JERUSALEM -About 200 Israeli teenagers soon to be drafted sent a letter to Israel's defense minister on Thursday, saying they won't enforce any military orders to dismantle settlements in the West Bank because that violates Jewish law.
The threat is the latest sign of a growing tolerance for military insubordination in religious and nationalist circles, something that was unthinkable just a few years ago. The rebellion has been touched off by a recent Israeli government decision to slow Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.
Several influential rabbis have urged religious soldiers to violate orders to knock down unauthorized building.
Although insubordination still is not a widespread phenomenon, it has the military worried. Eager to quash a potential rebellion, it has punished defiant soldiers, issued stern warnings to rabbis who promote insubordination and expelled one seminary from a program that combines religious study and military service.
In Thursday's incident, the Israeli teenagers said their paramount loyalty is to Jewish law. Opponents of the settlement slowdown say Jewish law forbids the destruction of Jewish construction, even if it hasn't been unauthorized by the government. Orthodox Jews also believe that God promised the West Bank to the Jewish people in the bible.
"The way the government is acting, the freeze in the West Bank, and the use of violence to implement is very disrespectful toward the Bible," Hanani Lieberson, one of the teenagers who signed the letter, told Army Radio.
The letter urges that soldiers not be used to carry out anti-settlement orders.
There was no immediate comment from Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to slow construction in the West Bank has provoked a great furor in the largely religious settler community. Netanyahu enacted the limitations under U.S. pressure to try to entice Palestinians to resume peacemaking.
The Palestinians have refused to return to the negotiating table, saying the settlement restrictions are insufficient because they exclude east Jerusalem and 3,000 homes already being built in the West Bank.
The Palestinian claim all of the West Bank as part of a future state, with east Jerusalem as their capital.
They also think, that if reuters or AP won't carry it, it won't get out. They think everybody is stupid, well think again.
I had to google translate this:
Quote:
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has declared war on Christmas ornaments, which considers hurt the sensitivities of the population of the Jewish majority country, and recommends hotels and restaurants to remove them from public areas.
In what for many is the Holy Land, where Jesus took his first steps, he preached his message and was crucified, firs, balls, garlands, ribbons of color, nativity scenes and Santas that commemorate his birth, it seems that their days are numbered .
. "We think this is good advice for owners of hotels and entertainment venues to prevent inconvenience to many Jewish guests," he told Efe Rabbi Oded Weiner, CEO of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
According to Yediot, the Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem is also working to ensure that the traditional Christmas trees are not exposed in recreational areas, who bear the threat that withdraws the certificate of "kosher", ie to satisfy Jewish rules scrupulously.
This has joined the campaign launched last week by the Lobby for Jewish values, "which has distributed circulars condemning the celebration of Christmas and urged the public to boycott the restaurants and hotels to be carried away by these "stupid" Christian symbols.
http://translate.google.com/translat...ml&sl=es&tl=en
here is the original in Spanish
http://www.adn.es/internacional/2009...s-declara.htm
10:21AM Dec 23 2009
Most Jews have no intention of living in Zionist Occupied Palestine. It’s just meant to be the world headquarters for their Jew Empire.>>>>>>>>>Initop Replies: I'd love to answer you but I'm late for my world-domination meeting. Moron. :)
So drop the mask of civility.