Eitan Fried
Etrog News
14 December 09
After Barak announced yesterday on the cancellation of the army arrangement with the Har Bracha Hesder yeshiva, in lieu of the failure of Rosh Yeshiva Eliezer Melamed to appear for a "hearing" scheduled by the Minister of Defence, a letter signed by 100 graduates of Har Bracha was sent to the IDF Chief of General Staff. The letter stated: "If the Hesder is cancelled, reserve duty will also be cancelled. The IDF is showing us the way out, so we will leave on our own accord."
After the dramatic occurrence yesterday, when Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that the arrangement between the IDF and Yeshivat Har Bracha would be discontinued, all because the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, didn't show up for a "hearing" scheduled by Barak – the crisis has reached a new height this morning. A harsh letter, signed by 100 graduates and students of the Har Bracha yeshiva, as well as residents of "Har Bracha", was sent to the IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi. The letter informs Ashkenazi in no uncertain terms that if the hesder arrangement is discontinues – then they will not report for reserve duty.
"We are greatly sorrowed by statements we have recently been hearing, made by the leaders of the IDF and the decision makers in the Defense ministry. Statements that endanger the status of the IDF, and are causing cracks in the fighting spirit and motivation among the soldiers. The statements are a direct threat to the army," wrote graduates of "Har Bracha" in their letter to the Chief of Staff.
"We enlisted in the army with a sense of devotion to our people and our land, and many of us battled in the second Lebonese war and in the Cast Lead operation. We were prepared to fulfill every mission to the best of our abilities, and even to give up our lives, if that became necessary. Our roshei yeshivos taught us to be the first, and the best, in our efforts to defend the State of Israel. We were educated at the feet of our roshei yeshivos, and thus saw our mandatory and reserve service in the army as a holy mission."
The letter continued, "In the last few days, the Hesder yeshivos have been pushed out of their respected place in the army. If in fact the IDF and the government follow through with their decision, we interpret that to mean that the IDF is rejecting us as fighters in its service, that the IDF doesn't want us, is throwing us out."
The graduates of the yeshiva conclude the letter with a concrete threat: "We only enlisted in the army and continued to report for reserve duty because of the education we received in the yeshiva. If the army is now choosing to show our yeshiva the door, then with heavy hearts we have no choice but to complete the process. Therefore, if the army fulfills its threat, then we will unfortunately no longer consider ourselves to be a part of the army that has rejected us."
(Continue reading)
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An open letter by a student of Yeshivat Hesder Petach Tikva:
ReplyDeletehttp://michaelmakovi.blogspot.com/2009/12/being-jailed-for-idf-conscientious.html
TY for the link
ReplyDeleteTohar ha-Neshek or "Purity of Arms" (Morality in Warfare) - "The soldier shall make use of his weaponry and power only for the fulfillment of the mission and solely to the extent required; he will maintain his humanity even in combat. The soldier shall not employ his weaponry and power in order to harm non-combatants or prisoners of war, and shall do all he can to avoid harming their lives, body, honor and property." - The Spirit of the IDF (the IDF's official doctrine of ethics)
ReplyDeleteHow utterly SHAMEFUL that our soldiers would be used to break G-d's commandment to build the land!
"Once an eagle, stricken with a dart, said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
"With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten." - Aeschylus
Kol ha-Kavod to the Hesder Yeshiva students; wishing our brave giborim chazak v'amatz!
Ehud Barak was not democratically elected to be Chief Defense Minister. He was appointed to appease Labor party, which is a dead party at the polls. And with his history of appeasement of terror, and his campaign to leave southern Lebanon, he was the worst possible choice for this position, in my opinion. Aside from that is the fact that he simply does not understand what to do in a war.
ReplyDeleteHe is the chief of the force to surrender Israel to her enemies, and I hope that other people will wake up and fix the situation before we lose the state to the Arab enemies and their allies.