger. The author is either a hypocrite or morally blind. The former is an offensive act perpetrated on ones fellow Jew; the latter are defensive acts, the essence of the army --- to DEFEND, not destroy ones' own!! If the author is indeed a 'rabbi', he must be one of the deformed persuasion. Shame!

This is a balance between individual and collective states. no human is a robot but has a prime accountability to his Creator, nobody else. "Give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar ,and give to God what belongs to God."Is the principle we are all to apply.That means where we are asked by an authority to push the boundaries of a commandment of God we must obey the command of God before the command of man. " The word of the King is the power of control'.'We are to respect and obey authorities when they are ministering to Gods people, which is their role. The conflict arises when you have ungodly men in power, who only recognise themselves as God. That then allows them to enforce rules that are wrong for they have no guidelines , they have no morality, they have no goal but to further their own agendas.

On the one hand, you speak about the immorality of killing civilian citizens, whether they are Arab or Jewish. Then you go on to say that it is immoral to expel Jews from their homeland, but you do not find it immoral that Israel was built on expelling the majority of the Arab population in order to maintain the character of a Jewish state. You don't find it immoral that Arab citizens are not equal, nor that you live in a racist supremacist society. Yes, you do have a treacherous government, however, that government is supported by people like you who have no morality nor humanity.

"our very just struggle for getting back the stolen Jewish property in Hebron" Its not stolen if we give it to them! So if you want to get it back, why not keep it in the first place and why not do everything in you power to prevent it from being given away? Rather than to come back years after you gave it to them, to steal it under force and by deadly war. Yes I said steal it, because you gave it to them. Since when is the Nation of Israel allowed to break its word? Torah teaches about making binding deals with other nations. It warns against it. The govement needs redressed and the bribary money that comes in the form of support from other nations, needs to stop polluting our judgement and righteousness under Torah and G-d.

And, as you say, if there ever was a government that deserved to be toppled, this is the one. Significant and Irreversible government decisions that will affect Israel's borders, defense and massive expulsions of Jews are coming, and unless the people put a stop to them NOW, by November it will be too late. And if Israelis are not up to stopping the government, maybe the IDF could come to the defense of the country to protect it from a government with no mandate and no morals.

Marlene, (your real name is probally Fatima), you repeat the same lies every time. Give it up , its getting boring. Start stating true facts instead of Palastinian propaganda that spews out of your mouth every time you comment. The facts are that the arab population has not neen expelled as you claim..........they left on their own accords in the past. You lie saying they are not equal...........in fact the arabs in Israel pay less tax then me! Build there houses without permits and most dont want to even work because they get money from the israeli government. Such hard lives. I bet you have never even been to an Israeli arab village and seen the new cars they are driving and big new houses they are building. Why is it that most arabs want to live on the Israeli side????? I wish they all went to Egypt or Jprdan........im sure they will have a better life there! Israel treats arabs better than any arab country treats arabs, and thats a fact! You are a fool and have no clue, just repeat lies!

I have lived in Israel for almost one year and have travelled all over,and I can STATE that arabs live WONDERFULLY in Israel,better than MANY Jews! And Jews have only a tiny country while arabs have almost 30 to go. Do you know why they don't go? Because Israel is the BEST place for them to live. They have the same rights as Jews,and know VERY WELL how to take advantage of this fact! And I can tell you for sure too:They profit Israel ,but the majority of them HATE Jews. THEY MUST GO,AND WILL GO -SOONER OR LATER,you can be sure! ISRAEL IS FOR JEWS!

Obviously, you have no alternative but to resort to calling people names probably because you know I'm correct, so I thank you for that. But better go to preach to someone else, not to me. I lived in Israel long before you did, and the only thing you have to offer is the usual Zionist propaganda. Arabs are unequal citizens, and always were. If Jews were treated likewise in the United States, it would be called "anti-semitism" as is any criticism of Israel.

When you lose Hebron - and the rest of Judea and Samaria - you can always say Israelis were good sports.

Both right and both wrong. The Arabs here are not equal, nor am I, I have an advantage and a disadvantage. I am US born Christian that converted to Judaism. My eductaion makes me valuable, but my veiwpoint makes me hated by all religions-except maybe the Shomroneem. When I heard the "peace" talking Arabs speak they had undertones of hate and intentional destruction overflow into their false smiles as one stated: "I wish all Jews were gone from the land." They reminded me of the inner-city welfare dwellers of the US. Always someone elses fault their life was so cursed. (I worked there) I spoke with the fire department in Israel and they stated the area of Yafo as their busy area where people ignited more home fires than in other areas. Kind of like the inner-city projects of the US. Despite this I have seen Jews living at the poverty line, black Ethipian Jews, who live an upstanding life without the curses of burning down their homes. By the way, they use portable open burners next to their couches for cooking snacks and drinks (miraulous, in my opinion, there are not constant fires in their neighborhoods-I hapilly lived there for two years among them. Yes there is racism, religiousism, and all sorts of discrimination here in Israel. You probably don't live in a black neighborhood in the US. In argument, this is a place for Jews. It is not a place to be like other nations. There are Arabs here who are kind, considerate and very productive-many very wealthy Arabs in houses that could be discribed as mansions. This doesn't change the face of what Israel is. There were individuals in the Los Angeles riots who jumped into a group mentality and stole, burnt and murdered. Arabs are the same, they have their people. If a pogram began, it would be just the same as historically recorded - a sort of team effort. Ancient Israel is intended to be a place of Torah and the words of Moses. These words call for decernment and judgement of individuals. With righteous judgement, there are people treated better than others and worse than others. Generalizations and ignoring righteous tretament is wrong and a failing model in the United States. In Israel, social-based righteous treatment is loosly based on Torah beliefs and being "Jewish" in origin and for the non-religiouis, accepting TV marketed values. Thus if you are missing these, your will have to find a niche. But before a US citizen criticizie, In the US the best man for the job, is no longer the case - how generalized is that when hiring for city jobs, the merits of the individual are ignored? There are neigborhoods in the US where if a white man walks he will be murdered. There are some neighoods like this still in exsitence in the US where a blcak man would get the same treatment. In Oklahoma, they use to test for firefighter applicants and only hire from the middle scrores, to insure they get a mix of black and white. So the good citizens who may need help and expert lifesaving techniques are being helped by second rate firefighters who failed to perform well on a test that was easy to achieve 100% score. (I took the test) This is goverment funded discrimination. The smart and well studied individuals are at home unemployed. Discriminated against. Thus the assumtion that whites will score higher is a discrminatory practice if you intenntionally cut out this section of applicants. So US righteousness and Israeli righteousness have their flaws. Take a lesson from the poor black Ethiopians Jews here in Israel, make life wonderful by achieving love from G-d, family, and life in whatever your situation. Possesions and job titles dont bring happiness, that is a warped perception and at the base of the discimination arguments. Who gets what. Fact is life is not about social stature and jeolousy. Find G-d to be fullfilled, and at peace.