No civilized person can possibly condone or excuse the brutal murder of 8 Jewish students at the yeshiva Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem. The leaders of Palestinian Hamas that publicly praised the attack show themselves to be bloodthirsty fools.

But why was this particular institution singled out as the target of this apparent revenge attack for over 100 Palestinian men, women and children slaughtered by the IDF in Gaza a few days earlier?

This Talmudic school was founded in 1924 by rabbi Abraham Kook, the "first Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael", during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine.

"HaRav Kook was the great soul of religious Zionism... He revealed the sources and the roots of one of the greatest visions in our times - the revival of the Jewish people. He, more than anyone else, spoke of the essence of Zionism... Thirteen years after his death, the State of Israel was established, and it is his teachings which give content to the moral and Zionist mode of thought of the Jewish State...

His own life was an inspiration and an example of love for his fellow Jew... Under his leadership, a unique generation of Torah scholars grew up...They shared HaRav Kook's intense love for every Jewish soul"

-- Friends of Mercaz HaRav

Rav Kook's son, Tzvi Yehuda Kook, was head of the yeshiva for some 30 years and founder of the radical Gush Emunim "settler movement" at the forefront of the territorial conflict. This is not just a religious school, but the very heart of the Zionist political and military establishment:

"Rav Kook saw the establishment of the Yeshiva as the culmination of his vision of the rebirth of the People of Israel in their Land. The Yeshiva was founded to be a center for Torah, to produce scholars and spiritual leaders inspired by a profound love of their fellow-Jew and imbued with love of the Land of Israel. In this Yeshiva, "Torat Eretz Yisrael", Torah at its highest spiritual level, was to be taught.

Today "Merkaz HaRav" Yeshivah is the focal point of a young generation...drawn to the vision of HaRav Kook. Since its foundation the Yeshivah and all that it stands for has grown in influence until the name "Merkaz HaRav" has come to denote not only a Yeshivah, but a Torah concept which is the heart of a movement...

The Yeshivah's graduates serve as Rabbis and Dayanim (Rabbinical Judges) in the cities and development towns, settlements and border villages of Israel. They serve faithfully and with devotion in the various corps of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)...

Founded by HaRav Kook who was the first to coin the phrase "the State of Israel", the Yeshiva is open to all [Jews] on Israel Independence Day, and especially on "Yom Yerushalayim". Presidents, Prime Ministers and the military Heads of Staff sit in the Yeshiva, flanked by the Roshei Yeshiva and other Gedolei Torah..."

-- Mercaz HaRav

This consistent Talmudic theme of "love for the fellow Jew", to the exclusion of all others, is the true "essence of Zionism". There is NO love nor respect for the Palestinian Arabs who are being herded like animals and driven out of the "Land of Israel", exactly as the fathers of Zionism -- including Rabbi Kook and Zeev Jabotinsky -- called for long ago.

The basis of "religious Zionism" is explained by the rabbi of the yeshiva Machon Meir in Jerusalem:

"G-d promises Israel that Eretz Yisrael will be conquered little by little... Until we increase and occupy the entire land, G-d severely prohibits us not to forge a covenant with the peoples dwelling in the land, as it says, "Do not make a treaty with [these nations] or with their gods" for if we do forge a covenant with them, it will be a "fatal trap" for us...

Ramban (rabbi Moses ben Nachman, 1195-1270) rendered rulings along these lines in practical terms, writing:

"We were commanded to occupy the Land which G-d gave to our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We must not abandon it to any other nation, or to desolation... In the framework of this mitzvah, G-d gave us the precise details of the Land's borders... and we are not allowed to relinquish the Land to the nations in any generation. We were commanded to come to the Land and to conquer and settle it. This command to us to conquer and settle the Land applies in all generations".

Today, how fortunate we are that in our generation we are privileged to fulfill the words of the written Torah and Ramban's ruling. In other words, we can move to Eretz Yisrael, conquer it and settle it. Through us is being fulfilled, "I will drive the inhabitants out little by little."

-- Rabbi Dov Begon, "The Fatal Trap", Feb 2008

Both sides in this conflict are the victims of hidebound religious demagogues -- the mullahs in their madrasas, the rabbis in their yeshivas -- and the false teachings that they propagate. Until these ungodly "traditions" are swept away as the worthless relics of a dark age, no progress is possible. Truly, that is the fatal trap.

A decade ago, IDF soldier Noam Friedman, a graduate of Mercaz HaRav devoted to the "blood-and-soil" ideals of his elders, went on a shooting rampage at the Palestinian marketplace in Hebron:

"The police said Private Friedman had also told them that he had wanted to avenge the death of Meir Kahane, a militant anti-Arab rabbi...[and] also said he was taking revenge for the death of Dr. (Baruch) Goldstein, a follower of Rabbi Kahane* from the settlement of Qiryat Arba near Hebron who shot to death 29 Palestinians at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in February 1994. Private Friedman told investigators that he had intended to kill many Arabs, and was sorry that none had died."

-- New York Times, 1997-01-03

* Kahane was the founder of the militant Jewish Defense League based in New York City, home to more Zionists than anyplace outside of Israel. Goldstein, also of New York, was a charter member.

UPDATE: For more on Mercaz HaRav and the forces behind the scenes, see "Temple Mount Fanatics Foment a New Thirty Years War" which we have recently posted.