JEWISH JIHAD (26 Aug 2005)

(This is a re-post from the former Jewish Jihad. )

26 August 2005

A Lesson in Holding Onto the Land

"Speaking at the Hassan Bek mosque in Jaffa ..., [Sheik Raad] Salah warned Israel his followers would not leave the country easily. Anyone who thinks they can get us to leave our land had better prepare a million coffins...." (Ynet)

Rabbi Kook on ceding the Land of Israel :

"The obligation of `you shall inherit the land and settle it' is that the land should be in our hands, and we should not abandon it to any other nation," Kook said. "This is a positive commandment from the Torah, clear and absolute, applying to all of Israel: that for this land, throughout its borders, we are obligated to give up our lives. If the moment of compulsion comes, whether from non-Jews or, God forbid, from Jews - because of political errors and errors of judgment - we are all obligated to die rather than violate [this commandment].

"Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights - these will not go without war," he continued. "Someone asked me if I want to start a civil war. I won't get into terminology, and I won't put a name to this matter, but this is a fact: It will not go, it will not pass without a war. Over our bodies and our limbs. All of us. The non-Jews will not bring it about, nor will our own political messes. Under no circumstances in the world." (Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook)

9 Dec 2008 update: Further on in this article we find the following:

" Rabbi Eliezer Melamed of Har Bracha, told Haaretz that the issue of Kook's speech also arose before the evacuation of Yamit, in Sinai. "But I don't know a single rabbi who believes that Rabbi Kook's intent was that we should wage a civil war over the land of Israel...

Another rabbi, who asked to remain anonymous, said that there are people "on the fringes" who take Kook's words literally, but insisted that this is an incorrect interpretation....."

It's something we must think deeply about and review in light of our long and illustrious history, especially with Hanukah approaching.

"Another leading student of Kook's, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Beit El, recently published a strict prohibition against violence during the evacuation, in a circular distributed throughout the settlements. "This army is our army, and this police force is our police force," he wrote. "They are Jews, not Britons. They are our brothers, even if they are coming to carry out an order that should not have been given ... Don't lift a hand, don't insult, don't hate. Even in difficult situations, we will adhere to love for all Israel... We will not even shove a soldier. We will embrace him."

This, my friends, is the voice of the Erev Rav. How piously he shuns "hatred" and embraces "love." What a sham!