As in matters of illness only a physician is permitted to make the final decision; similarly, when lives are endangered, only a military expert may made the final analysis.

Part 4. Sadat's visit to Israel

It has to be clearly understood, that when the issue at hand is a life endangering situation of hundreds of Jewish People, each one being an entire world, Torah stipulates that one must follow the instructions of experts in the field; in the instance of which we are speaking these are officers of the military who carry the responsibility of lives which are under threat.

There are those that argue to the contrary, that since the issue is of lives under threat, we should not be following the view of the military because we are in need of military equipment from  Washington. This view has no standing in reality as we saw in the events of the Yom Kippur War.

The politicians sought to place themselves in the right light when they did not permit the decision of the military [to take pre-emptive action, thereby 1000s of Jewish soldiers were killed]. Only after three weeks of war did military equipment arrive from the USA. Politicians argued that the arrival of arms was because Israel was not seen to be the aggressors! But they forgot the simplest of  calculations: had Israel opened with a preventive war; and most certainly had Israel taken this action immediately upon receiving the clear intelligence information that the Arabs are preparing to attack, Israel would have completed the war with outright victory much before the American arms would even have reached Israel!

This, we actually saw at the time of the Six Day War when Israel opened a preventive war and completed the war with a powerful victory all within six days! The arms which were in stock were sufficient, and no arms supply whatsoever were even needed from the USA!

What arises from all of the above is as follows: Any Rabbi who had even offered his opinion on this issue - who now has no choice but to issue a Halachic decision on this matter, will certainly contemplate on what we have spoken above, should issue a public Halachic decision declaring whether or not it is permitted to relinquish land-masses of Judea or of the Shomron. Hereby there is not only the Torah prohibition of “Do not relinquish Land”, but more: the acute danger to Jewish life.

As with G-d forbid one who is sick, even should this be of no more than one limb of one single Jew, there is an explicit law in the Code of Jewish Law [Orach Chaim 328.8] that the sole opinion to be taken into account is that of an expert physician; that it would not be sufficient that he has knowledge on the field of medicine, but he must be a physician who is active in healing; and more: he must be fully cognizant of the most updated innovative medical discoveries.

The same is true of life endangering situations of war, the only opinion which Torah permits is that of a military expert, this is his area of activity and one who is fully knowledgeable of the newest methods of warfare.

Regarding all those who are not military experts - their views are of no consequence, even if they are ‘good friends’ and even ‘the best of friends’, and certainly if their personal interest is at play.