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4 comments

1
Nyet  Aug 7, 2015 • 4:16:48am

Kahane’s seed. A poisonous fruit of a neo-fascist tree.

It is notable that he’s primarily a religious nationalist, not a “state” nationalist (of whom there is also no lack).

nytimes.com

He also has the ideology: In a series of Bible-quoting blog posts that amount to a manifesto, Mr. Ettinger calls for the “dispossession of gentiles” who inhabit the Holy Land and the replacement of the modern Israeli state with a new “kingdom of ” Israel ruled by the laws of the Torah.

independent.co.uk

It was while he was in jail that he reportedly met students of Rabbi Ginsburgh and began to embrace his teachings, which include the superiority of Jews over gentiles, who, except under very limited circumstances, should not be allowed to live in the Holy Land; that the biblical monarchy in the Land of Israel should be restored; and that Baruch Goldstein, the settler who massacred 29 Palestinians during mosque prayers in Hebron in 1994, was an exemplary Jew.

From this it seems that he’s from that bunch of fundies that are fans of the so-called King’s Torah:

bbc.com

Rabbis Dov Lior and Yacob Yousef had endorsed a highly controversial book, the King’s Torah - written by two lesser-known settler rabbis. It attempts to justify killing non-Jews, including those not involved in violence, under certain circumstances.
The fifth chapter, entitled “Murder of non-Jews in a time of war” has been widely quoted in the Israeli media. The summary states that “you can kill those who are not supporting or encouraging murder in order to save the lives of Jews”.
At one point it suggests that babies can justifiably be killed if it is clear they will grow up to pose a threat.

Then there’s this:
jpost.com

The leader of the opposition, Labor chairman Isaac Herzog, along with several other public figures and organizations, has called for Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein to be arrested and his extremist Lehava organization to be outlawed following the rabbi’s comments that he is in favor of burning churches.

Gopstein was involved in a panel debate on Tuesday regarding Jewish law’s approach to idolatry, including the opinion of Jewish law on the status of Christianity, which some rabbinic authorities in the past deemed to be akin to idolatry.

Asked if he supported the burning of churches, he replied, “For sure,” and subsequently referenced the medieval rabbinic authority Maimonides’ opinion on Christianity, saying “Did Maimonides rule that you need to destroy or not? Idolatry needs to be destroyed.”

Gopstein later explained that “I was not calling to take operative steps, but rather that this was Maimonides’s stance, and that this [step] would be incumbent on the government and not individuals.

[…]

In the past, rabbis who have made public comments or written books which include incitement to violence have not been prosecuted because their statements were considered to be outside of legal jurisdiction since they pertained to an academic analysis of Jewish law.

Torat Hamelech (“The King’s Torah,”) a treatise on Jewish law authored by two rabbis from the settlement of Yitzhar in 2009, stated that non-Jewish noncombatants, including children, may be preemptively killed in a time of war.

The Attorney-General’s Office opened an investigation into the rabbis but concluded that works pertaining to rulings on religious law or publications of religious sources should not be dealt with in criminal proceedings, in order to preserve freedom of religion.

“How much more violence needs to happen before the legal authorities understand that preventative action needs to be taken,” Hiddush director, attorney and reform Rabbi Uri Regev, stated.

“Gopstein, the extremist Meir Ettinger, and those who disseminated ‘The King’s Torah’ and their like are operating openly and on social media and using partial and distorted quotes of ancient Jewish law to bring about a war of everyone against everyone else in order to undermine public order.

“The time has come to assert that words of incitement to violence which are hidden within works of Jewish law, be it Jewish, Islamic or otherwise, will not constitute a defense in every circumstance,’ continued Regev, insisting that if the person citing Jewish law does not make clear that “violence is always prohibited” then legal proceedings should be initiated against him.

I said before and I’ll say it again: the bodies of ancient religious literature are akin to time bombs. While the mainstream of old religions may mellow out with time, there will always be people who take every obscure (or not so obscure) word seriously. And yes, this is true for all ancient religions (which needs to be emphasized because bigots are prone to single out Islam). Because they were conceived in times, the morals of which are hardly compatible with the modern world.

2
Decatur Deb  Aug 7, 2015 • 4:30:01am

re: #1 Nyet

In the past, rabbis who have made public comments or written books which include incitement to violence have not been prosecuted because their statements were considered to be outside of legal jurisdiction since they pertained to an academic analysis of Jewish law.

You highlighted the key. Whatever it is, religious passion is not “academic”.

3
Nyet  Aug 7, 2015 • 4:39:35am

re: #2 Decatur Deb

True, and the Israeli authorities dropped the ball by pretending that religious works like King’s Torah are an “academic analysis”.

But I understand why such situations can put authorities in a bind. You can ban a vile book, but what if the said book is nothing but a collection of quotes from a larger body of religious literature? You can’t ban that whole corpus of texts. Like, you can’t ban the Bible despite all the sick stuff it contains alongside the good stuff.

4
CuriousLurker  Aug 7, 2015 • 8:42:46am

re: #1 Nyet

Thanks for the additional info. I’d heard of the King’s Torah, hilltop youth, several of the extremist rabbis, etc. but I’d never heard of some of the others or of Meir Ettinger until after the awful events of last week.

The “logic” of extremists always seems to be the same, regardless of their ideology. There’s always a special exemption for them for whatever awful thing they want to do, whether it comes from a religious text or some other sort of philosophy (like white supremacism/nationalism, which is what I’ve been reading about lately). They always have a justification ready.


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