What are Feeds?
Israel’s leading Rabbis rally against further disengagement
March 31, 2006
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - One day following Israel’s elections, the Rabbinical Congress for Peace under the direction of Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky held an emergency conference in Jerusalem, Israel. Their main agenda and focus of the gathering was to voice a resounding “No” to further withdrawal from Israeli land.
“Tell the government to stop! … Let an outcry be heard so that the heroes risking their lives and fortunes in Israel will take heart,” stated a press release from the Rabbinical Congress and signed by Rabbi Avrohom Freidman, a member of The Council of Torah Sages.
In a gathering of Rabbis from all over the world, including the former Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Mordechai Eliyahu and a Nobel Prize laureate Israel Aumann, the religious leadership of Israel raised a unified voice warning the Israeli government that they would no longer keep silent while the government is planning to give away parts of Judea and Samaria. The Rabbinical Congress also called on all political parties not to join any coalition that intends to withdraw from any part of Israel saying that such a move would not contribute to peace, but would only bring further violence and bloodshed to Israeli citizens.
The Rabbinical Congress states that the Israeli government is currently planning to destroy Jewish communities that are more than three decades old, tear down Rabbinical schools which teach the Torah, close businesses and corporations that currently employ thousands of Israelis, and even forfeit cemeteries where terror victims lie to the very people who caused their deaths. These Rabbis conclude that in so doing the Israeli government would be conceding defeat and handing the terrorists a victory which they could dance in the street to celebrate.
The Rabbinical Congress for Peace distributed and adopted the following six resolutions:
“Tell the government to stop! … Let an outcry be heard so that the heroes risking their lives and fortunes in Israel will take heart,” stated a press release from the Rabbinical Congress and signed by Rabbi Avrohom Freidman, a member of The Council of Torah Sages.
In a gathering of Rabbis from all over the world, including the former Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Mordechai Eliyahu and a Nobel Prize laureate Israel Aumann, the religious leadership of Israel raised a unified voice warning the Israeli government that they would no longer keep silent while the government is planning to give away parts of Judea and Samaria. The Rabbinical Congress also called on all political parties not to join any coalition that intends to withdraw from any part of Israel saying that such a move would not contribute to peace, but would only bring further violence and bloodshed to Israeli citizens.
The Rabbinical Congress states that the Israeli government is currently planning to destroy Jewish communities that are more than three decades old, tear down Rabbinical schools which teach the Torah, close businesses and corporations that currently employ thousands of Israelis, and even forfeit cemeteries where terror victims lie to the very people who caused their deaths. These Rabbis conclude that in so doing the Israeli government would be conceding defeat and handing the terrorists a victory which they could dance in the street to celebrate.
The Rabbinical Congress for Peace distributed and adopted the following six resolutions:
- The Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) hereby declares that peace in the region cannot and will not be attained by initiating, proposing or even talking about withdrawal from any part of Judea and Samaria. Rather the opposite is true; such an approach will only lead to increased bloodshed and instability in the region. As determined in the Jewish code of Law (Orach Chaim chapter 329)
- The RCP is shocked to see that after the thousands terror victims brought upon Israel as a result of the disastrous Oslo process, and the increased terror alerts throughout Israel and daily rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel, precipitated by the withdrawal from Gaza, that there are still those who delude themselves into thinking that by further withdrawal from any part of Judea and Samaria peace will reign in the region.
- The RCP wishes to remind everyone of the euphoria and elation that prevailed after the Munich pact. We dare not forget what followed.
- The RCP will continue to sound the alarm and warn of the dangerous consequences the government’s withdrawal policy will lead to.
- The RCP again calls on all parties from the Right and Left of the political spectrum to immediately abandon its concessionary psychology and not to form or join any coalition that agrees to withdraw from any part of Judea and Samaria.
- All the above is stated out of love of every Jew and concern for the safety and well-being of every Jew and non-Jew in Israel and in no way should be construed as an abuse of office. No person, especially a Rabbi, a leader of a community, is allowed to remain silent in a matter of life or death and not to warn of the danger. To do so the rabbi would be committing a crime and there could be no greater abuse of office than that.
A representative of Chairman Gerlitzky stated that Israel is not giving away land as a result of pressure from the United States, but that the Israeli government is the one applying pressure to the international community in order to assert their desire for peace. He further added that the Israeli leadership suffers from an inferiority complex in which public opinion and regional pressure sways the decision process.
The Rabbinical Congress is sending a clear message that they will not be supportive of any political coalition that supports further disengagement. They called for every Israeli citizen whether politician, Rabbi, or settler to let their voice be heard and stand together for the preservation of the land of Israel. The Chairman of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace said that true peace will only come by standing strong and not giving away even one more inch of land.
The Rabbinical Congress is sending a clear message that they will not be supportive of any political coalition that supports further disengagement. They called for every Israeli citizen whether politician, Rabbi, or settler to let their voice be heard and stand together for the preservation of the land of Israel. The Chairman of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace said that true peace will only come by standing strong and not giving away even one more inch of land.
