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Jonathan
Sacks is Britain’s chief rabbi
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LONDON,
August 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Britain’s chief rabbi,
Jonathan Sacks, received Tuesday, August 27, fierce criticism from
sections of the Jewish community after his strong warning to Israel
about its conduct in the Middle East crisis, a U.K. daily newspaper
reported.
A
hard-line Israeli rabbi said Dr. Sacks had become “irrelevant” in
the world Jewish community because of his comments. But other Jewish
leaders applauded the chief rabbi for speaking out and claimed his words
would find sympathy with many Jews, the Guardian reported.
Professor
Sacks launched his unprecedented strong criticism of Israel in an
interview with the Guardian Tuesday. “I regard the current situation
as nothing less than tragic. It is forcing Israel into postures that are
incompatible in the long run with our deepest ideals,” he said.
“There
is no question that this kind of prolonged conflict, together with the
absence of hope, generates hatreds and insensitivities that in the long
run are corrupting to a culture,” added Dr. Sacks.
During
his 11-year tenure as head of the Jewish community in the U.K. and the
Commonwealth, Sacks has previously steered clear of commenting on
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The
fiercest of his critics yesterday was Rabbi Shalom Gold, dean of
Jerusalem College for Adults, who told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One:
“We who are living here day in and day out, our perspective is the one
that really counts,” the Guardian reported.
“I
have a great deal of respect for the chief rabbi and therefore it is
extremely sad for me to hear him make comments of such a nature which
for all intents and purposes will now make him irrelevant in the world
Jewish community,” he added.
But
Rabbi Charles Middleburgh, executive director of the Union of Liberal
and Progressive Synagogues, applauded the chief rabbi for his courage in
speaking out.
“It
is incredibly important when someone says something controversial at a
difficult time for people to think not just about what they have said
but why they have said it. This is a man who rarely comes off the fence
but this time, to his great credit, he has.”
The
chief rabbi also received support from Paul Usiskin, chairman of British
Friends of Peace Now, an Israeli movement that calls for immediate peace
between Palestinians and Israelis.
“I
share, with many Jews and Zionists, the chief rabbi’s anguish at
Israel’s conduct and I welcome his desire to find dialogue to help
resolve the Middle East conflict,” he said in a letter to the
Guardian.
On
the other hand, Eric Graus, president of the British section of Ariel
Sharon’s Likud party, accused the chief rabbi of being naive.
“I
think what he has said is wrong and that the Israeli government has
acted with great restraint. The great worry is that the terrorist
organizations will see this as a split in the Jewish community and see
it as evidence that their tactics are working,” he claimed.
Israel’s
state radio, the Voice of Israel, carried reports on the chief rabbi’s
interview Tuesday.
The
early reports focused on his comments about the incompatibility of
Israel’s stance in the occupied territories with Judaism’s deepest
ideals, but later the story’s emphasis was switched so as to highlight
his meeting with an Iranian Ayatollah and his comment that they quickly
“established a common language”.
“Perhaps
it was an effort to discredit him”, said Rabbi Arik Aschermann, the
head of Rabbis for Human Rights, a Jerusalem-based group. “What he
says is very much in line with what we think, and what many others
believe who are hesitant to say so out loud.”
In
the United States, the organization “Jews Against the Occupation”
welcomed the chief rabbi’s remarks. “Our group has been saying this
for a while and I am glad he is now saying that publicly,” said the
organization’s Lorne Lieb, an Israeli newspaper reported.
The Likud-Herut headquarters in Britain accused Sacks of being “used
by people who, at best, cannot be described as friends of Israel.” The
political party branch accused Sacks of encouraging Israel’s enemies,
charging him with “moral blindness.”
Betar-Tagar, the youth movement affiliated with Herut and the Likud,
called for Sacks' resignation, claiming he added “fuel to the burning
fire of the conflict. When anti-Semitism in Britain and the world is
rising, we do not expect our chief rabbi to support the enemies of
Israel and their propaganda,” they claimed, Ha’aretz said.
“I think that Rabbi Sacks will get a lot of flak from the Orthodox
sections in the Jewish community,” Middleburgh said.
“But
I hope very much that as far as he goes - and of course many of us would
like him to go much further and express much more detail than he has -
but we will I hope give him some support.”
