IDF Distributes Religious Hate to Soldiers on the Eve of Battle

Kung Fu Jew did a good job of reporting on an officially published IDF religious hate tract:

IDF Chief Rabbi Avi Rontzki distributed a booklet to soldiers called Go Fight My Fight: A Daily Study Table for the Soldier and Commander in a Time of War, published for Operation Cast Lead. The text borrows the most war mongering traditions of Judaism — of which there seem to be plenty fodder, albeit a selective reading — and teachings from cheif fundamentalist Rabbi Shlomo Aviner. The purpose: “to fill them with yiddishkeit and a fighting spirit.”

Ah, but what exactly did it say that Israeli human rights groups find so objectionable?

Select quotes, courtesy of Yesh Din and Breaking the Silence

“[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it.”

“The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country.” (Quote from Aviner.)

“A comparison [between Palestinians and the Biblical Philistines] is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land … They invaded the Land of Israel, a land that did not belong to them and claimed political ownership over our country … Today the problem is the same. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence.”

“When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. ‘A la guerre comme a la guerre.’ ”

When I served in the army, they would let Lubavitcher missionaries in to lead a shabbas blessing or to hand out jelly doughnuts for Hanukkah. These very same folks - young and friendly - would also explain that the Palestinians are akin to "Amalek", the group that Moses was ordered by god to exterminate in the desert, after the flight from Egypt.