may be you are a saint :) dear john, I read the evidence note, in detail sometime back, and I am convinced that Baruch Goldstein is a great jew, he is an inspiration unlike Osama Laden. Kind david murdered to take another mans wife but these days the world think he is a prophet king , still a characted in the Torah. If I can accept My ancestor King David, I can accept my jewish people the way they are, be it what ever you lable them -galut war mongers or otherwise. cheers:)

are you from telavive and it is not so far from hebron and if you want to know how he was killed please take a gun inter the mosque and kill 3o ones i know there were no weapones in the mosque it was only pots to put off fires or do you think it was a gun .. please another time do not aske such a stupid question as if you are in usa not telavive

the one whokill one innocent as if he kill all the people . in a mosque or in a street or in a bus but as iam not a jewish one i can not kill any one from enemy but i said the enemy deserve death in any place by any one even this one will be in hell . it is the feelings of the rabi and it is his saying .so this rabi is not more than any one like me but he is from the otherside from the enemy

...that you cannot be both a murderer and a saint. Unless you're a jihadist. I'm not clear on how the issue is "complicated" from a Jewish perspective.

the guy opened fire on a whole bunch of folks. he no matter on whom he fired was a murderer. He should have his name erased from the rolls of our country. he hid in the shadows of america but got bold the second they gave him a gun. anyone who thinks he is a saint or hero is as sick as he was!

It is possible that they were plotting a massacre, but I think that without serious heavy duty proof of this I will not believe it. On the other hand, being that all (99.99% of) Jews abhor the intentional killing of civilians, and that Baruch Goldstein was the only Jew to commit a terrorist act like this in all of history, I think that means that he was likely crazy. Perhaps their were pressures and influences that caused him to go off the brink, but that explanation does not justify his actions. PS The King David Hotel was taken over and used as the central military base of the British in Israel. Anyone living in a building that also serves as a military headquarters cannot expect that because they're there the building is off-bounds. The King David Hotel bombing was not the intentional killing of civilians. Also, a warning call was even given in advance, but the British ordered for no one to leave the building. The British were thus responsible for a much higher death toll than would have happened were it not for their mind boggling stupidity on gambling with people's lives that if nobody left then the resistance would not blow up the building.

The Merkaz Harav became one of the most influential religious centers in Israel to effect policy regarding the illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands. The notorious Israeli terrorist group Gush Emunim was founded within this Merkaz and called for settling the Jews on Palestinian land, again, a ‘gift from God’ to the Jews. In 1974 Shimon Peres (current Israeli president and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize) was Defense Minister of Israel at the time, which meant that the Occupied Palestinian Territories were under his watch. Under his command this terrorist movement was helped in acquiring land in the West bank through terror and harassment of the legitimate Palestinian owners to build illegal Jewish settlements throughout the West bank and Gaza. Peres called this policy “functional compromise” in order to receive the political support of the Gush Emunim and settler movements. It must be remembered that the influence of the settler movements in Israeli politics is by no means inconsequential. Rather, it is widespread through the many thousands of students who graduate from this Merkaz and others end up holding positions in government, military, academic, and many other facets of Israeli society. No Israeli government has been spared the wrath of this extremist movement whose influence is increasing day by day since 1974 up to the present and whose is one of “the State of Israel is the foundation upon which rests the Throne of God in this world”.

The manner in which young minds are shaped at the Yeshiva can be guessed from one of Rabbi Kook's spiritual pronouncements, that “The difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews – all of them in all different levels – is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle. Kook's classification of Palestinians as non-human allows the graduates of Mercaz HaRav to ignore those commandments that forbid stealing, murder and coveting.

Students from a Jewish religious school where a Palestinian militant killed eight planned a revenge attack against a senior Arab official affiliated with a Jerusalem mosque. The three students met at the seminary with two rabbis to discuss whether Jewish law would permit such an attack. One of the rabbis gave his blessing for the attack. An additional rabbi from a Tel Aviv suburb also gave his approval for the attack, the TV said. “Torah law is that you should respond,”

nationalistically motivated crime; meaning that nothing has to be done to prevent future alike one. Isn't the Jewish nation perpetual

To the editors: Please use greater discretion when writing headlines for the articles; although this headline was certainly sensational and caught my attention, it was misleading and did not represent R. Aviner's position accurately. I expect greater journalistic integrity from ynet news.

Barry Chamish in his book "Israel Betrayed" provides both speculation and evidence that Dr. Goldstein did not do precisely what some reports and news sources allege that he did. Chamish cites Abraham Yosef who did a close analysis of the Shamgar Commission Report, and who points out several discrepancies and pieces of evidence to indicate that 1) Dr. Goldstein was not the only armed person who used a weapon and 2)that he shot close to the ground to deter a rioting mob, not shooting to kill. I will point out that the incidence of Jewish doctors, especially religious Jewish doctors, running amok and spraying people with lethal gunfire is so limited and clearly out of the ordinary as to be highly questionable. The use of the word "saint" in the Ynet header is both misleading and offensive and the preferable word would probably be "tzaddik" meaning righteous person. Saint is a loose translation having too many Christian connotations. Further, if Ynet is going to piggyback on R Aviner's obvious popularity as a debate generator, judging from the two recent articles before this one and large number of postings, the reporter could at least come up with a piece that was researched and consisted of more than a few quotes with no context to speak of.

Dear Dani, It is not about who is right or wrong or who owns the land or who was there first, right??? I know 2 things there is a problem that needs to be solved. And revenge or in biblical terms an eye for an eye solves nothing and achieves nothing (60 years of war had proved that. I guess). I lived in the West Bank for a while I have family in Nablus or Shekem what ever you want to call it. Put your self in my place my family has been living there for the last 600 years doesn't this make them citizens?? And if you are going to say that Palis chose violence. Well my personal estimation is that 70% of Palestinians don't mind living with Jews and they just want to live a decent life. /Sam

If you look at the talkbacks above. You can see that a lots of people justify his actions. Same exact arguments that Palestinians justify suicide bomber... you see anything can be justified if you want to. I am sure a lots of average Germans found justifications for the holocost???!!! Both Palestinians and Israelis are trapped in an endless cycle that well end up badly if it is not stopped. /Sam

It appears that whoever translated this article for YNet has little knowledge of Jewish concepts or they would bot have chosen the word 'saint'. On the other hand, if Aviner had shred of integrity he would not have said what he did - even if the YNet report appears to have twisted his words. He should have realised beforehand that this could happen. But he should now definitely approach his psychiatrist with a view to changing his medication, that's for sure.

Rabbi Aviner has become like the Pope proclaiming faithful as saints

So that we can cast our lot in with disgusting people like this? I don't think so.

oh thats nothing i guess you havent heard of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ? Compared to him R aviner is small fry ! I made aliay years ago, you are right there is more hatred and intollernece from these religious fantatics here in Israel than anywhere. Better off in LA my friend.

You wrote: "...Those times were very disturbing and feelings ran very high, and I hold the Rabin government's indifference to the murder of Jews as directly responsible for Dr. Goldstein's actions" Following your logics nobody should complain against Palestinian suicide bombers or other terrorists since the times are tough and they act because the feelings run very high due to the occupation, right? If Rabin's "indifference" caused this massacre then you should only shut up when somebody tells us how our treatment of Palestinians cause terrorism.

You sometimes talk about people who need to take their pill's , i think . Does this not apply to those two ?

this is ynet at its worst, and you guys are fools for being twirled by it. they take a provocative word that contradicts the whole article and put it in a headline. then you guys, in your judgemental attitude, take the actions of a murderer and make a thesis out of it. there are countless souls who work towars a zionist vision, including reclaming hebron, without resorting to violence and know it is counter-productive. don't mar them by your arm-chair assumptions. get some more judaism in you while your at it.

This person is only a Rabbi. Not a leader or a respected person in the community. So what does it matter what he says. My neighbour says similar things, so what

....his nostrils look as if he just snorted something!

Goldstein was cracked over the head by a fire extinguisher hurled by someone in the crowd and then beaten lifeless.

This is what happens when the State of Israel allows Arabs to live in Israel. The Arabs blow up, and knife Jews in the streets. And fire thousands of rockets packet with nails to murder and disfigure Jews, Killing hundreds and hundreds of Jews over the years, and maiming and disfiguring many hundreds more. I blame Baruch's murder, and the murder of all the other Jews, by the hands of Arabs, on the State of Israel. Now, Israel is about to give the Arabs their own state, right inside the heart of biblical Israel. I will never visit Israel again for these reasons.

are you a psyciatrist do you know dr goldstein personally? did he ever tell you his plans for his actions and his reason for his action? the media said boruch was lynched-but here i saw someone commenting that he was shot. Arabs had planned a pogrom, dr goldstein as a resident knew very well as everyone there. did yigal amir kill rabin? media said he did, but everyone knew it was a set up. did osborne kill kennedy? the media said he did can a plane cause steel towers (the twin towers) to collapse? hell no the media shows a plane going through the building and the nose of the plane came out the other side (graphic set up, was not real. there was no plane it was all media prpoganda