I am a staunch secularist,; i believe that Israel, like all other countries must be ruled by people accountable to earthly law first and heavenly law second That having been said you cannot impugn Melamed and the soldiers in question for following their conscience int his protest; they did not desert their posts, they simply issued a statement. There is of course a great deal of weight behind the argument that such protests have no place in the army, that soldiers must follow their comanders unquestioningly or the army collapses. But if the army turns on the soldiers the results will be no better than if the soldiers turn on the army. The national religious, particularly the settlers form the bulk of the IDF's elite combat infantry; they are the most patriotic and highly motivated soldiers in the IDF, and because the leftist secular population is prone to draft-dodging they are also simply the IDF's main pool of man-power. Without them there will be no IDF, and forcing them to silently turn their guns on their own neighbors will, at best, shatter the morale and effectiveness of the army. At worst it will propt them to join the leftists in dodging military service, which is exactly what this whole confrontation is doing, and that will simply decimate the IDF in terms of manpower.

to plead for the Israelites so that they may serve their G-d, the Pharao made it much more difficult for the Israelites. The Pharao said: "The Israelites can no longer have it all while spitting in our face."

The party's just beginning. The Rabbis will be around long after these pathetic politicians and their media lackeys are history.

This writer is your typical Hellenist heretic, who hates Judaism, Rabbis and the Torah.

Its about time!!!

Oh dear Alex, Religious Soldiers have been spitting in your face? My my, we'll just see who is the first to come crawling back to whom when Barak realises he's left with the seculars and their refusnik teachers in Tel Aviv U. Your article makes a mockery of Zionism. Shame on YNet for posting this virulent drivel.

Where is your outcry to the army while it sends officers to Tel Aviv University, an institution whose professors often equates the IDF to nazis. Or guests on Army radio who often do the same? hypocrite

IMO, it is not the rabbi's place to cause soldiers to disobey orders, no matter what blemishes and faults the IDF has. If all the Hesder yeshivas decide 'we are all har Bracha' , then they will be playing right into Labor's hands and Hesder will be no more, resulting in a zero right wing orthodox presence in the IDF. Is that what these Guardians of Zion really want?

your next article will be about how the charadim don't serve in the IDF, right? How pathetic.

the left is the minority and cant beat the majority!

good show ,at last some one has the guts to stand up against the settler movement and the religious right

Alex Fishman = Mitiaven

indictments against organizations that support a Rabbi with a different opinion than yours is anti democratic

Some of our finest soldiers are in hesder yeshivas, and they continue to serve in the reserves long after they finish their official stint in the army. The writer of this article is clearly biased, anti-religious and short-sighted. Far from the yeshivas not surviving without the army, the army will lose some of its best soldiers in the long term with far fewer religious men serving, and the security of us all will be affected.for the worse. With regard to insubordination, while discipline is very important, the bottom line is that no-one can expect a soldier, or any human being with any kind of conscience, to commit clearly immoral acts against their fellow Jews that flagrantly violate the Torah which is actually designed to protect and to respect the well-being of us all (how well does the writer of this article really know what Judaism actually teaches?).

About time the law applies to all. It is very unfair to use a religious excuse not to help defend your country. There are smartypants who convert to Judaism, marry an orthodox maidele just to receive their monthly paycheck. All this while the average Israeli has to work and serve. The Religious has no excuse to profit from the hard work of others especially the product they sell are based on fiction instead of historic facts.

refusniks on the left, than you can complain about rabbis expressing thier opinion. until then if you would like all the hesder yeshivas to turn into charedi yeshivas where the talmid only learn, the loss is not only yours but all of israel as well.

So why does Barak yield so much power ??? It is time afor a new Likud leader. looks like Netanyahoo had 2 chances and botched up both times. The man is a coward time to get rid of him

Fishman is totally out to lunch with this ridiculous article. Israel never agreed with the settlement freeze. Israel resoundingly rejected settlement freezes and the monstrous Two State Final Solution in the election. That is why settlement hating Labor and Meretz Parties are on political life support. The settlement freeze is 100% undemocratic. Nor was the IDF founded to drive good Jews from their homes. The IDF was founded for the exact opposite reason.

religious boys. Spitting in the face? hello? the left has doen nothing but spit on Judiams and the Torah since day 1 kidnapped religious yemenite arab Jewish children created the FUBAR situation we are now in. If anything some real jewish leadership would save us, instead of a circumcised atheist.

One of the best Israeli movies I've seen is "Time of Favor". (The other is "Beaufort".) It makes clear, as in an encounter between a "hesder" soldier and his secular counterpart, the different attitudes they bring to their duty. In reality, soldiers from the religious zionist streams are more motivated because they know what they're fighting for. Soldiers reared in the post-Zionist milieu - assuming they serve at all - are very different creatures. If Israel is to go against Hamas or Hizbullah, your motivation best be better than theirs.

that is that Barak either resigns or is forced out of office. His incompetency as Prime Minister, Defense Minister etc. have done more harm to Israel than anything Rabbi Melamed could have done. Israel needs more people like Rabbi Melamed who are honest and care for all Jews than corrupt politicians from with dangerous views.

Ehud Barak is punishing a rabbi for expressing a religious opinion. This is religious persecution, pure and simple. In a few years, maybe sooner, a new Knesset will be elected. Rabbi Melamed's proper Torah perspective will outlast any political stunt.

Alex Fishman spits in the face of the IDF finest, the most dedicated soldiers of the elite units. The hate is so intense, they first complain about the "haredi" who do not serve, then they complain about the hesder who do serve, but answer to a higher authority than "the State." The incident in Moldova proves: Just as much as Alex Fishman hates the religious Jews (haredi and dati leumi) that is just how much the non-Jews hate all Jews, including Alex Fishman.

best fighters on earth for you. or go against your own heritage and people and bring trouble on you and weaken yourself to the many outer enemies. this man here seems to prefer expelling jews and weakening the jewish state.

There's an awful lot of vitriol being spewed here at a group who constitutes an extremely disproportionate number of combat officers. I wonder if Mr. Fishman has ever vented such anger at the leftists who encourage draft dodging.

It seems that this reporter has forgotten who exactly volunteers to fight in the front line infantry apart from the Hesder solders? Tel-Avivans who would rather live in USA or maybe the Russians or Ethiopians who don't feel the slightest bit of passion and certainly not ready to die for the country. The way to have it all is the best way for the IDF, keeping your head balanced not secular but not Yeshivish enough to not want to fight but passionate enough to die on the battlefield. Who else is there? Please can someone tell me. The country in it crusade to be as secular as possible has dried up all religious and nationalistic passion from the majority of the population, why are there such extremes in the country if not because of the need for an outlet of some kind of channel for passion that the country refuses to give.

Agreed 100%. Soldiers are NOT robots, and they aren't supposed to be. You can't ask soldiers, willing to die for their people and their land, to act against the people they are supposed to protect. Israel is going down a dangerous path by requiring soldiers to act politically. Recruit another force that can be responsible for evicting Jews and enforcing politically motivated policies. Don't use the IDF. Israel will suffer in the long run if it insists on going down this path.

Dear Mr. Fishman: It would do you some good to attend Rabbi Melamed's Yeshiva. for a period of time. It is a shame that your lack of knowledge of Torah is evident by this article.

..."Stand firm, fear nothing Rabbi Melamed had several opportunities to withdraw from this confrontation, yet what we saw was an embarrassing escalation by an arrogant rabbi who fails to understand where he lives, what is democracy, and who pays for the bread he eats for breakfast. It was the arrogance of a man who is certain he is above the law and who has no respect for the government; in fact, he has no respect for anything. " That sounds suspiciously just like nearly the entire world feels about Israel and Bibi (or Olmert before him, and Sharon before him). Just in the past several months Israeli officials have gone out of their way to insult and denounce countless other countries and politicians and heads of state. No one has been unscathed. The EU has felt Israel's wrath, so has President Obama, Britain, Sweden, Turkey, France, Germany, all the Arab states, Venezuela, Brazil - mostly fiends, some perceived enemies, but none the less, Israel itself has got in this mess with the world. Not the other way around. The Internet and satellite TV replaced hasbara because now there is no lag time. Hasbara has to come, like vaseline, *before* the news of the latest atrocity comes out, not after it's been plastered on YouTube. And that is no longer possible. If it ever really was.

At least a 10 year sentence he can join his friends from Shas where he can be assured of 3 kosher meals a day !