Will the War for Israel Now Become Religious for Both Sides?

[Bill Mattocks]

The ongoing war between Israelis and Palestinians has become a backdrop to more recent conflicts, which in many ways have had much more of a religious component than the Israeli / Palestinian conflict.

That may be changing, according to this news article from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8232340.stm

The rise of Israel's military rabbis

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.

Why does this matter? In the past, the struggle between the two was not based on religion but upon land and autonomy and power. Although Palestinians are primarily Muslim and Israelis are primarily Jewish, it was not (mostly) a religious struggle.

IF that changes, what will it mean for the peace process? What will it mean for US involvement? It was not so difficult to support a secular Israeli drive for security as a nation. Can we now support Israel if they declare that they are fighting a war of Good and Evil, with the Muslims cast as 'evil'?

I find this bit of news extremely interesting. Interested in all comments.

 

[Tez3]

A Rabbi isn't a priest or vicar, it's a teaching position although some become community leaders. Many Rabbis have day jobs as well as being a Rabbi so to find soldier Rabbi's wouldn't be unusual.
The Establishment here which includes the BBC has always been Arabist so I wouldn't put too much faith in this article.Newsnight is a programme of peoples views more than a factual news programme, this is Katya Adlers now expected view on things.
The reporter who although born here is German and worked in Austria for several years is not sympathic towards Israel and in fact doesn't speak Hebrew or Arabic. She's supposed to be the correspondent for Israel and Palestine but her stories are invariably about the things wrong with Israel.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

A Rabbi isn't a priest or vicar, it's a teaching position although some become community leaders. Many Rabbis have day jobs as well as being a Rabbi so to find soldier Rabbi's wouldn't be unusual.
The Establishment here which includes the BBC has always been Arabist so I wouldn't put too much faith in this article.Newsnight is a programme of peoples views more than a factual news programme, this is Katya Adlers now expected view on things.
The reporter who although born here is German and worked in Austria for several years is not sympathic towards Israel and in fact doesn't speak Hebrew or Arabic. She's supposed to be the correspondent for Israel and Palestine but her stories are invariably about the things wrong with Israel.

I appreciate that information, but I read this:

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.

Either that is an accurate quote or it is a lie. If it is a lie, then OK. If it is the truth, I don't care if it was reported by Joe Schitt the Ragman who speaks native Cockney Rhyming Slang and has a prediction towards torturing dogs with a fork, it's still disturbing news.

It is very good to consider the source, and I thank you for that insight. However, the quotes by themselves are disturbing, if accurate. If they're not truthful, then that's a different issue entirely. I shall seek confirmation from other news sources.

I say this only because in the USA, it's quite common these days to utterly dismiss a news story because "Oh, it's from the NYT, you know how THEY are," or "Oh, it's Fox News, well of course they would say that." Sure, news is biased, but direct quotes were either said or they were not. One must do one's due diligence and not blindly believe everything printed, but just because it comes from this agency or that reporter does not invalidate it, either.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Just FYI: A quick check of Google came up with this similar but not identical story from the AP:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iAdrn4Re_OMOkmtK-GML-YRSsyyQD9A42EO80

This from Haaretz:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1030558.html

Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0814/p10s01-wome.html

I won't say that this is proof of anything, but it does seem to indicate that it's not simply a slanted opinion-piece but actual news.

 

[Tez3]

The situation in the armed forces there hasn't changed, what's happened is someone has picked up on something that has always been ongoing...religious differences among Jews, we've always had rabbis who think they are going to make the walls of Jericho fall down again and we've got rabbis who refuse to acknowledge the existance of Israeleven though they live there, we also have every shade of opinion in between. It's what make Judaism so hard to understand by outsiders. Rabbis aren't all one denomination, they have as many different view as there are rabbis, for every one who likes to blow a rams horn there will be others who don't. Blowing a ram's horn something we actually do anyway it doesn't mean it's turning into a Holy War. All sorts of things are going on here and to assume one small thing is the whole would be a mistake, theres politicians involved, a hundred different types of Jewish belief plus a hundred or more different Rebbes. Don't forget if you ask ten Israelis for an opinion and you will get twelve replies...all different.