Prof James Petras: Israel's Coming Civil War, The Haredi Jews

confront the militarized secular Zionist State: Israel is heading towards a profound internal crisis: a Jew on Jew confrontation, which has major implications for its relations with the Palestinians, as well as its Arab neighbors. The conflict is between the highly militarized Zionist state, and the Haredi religious movement over a number of issues, including recent proposals by the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, to end the religious exemption of Haradi youth from serving in Israel's colonial armed forces. Even before the forcible imposition the founding of the state of Israel, the Haredim in Israel remain staunchly opposed to the Zionist state for religious, ethical and political reasons. Haredi religious teaching claims that the Jewish people are bound by three oaths: (1) not to settle in Israel by using force or violence. (2) not to make war with other nations and (3) not to act as if the other nations of the world would persecute Israel. Haredim opposed Israel's violent ethnic cleaning of over 850,000 Palestinians in the course of establishing the Israeli State, and continues to oppose Israeli settlers' violently land grabs against Palestinians. Unlike other so called ultra Orthodox sects, who support Zionist colonialism and bless the Israeli military, the Haredim maintain that militarism corrupts the spirit, and that Zionists have transformed Jews from righteous followers of the Torah, into rabid ethnocentric supporters of a militarist state. For the Haredim, 'state worship', especially the waving of the Israeli flag in the temple, is a sacrilege comparable to the renegade Jews condemned by Moses for worshiping the Golden Calf. The majority of Haredim boycott elections, organize their own schools, encourage students to deepen their religious studies, emphasize community and family values of a profoundly patriarchal sort, with numerous children, and strongly reject the Zionist state's efforts to conscript Haredi youth into their occupation army, the so called Israeli Defense Force. All major Zionist political parties, and the ruling colonial regime unite to demonize the Haredim, claiming they are shirking their patriotic military responsibilities.