Settler rabbis: Jewish law permits Qana carnage

David Bloom

54 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children, were killed in an Israeli Air Force strike on a 3-story building in the city of Qana in south Lebanon on July 30. (NYT, July 30) From Israel’s largest newspaper,Yediot Aharonot, July 30:

Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents
The Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that “according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as ‘innocents’ of the enemy.”

“All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians,” the statement said.

[“Yesha” is the Hebrew acronym for “Judea, Samaria and Gaza” — the occupied West Bank, and Gaza Strip -ed.]

See our last post on the Lebanon crisis.

  1. More on the Yesha Rabbis
    Interestingly, Kurt Nimmo couldnt find the article I quoted, which was on YNet earlier today. Mistakenly I didnt think their breaking news items had url’s (in fact they do). But he appears correct, I went and searched thru their archives, and it appears to have slipped down the ‘ol memory hole.

    However, two earlier statements by the Yesha rabbis on Lebanon, from the day the war started, July 12, are consistent with the Y Net quote;

    First, in the settler’s organ, Arutz Sheva:

    Yesha Rabbis: ‘Fight the True Enemy’

    19:45 Jul 12, ’06 / 16 Tammuz 5766

    (IsraelNN.com) The Yesha Rabbinical Council said Wednesday morning’s attack by Hizbullah on the northern border was a “direct continuation of relinquishing [territory] and weakness,

  2. The Jewish Law of Genocide?
    It may be that Jewish law permits the slaughter of non-Jewish elders, women and children in wartime, but international law does not. If Israel will not adhere, even in time of war, more or less faithfully to international law, it should be treated as the pariah nation that it seems to be striving to become.

    1. OK, no problem…
      …as long as this standard also applies to the US in Iraq, Russia in Chechnya, Colombia in its own internal counterinsurgency war, etc.

      1. standards
        Which of the countries you named has a significant religious body that believes the slaughter of innocents is sanctified by some higher law?

  3. Similar statement in 2004
    This is also consistent with their older statements. This is from 2004:

    Leading rabbis proclaimed today that Israel’s security needs override the welfare of Arab civilians living in the terror-infested Palestinian Authority.

    …”There is no need to avoid hitting or even killing Palestinians who are not involved in terrorism when this will harm the efforts to defend Israeli lives,” the statement reads. “Jewish Law provides that during war time, such as that which we are now experiencing, there is no difference between the populace and the army. If a danger arises to Israeli soldiers or to civilians, Jewish ethics teach that our lives take precedence over others.”

    The article adds that this accords with Alan Dershowitz’s views.

  4. Dissent
    From the Israeli military resisters’ movement Yesh Gvul, July 30:

    Yesh Gvul denounces the massive number of civilian casualties inflicted by the Israeli army on the population of Lebanon in general and the people of the Qana village in particular. We would like to remind all soldiers and officers in the IDF that deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime, and we call upon them to refuse to participate in war crimes.

    We wish to remind those who have forgotten that Maj. Gen. (Res.) Moshe Yaalon is facing a lawsuit in the US for his part in the act in which Lebanese civilians were killed and wounded in Qana in 1996.