Israel Doesn't Know What Democracy Is

Several rabbis have called on IDF soldiers to disobey orders to dismantle settlements. In response, we read, according to Rabbis: Soldiers must refuse IDF orders,

"The rabbis' call to refuse military orders undermines Israeli democracy," Pines-Paz said. "This is dangerous incitement that is liable to break up the IDF. I call on settlement leaders to distance themselves from these rabbis' declaration. And I call on the attorney-general to open investigations against the rabbis for allegations of incitement."

This is ridiculous. Pines-Paz doesn't know what democracy is.

My memory is fuzzy from having taken United States' Government and Politics some five years ago, but I remembered enough to look up "clear and present danger".

At Wikipedia, we are taken to Schenck v. United States (1919). Wouldn't you know it, but this was regarding calls to avoid the draft in WWI! The parallel is uncanny.

But there's a difference between calls to avoid the WWI draft, and calls to disobey Israel today. To quote Wikipedia (which I realize is not a scholarly source, but it's the best I have at the moment),

The First Amendment did not protect speech encouraging insubordination, since (to quote the ruling), "when a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right." In other words, the court held, the circumstances of wartime permit greater restrictions on free speech than would be allowable during peacetime.

These calls today by rabbis are not calls to abstain from deadly war with the Arabs; these are calls to disobey the Israeli government's deadly war on Israel itself. If anything, I'd say that any calls to obey the government constitute a "clear and present danger".

Indeed, at De'ir Yasin, I believe it was*** [see bottom of post], Israel had issued a curfew on all Arabs, and said that any Arabs found in the open would be shot. The IDF soldiers arrived at De'ir Yasin, and saw Arabs milling about, apparently unaware of the curfew. The IDF soldiers opened fire, as per their orders. Those IDF soldiers were all charged with murder. Why? As the Talmud says, contra the SS defense at Nurembourg, "There is no messenger in the case of sin"; a messenger can say, "I was just delivering my letter" (and he cannot be blamed for its contents), but a messenger cannot say, "I was only following orders" regarding a sinful deed. So the Israeli government, antisemitic as it is, has ruled this Talmudic principle as Israel law. Therefore, any immoral orders issued by the government, soldiers have a duty to disobey them. Thus, I'd say that any calls to obey the government right now constitute a "clear and present danger".

The Israeli government appeals to "democracy" only when it has a fascist and totalitarian agenda to uphold, or an anti-religious agenda to uphold.

*** S. v. "De'ir Yasin": This is in error. This was a different incident, a different controversy. I forget what name of the incident I am referring to.