Renowned rabbinical preacher and outreach personality Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak
claimed on Tuesday that a “prophecy” he had made about the outbreak of war had
come true with Operation Pillar of Defense.
During a lecture in June this
year in Tiberias, Yitzhak said a war would break out between Israel and its
enemies because of efforts to draft haredi (ultra- Orthodox) yeshiva students
into the army.
He made the comments while the government was trying to
agree on legislation to integrate yeshiva students into military service,
following the High Court of Justice’s February ruling that the previous
arrangement – in which full-time yeshiva students could opt out of serving – was
illegal.
“God sits in heaven and plays with them, and laughs, ‘All of a
sudden they’re going to be drafted, they’ll draft them, equality [in the
military draft], equality,’” Yitzhak said at the time.
“Don’t interfere
with the apple of my eye,” the rabbi said, as if quoting God. “Those who
study Torah are the apple of God’s eye, don’t interfere with them in case He
does not remain silent.”
He warned that “now you’ll see, before they can
agree on a new law, a war will break out, as always happens when people oppose
those who observe the Torah and its commandments, and then you’ll remember what
I said and see if it was true or not.”
He made similar comments again in
August during a talk in Dimona.
The rabbi’s official website, Shofar.tv,
published a statement on Tuesday drawing attention to his comments.
“Less
than three months after the rabbi spoke on this issue in Dimona, and after two
weeks of [rocket] barrages on the communities of the South, the Hamas Chief of
Staff Ahmed Jabaari was eliminated,” the statement read.
“On the eve of the new
month of Kislev, massive rocket fire was directed at Beersheba and southern
Israel, and shortly after, it was decided to initiate Operation Pillar of
Defense.”
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