Rabbis and refuseniks

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

has Rabbi Ovadia Yosef deigned to hold a second meeting with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who was trying to persuade the rabbi to change his mind and support the unilateral disengagement from Gaza. But Ovadia is not making any decisions yet. First, he wants to hear from disengagement opponents – but not the nationalist-religious opponents who claim Israel can’t give up any settlements because it’s God’s will that the settlements remain. Instead, he wants to hear from security experts and will meet with Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaacov Amidror, who was the highest ranking religious officer in the history of the army.

Ovadia’s thinking about the settlements is well-on known. He’s the rabbi who ruled that if giving up the territories would save lives, the lives have precedence over the land. But he doesn’t trust non-Jews, particularly Arabs (he was born and raised in Egypt), and his questions to Mofaz, said reports from the morning meeting, were about security and only security. And according to the reports, the rabbi’s main question, phrased over and over, was why Mofaz had failed to persuade the opponents of the disengagement plan that the plan was right.

The goddess loves -- Mixed media on paper, 50x70 cm by Silvia Rosenberg

rime Minister Ariel Sharon sent Mofaz to Ovadia – who, like many Israeli rabbis, is always impressed by security experts – in the hope of winning the rabbi’s approval for the disengagement plan and thus pave the way for Shas to join a new coalition. He does not need Shas to win a majority for the disengagement in the Knesset next week, but if he wants to form a new coalition – and there are persistent reports he is still aiming for that – he will probably need Shas.

Meanwhile, while Rabbi Ovadia was busy trying to understand the security rationale for the disengagement plan, other, more nationalist-mystic rabbis were making far worse trouble for the army, calling for soldiers under their influence to refuse to obey orders to evacuate settlements. Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon finally spoke up directly on the issue last night, terming such calls and refusal itself ‘a danger to Zionism.’ Nobody really knows how many soldiers will actually refuse orders, partly because the army will do what it did with many who refused to go into the territories during the ongoing intifada – discreetly allow them to do other service for their reserves. It’s called ‘gray refusal.’ The army has already said it would not force soldiers who live in settlements to take part in the evacuation of those settlements. But the entire issue may be a red herring, a debate sparked by the disengagement opponents to frighten the government and the public about chaos in the evacuation, since the government has already decided that the army will protect the Border Police who will be the actual troops used if necessary, to remove protestors who refuse to leave the settlements. And if that happens, according to Sharon’s plan, it will only happen next summer.

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