Rabbis Blast West Bank WithdrawalOver 100 prominent senior Israeli rabbis gathered in Jerusalem yesterday to blast Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to unilaterally withdraw from most of the West Bank and to urge religious Knesset parties to abstain from joining Olmert's newly elected government.
Ultra-Orthodox parties scored high in elections here this week. Their participation is considered crucial for Olmert to form any stable ruling coalition.
"Mathematically, the Israeli left has 52 mandates, and every coalition, in every form, is dependent on the religious and the ultra-Orthodox," said Nobel Prize-winning Professor Rabbi Yisrael Aumann at the Jerusalem press conference, arranged by the Rabbinical Congress for Peace.
"If a call goes out from here for religious parties not to join a coalition of parties willing to give away territories, there won't be an [Olmert] coalition."
Olmert's Kadima Party this week won by a slim majority the most mandates in the 120-seat Knesset. The leader of the party that wins the most seats becomes prime minister and must form a governing coalition consisting of more than 60 Knesset seats in order to assume power.
Leading Israeli political analysts contend Olmert, with 29 seats, would need a religious party to join him if he is to form a stable government. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, with 13 seats, has said it might join Olmert's coalition if certain economic conditions are met.
A resolution passed by the Rabbinical Congress at yesterday's conference called on "all parties from the right and left of the political spectrum to immediately abandon its concessionary psychology and not to form or join any coalition that agrees to withdraw from any part of Judea and Samaria."
The resolution expressed shock that "after the increased terror alerts throughout Israel and daily rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel precipitated by the withdrawal from Gaza, there are still those who delude themselves into thinking that by further withdrawal from any part of Judea and Samaria peace will reign in the region."
It declared any withdrawal from the West Bank against Jewish law:
"[A withdrawal] will only lead to increased bloodshed and instability in the region as determined in the Jewish Code of Law Orach Chaim Chapter 329 [which restricts Jews from giving territory to an enemy that will use the gained land to attack]."
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