I agree with Michael about the significance of the Haredi rabbi's public statement for the Palestine cause internationally, as a hopeful illustration of a deepening rift within Israeli Jewish society. His remarks deserve wide circulation. But the cautious observations of the two Arab academics interviewed by Ajazeera should also be taken into account. They suggested that the rabbi's comments were mainly defensive in nature, aimed at curbing the unfortunate growing influence within the Haredi community of the racist and militaristic religious Zionists led by the likes of Ben Gvir and Smotrich.
"Ibrahim Khatib, a conflict studies scholar at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said Lando’s remarks drew a line between Zionism and Judaism “from inside the Jewish community itself”, at a time when the official Israeli establishment “tries to bind them together”...However, Khatib cautioned that the ultra-Orthodox polity in Israel “is right-wing, its leaders hold right-wing positions, and some of them have made clearly offensive statements about Arabs and Palestinians”. [...] "Mohammad Abu Rumman, an academic adviser at the Politics and Society Institute in Amman, said the significance of Lando’s remarks lay in the question that prompted them. The example of a young religious man who combines Torah study with military service, he said, "raises a question inside the ultra-Orthodox world itself: Why don’t we do the same?” “When Lando describes their teaching as a distorted Torah, he is trying to close the door on emulating them,” Abu Rumman told Al Jazeera. “His words are aimed at his own audience as much as at his opponents.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/7/ultra-orthodox-rabbis-anti-zionist-remarks-stir-israel-election-row -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#43659): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/43659 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/121645474/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
