Israeli leaders condemned Rabbi Dov Lando, head of the Slabodka Yeshiva and a senior leader of the Lithuanian haredi community, after he criticized religious Zionism, the founders of the state, and Israel's secular public in a video recorded at his home in Bnei Brak.
In the recording, in which he addressed a small group of rabbis, Lando said young haredi men who avoid the military draft should not feel remorse over the sacrifices made by the religious Zionist community, N12 reported.
"Those who are getting killed - they are being killed because we don't learn enough,” Lando accused. “They are being killed because their rabbis teach them twisted Torah....They kill people for honor."
Lando argued instead that those studying Torah in yeshivas are the ones protecting the country's residents.
"There is no explanation why Arabs don't unite to wash away the entire land, and mercifully spare them from exterminating everyone. There is no explanation (other than the Torah)," Lando said.
Looking back to the founding of the Israeli state, Lando questioned the need for Jewish sovereignty.
"I don't know what would have happened if at first there was no state and they had established a UN government here - it would have been an excellent situation," Lando said. “It would have been quite good if Arabs ruled here, it would have been the best situation.”
Rabbi Dov Lando blames Zionism for Arab hatred
Lando also blamed Zionism for hostility from the Arab world. He said Arabs had never been friendly toward Jews but argued that Zionists had caused them to hate the Jewish people.
“Never in history have Arabs been so hated,” he claimed.
Addressing the haredi community's position within the State of Israel, Lando used a metaphor to describe its relationship with the state and the IDF.
"What does it matter now? What to do now? If we live among the robbers and the robbers save us, what to do? It’s a problem, a big problem."
Lando also criticized secular Israeli society.
"These are people who have no connection with Judaism, nothing. It's terrible and horrible, in my opinion, it's a very great blasphemy. That the people of Israel, who are with God, and have made a state of annihilation and heresy – this is a great lesson to be learned."
Israeli leaders condemn Rabbi Dov Lando
Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, condemned Lando's remarks in a post on X. “I strongly condemn the slanderous words of Rabbi Lando,” he wrote.
“His outrageous statements embody anti-Zionism in its purest form.”
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman similarly criticized Lando's position on the haredi draft, “The money from the state they know how to take. To serve and defend it? No. Soon we will put an end to the rule of the draft dodgers,” he shared.
"Without them, Bibi has no government: Anti-Zionists who say it would have been better if the State of Israel had never been established, call Zionists 'robbers' and claim that fighters of Religious Zionism are dying because of a 'distorted Torah,'" Liberman added.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett also responded to Lando's remarks. “Shame and disgrace."
"The statements of Rabbi Lando are antisemitic, they are anti-Zionist, against the IDF, and Smotrich and Netanyahu back him and funnel tens of billions of shekels to him and his friends. "
"This is Netanyahu's government today, and this is the government he wants to establish once again," Bennett added.
"We will put an end to this disgrace. Anyone who evades will not receive a single shekel from the State of Israel. Not a Zionist - not on my dime."