Showing posts with label Hillel Weiss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hillel Weiss. Show all posts

Friday, August 17, 2007

'Madman' Hillel Weiss

Excerpts from Hillel Weiss' Proud to be a madman

Israel faces physical annihilation from without, spiritual annihilation from within / My freedom is precious to me. My job as well. But some things are even more precious...I cannot be intimidated too much. There are too many examples in history of devotion and self-sacrifice. The real freedom is to worship God. All the rest is nonsense.


I apologized for cursing several times in most broadcasts on the day following the evacuation, and especially on Monday this week. After the widespread assault against me, one reporter told me, "But you already apologized last week." But it's not the apology they are interested in, it's my blood they are after. Me and my friends are the dam blocking the leftists' jihad against the Jews, and Jews like myself shall triumph, with God's help.

The discussion surrounding the boundaries of insubordination was not invented by the Right or the Left in Israel. Man's freedom has been earned by refusal, when just and moral. The leftist organization Yesh Gvul and the Shalem Institute on the Right have gathered and interpreted historical wirings about moral refusal. Man's honor lies in his refusal.

Just like there is a physical, eternal enemy that is threatening the Jewish people, there is a spiritual enemy that dwells in most of the Western universities, and has secured a stronghold at Bar Ilan University as well. This enemy has threatened University President Professor Moshe Kaveh with a High Court petition in order to have the university's title as a religious institution revised, based on democratic arguments. In their persecution of me they demonstrate the value of academic freedom, of freedom of speech and the democratic movement. I don’t know how the university's president managed to appease this hostile element, which I now realize has succeeded in shattering the moral backbone of those who signed the petition against me.

...Under the current circumstances, I am proud to be a madman. Yes, there are times when an honest man belongs in jail...

...I do not know how the witch hunt against me will end, but I wish to say that the Israeli authorities' abuse of Pollard has set a very high price tag for self-sacrifice. If I suffer even the smallest fraction of the burden of revealing the betrayal as he did, this would not be a surprise. The champions of democracy are capable of adopting, either freely or forcefully, any dictatorship.


P.S. Here's Rabbi Yuval Sherlo's position:-

Precisely because of a moral position based on Jewish law, it is our obligation to save the duty of insubordination to those rare times where this is truly a duty, and to those cases where there is indeed no point to the existence of government institutions if those are the decisions they make.

Insubordination is a worthy deed when we find ourselves in a situation where it's better to topple everything as long as the terrible order does not remain intact. Any other use of this moral principle, and particularly when we're talking about cases that are very far removed from the ones dealt with by various refuseniks, creates two grave injustices: Firstly, it erodes the duty of refusal and deteriorates it into a political manipulations. Secondly, it creates a moral injustice in the face of other considerations on the opposing side of the issue.

Therefore, the weapon or refusal must be taken out of the arsenal of tools used in our very just struggle for getting back the stolen Jewish property in Hebron. This kind of insubordination is a deed whose morality is somewhat distorted and it is being undertaken without genuinely examining the conscience, particularly when this is done as a collective act.

The very moral struggle for settlement in Hebron must be undertaken morally.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

David Wilder's Clarification on Hillel Weiss' Words

One other thing: true, Prof. Weiss' statements were very harsh. But perhaps people are unaware of a simple fact: Professor Hillel Weiss is the father of Tehila Yahalom , who has now, twice, been evicted from her home. The first time, it should be remembered, she, her husband and family agreed to voluntarily leave their home as part of an agreement with the Commander of forces in Judea and Samaria, who, representing the state, promised that families would soon be able to return to these homes, without any legal hassles. That agreement was broken by the State of Israel. This time she and her husband refused to give in. And Tehila's father, Professor Hillel Weiss, was more than just a little upset.

So, even though his words were harsh, and not necessarily what we would all agree to, Prof. Weiss said the words, but did not execute them. The police and soldiers in Hebron last week may not have said too much, but the damage they did was equivalent to pogroms of a hundred years ago.

Words or Deed: Which are worse?


Source

Monday, August 13, 2007

Hillel Weiss' Apology

"From the remarks and the curses quoted in the media it may seem that I have bad feelings toward the soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the resurrection of the nation and the land," Weiss wrote in a letter to IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen.

"Without going into the events and the many details of what happened, including before I even spoke, I am sorry for stooping to such a level of curses in the remarks I made, and I regret these remarks.

"I myself was a paratrooper and a soldier in elite units," Prof Weiss noted. "I wish all the soldiers and all the people of Israel and all the residents of this country and region complete safety, and not destruction God forbid," he concluded.

He clarified, however, that "for the avoidance of doubt, under absolutely no circumstances do I regret my religious Jewish ideological views. The rights of the Jews in Israel are inherent, holy and must not be harmed.

"The IDF is not an occupier in its own country and cannot treat its countrymen as enemies. And in any event, I will continue to voice my opinions and fight for them."