Update: Ministers and general did not honor Lior

By Yossi Gurvitz July 7, 2011 | Edit

As reported earlier this week, Dov Lior – a leading rabbi who supported the gentile slaying guidebook, Torat Ha’Melekh – received honors yesterday by the local council of Hebron Mountain. However, the two ministers (Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon and Eli Yishai) and general (Avi Mirahi) who were supposed to grace the event with their presence have all canceled their appearance (Hebrew).

Neither one of them explained why he canceled his appearance. Ma’ariv, who published the original report, claims that it deterred them from showing up. The settler local council claimed the cancellation was the result of a scheduling mix-up.

So apparently neither the two active politicians nor the one still in uniform are happy to be seen – by the general public, at any rate –  with a notorious rabbi and inciter. I guess that’s some sort of progress.

I am Yossi Gurvitz, a 40-year old journalist, blogger and photographer. I write for several Israeli publications, including the influential financial daily Calcalist and the Nana portal. In the past, I’ve been deputy editor of Nana News, and with Itamar Shaaltiel edited its 2006 Knesset elections section. I was raised as an Orthodox Jew, graduated from a Yeshiva (Nehalim), but saw the light and turned atheist at about the age of 17. After the mandatory three years in the military, much more strictly enforced in 1988 than now, I studied history and classics, earning a BA degree, and studying three additional years towards an MA, but abandoned the project in favor of earning my living as a journalist. [It seemed a good idea at the time.]

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