Media interview with HaRav Shlomo Aviner, head of Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem.. Transcribed by Rabbi Mordechai Tzion.
Q: How does the Rabbi relate to the hilltop youth who take revenge against Arabs in response to attacks on Jews?
A: First of all, one must be very careful about generalizations. Almost all hilltop youth are not involved in this at all. Rather, they are engaged in settling the Land of Israel with great self-sacrifice, quietly and peacefully. May God bless them.
Q: And what about those who did act in this way?
A: There is no question here. The authority responsible for security in our beloved Land is the Israel Defense Forces - and only the IDF. Or the police. No private individual is permitted to take the law into his own hands. Incidentally, Arabs are also not permitted to take the law into their own hands and murder Jews.
Q: What does the Rabbi mean by that?
A: That when Arabs do things that cross every boundary, they should prepare themselves mentally in advance for the possibility that the response will also cross boundaries.
Q: Excuse me - where is that written?
A: There is no need for it to be written. It is a self-evident reality. In Rabbi Kook’s time there once an incident of a man who stood on Shabbat opposite a synagogue and photographed the worshippers. They approached him gently and asked him to stop, but he ignored them and continued. One of the worshippers became angry, knocked the camera from the photographer’s hand, and broke it. The photographer came to complain to HaRav Kook who responded, “Had the angered man asked me what to do, I would have forbidden him to respond violently. But he did not ask me. As far as the photographer is concerned, if you act in an abnormal manner, you must be prepared that the response will also be abnormal."
Q: And if those violent hilltop youths had asked the Rabbi what to do?
A: Certainly I would have told them that personal revenge is forbidden. I would also have explained to them that the Israel Defense Forces possesses extensive intelligence information that we do not have and therefore the day of justice and recompense will come.
Q: Still, is there not a tone of leniency in the Rabbi’s words toward the young settlers?
A: These are two different facets to this matter. On the one hand, it is forbidden to take the law into one’s own hands, and also to harm innocent Arabs. On the other hand, it is possible to understand the natural reaction of these young people in the face of the ongoing murder of Jews, including youngstters.
Q: It’s complicated.
A: Correct. Life is complicated. There is even a halakhic concept for this: “his heart grew hot."
Q: But if murder follows murder, doesn’t that indicate that the IDF is not doing its job faithfully?
A: I would be very careful about speaking ill of the IDF, which devotes itself day and night to protecting the public, while you are not fully familiar with everything it does nor are you privy to all the data. Moreover, the IDF is not a private militia; it is subject to the directives of the government.
Q: So I ask the Rabbi an innocent question: What can be done? How can terror be stopped?
A: Of course, the IDF can always improve, and that is what it is doing. But the key is that the Arabs must understand once and for all that this Land is ours, and we will not give it up, whatever the cost. Then they will make their own reckoning: either to live as law-abiding minorities in our state, or to move to another state of their own. After all, Muslims have a commandment of jihad - to conquer the entire world - but it is dependent on their ability. If they are unable, then they desist and sign a ceasefire. Incidentally, that is what exists between us and Egypt: not “peace" (in Arabic ṣulḥ), but a ceasefire (in Arabic silm).
Q: If the solution is so simple, why doesn’t everyone understand it?
A: Because our national stature and pride was shattered in exile. Except for the bravery and self-sacrifice of the early pioneers and the soldiers of Jewish Underground and the Haganah, Diaspora Jewry, by-and-large, adopted a victim mentality. We forgot how to stand up for ourselves. Now we are returning to our true health.
Q: And no “price tag" actions?
A: Under no circumstances. Nothing without authorization from the IDF.
Q: Let’s hope.
A: For sure.