Religious groups infiltrate Israeli army

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 9 (UPI) -- Israel's military, once vaunted as an overwhelmingly secular institution of the Jewish state, is being increasingly penetrated by hard-line religious groups bent on waging a holy war against Arabs, according to critics.

Shortly before the 22-day Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip was launched on Dec. 28, 2008, military rabbis distributed pamphlets to the troops that claimed the conflict would be waged again the fundamentalist Hamas on behalf of world Jewry.

An Israeli human-rights group, Yesh Din, said the inflammatory pamphlets contained passages "bordering on racist incitement against the Palestinian people" and could have encouraged soldiers to violate international law.

The pamphlets called for the establishment of Greater Israel, including the occupied West Bank, the Orthodox Jews believe was ordained by God.

The Israel military has come under intense condemnation by the United Nations and human-rights groups for alleged war crimes committed during the Gaza fighting in which by Palestinian count nearly 1,400 people were killed, most of them civilians.

The pamphlet, which also advises soldiers that "when you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers," was approved by the army's chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki.

According to the Israeli media, Rontzki, a West Bank settler with links to far-right extremists, was appointed in 2006 to placate hard-line religious groups within the army and the 450,000 settlers living in the West Bank who oppose any peace deal with the Palestinians.

Much of the booklet quoted an ultra-nationalist rabbi, Shlomo Aviner, who compares the Palestinians to the ancient Philistines, biblical enemies of the Jews.

The infiltration of the military by religious zealots has been under way for three decades, and much of the officer corps -- up to 30 percent by some estimates -- now consists of men from religious extremist groups.

Some army units are now entirely made up of religious soldiers, many of them from the settlements in the West Bank.

That has stirred fears that large numbers of soldiers would join the heavily armed settlers, many of them reservists, if some, or all, of the settlements have to be abandoned under a peace agreement in resisting the state.

"We've reached the point where a critical mass of religious soldiers is trying to negotiate with the army about how and for what purpose military force is employed on the battlefield," says Yigal Levy, a political sociologist who has written several books on the Israeli military.

In October 2008 Haaretz reported that the Chief Military Rabbinate had, under Rontzki's direction, expanded its educational activities to army combat units, a sector previously served by the military's Education Corps.

The liberal daily quoted one officer as saying, "In a number of cases it is religious brainwashing and, indirectly, also political brainwashing."

The armed forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazy, ordered an investigation. But Rontzki dug in his heels and in the face of the religious right's political clout, the probe has so far not produced any conclusions.

"The national religious are replacing the kibbutzniks in the ranks of combat and command," one senior officer said.

As Israeli society has matured and grown more materialistic than the pioneers who founded the state in 1948, many young people now seek to avoid military service, which is mandatory.

The right wing has filled this gap in what many suspect was a systematic effort to dominate the military, particularly in combat units and the command echelon.

The Jerusalem Post reported in June that 60 percent of religious Jews in the air force have requested to attend the military's Officer School.

Since Ariel Sharon oversaw the evacuation of 20 settlements in the Gaza Strip in September 2005, settler leaders have been whipping up their extremist followers against any abandonment of the West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria.

Haim Oron, leader of the left-leaning New Movement-Meretz Party, summed up the concerns of many secular Israelis that the army is being taken over by the national religious camp, presaging political upheaval.

The activities of zealots like Rontzki "highlight the trend where instead of religious Zionism adopting the values of the (Israel Defense Forces) and the country, the IDF and country are adopting the values of religious Zionism, in its nationalist and orthodox version," he said.

"If this trend continues, the IDF may be transformed from an army of the people to Phalangists carrying religious artifacts."