Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi of Efrat concludes his article in this week's JP Magazine "When an order must be defied" with the following paragraph:
"I believe that every soldier must give priority to God's law over human law, even the law of the IDF. However, refusing to carry out a commnad of the IDF must only apply when the individual believes that by carrying out the order an innocent Jewish or Gentile life is being taken, or that fundamental human rights are being removed. In the instance of giving land for peace however, Rabbi JB Soloveitchik ruled that the elected government of Israel has the right to decide whether sacrificing land for peace is operable and under which conditions. Such a decision must be governmental and not individual."ie Chaim's colleague Englishman
Yosef ben Meir z"l was right to call Riskin
"Rabbi Slimeball"!Also, that Riskin's mentor, R.Soloveitchik, for all his good points, is right now being severely detracted in the Afterlife for his spurious ruling that is followed by so many "Modern Orthodox"!
During Sharon's 2005 Gaza Deportation of 10,000 Jews from their homes,
only one single American-born IDF soldier refused to obey the dastardly order.
According to Riskin, he was wrong to disobey. One wonders when IDF soldiers come to forceably evacuate Riskin from his Efrat mansion, whether he'll hold the same!
A huge shame that R.Kahane never lived to
wipe the floor with Riskin in the planned debate that they were going to have on the subject of "Land for Peace in Jewish Law" in December 1990!