The following two essays should answer the question, one written by a HaAretz reporter, the other written by a Palestinian journalist. Both are excellent reads.
It is still unclear whether the terrorist who entered the Mercaz Harav yeshiva on Thursday night and killed eight of its students knew exactly what place he was entering. But the thousands of people who walked behind the coffins on Friday knew very well. “The flagship of religious Zionism” was the common expression used, the “holy of holies”; there was even a hyperbolic comparison to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in terms of sanctity. Some of the praise of the yeshiva is certainly well deserved, and nothing, of course, can justify the horrible killing of young boys in a library. Still, it would be appropriate to recall, even at this difficult hour, what this yeshiva has brought forth.
Mercaz Harav is the flagship of the last group in Israeli society still operating in the realm of ideas. Religious Zionists are the only group, aside from the ultra-Orthodox population, whose members are willing to lay down their lives for the collective and its worldview. It is a group that responds faithfully to its leaders – a group that even has leaders – and idolizes them. It is also a fairly homogeneous group in terms of its thinking: Some 80 percent of its members define themselves as right-wingers. None of this is true of Israel’s complacent, individualist secular public. And so we end up with a minority, 12 to 15 percent of the population, whose influence in certain areas is crucial and far exceeds its own relative size.
No one can explain in depth the magical powers of extortion this group has obtained. Nor can anyone ignore the damage it has caused the country. Without the settlement enterprise, peace might have reigned here already; without the Gush Emunim movement, supported by successive Israeli governments, there would be no settlements; and without the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, there would be no Gush Emunim. This institution, then, was the cradle of the settlement enterprise and its driving force. Most of the students killed in the terrorist attack were second-generation settlers. It should be said again, clearly and unequivocally: Their killing was a criminal act. (An unusual personal comment: On Friday I said in a radio interview, among other things, that the Mercaz Harav yeshiva was a fascist institution; right-wing circles spread a rumor on the Internet that I had said the slain students were fascists. This is not true. In any case, if my comment about the yeshiva offended people in their grief, I wish to express my sincere sorrow and apology).
Rabbi Lior, for example, head of the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria, ruled in 2004 that the Israel Defense Forces was allowed to kill innocent people. How do these words sound now, after the attack in Jerusalem? Is the permission ours alone? Back then, Lior ruled that, “There should be no feeling of guilt at the morality of foreigners.” He decreed that the Knesset could not decide to evacuate settlements, and that soldiers were allowed to refuse the order to evacuate settlers. Rabbi Druckman made a similar ruling.
In 2002, Rabbi Aviner, another graduate of the yeshiva, called for the execution of Israelis who refused to serve in the military. Back then the refusal came from left-wingers, of course. Aviner also ruled that war casualties are no cause for national grief, and he called for the abolition of Yom Hazikaron, the annual day of remembrance for fallen Israeli soldiers. He compared the road map peace plan to the appeasement of Hitler and considers the evacuation of settlements an “illegal crime.”
The same yeshiva graduated Hanan Porat, one of the founders of Gush Emunim and one of those who returned to Gush Etzion. Another alumnus, Rabbi Levinger, beat him to it with the Jewish settlement at the Park Hotel in the heart of Hebron. These are the prominent figures that have emerged from this radical seminary and that is their legacy. From here they preached the application of different laws of morality and justice than the universal ones; yes, where the chosen people is concerned, there is such a thing.
With all the changes religious Zionism has undergone – from the time the Mizrahi movement joined the Zionist Congress, through its existence as a moderate stream that deftly managed to combine religion and modernity, to its transformation into the source of Israeli nationalism – the movement has managed to retain an exalted, inexplicable standing in Israel’s largely secular society. There are still very many secular Israelis who view the religious Zionists, the students of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and the West Bank’s so-called “hilltop youths” as a group of pioneers committed to noble values, as the pillar of fire advancing before the camp. Even those who deeply detest the Haredi public reserve a warm spot in their hearts for religious Zionism, the very group that has inflicted more calamity on us than all the Haredim put together.
The killing at the yeshiva is heartrending. No one deserved it. The innocents in Gaza and the victims at Mercaz Harav in Jerusalem were all an unnecessary sacrifice. They have already paid the highest possible price. Their families and those around them will probably adopt even more radical positions now, and so we will be led into another round of endless bloodshed.
kim smith said,
March 10, 2008 at 12:18 am
This was not a “religious” school. This “school” was modeled after “The School Of The Americas” where torture techniques and other forms of terror and GENOCIDE are “majors” in the curriculum, This “school” was and is a valid military target.
Fiona said,
March 10, 2008 at 12:24 am
I posted the Gideon Levy piece early this morning along with a minor study of West Bank settlements and I seem to have acquired a Zionist troll (or perhaps found one of our hackers;)). According to this person, I should be ashamed of myself. Pot calling kettle black?
M.O. said,
March 10, 2008 at 12:57 am
interesting info
not surprisingly i never heard it before
ROSE KING said,
March 10, 2008 at 3:37 am
WAS THE GUY IN THE ISRAELI ARMY?
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m41849&hd=&size=1&l=e
“Israeli security sources said that Alaa Abu dehaim, 24, who lives in Jabal Al-Mukabir in eastern Jerusalem, was the one who attacked the Jewish institute in western Jerusalem killing 8 of the students, who also serve in the Israeli army, and wounded 40 others”
DRL said,
March 10, 2008 at 10:23 am
Donning my detective’s hat, the question that’s been troubling me [scratches head] is how a Palestinian, or Arab, in general, could possibly get through the, no-doubt, guarded entry of the yeshiva carrying an assault rifle and handgun? One doesn’t just slip a rifle in one’s pocket!
The way I see it, the only way the visibly armed assailant could have gotten past a guard is if the latter *recognized* him. As in, the age-old story of the dog that didn’t bark.
This rather obvious inconsistency begs for an explanation.
Justice said,
March 10, 2008 at 12:43 pm
When my people are killed my heart bleeds
I ask why these innocents are killed
When I kill you , no reason i do need
I ask how many more innocents should I bleed
The Big Raven said,
March 10, 2008 at 1:53 pm
The un-holy union of the usa and israel holding this thing ,this made-up thing, this made-up beleif thing, using using using using MANIFESTED DESTINY “gods lie” held-up by the suckers ,the life suckers .
When land theft is the ONLY GOAL under god death will ALLWAYS be around.
robertsgt40 said,
March 10, 2008 at 2:09 pm
HAS IT DAWNED ON ANYBODY YET THAT THE “SETTLERS” IN ISREALL(WELL OVER 90%0 ARE FROM EASTERN EUROPE AND ARE DECENDENTS OF THE KHZARS?(JEWS BY CONVERSION) THE TRUE SEMITES IN THE MIDDLE EAST HAVE BEEN THERE FOREVER. THAT WOULD INCUDE THE PALESTINIANS.