Israel Rules 'Treason' Label Rude But Legal

[Scurrilous]

http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.12.05/news8.treason.html

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"Israel's attorney general has declined to bring incitement charges against 250 rabbis who signed a religious ruling branding liberal opposition leaders as traitors for their role in the Geneva Understandings.

The decision not to prosecute was hailed by Orthodox leaders in Israel and the United States, many of whom were vehemently opposed to the peace initiative, led by former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin. The attorney general, Elyakim Rubinstein, said this week that the rabbis had engaged in unfortunate but legal behavior when they issued a religious edict branding the virtual peace pact an "act of treason" and urging that its negotiators be "brought to justice and declared outside the brotherhood of humanity."

The rabbinic ruling, released to coincide with the Monday "launch ceremony" of the Geneva document, drew calls for a police inquiry from opposition Labor lawmakers Ophir Pines-Paz and Eitan Cabel. They argued that the rabbis were guilty of incitement of the sort that preceded the 1995 assassination of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin."

[Jack Rabbit]

1. As Patrick Henry said:

If this be treason, let us make the most of it.