National-Religious Jews serving in the IDF are being killed in wars because their rabbis “teach them twisted Torah,” Rabbi Dov Lando, leading haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Litvak rabbi and spiritual head of the United Torah Judaism party, said in a leaked recording published by N12 on Monday night.
Lando, head of the Slabodka Yeshiva, was recorded addressing a small group of rabbis at his home, where he was heard saying young haredi men who avoid conscription to the military should not feel remorse over the sacrifices made by the religious Zionist community.
"Those who are getting killed - they are being killed because we don't learn enough,” Lando was recorded as saying. “They are being killed because their rabbis teach them twisted Torah....They kill people for honor."
Instead, Lando argued 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 added.
Haredi spiritual leader: Zionism at fault for Arab hostility
Lando was also recorded during a scathing attack on Zionism, blaming the movement for hostility from the Arab world. While acknowledging that Arabs had not historically been friendly toward Jews, he argued that Zionism had caused them to hate the Jewish people.
"Never in history have Arabs been so hated," he claimed.
Addressing the haredi community’s relationship with the State of Israel and the IDF, Lando compared the state to a group of robbers whose protection the community nevertheless relies on.
“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,” he said.
Lando also condemned secular Israeli society, accusing secular Israelis of having no connection to Judaism and describing the establishment of the State of Israel as an act of heresy.
“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,” he said.
Looking back to the founding of the Israeli state, Lando also 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.”
Eisenkot: Lando's statements 'embody anti-Zionist in its purest form'
Shortly following the publication of the leaked recording by N12, opposition party leaders in the bloc seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the October 27 election hit out at Lando's remarks, vowing that UTJ will not take part in the next coalition formed after the election.
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, adding that his ""outrageous" statements "embody anti-Zionism in its purest form."
"Netanyahu's government sent our soldiers to battle while relying on these votes...every Zionist party must declare tonight it would serve with a faction with such a worldview," Eisenkot added.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman similarly criticized Lando's position on the haredi draft, vowing that the opposition bloc will "soon put an end to the rule of the draft dodgers.
"They know how to take money from the state. To serve and defend it? No," Liberman wrote on X. "Netanyahu has no government without them."
Liberman continued, referring to Lando and haredi lawmakers as "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 'twisted Torah,'" Liberman added.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the B'Yachad party, wrote on X that Lando's comments were "anti-Zionist and anti-IDF," while accusing Finance Minister Bezael Smotrich and Netanyahu of "backing him and funneling 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."