A couple of prominent rabbis were briefly held for questioning in Jerusalem recently.
Rabbis Dov Lior and Yacob Yousef had endorsed a highly controversial book, the King’s Torah – written by two lesser-known settler rabbis. It justifies 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.
How would that be “clear,” one wonders? Under what circumstances could that ever be clear? How could it ever be “clear” that existing enmities and conflicts will be unchanged in 15 or 20 years? Even hideously intractable ones like that over Israel.
Preventive murder as a religious principle…let’s not.
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15 responses to “Another bad idea”
If nothing else, it’s proof that they’ve lost the argument. I once got into an impressive dispute with an a rather loud anti-abortionista, only to have him suggest that the world would be a better place if I’d been preemptively aborted.
He was very disappointed when I fell about the place laughing so hard I couldn’t even gasp out ‘Q.E.D’.
Good thing they stressed that it’s only acceptable to eliminate threats to Jews. I’d absolutely hate to see someone seizing and dashing the infants of settlers against the rocks to free the Palaestinian motherland.
/snark
LOL skep lawyer.
We’re not going to get there in my lifetime are we? shit!
Any bets on how long it’s going to take for people to realize that the Hebrew Bible features Yahweh ordering the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites so they can have their land? If anything is incitement for fundamentalists, that is surely it.
Old Testament circumstances?
You do have to give them credit for being absolutely consistent with the book of Joshua.
While reading that Sili, I envisioned Mandy Patinkin approaching these two: “You keep making that argument. I do not think it will work how you think it will.”
According to haaretz.com, the book— a commentary on judaic law– does not say it is all right to kill childen of other religions “if it is clear they will grow up to be threat”.
It omits the “if”.
It says, full stop, that you may murder children of other nations: “it is clear they will grow up to be a threat.”
Of course these fanatics believe it is not murder if you kill those of another religion! They are Torah-based, after all. The law does not apply to other nations.
So they’re proposing a solution to the “Non-Jewish Problem.” Nice and symmetrical, in a way. An eye for an eye, an infant for an infant. Now we know what Jewish fascism would sound like — just like the Old Testament, as it happens. They are theologically unassailable, as near as I can tell. It’s easy to be logically lucid and dangerously insane at the same time, in the context of religion, a great advantage to zealots over their liberal brethren, who must slice the logical and ethical baloney pretty thin to cover themselves in all cases. With zealots, you just swallow the whole thing in one disgusting gulp, without apology or anything to wash it down.
Is there a reason why this would be surprising or controversial? That’s what the books say! Or is it surprising and controversial because it is Jews saying it instead of the more traditional Christians and Muslims?
And why would that be surprising coming out of Israel, which has been murdering Palestinians for decades and otherwise spitting in the face of international law in the name of their religiously-inspired “chosen” position? I guess it is a big shock when someone in Israel finally admits that for many people murdering non-Jews isn’t about defense or security at all.
Oddly enough, I can’t think of any better way to make babies grow up hating Jews than by threatening to kill them for it.
And to think I’m always telling people how most of us Jews think the Torah is hogwash. Apparently these rabbis didn’t get the memo. Totally fucked.
[…] * h/t Ophelia Benson. […]
Duh…I think a small few decided it was of no matter to actually read the article.
It states that the Israeli Government is in the midst of intervening against the Rabbi’s idiocy and incitement. There are right-wing religious nuts everywhere, including Israel.
Then again, for some, why bother to get facts involved when Israel is mentioned.