The Moment magazine is an American Jewish publication. It covers areas related to Jewish culture, lifestyle, politics, and religion.

In the May/June edition of the magazine an article was run asking the question how should Jews treat their Arab neighbours?

The magazine published a number of different answers from rabbis  to the question but one in particular has caused a bit of a commotion.

Rabbi Manis Friedman is a biblical scholar, author, dean of the Bais Chana Institute of Jewish Studies and host of the television series Torah Forum with Manis Friedman.

The following is Rabbi Friedman’s response to the question how should Jews treat their Arab neighbours :

“I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral.

The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).

The first Israeli prime minister who declares that he will follow the Old Testament will finally bring peace to the Middle East. First, the Arabs will stop using children as shields. Second, they will stop taking hostages knowing that we will not be intimidated. Third, with their holy sites destroyed, they will stop believing that G-d is on their side. Result: no civilian casualties, no children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, in fact, no war.

Zero tolerance for stone throwing, for rockets, for kidnapping will mean that the state has achieved sovereignty. Living by Torah values will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat because of a disastrous morality of human invention.” {Source: Moment}

Predictably there’s been a storm over Rabbi Friedman’s comments and predictably also he’s published a clarification on his website :

“…my answer, as written, is misleading…..

… how should we act in time of war, when our neighbors attack us, using their women, children and religious holy places as shields. I attempted to briefly address some of the ethical issues related to forcing the military to withhold fire from certain people and places, at the unbearable cost of widespread bloodshed (on both sides!) — when one’s own family and nation is mercilessly targeted from those very people and places.

Furthermore, some of the words I used in my brief comment were irresponsible, and I look forward to further clarifying them in a future issue.” {Source: It’s Good To Know}

Which all brings me to the fact that according to Rabbinical Law there is nothing wrong with what Rabbi Friedman is quoted as saying.

In this politically correct age he must of course publish a clarification but as the following links prove what the rabbi said is not peculiar to Rabbinical Law:

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