Defense Minister Ehud Barak is the latest in a series of politicians to visit the site of Thursday night's slaughter of eight Merkaz HaRav students. On Monday night, Barak met with rabbis, teachers and students, and even quoted the late Rosh Yeshiva [Dean], Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook.
Barak met with Yeshiva Dean Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, Rabbi Yehoshua Magnes, and Rabbi Avi Silvetsky. Rabbis Shapira and Silvetsky are the son and grandson-in-law, respectively, of the late Rabbi Avraham Shapira, who headed the Yeshiva from the late 1970's until his death last year.
Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who said in his eulogy for the fallen students on Friday that the present political leadership is "hollow" and should be replaced, told Barak that the war against terrorism must be fought much more intensely.
Olmert Not Welcome
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who also wished to visit Merkaz HaRav, was told that he would not not be welcome. The yeshiva heads implied that he might visit if he wished to, but that they want to save both Olmert and the yeshiva itself from an awkward situation.
Minister Barak also met with Yitzchak Dadon, the part-time student who first shot the terrorist; with Yair Lahav, who first called the Magen David Adom emergency medical service; and with other students who were there at the time of the massacre.
"The terrorist didn't choose this place for no reason," Barak said. "This is a place of tremendous Jewish and Zionist strength."
Noting the pessimistic regional security report presented to the government this week, Barak said, "We have to look at the situation realistically. No one taught more clearly than our teacher Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda that we must not blink when facing a tough reality."
Complaints Against the Terrorist Mouners' Tent
"The students still do not understand why the terrorist's family's mourners' tent is still standing," Rabbi Shapira told the former prime minister, who said he would look into it and return to him with answers.
Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik and MKs from the Likud and National Union-National Religious Party also visited Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook on Monday. Itzik also said that the mourners' tent must be destroyed.
Tamir is Criticized for Visit
The visits went more smoothly than that of Education Minister Yuli Tamir the day before. Tamir, a founder of ultra-left Peace Now who has used her position to the detriment of religious education - cutting budgets, preventing national service girls from teaching in public schools, and more - was greeted with catcalls and jeers when she visited. A plastic bottle was also thrown at her entourage.
An editorial in the Maariv newspaper opined afterwards, "Yuli Tamir should not have gone to the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva. While this is an educational institution, Tamir did not visit it in order to inspect its curriculum and administration. She arrived after a security event, knowing that as a 'leftist', she stood to be on the receiving of end of all kinds of violence."
Rabbi Chanan Porat - long-time student in Merkaz HaRav, former MK, and co-founder of the Gush Emunim settler movement - explained why he felt Tamir received the reaction she did: "For the believing public, the fact that the government wants to build a Palestinian state in the heart of the land - a state that means more terrorism; together with the expulsion from Gush Katif which has brought only Kassams and Katyushas; and the fact that this blind government refuses to open its eyes or to take stock; and that these boys are from the same places that the government wants to destroy - given all that, you cannot expect them to be very tender with her. It's not just politics; their actions are causing direct harm to these boys. No other reaction could have been expected."
Tamir said that the manner in which she was received "reminded me of the days before Rabin's murder. It's unfortunate that that there is a public which cannot put limits on itself. I only came to pay my respect to the murdered, not to engage in politics."
Her remarks should be compared, as analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner has done, with her stance when she headed The Rabin Center. She expressed her conviction at the time that the Center must emphasize Rabin's assassination, the supposed incitement that preceded it, and what she felt was the damage it caused to Israeli democracy. She specifically stated that this overrides efforts to bridge the left-right and religious-secular divides.