(DOWNLOAD) "Israel-Army (Israel-Report)" by The Weekly Middle East Reporter (Beirut, Lebanon) * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: Israel-Army (Israel-Report)
Author : The Weekly Middle East Reporter (Beirut, Lebanon)
Release Date : January 08, 2009
Genre: Reference,Books,
Pages : * pages
Size : 56 KB

Description

Israel's Enemy Within: Religious Fanatics Infiltrate Army Israel's military, once vaunted as an overwhelmingly secular institution of the Jewish state, is being increasingly penetrated by hardline religious groups who are bent on waging a holy war against Arabs, according to critics. Shortly before the 22-day Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip was launched on December 28, 2008, military rabbis distributed pamphlets to the troops that claimed the conflict would be waged again the fundamentalist Hamas on behalf of world Jewry. An Israel human rights group, Yesh Din, said the inflammatory pamphlets contained passages "bordering on racist incitement against the Palestinian people" and could have encouraged soldiers to violate international law. The pamphlets called for the establishment of Greater Israel, including the occupied West Bank, which the Orthodox Jews believe was given to them by God. The Israel Defense Force, known as the IDF, has come under intense condemnation and scrutiny by the United Nations and human rights groups for alleged war crimes committed during the Gaza fighting in which by Palestinian count nearly 1,400 people were killed, most of them civilians. The pamphlet advised soldiers: "When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers." The military rabbinate is headed by Brig. Gen. Avichai Ronski, a settler and rabbi in the West Bank community of Itimar, near Nablus. He has links to far-right extremists and was appointed in 2006 to placate hardline religious groups within the army and the 450,000 settlers living in the West Bank who oppose any peace deal with the Palestinians. He spent much of the Gaza incursion with troops in the combat zone.