Israel settlements: rabbis say soldiers' loyalty to God trumps army orders

In Israel, a standoff is escalating between the Israeli defense establishment and religious nationalists over the possible evacuation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. On Thursday, a group of rabbis published a letter saying a soldiers' loyalty to the divine takes precedence over their commanders.
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The declaration was signed by dozens of teachers in government-affiliated religious seminaries – known as "hesder'' yeshivas – after Defense Minister Ehud Barak took the unprecedented step earlier this week of cutting ties with a hesder yeshiva because its dean, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, openly advocates refusing of orders in case of an evacuation.

Read more at Christian Science Monitor.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews target Intel over Sabbath work

And more conservative religionists attempting to force their will on a company . . .

Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, has become the latest target of protests by Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community.

On Saturday, a day before the inauguration of Intel's new plant in an industrial area of west Jerusalem, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated against it operating on the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from Friday night to Saturday night.

The protesters, dressed in traditional black hats and long black coats, repeatedly chanted "Shabbes ", the Yiddish word for the Sabbath, and tried to break into the compound before being dispersed by police. Some of them also shoved and threw stones at journalists and attacked an ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem deputy mayor who arrived at the site, claiming he had not done enough to stop the plant's operation on the Jewish day of rest.

Read more at the BBC . . .