Jerusalem, Sunday
AN adulterous King of Israel 3000 years ago is threatening to wreak
havoc on the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Rabbis in Israel's parliament, angry when Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres questioned the moral scruples of the biblical king David, will
force a no-confidence vote in parliament tomorrow.
''This government deserves to fall over this matter. The foreign
minister hurt the feelings of millions,'' said Rabbi Avraham Ravitz of
the Degel Hatorah party in parliament.
He acknowledged ultra-religious parties had little chance of toppling
the government.
But the row may make it more difficult for Rabin -- eager to bolster
peace moves by expanding his government -- to add a religious party to
his coalition.
Rabin and Peres, whose moves to settle Israel's conflict with the
Palestinians won them each a Nobel Peace Prize, have had a harder time
keeping peace in Israeli political circles.
Not even Peres's apology could halt the controversy.
It was during a debate over the Nobel prize in parliament that the row
erupted.
Rabbis angry at Peres's position in favour of ceding occupied land for
peace cited King David -- a conqueror -- as a real hero of the Jewish
people.
In the biblical Book of Samuel, King David orders Bathsheba, wife of
one of his warriors, brought to his palace after seeing her on a
rooftop. ''And he lay with her,'' the book says. Later, David sent her
husband to die in battle.
In the modern-day exchange sparked by Peres's comment, rabbis rushed
to David's defence, citing him as a sweet psalmist who established
Jerusalem as the heart of Judaism.--Reuter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article