Like I said in my earlier comment, this is an attempt to change the rules of war by suppressing freedom of speech.. Ted Belman
Op-ed: Rabbi Lior’s arrest had nothing to do with rule of law, was meant to convey message
Benny Katzover, YNET
The affair involving the arrest and interrogation of Rabbi Dov Lior has nothing to do with matters of law and order. The same was true when Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, who wrote the “King’s Torah” book, was cuffed by police. Both moves were meant to humiliate the rabbis rather than to enforce the law.
After all, there was no real need to interrogate Rabbi Lior. His words in the book are open and he does not deny writing them. Hence, any legal decision regarding his actions can be taken without him present. The demand to probe him, at a police station of all places, was a belligerent provocation by Attorney Shai Nitzan, who for years now has been leading a McCarthy-like hunt against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria.
Nitzan, Israel’s deputy state prosecutor, was tasked with enforcing the law among “the settlers” during the era of leftist governments here – to that end, a committee was established headed by him and featuring various officials, including the Shin Bet chief, the Civil Administration head and the police chief. The current government continued the tradition and allows this committee to function, even though its very existence is not quite a democratic act.
Shai Nitzan himself is the graduate of a high school yeshiva, yet he was taken captive by the school of thought stressing the rule of law’s supremacy. As a man of Jewish tradition he feels he must, more than others, prove that the law is above all else.
After all, he knows that Rabbi Shapira’s “King’s Torah” book calls for the killing of non-Jewish civilians only when they hide terrorists, a move that was accepted by the IDF for many years before the High Court banned it. What was the ruling based on? The Court assumed authority and made the ruling without amending the law, thereby risking the lives of IDF soldiers instead of the lives of enemy civilians.
Nitzan also knows that the book in question calls for adopting the “neighbor procedure” – that is, sending Arab neighbors to the door of a wanted terrorist instead of risking the lives of IDF troops. Here too the High Court assumed the authority to decide to endanger the lives of IDF soldiers instead of the terrorist’s neighbors.
Nitzan also knows that Rabbi Lior is a great religious ruler and that by endorsing the book he confirmed that the writer is worthy and that the book was written in line with the spirit of Judaism and Jewish Law. Hence, utilizing the police in this matter had a clear objective: No one in the country should dare give Jewish fundamentals precedence over the laws of the High Court.
This was done while on the horizon we see the possibility that the IDF will again be utilized to harm settlers and raze communities, and again we may see rabbis urging soldiers not to follow such orders.
The writer is the chairman of the Samaria settlers committee
“The demand to probe him, at a police station of all places, was a belligerent provocation by Attorney Shai Nitzan , who for years now has been leading a McCarthy-like hunt against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria”
That is absolutely right, but with one exeption: instead of “Attorney Shai Nitzan”, should be: “Israel Goverment and personaly it’s PM” Shai is just pakid.
Contrary to media reports, demonstrators were not protesting the arrest. Rabbi Lior was released within an hour as there was really nothing to question him about; the police were merely harassing him.
The protests centered around the highly unequal application of law on Jews and Arabs: while right-wing Jews are routinely investigated on spurious charges of incitement, no similar charges are brought against Israeli Arabs, including their politicians and preachers.
Indeed, no charges were ever filed against left-wing Jews for incitement against settlers, which sometimes include open calls to kill them.
National Union MK threatens revenge after rabbi arrested for incitement
Yaakov Katz says he believes Netanyahu is personally responsible for the arrest earlier in the week of Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior.
Blah Blah Blah Blah!!!!
Eighty percent of American Jews vote for Obama?
Right wing Israelis like to criticize American Jews because 80% vote for Obama. But that 80% represents Conservative and Reform American “Jews” who are in the process of assimilation. They do not believe in HaShem; they do not believe in Judaism, and they will soon evaporate.
Contrast this with “Jewish” Israel: a solid third there votes left and far left. They not only do not believe in Judaism, they no longer believe in Jewish Israel at all. They agree with the liberal gentiles, that Jewish Israel is illegitimate and should be returned to its “rightful owners”, the savage, primitive Jew-hating palestinian muslims. These leftist Israeli “Jews” have produced endless Jew-hating Jews: HaAretz, spies against the IDF (Anat Kam), the Israeli Supreme Court, tenured professors at Israeli universities (state funded) screaming for boycotts against Israel, etc.
The current Israeli government claims to be “Jewish”. Yet it operates without a constitution and without regional elections. It tears down Jewish settlements while turning a blind eye to massive illegal arab construction. It is a police state which arrests holy Jewish rabbis for speaking Words of Torah, while allowing muslim Knesset members to spew Jew-hatred.
So, who are the real enemies of Ahm Yisrael?
Israel needs a “Mahapach”. Then the time will come to bring the internal enemies of the people to justice.
Knit, Madam Defarge, knit!
Shai Nitzan is never going to be fired. He has his defenders in Israel’s leftist media and academia. Besides that, the settlers count for nothing. They have no real friends in high places.