Oslo's Rabbi Endorses Kadima and Olmert
The casual reader browsing the Israeli press might have thought that the front page announcements that a 'Religious Settler Rabbi' had endorsed Kadima was some sort of major news story. Every outlet from Yediot Aharanot to the Jerusalem Post seemed to give it top billing with the impression being that even 'such a person' supports Olmert.
The reality is that it would have been much more shocking if Oslo's Rabbi, Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun hadn't endorsed Kadima, since he was also a supporter of every land giveaway politician from Rabin to Peres to Barak. To say that Rabbi Bin Nun supports Kadima is as redundant as saying that a Yankees fan wants his team to win the World Series. This however doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of who Rabbi Bin Nun really is.
After Rabin's assassination when the Labor party did their best to hang the act of one man around the neck of their political opposition, one of their key claims was that Yigal Amir had received Rabbinic authorization for the crime. Rabbi Bin Nun functioned as one of the chief propagandists of this lie rushing from interview to interview claiming that he personally knew the names of these Rabbis and would 'expose them' even if it 'cost him his life.' For reasons unclear he would claim that he would reveal their names after the seven days of mourning for Rabin, since apparently exposing these homicidally dangerous Rabbis could wait a week.
The entire charade of course came to absolutely nothing. The man who most encouraged Yigal Amir to assassinate Rabin was not a Rabbi but an employee of Shabak. This didn't however interrupt Rabbi Bin Nun's career of slandering religious Jews and doing his best to portray them as dangerous religious extremists who had to be stopped before it was too late.
The following quotes illustrate the sort of hysterical ravings Rabbi Bin Nun was churning out before the Disengagement.
"I will fight against that. I will fight against refusal to obey orders in the army and against suicide. I prefer to surrender. To leave quietly, with rent clothes, with black armbands. But it's unlikely that I will be listened to. The zealots will have the upper hand. Gush Katif is liable to become Masada."
"Altalena' will pale in comparison to what is liable to happen in Gush Katif. Because you had Begin on the `Altalena,' and thanks to Begin the matter ended after 20 were killed. Zionism was extricated from the greatest danger it ever faced. But I don't see a Begin in the Yesha leadership."
At every turn Rabbi Ben Nun has worked to promote the myth that the settlers and religious Jews are violent and dangerous. This lie helped pave the way for an Amona and for any act of violence by the police against settlers by painting the latter as dangerously violent extremists. When the full responsibility is measured out for Amona, it cannot help but also rest at the doors of those who did the government's bidding in slandering unarmed people who served in the army and gave their lives for the state as terrorists and criminals.
But a completely disgraceful track record hasn't actually ever caused Rabbi Bin Nun to apologize or admit he was wrong. Instead he's continued onwards with his career of supporting the left wing politicians working to dismantle Israel while continuing to smear the opponents of giving away land to terrorists as dangerous religiously inspired extremists. Rabbi Bin-Nun primarily represents himself rather than any movement and to say that Rabbi Bin Nun endorses Kadima is to say that the sun rises tomorrow. It would be much more surprising if for once he stood on the side of Torah but that day is not likely to come.