Netanyahu and Barak must stand strong against right-wing yeshiva - Haaretz - Israel News
- Barak's decision is only symbolic: It does not release the IDF from its problematic arrangement with the yeshivas, which have become a right-wing bastion in combat units and whose students view their rabbis as a parallel source of authority to their commanding officers. But its importance should not be underestimated. This is the first time the defense establishment, which for years has been negligent in dealing with lawbreakers on the right, has set a "price tag" for rabbis who undermine the foundations of democracy and tell their students which orders to obey and which to refuse.
The support for Melamed among the heads of other hesder yeshivas, and their threats to discourage their students from joining the army to protest this "interference in a rabbi's spiritual path," shows the grave danger of creating within the army a private militia of the extreme r ight, subservient to the directives of the rabbis. It is difficult to imagine a more clear and present danger to democracy, and to the strength of Israeli society, than such threats of rebellion - even if they come wrapped in pretty slogans about hesder soldiers' motivation and contribution to the army.
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