TORONTO — Elazar Stern, one of the highest ranking Orthodox officers in the Israel Defence Forces, has no regrets.

Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern as seen on the large screen monitor.

Three years after being demonized by Israel’s national religious camp
for supporting the unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a
handful of settlements in the West Bank, he firmly stands by his
convictions.

“It’s important for Israel’s existence  that all soldiers obey all orders,” said the 52-year-old retired major-general, who was in Toronto last week.

Here at the invitation of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, he spoke at a memorial for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the Israeli soldiers whose remains were returned to Israel from Lebanon last month in a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah .

In an interview prior to his public appearance, Stern talked at length about the still-fresh and emotionally wrenching events that unfolded in Israel in the summer of 2005.

During Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, some soldiers refused to carry out orders to evacuate Jewish settlers, having been egged on by rabbis and politicians affiliated with the settler movement who claimed that the Israeli government had no right to surrender holy land.

Stern, who until recently headed  the army’s human resources department, had no such compunctions, even though he is thoroughly observant and wears a knitted kippah, a symbol of the religious Zionist movement.

As a result of his principled position, of which he is proud, he was not only ostracized but physically attacked.

When he turned up at a settlement in Gaza on the eve of Israel’s withdrawal, right-wing radicals slashed his tires and hurled insults at him within earshot of journalists covering his visit, accusing him of being a traitor.

Several months later, dozens of Jewish worshippers, led by a rabbi, yelled epithets and jostled Stern as he and his family tried to reach the Western Wall in Jerusalem to pray.

Looking back at these unpleasant incidents, Stern adopted a philosophical tone toward his detractors.

“I hope they understand I was doing my duty,” he said.

But in a reference to the rabbi who attempted to block his path to the Western Wall, he was far more critical.

“I tried to convince him he was wrong, but he ignored me,” said Stern, whose military career spanned 34 years. “He didn’t understand the deeper meaning of democracy.”

Stern was also disappointed by the reaction of the National Religious Party, one of the pillars of the settler movement in the territories, suggesting that its leaders should have condemned extremists in its ranks.

Stern declined to be drawn into a discussion regarding his views of Israel’s pullout from Gaza. “I’m a soldier,” he said flatly.

However, he observed that the police rather than the army should have supervised the withdrawal. “The police should carry out such missions. The army should avoid them.”

Stern, a former commander of the army’s paratroopers training school and officers training school, urged caution in assessing the problem posed by religious soldiers who refused to obey orders during the pullout.

Noting that only 10 to 20 soldiers disobeyed orders, he said that the vast majority of soldiers aligned with the national religious camp did their duty, and that most are loyal to the state and wish to serve society.

“They want to be the best soldiers they can be,” said Stern, a father of five  children whose own son is an officer.

Yet when he was asked what the response of the national religious camp might be should Israel agree to withdraw from much of the West Bank as part of an agreement with the Palestinians, Stern said, “I don’t know.”

A thorn in the side of the religious Zionist camp, Stern has also been criticized for his view on the hesder yeshivot program.

Established after the Six Day War, it combines Torah study with shortened military service. In many cases, its graduates have been assigned to segregated, religiously homogeneous units.

“It’s a good system, but it would be  a better one if religious and secular soldiers were placed in the same units” said Stern. “Let religious soldiers get to know secular soldiers, and let secular soldiers get to know religious soldiers. Let’s bring them together.”

As well, Stern believes that the number of students in the program has grown too large and that rabbinical authorities should be more discriminating in choosing candidates.

On a related topic, he said that too many able-bodied haredim wriggle out of military service altogether.

The son of Holocaust survivors who settled in Israel in 1949, Stern is one of only a few staunchly observant soldiers who rose in the ranks to general.

When he was conscripted in 1974, there may have been one or two such generals in the army. Today, there are about 10. In another sign of the times, a greater number of religiously observant officers command platoons, he pointed out. In general, the percentage of religious officers is considerably higher today than it was before the Six Day War, Stern added.

“It’s easier being religious in the army today,”  he said. “You can observe Shabbat, and you are not alone. Kosher meals are universally available. You don’t feel hatred. Yeah, it’s easier, more convenient.”

Asked why this is the case, Stern said, “Demography.”

There are simply more religious Jews in Israel today and their needs must be accommodated, he explained.

In closing, Stern said his biggest contribution to the army was introducing extensive Zionist and Jewish identity courses and sending officers to Poland to heighten their knowledge and awareness of the Holocaust.