For some Israeli soldiers, God is their commanding officer

Zionist rabbis are slowly becoming more powerful in Israel’s armed forces. Already, 40 percent of all soldiers profess to religious Zionism. Religious tenets have already come into conflict with the chain of command.

Nehemia Dagan, a reservist general in Israel’s armed forces, and its former chief of training, is not a religious man. Nor are his former colleagues. “Or so I think. We never really talked about it,” Dagan said. Now Dagan is worried about the growing influence of religion within the military’s ranks. “It is dangerous. I see the fanaticism growing before my own eyes. An ideology based on hatred. Rabbis are taking on the role of officers.”

The secular general Dagan has been telling cautionary tales about the rise of religious Zionism within the military for years. This ideology combines nationalism with fanatical Judaic tenets. Until recently, his pleas fell mostly on deaf ears, but an incident that took place last October pushed Dagan’s case to centre stage. During a ceremony for conscripts near Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, several recruits held up a sign. “We will not dismantle Homesh,” it read.

An incident casts light on a creeping Zionist trend

Homesh is a Jewish outpost on the occupied West Bank. It is one of approximately a hundred outposts that Israel too believes were constructed illegally. The military occasionally dismantled Homesh, after which the colonists are usually quick to return.

The recruits of the Shimson Brigade refused to participate in this process any longer. According to the military, the incident was the work of no more than a few boys who had ruined what was supposed to be a festive ceremony, but the sentiment they expressed has more than just a few supporters. Soon, signs supporting the Shimson Brigade began popping up at other military bases. SOS Israel, an organisation associated with the colonist movement, offered the Wailing Wall protestors thousands of shekels (worth about 18 euro cents) in reward. Military rabbis also proffered their support. “Finally, a creeping trend in the Israeli army had been made public,” Dagan said. “Religious Zionism is becoming more and more influential. Nobody can deny this any longer.”

According to military rabbi Shalom Hamer, approximately 40 percent of all soldiers in the Israeli army profess to religious Zionism. Hamer is a teacher at the Derech Chaim yeshiva, a religious school, in Kyriat Gat . He is an avid Zionist who teaches lessons from the Torah about “inner strength” that conquers all. He is not loath to point out the “inalienable right” that “the Jewish people have to Judea and Samaria,” to his students, the latter two references being the biblical names for the area encompassing the West Bank today.

The rise of religious Zionism in the Israeli military

In the 1950s, some yeshivas started working with the military. Before then, rabbis tried to stay out of military business. The young state’s army was the progeny of secular organisations involved in terror and armed struggle. A few yeshivas adapted the teachings of rabbi Kook (1865-1935), the founding father of religious Zionism. In these yeshivas, orthodox Jewish students were taught to embrace the army, rather than be suspicious of it. It was, after all, in God’s plan that the Jewish people would eventually occupy Eretz Israel, or Greater Israel.

The Six Day War, in which Israel occupied the West Bank, fanned the flames of religious consciousness in the Israeli population. “It was a wondrous war, not unlike the miracles our forefathers have been witness to since the time of Abraham,” rabbi Shalom Hammer said.

Nehemia Dagan fought in the Six Day War as a pilot. He has heard the story that God granted Israel its spectacular victory many times before. “Was it really God? Of course not, it was me and my fellow soldiers,” Dagan said.

Rabbis expand their reach

After the war, the army sought closer cooperation with the yeshivas, creating joint programmes that aimed to combine military and spiritual awareness. Today, nearly forty yeshivas offer these 5-year programmes, including rabbi Hammer’s.

Since then, the duties of rabbis serving the Israeli military have steadily expanded.

During the Israeli offensive on the Gaza strip, which cost 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israeli lives, rabbis acted beyond their limited duties. Breaking the Silence, a collective of soldiers whose aim is to collect testimonials of Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories, has heard eyewitnesses claim rabbis appeared near front lines, citing anti-Palestinian rhetoric and handing out psalm booklets. “The rabbi said that our war was one between the ‘sons of the light’ and ‘the sons of darkness,’” a witness quoted in the ngo’s report said. One rabbi distributed a pamphlet calling on soldiers to show “no mercy” to Palestinians.

When God’s plan clashes with man’s

Conflicts of interest can easily arise. A group of seven former military rabbis recently wrote an open letter stating that Halacha, or Jewish law, always takes precedence over command decisions. Dismantling settlements is a violation of Halacha, these rabbis think.

Rabbi Hammer feels that command decisions take precedence over everything else, as long as the military shows understanding for conscientious objectors. He recently spoke to a cadet who had been jailed after the incident in Jerusalem. “This boy wasn’t looking to start trouble, he was just confused. The military could also have told him that he needn’t dismantle settlements if he didn’t want to.”

Last month, defence minister Ehud Barak came into conflict with a yeshiva in Har Bracha on the West Bank, when the rabbi there called upon his students to refuse to participate in an inspection intended to enforce a halt in construction of settlements. Barak severed all ties between the military and the yeshiva.

Too late, Dagan thinks. “The rabbis have so much influence a move like that does little to impress them. They are fighters. They want war, that is how they interpret the Torah. They have already forced their truth on a large segment of our youth. I might be a general, but I believe the army should be as small as possible. Militarism does not suit us, or anybody at all,” Dagan said.