Israel/Palestine

In addition, he said that the Jewish Reform movement is a branch of Christianity, and that lots of branches started in Judaism before moving on to other religions or movements.

The Zion and Jerusalem Conference at which Levenstein spoke was dedicated to “the infiltration of Reform Jewry into the State of Israel.” The issues discussed at the conference reflect the growing exacerbation of the culture war waged in Israel almost since its very inception in 1948: the war between liberals and conservatives; the secular and the religious; and pragmatic Israelis and messianic Israelis.

The members of Israel’s former secular-liberal elite group (those identified with the state-founding period Labor movement) serve in the army shoulder to shoulder with Israelis of Ethiopian heritage, Russian immigrants, Druze, Bedouin, youths from the periphery and even a growing number of Christian and Muslim Arabs. Thus, what we are seeing today is a war of control over the IDF, an institution that had once been called “the nation’s army.” The State of Israel is populated by several tribes of the same nation; each tribe perceives the army from its own point of view and pulls in its own direction.

The opinions expressed by Karim and Levenstein have generated many reactions and raised a giant storm in the Israeli media and the Israeli public agenda. It is noteworthy that most of the rabbis who responded negated the interpretation of their words and the general tone. They made it clear that Judaism must not be allowed to get between the soldiers and their commanders, and religious beliefs should not be a factor in IDF-related internal issues or operational orders. The problem is that a not insignificant number of these rabbis secretly support the stances of Karim and Levenstein and are determined to win the culture war that is running riot in Israel.