Minister Yaakov Litzman
Minister Yaakov LitzmanHadas Parush, Flash 90

The upsurge in attacks by the Yerushalmi Faction against haredi soldiers has led some haredim to break their silence.

Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) explained today (Monday) why despite the terrible incitement against haredi soldiers, he has yet to condemn the actions.

According to Minister Litzman, the Yerushalmi Faction is not connected to the haredi mainstream and he therefore is not required to condemn their attacks on soldiers.

"Attacks against haredi soldiers are not connected to us, that is not our way," Litzman said in an interview with Army Radio. "This is a small handful that do not heed our rabbis. I do not have to condemn anything that has nothing to do with us."

In his letter to MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu), which he sent a few weeks ago, Litzman made it clear that violence against soldiers contradicts Torah values: "Our commitment to the IDF soldiers and their security is not in doubt. Like the entire people of Israel, I value and appreciate their devotion and their activities in the service of the people and the State, and bless them for success in their missions with God's help for the citizens of Israel," Litzman wrote to Forer.

Litzman added that "the Haredi representation in the Knesset is united in its position, as we have clarified in every forum, against any manifestation of violence and any harm to IDF soldiers. This is not our path and this is not the way of Torah."

Religious Zionism, too, is grappling with issues that derive from the IDF's culture war to negate Torah values. In a recent booklet authored by the Dean of Yeshivat Har Hamor, eminent Rabbi Tzvi Yisrael Tau, the nature of the conflict is described: "Unfortunately, the army has been given over to delinquent hands which promote exploitation of the military to change life in the country - the character of the culture, morality, conscience, and religion. They define the IDF's primary goal, above the value of victory over the enemy, as the creation of what they call 'advanced norms worthy of the human race', among them gender equality and gender integration."

According to Rabbi Tau, "This agenda is what is generating the destructive processes which are befalling the army, specifically in the area of young men and women serving together."