Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded Monday afternoon to remarks by Lithuanian haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando against IDF soldiers in general, and Religious Zionist soldiers who wear knitted kippot in particular.
“I strongly reject the shocking statements made against IDF soldiers from the Religious Zionist community. IDF soldiers - religious, secular, and haredi - leave their homes, their jobs, and their families, and risk their lives to defend the State of Israel, its citizens, and the entire Jewish people.
“They deserve profound appreciation, gratitude, and full support from every segment of the public, and certainly also from the Torah world," Netanyahu said.
The Degel Hatorah faction on Monday defended Rabbi Lando's statement, saying, "The words of the great Torah sages are the holiest of holies for the Jewish people, and we live by their guidance." The party also urged the public not to rush to interpret or attack the rabbis' statements.
Rabbi Dov Lando’s remarks were published Sunday night, in which he expressed a strong and unusual position against government figures and members of the Religious Zionist community who are pushing for yeshiva students to enlist in the IDF.
“Will it not be so? The decrees come from another source. There are wicked people here - what can be done? There are wicked people, including among those who wear knitted kippot. I am referring to those Religious Zionists who insist that people must enlist. I would ask them, according to their own way of thinking - though they have no consistent position at all - if the state sends people, soldiers, for the sake of the country’s honor, and they are killed, is that also permissible? That is outright murder. Therefore, they are inciting murder - that is what they are doing."
Rabbi Lando accused Religious Zionist figures who support IDF enlistment of encouraging “actual murder," claiming that soldiers are sent to fight “not only for the sake of saving lives, but also for the honor of the state."