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Thursday, November 26, 2009     GET REAL

Israeli military identifies Orthodox Jews as source of mutiny threats

TEL AVIV Ñ Israel's military is bracing for the prospect of a mutiny by soldiers who may be ordered to destroy Jewish homes in the West Bank.

Officials said an increasing number of soldiers have expressed their opposition to a government policy of destroying Jewish homes or communities in the West Bank.

"There should not be a rift in the model of the people's army," Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir, head of the military's manpower division, said.


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Over the last month, soldiers from several combat units held demonstrations against the destruction of Jewish homes in the West Bank. Several soldiers were court-martialed on charges of holding signs that vowed not to participate in such missions.

"This will spread if we don't kill it in time," Israeli parliamentarian Ophir Paz-Pines said.

The military has determined that most of the opposition to destroy Jewish outposts and homes stem from Orthodox Jews. Officials said these soldiers were performing their three-year tour of duty that combined military service with studies at Jewish seminaries, many of them in the West Bank.

In testimony to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Nov. 25, Zamir said he had demanded that the principals of the seminaries pledge to discourage protests against military operations. He said youngsters ready to disobey their future commanders should not be allowed to enter the 62 seminaries that participate in the military program.

"I demanded action not just words of condemnation," Zamir said.

In May, the military conducted a study that determined that up to one-third of soldiers could disobey orders to destroy Jewish communities deemed illegal. Officials said the military has overseen the formation of police units, comprised largely of non-Jews, that would be assigned such missions.

Officials said Orthodox Jews, particularly seminary students, were comprising a greater ratio of combat soldiers. They said 1,300 seminary students were joining the military every year, most of them in combat units.

Many of these soldiers, officials said, have been swayed by teachings of their rabbis, who warned that Judaism bans the expulsion of Jews in the biblical land of Israel. They said military commanders have warned the seminaries not to discuss such issues in class.

In many cases, the soldiers who refuse orders to participate in the demolition of Jewish homes have been supported by their families. In 2005, Orthodox soldiers were forced to join the military expulsion of some 16,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.

"We cannot have a situation in which a yeshiva [seminary] leader cannot speak his mind," Rabbi David Stav, a spokesman for the seminaries, said.

Officials said the military envisioned a scenario in which Orthodox Jews influence other soldiers to disobey orders to demolish Jewish homes and communities in the West Bank. They said the military was bracing for an increase in such operations in wake of the government's decision for a settlement freeze. The military has already requested additional manpower to enforce the freeze.

"The state must use an iron fist to quell insubordination from both the right- and the left-wing," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.



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