He was only speaking hypothetically, of course

That’s what Rabbi Manis Friedman of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement meant to do, he says now. But answering the question "How should Jews treat their Arab neighbors?” he said this:

Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children," wrote Rabbi Manis Friedman of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. "With their holy sites destroyed, they will stop believing that God is on their side. Kum Bah Yah. [All right, the last sentence was Spot’s.]

The rabbi now says that he was talking about times of war, but he also said this in the piece:

The other rabbis [quoted] all advocated finding a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Friedman's statement opens with: "I don't believe in western morality, i.e. don't kill civilians or children, don't destroy holy sites, don't fight during holiday seasons, don't bomb cemeteries, don't shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral."

This is hardly universal Jewish thinking, but there is a strong strain of it in two places that count a lot: the colonists (sometimes charmingly called “settlers”) and the IDF:

New York Times Photograph

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