Biar benar....dia pun nak berjihad..

David Ben Gurion (First Prime Minister of Israel) publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948



The rise of Israel's military rabbis Katya Adler
BBC Newsnight, Israel

Israel's army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are
now filling with those who believe Israel's wars are "God's wars".
Military rabbis are
becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new
army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite.
They graduate from officer's school and operate closely
with military commanders. One of their main duties is to boost
soldiers' morale and drive, even on the front line.
This has caused quite some controversy in Israel. Should military
motivation come from men of God, or from a belief in the state of
Israel and keeping it safe?
The military rabbis rose to prominence during Israel's invasion of Gaza earlier this year.
Some of their activities raised troubling questions about political-religious influence in the military.
Gal Einav, a non-religious soldier said there was wall-to-wall
religious rhetoric in the base, the barracks and on the battlefield.
As soon as soldiers signed for their rifles, he said, they were given a book of psalms.
And, as his company headed in to Gaza, he told me, they were flanked by
a civilian rabbi on one side and a military rabbi on the other:
"It felt like a religious war. Like a crusade. It
disturbed me. Religion and the army should be completely separate," he
said.
'Sons of light'
But military rabbis, like Lieutenant Shmuel Kaufman, welcome the changes.
In previous wars rabbis had to stay far from the front, he says. In Gaza, they were ordered to accompany the fighters.
“ Our job was to boost the fighting spirit of the soldiers. The eternal
Jewish spirit from Bible times to the coming of the Messiah ”
Rabbi Kaufman
"Our job was to boost the fighting spirit of the soldiers. The eternal
Jewish spirit from Bible times to the coming of the Messiah."
Before his unit went in to Gaza, Rabbi Kaufman said
their commander told him to blow the ram's horn: "Like (biblical)
Joshua when he conquered the land of Israel. It makes the war holier."
Rabbis handed out hundreds of religious pamphlets during the Gaza war.
When they came to light, they caused huge controversy in Israel. Some
leaflets called Israeli soldiers the "sons of light" and Palestinians,
the "sons of darkness".
Others compared the Palestinians to the Philistines, the bitter biblical enemy of the Jewish people.
Israel's military has distanced itself from the publications, but they carried the army's official stamp.
Still, army leaders insist their rabbis respect military ethics and put
their private convictions aside. They say the same about the new wave
of nationalist religious solders joining Israel's fighting forces.
'Religious duty'
I visited an orthodox Jewish seminary near Hebron in the West Bank. It
is one of an increasing number of religious schools that encourage
taking the Jewish Bible to the battlefield.
All students at the seminary choose to serve in Israel's combat units
while statistics suggest less ideologically- driven Israelis are
avoiding them. This has made headline news in Israel.
The 19-year-olds I spoke to at the seminary told me
religious soldiers like them can make the army behave better and become
"more moral".
They believe it is their religious duty to protect the
citizens of Israel, the Jewish state. The Lord commands it, they said.
The students' seminary is built in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.
If President Barack Obama gets his way, Israel will eventually evacuate most settlements.
They are illegal under international law and Palestinians claim the
territory as part of their future state. But for the religious soldiers
the West Bank is part of land, given to the Jews by God.
Gal Einav thinks many soldiers will refuse to close settlements down.
The settlement issue could well tear the army apart, he told me, adding
that most of his officers are settlers these days.
"If it comes to a clash between political orders from
Israel's government and a contradictory message from the rabbis,
settlers and religious right-wing soldiers will follow the rabbis," he
said.
Threat of 'Jihad'
Israel's military leaders strongly disagree.
Brigadier General Eli Shermeister is the army's chief education officer.
He admits some mistakes were made in the past but says the right balance has now been found with the military rabbis.
He insists Israel's military commanders are the only ones in charge of the soldiers' spirit.
"The moral code of the Israel's army is clear. We judge soldiers in the
light of this code. Nobody can create another moral code. [Certainly]
not a religious one."
But Brig Gen Shermeister' s predecessor describes what he sees as clear and worrying changes within the military.
According to Reserve Gen Nehemia Dagan, what is happening in the army
is far more dangerous than most Israelis realise: "We (soldiers) used
to be able to put aside our own ideas in order to do what we had to do.
It didn't matter if we were religious or from a kibbutz. But that's not
the case anymore.
"The morals of the battlefield cannot come from a
religious authority. Once it does, it's Jihad. I know people will not
like that word but that's what it is, Holy War. And once it's Holy War
there are no limits."
Many religious Jews object to the type of preaching heard during Israel's recent Gaza operation.
They say it perverts the true teachings of Judaism as well as contradicts Israel's military code.
Day to day, Israel's army mainly operates in civilian areas - in Gaza, the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
Influences Israeli soldiers are exposed to are extremely significant.
The way they view Palestinians who live here is likely to affect the way they use their power and their weapons.
Watch Katya Adler's film on rabbis in the Israeli army on Newsnight on
Monday 7 September 2009 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, then afterwards on the
Newsnight website.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/pr/fr/ -/2/hi/programme s/newsnight/ 8232340.stm