Question

[bunglehead]

So anybody else experience a little knot in the pit of their stomach at the sight of Palestinians cheering and dancing on top of burning synagogues in Gaza?

Doesn't really have "Peace Treaty" stamped on it.

And no I'm not defending Sharon and his brutal policies.

It was just a fucked up thing to see.

[Thinker]

So the real question is, was the decision by the Israelis to leave the Synagogues intact at the time of their withdrawl truly a religious decision, or was it a political decision?

 

If it were a political decision, then the images you describe are having their intended political effect.

 

If it were truly a religious decision, then IMHO we should all celebrate the buildings' destruction, because that's the way the religious leaders wanted the buildings to be dismantled. A secondary question is, why should religious leaders have any say in decisions related to political and military withdrawl, anyway?

 

I am admittedly uninformed about Jewish tradition and procedure, but certainly there is a protocol for deconsecrating a synagogue. This can't possibly be the first time in history this situation has arisen.

 

My hunch is that the Israeli government used the cover of religion to declare themselves unable to respectfully demolish these buildings, and thus set the scene for the images you reference.

[bunglehead]

Ahh, how those exact same questions popped into my head.

The decision was made to dismantle them after they were deconsecrated, then at the last minute (midnight 2 nights ago, actually), too many members of the Knesset said they couldn't bear the thought of okaying the destruction of a synagogue. If it was a ploy by Sharon, that's even more pernicious than I would have given him credit for. I can guarantee you that if the Israelis had set fire to a mosque, even a deconsecrated and vacated one, the world reaction would have likely been vocal, to say the least.

Now we have images of Palestinians celebrating the destruction of a Jewish house of worship, which won't help in any way with what little of the "peace process" there is.

Just today in Haaretz (Israeli paper) a columnist wrote that their actions just prove that they're evading responsibility of being an "enlightened nation"

More fuel on the fire.

It was probably a political ploy on both sides. Palestinian leaders can put their hands up and say "There was nothing we could do", letting Gazans vent their (understandable) anger while hatemongers on the Israeli side can use this as "proof" that they're animals.

Sucks. The Israelis should have done it themselves. this looks bad on everyone.

[ChrisT]

Good points. You're very thoughtful for a bunglehead.

[Stefan]

So the real question is, was the decision by the Israelis to leave the Synagogues intact at the time of their withdrawl truly a religious decision, or was it a political decision?

 

If it were a political decision, then the images you describe are having their intended political effect.

 

If it were truly a religious decision, then IMHO we should all celebrate the buildings' destruction, because that's the way the religious leaders wanted the buildings to be dismantled. A secondary question is, why should religious leaders have any say in decisions related to political and military withdrawl, anyway?

 

I am admittedly uninformed about Jewish tradition and procedure, but certainly there is a protocol for deconsecrating a synagogue. This can't possibly be the first time in history this situation has arisen.

 

My hunch is that the Israeli government used the cover of religion to declare themselves unable to respectfully demolish these buildings, and thus set the scene for the images you reference.

 

I am also uninformed about Jewish tradition. But here is a little thing I have learned.

 

The Jewish synogogues that were destroyed by Germans and still remain intact in Poland (they are just empty shells now) are considered holy sites. There are pilgrims that visit these sites, or empty shells. My guess is that it is a big no-no to destroy a synogogue.......

 

Ahhh. But bunglehead has enlightened me even more. I guess it is okay to destroy a synogogue.

Edited September 13, 2005 by Stefan

[Dru]

If they are still sacred no matter what is done to them, then why should anyone care what happens to them?

[bunglehead]

Being a Jew, and at one point considering becoming a Rabbi, I'm very, very familiar with how it works. It is indeed a big, huge no-no to destroy a synagouge. The thing is, this the first time in Israeli history that this has come up.

Other settlement places set aside for prayer, but they were (and still are in some places) considered not a synagogue.

We've been dispersed for thousands of years (hence the term diaspora Jew), so we've collectively had a lot of practice with temporary residency, from Mesopotamia to Spain to Austria

Sorry, back to the synagogue thing. Anyway, the smarter people in government figure it's better to deal with the pain of losing a synagogue or 5 than it is to deal with the consequences of occupying Gaza any longer. It's not much, but it's a little, tiny bit of progress.