By Jack L. Greenberg , , Seattle
Norm Levin (Letters, Aug. 19) should get the pro-Sharon speck out of his eye and read up on some of our recent weekly Torah parshas, our Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim, ch. 329), our daily Birkat Hamazon, and refer to the Nuremberg Trials before he castigates rabbis who demand Israeli soldiers not participate in expelling Jews from our land or in surrendering that land.
It is forbidden by the Torah (and by all codes of ethics) to deprive anyone of his property for any reason except when approved by a Jewish Court of Law in full accordance with Jewish Law ? which is extremely careful to protect each individual?s personal and property rights. Any policeman or soldier, even acting on ?government? orders who takes someone?s property without such approval is guilty of robbery. Furthermore, this can bring immediate danger to life.
For as the Torah tells us, it is human nature to defend one?s property ? no normal person stands by silently as his property is taken from him, and this is likely to cause bloodshed, even loss of life (God forbid). And any soldier who harms a settler transgresses the Torah?s prohibition of striking a fellow Jew.
Dozens of Torah prohibitions are transgressed by those carrying out such an expulsion. And for those who do not feel themselves obligated by the Torah, almost all of these acts violate every code of ethics by which all civilized people claim to lead their lives.
No one can claim he is just following government orders ? this argument held no water at Nuremberg for those expelling and exterminating Jews during the Holocaust, and it is invalid and wicked to use it as a defense in this case now.
Norm Levin should rethink his position of supporting Sharon?s underhanded and Bolshevik methods of stifling legitimate protest. He is the Muslim terrorists? ?useful fool? against whose policies almost every military and intelligence analyst has issued grave and dark warnings of the resulting terrible dangers ahead.
The Land of Israel is my land, my inheritance, and no one has the right to cut and run and give it away. My complaint is that not enough rabbis have raised their voices to protest this despicable act of destroying Jewish lives and surrendering our land to terrorism.
Jack L. Greenberg
Seattle