There's no place like home: in praise of the pro-Zionist, pro-Torah rabbis and soldiers

Heroes. גבורים.

It isn't surprising that Ehud Barak doesn't know a hero when he sees one, or that he would take such pleasure in a group of them being imprisoned for, say, 28 days.

That's because Barak has it backwards; he suffers from a sort of historical dyslexia.

I'm talking, of course, about the 12 IDF soldiers, many of whom were sentenced to 28 days in prison and dismissed from their combat units, who refused to assist in the forced "evacuation" of two families from the Hebron marketplace.

The soldiers followed their moral compass to their rabbi, who confirmed what they had already suspected: the mission, to help force Jews — at gunpoint, if need be — from their God-given (and legal) homeland, was just plain wrong.

The fact that the soldiers consulted their rabbi set off a firestorm of anti-religious sentiment in the government that would make any atheist blush. Some said the supporting rabbis should be imprisoned, too; some said the military establishment should end its support for the Hesder program; and some said religious Jews should be scattered among the rest of the IDF units so they could not undermine its missions.

While I am certainly not condoning mass insubordination in the IDF, some of the statements made by members of the government and media show just how little they know about Israeli (and Jewish) history.

The demand made by Zehava Gal-On (Meretz Party) that Hesder yeshivot be immediately dismantled showed her complete disregard for the Torah. In the Talmud (that's Torah, too, Zehava!) we learn repeatedly that the protectors of the Land of Israel and its people are first and foremost its Torah scholars — those who have dedicated their lives to spiritual pursuits. So a yeshiva that teaches the Torah lifestyle and also enables its students to serve in the military is the best of both worlds: the physical and spiritual defense — of the highest level and merit — of the Jewish State.

Likewise, Knesset Education Committee chairman Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad), apparently with a straight face, claimed that "the soldiers, parents, and rabbis are cynically using the Torah for political aims."

Melchior, of course, was using the age-old "I'm rubber and you're glue" defense. The soldiers, parents, and rabbis involved in the incident were the only ones not performing political grandstanding. They were actually using the Torah for Torah. The government, now apparently in the business of appeasing and defending the Arabs who murdered Hebron Jews less than 80 years ago and stole their land, was willing to offer Jewish humiliation if it helped them obtain some political goodwill. Of course, it will not, but that is hardly the point.

OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni, who ordered the prison terms and dismissals, said the soldiers "undermined the basic foundations of the IDF."

This lie — along with the claim made by some in the public that just as Left-leaning soldiers cannot refuse to serve in the territories, so, too, Right-thinking soldiers may not refuse to evacuate Jews from those same territories — must be dealt with immediately and severely.

You see, this is where the tower of babble run by Barak has it backwards. Jews came to pre-state Israel to live in their biblical homeland, and risked their lives to do so. They often came with nothing, and at times had virtually no protection whatsoever from the Arabs who not only supported Hitler's game plan, but attempted to make pre-state Israel Judenrein before Hitler tried it in Germany.

At first, these idealistic, heroic Jews didn't live in Israel because they had the protection of a fierce military establishment, they lived there despite the lack of any such protection. They essentially created a state; they formed schools, built hospitals, even learned to farm the desert.

Through it all, the pioneers were routinely victimized by violent anti-Semitic pogroms, had their land taken from them (now that it was actually, thanks to them, worth something), and, through inspiring self-sacrifice, helped found the State of Israel.

Then came the brave pre-state soldiers followed by the Israel Defense Forces. To protect them. To serve them. To safeguard the Zionists.

Refusing to serve in any military operations in the territories cannot be lumped into one category; policing terrorist breeding grounds cannot — MUST not — be compared to removing fellow Jews from their homes at gunpoint.

And it is the height of stupidity and arrogance for Barak to pretend that what he ordered the soldiers to do is anything like what Ariel Sharon ordered during the disengagement from Gaza.
While Sharon's disengagement plan certainly appears to be nothing short of a complete and total disaster, just like everything Barak has ever laid his hands on, the similarities end there.

Because in Judaism, intentions count for something. Sharon's intentions were to protect the Jews of Gaza and the Negev, just like when Sharon recommended that, during peace negotiations with Egypt, the government order the removal of Jewish settlements in Sharm al Sheik. And by the way, it is now up to Barak, as defense minister, to carry out Sharon's plan and protect the Jews of Sderot and other communities within missile range of Gaza. He's really doing a hell of a job, isn't he?

But just who is Barak protecting in Hebron? Himself? Maybe. Jews? Absolutely not. Arabs living on stolen land? Indeed.

While Arik Sharon's policies may have failed, his heart was heavy with the suffering of his people. Barak can better relate to the Tin Man, since both are in need of any heart at all.

Barak is also currently holding the nation hostage; the people have no confidence in this government, and would much prefer new elections, and Barak is the only person who can bring those about, by leading Labor out of this coalition.

But Barak is afraid to do so, because he plans to run for Prime Minister and fears his likely opponent, Binyamin Netanyahu. I guess that makes him more like the Cowardly Lion.

Additionally, while Bibi is campaigning by presenting education and economic plans, leading the Western charge to divest from Iran, and meeting with Tony Blair and opposition leadership in Syria, Barak is campaigning by telling people that he is, to be sure, not Bibi. That makes Barak sound like the Scarecrow, in desperate need of a brain.

The rest of us hope to be more like Dorothy, who wakes up to the comical realization that it was all just a frightening dream.

Until then, maybe we could all benefit by listening to those darn Jew-loving rabbis more often.

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that I haven't made myself crystal clear about something here, and that has led to some confusion about my point.

I absolutely support the soldiers' punishment. I don't want them receiving any special treatment from the IDF. There would be nothing heroic about what they did if such missions were voluntary. But knowing the harsh punishment that would come their way if they followed through on their threats to refuse their orders, they still consulted their rabbi and did the right thing.
For that, they deserve our praise.

It is the punishment that causes the concerns of the government — that soldiers will randomly refuse orders — to ring hollow, not least because the threats of punishment, both here in Hebron and in Gaza, were enough to prevent mass insubordination in both cases, despite the threat of such action.

{If anyone wants to know what's really hurting the IDF, they should read the Jerusalem Post's article on Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi's attempts to reform the army. It seems Ashkenazi is the right man for the job, though one of the problems he's dealing with seems to be (though clearly not the largest problem, to be fair) the deterioration of troops' morale after the disengagement from Gaza, and others like it, like Hebron.}

The soldiers should follow through on their threats to refuse to march Jews out of their homes, just as the IDF brass should follow through on their threats to punish those soldiers.

Of course, we can't expect such consistent honesty from government officials like Barak, but we can and should expect it from the IDF, the world's most moral army.