Posted on 08/06/2015 3:04:54 PM PDT by the scotsman
Head of Lehava, known for violent campaign against Jew-Arab assimilation, risks arrest with public defence of setting fire to Holy Land churches
' The leader of a far-Right Israeli group has risked arrest by apparently voicing support for arson attacks on Christian churches amid an official crackdown on Jewish extremism.
Benzi Gopstein, the outspoken head of Lehava - which has drawn notoriety for its violent assaults on Jewish-Arab assimilation - made the remarks at a panel discussion for Jewish yeshiva students when asked by a fellow panelist if he believed burning down churches in Israel was justified.
He later tried to evade accusations of inciting his followers to fire-raise, saying it was the government's responsibility to carry out what he presented as a religious teaching of the 12th century Jewish philosopher, Maimonides.
“Did the Rambam [Maimonides] rule to destroy [idol worship] or not? Idol worship must be destroyed. It’s simply yes – what’s the question?” Mr Gopstein told the panel.
His comment alarmed his questioner Benny Rabinovich, a journalist, who told him: "Benzi, I must say I’m really shocked by what you’re saying here. You are essentially saying we must go out and burn down churches. You’re saying something insane here.”
Told by another panelist, Moshe Klein, rabbi of Israel's Haddash medical centres, that the discussion was being filmed and that his remarks could lead to his arrest, Mr Gopstein answered: “That’s the last thing that concerns me. If this is truth, I’m prepared to sit in jail 50 years for it.”'
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
This guy is a loon, but he is also the exception that proves the rule.
Bad Plan.
stupid is as stupid does...
Yeah, whack jobs do and say things every day in foreign countries.
In Greenland they just jacked up the cell phone tax.
How about that?
oh the horror!
They have cell coverage in Greenland, but do they have it in Tijeras? Noooooooo.
I've not run any studies, but I'd say that it might be because there are people who actually LIKE Greenland.
Eighteen or twenty of them.
So they have numbers on their side.
Sounds like more of a leftist than a rightist.
Is really far right or in reality far left?
When I was in Israel, I NEVER heard of any Israeli who advocated burning Christian Churches.
I DID hear many times of Palestinian’s trying to shatter the friendship between Christians and Jews.
Sadly he will be used by the Liberal Socialist JINOs in this country Like Jon Stewart so they can point and say “See see Israel has extremist Jews!” in a disingenuous effort to try to make some sorta weird moral liberal equivalency argument against Israel.
I guess this guy isn’t part of the “Tourism not Terrorism” push to attract frightened tourists back to the Holy Land...
This sounds like one of those gotcha questions without context. Typically Talmudic rules are complex with a lot of exceptions, and these folks may be way out there even by Jewish theological standards.
Also the interest in “idol temples” — if I understand the meaning of Orthodox Jewish takes on what Christian faith is — would not bother any evangelical or Protestant churches — because they do symbolic communions.
FWIW.
Bkmk
Right now in the US, Christians are the best friends Israel has. This clown had better be careful.
"Told by another panelist, Moshe Klein, rabbi of Israel's Haddash medical centres, that the discussion was being filmed and that his remarks could lead to his arrest, Mr Gopstein answered: “That’s the last thing that concerns me. If this is truth, I’m prepared to sit in jail 50 years for it.”
Well then,...let him rot in prison for 50 years.
Nailed it.
“If this is truth, I’m prepared to sit in jail 50 years for it.”’
Oblige him then.
L
If you follow your deadly enemy’s practices, you are liable to find Israel with NO FRIENDS left and end your days satisfied with your zealotry but without Israel. Rambam desired to eliminate tendencies towards idols especially within the Jewish diaspora rather than the world at large. This being his life within the Islamic World of Spain, North Africa and Egypt (1135-1204 CE), any attack upon idols in Islam would have been a quick death sentence!
As for Benzi Gopstein, he needs to check in with his fellow fanatics in ISIL, Boko Haram, Hindu radicals, Jonestown and Westboro Baptist Church.
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