The storm that erupted in the Rabbinic world over the comments of MK Moshe Gafne continues to roil. Rabbis have unmitigatedly rejected Gafne’s position, presented to the media, according to which “there is no need to take settlements into consideration [in peace talks]. Concessions made for peace are not concessions at all, and according to Jewish law, it is permitted to evacuate settlements and return them to the Arabs,” said Gafne.

In response to his statement, the “Rabbinical Congress for Peace” has publicized an official protest in the name of 400 Israeli Rabbis who are against this proclamation.

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzefas and member of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate has written: “It might have been possible to argue this matter theoretically, thirty of forty years ago; however, to show up today waiving outdated responsa and old letters is an effrontery to the entire concept of Torah authority. We must remember that from the time that those original theoretical discussions about the halachic status of Israeli territories were held in the 1980s, different Israeli governments have tried dozens of miserable ‘experiments’ to apply the ‘land for peace’ formula, only to leave behind a long trail of Jewish blood and serious damage to the Israeli security.

“Who among the legal experts of our time was greater than Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ZT”L, who, in his first examination of the issue ruled that it was permissible to concede Israeli territories ‘in exchange for peace,’ yet – as a man of Torah guided solely by the truth – did not hesitate for a moment to retract his opinion immediately after the wave of terror began following the Oslo Accords. He himself wrote that the entire negotiations were fundamentally flawed, and concluded (based on Tehillim 120:7): ‘I am for peace, and should I speak? They are for war!’

“After all the blood that has been spilled due to the concessions of territories to our enemies, how dare a person talk about a ‘Torah position’ that ‘prefers the transfer of territories in exchange for peace’? Is there a Rabbi in the world today who still thinks that Jewish law supports the destruction of settlements and the handing over of territories, positions, weapons and responsibility to those haters of Israel, the partners of ISIS, in close proximity to Jewish settlements, G-d forbid!”

Rabbi Eliyahu Schlesinger, Rabbi of Gilo and Mekor Chaim, and one of the leading rabbis of Rabbinical Congress for Peace also protested sharply the words of MK Gafne, by saying: “Gafne seems to have been asleep for the last twenty-five years! He is talking today about ‘removing settlements in exchange for peace”! This is absolute nonsense! Today, you don’t need to be a Torah scholar or halachic authority to see the simple reality, which has always been clear – there has never been such a thing as “handing over land for peace.” Our enemies have absolutely no intention of accepting our existence, and no concession on our part will make them to change for the better; rather, the opposite is true. The true Torah position cannot be based on pipe-dreams.”

Rabbi Yirmiyahu Cohen, Chief Rabbinical Judge of Paris and Rabbi of France’s expatriate community in Israel has also lent his voice to the protest, stating today that after we have come to realize that any concession made to our enemies has only increased terror and brought terrible dangers to the inhabitants of the country, it is highly inappropriate to even mention such views from the past: “We have come to see that the famous law of the Shulchan Aruch, which prohibits the withdrawal from Jewish territories in order to save lives, is itself the only assurance of life! Both Jewish law and the reality of the situation demand of us today to proclaim loudly that the transfer of territories is itself the gravest danger, and that any concession and withdrawal will only increase the danger to Jewish life. Claiming the opposite will only weaken and endanger the people of Israel.”

Last week the annual convention of the Chabad shluchim in the Holy Land also issued a sharp protest against Gafne’s statements.

“We strongly and painfully protest the insidious comments of Knesset member Moshe Gafne,” read the Lubavitcher statement, “who publicized this week the false and outdated “position” that “there is no need to take settlements into consideration [in peace talks]. Concessions made for peace are not concessions at all, and according to Jewish law, it is permitted to evacuate settlements and return them to the Arabs.” This view, even in its time, was solidly refuted and stood in stark contradiction to established halacha. How much more so is it irrelevant today, given the irrefutable evidence that every terror attack, rocket and mortar fire, shootings and knife attacks were directly caused by Israeli concessions and disengagements, until we have reached a situation in which the very territories delivered to our enemies as “concessions for peace” have become bases for terror attacks against Jews!

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)