Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a sharp public rebuke Monday of Rabbi Dov Landau, the top spiritual leader of the Lithuanian Haredi world, after Landau accused religious Zionist soldiers of participating in what he called effective murder. Netanyahu said he firmly rejects the shocking remarks made against religious Zionist IDF fighters, adding that soldiers of every background, religious, secular, and Haredi alike, leave their homes, jobs, and families and risk their lives to defend the state, its citizens, and the Jewish people as a whole. He said they deserve deep appreciation, gratitude, and full backing from every part of the public, including the Torah world.
The controversy began when Landau, addressing the heads of the Mir Yeshiva during a meeting in his Bnei Brak home, said the current wave of hardship facing Haredi society comes from elsewhere, referring to secular leaders as wicked, then added that those who wear knitted kippot, a reference to religious Zionists, are no less so. He went on to argue that the religious Zionist community supports wars that are not fought to save lives, saying that when the state sends soldiers to kill in the name of national honor rather than genuine rescue, that too amounts to real murder, and accused religious Zionist leaders of incitement to killing. He said their approach lacks any coherent framework and reflects a worldview that treats the state itself as the highest value.
Asked near the end of the conversation how people should be praying during the current period, Landau said only that God should help things turn out well, adding that Jews should not presume to advise the Almighty and should instead pray that the entire ordeal passes like a dream, blown away like a passing wind and a vanishing cloud.
The remarks land amid an already tense standoff between Landau and Netanyahu's government. Landau, the spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, recently instructed the party's Knesset members that he no longer trusts the prime minister and would only support moves that benefit Haredi society and the yeshiva world going forward, declaring that the political bloc uniting religious and right wing parties no longer exists as far as he is concerned and calling for early elections.
