Rabbis slam West Bank withdrawal

JERUSALEM – Some of the most prominent rabbis in the Jewish state yesterday issued a call for religious Knesset parties to abstain from joining the recently elected Israeli government, blasting new Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to withdraw from most of the West Bank as "disastrous" for the country's security.

Several top religious parties are currently conducting negotiations to join Olmert's government. Their participation is considered crucial for Olmert to form any stable ruling coalition.

"There is no issue that supersedes human life, and the [withdrawal] plan will lead to bloodshed and will place the residents of Israel in mortal danger," read a statement signed by the leaders of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of over 1,500 pulpit rabbis nationwide, including many top religious names here.

Olmert's Kadima Party last month won by a slim plurality the most mandates in the 120-seat Knesset. The leader of the party that wins the most seats becomes prime minister and must form a governing coalition consisting of more than 60 Knesset seats to assume power.

Leading Israeli political analysts contend Olmert, with 29 seats, would need a religious party to join him if he is to form a stable government. Kadima's alliance with Labor, which has 20 seats, looks likely. The ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, with 12 seats, has said it might join Olmert's coalition along with the smaller United Torah Judaism if certain economic conditions are met.

If the ultra-Orthodox parties refuse to join Kadima, Olmert would be hard-pressed to form a governing coalition.

Yesterday, negotiators for Shas and UTJ reportedly demanded several government portfolios, the independence of Israel's rabbinical courts and money for financial and social religious institutions as preconditions for joining Olmert's government.

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace slammed the religious parties for not objecting to Kadima's planned West Bank withdrawal:

"You gain nothing with more stipends for large families and more money for yeshivos when our very existence will be in danger as a result of the convergence plan," stated the rabbis' petition.

"Instead of focusing on secondary issues, you should focus and insist on the removal of any guidelines that stipulate abandoning land to Hamas and the uprooting of Jewish settlements."

Since taking office, Olmert has announced he will seek to "change Israel's borders" by withdrawing from most of the West Bank within the next 18 months. Top Olmert officials have stated the prime minister would also evacuate peripheral areas of Jerusalem.

The West Bank is within rocket-firing range of Jerusalem and borders most major Israeli cities. Military strategists long have estimated Israel must maintain the West Bank to defend itself from any ground invasion.

Olmert said under his plan Israel will maintain select security zones and some of the area's major West Bank Jewish communities, alluding to evacuating West Bank towns that fall outside Israel's security fence.

About 200,000 Jews live in the West Bank. The security fence, still under construction in certain areas, cordons off nearly 95 percent of the territory from Israel's pre-1967 borders. More than half the West Bank's Jewish residents reside on the side of the fence closest to Israel. About 90,000 more Jews live on the other side of the barrier.

The rabbis also pointed out the religious aspects to any West Bank withdrawal. Villages slated for withdrawal from the West Bank, which Israelis commonly refer to as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Torah.

The book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring. He was later buried with the rest of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, except for Rachel, in Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs. Hebron was site of the first Jewish capital.

The nearby town of Beit El, anciently called Bethel meaning "house of God," is where Scripture says the patriarch Jacob slept on a stone pillow and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. In that dream, God spoke directly to Jacob and reaffirmed the promise of territory.

And in Exodus, the holy tabernacle rested in Shiloh, believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt.

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