Luke Ford

The rabbi has simply said things that are basic Torah. If you condemn his statements, you are condemning Torah.

Torah is not the same as western liberalism. These are two different outlooks on life.

The Torah is homophobic and sexist and racist.

If you want a rabbi who is not homophobic, then you want a rabbi who is not representative of the rabbinic tradition. He’s a faux rabbi.

Torah does not recognize any such moral categories as racism, sexism, homophobia, and Islamophobia. All these modern sins were taken for granted moral truths in the West prior to the 1960s.

Forward:

Another sexism scandal involving a male authority figure erupted in Israel on Monday, when it emerged that the army’s choice of new spiritual leader had previously implied that it was permissible for IDF soldiers to rape non-Jewish women during wartime.

Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim is on his second round of scrutiny for this suggestion, which he originally made in 2002. In 2012, when his his comments resurfaced for the first time, Karim sought to temper the storm by claiming that his musings on rape were meant only theoretically, and not practically. Four years later, Karim is in line for promotion to chief rabbi of the self-proclaimed “most moral army in the world.”

In the wake of the fresh controversy, the Israeli media unearthed a further array of bigoted and misogynistic comments Karim has made, including stating his absolute opposition to women’s recruitment to the army, and claiming that they are not fit to testify in court due to their “sentimental nature.”

He has also held forth on terrorists, to whom he referred as “animals”; the New Testament, which he said should be burned for being the work of heretics; and LGBTs, calling them “sick or disabled” — which is somewhat at odds with the gay-friendly image the IDF, and Israel in general, like to project.

Karim renounced his comments on rape again this week, as well as those on women in the army, a retraction the IDF publicly accepted in its own statement. At the same time, however, the military announced it had been unaware of many of Karim’s comments when it nominated him, and then went and re-endorsed him anyway. This makes the sequence of events even worse, because it suggests that the IDF was compelled to pay special attention to the remarks of a candidate who implicitly condoned rape and demeaned, objectified and dehumanized anyone who is not a heterosexual Jewish male, and simply shrugged its shoulders and went, “meh.”

But Karim’s appointment is not only dangerous because it reaffirms the message that one can make violent, racist, sexist and homophobic statements and still get promoted to Israel’s highest public offices. His nomination must also be seen in the context of a society in which convictions and allegations of sexual assault and harassment of women by high-profile and powerful men — from senior politicians to high-ranking army officers, town mayors and celebrities — enter the headlines with alarming regularity.

The IDF alone received 12 reports of suspected rape and 125 reports of suspected sexual assault or harassment in 2015. Almost all of the 32 female members of the Knesset have experienced some form of sexual harassment, including at least two while serving in parliament. Recurring accusations of sexual harassment in the police force were met with new police chief Roni Alsheikh’s order that anonymous complaints be disregarded. Ex-President Moshe Katsav, serving jail time after being convicted of rape and sexual harassment, has reportedly just been recommended for early release despite expressing no remorse for his actions.