And we always believed that the Degel HaTorah people didn't like Mr. Shamir and favored Shimon Peres and his liberal stance on peace - and that "no land for peace" was an exclusively Lubavitcher opinion. But now, upon the passing of PM Yitzchak Shamir, we're hearing all kinds of nice things that were said about him by people that we thought were not on the same page politically with him. [From the Chabad sites you'd think that one of the ziknei haChassidim passed on, but that's become normal already, although nobody knows when and how that happened...] One of those people is the late Ponovizher Rosh Yeshiva, who was quoted by former Interior Minister Yitzchak Peretz as saying that he has ".דעת זקנים" Is it the Daas of זקני תלמידי חכמים or זקני עם הארץ? It seems to be a good thing from the article, judging from the fact that they say that he had הערכה towards him, meaning that it's a good thing. the Although there's no direct mention of his admiration of Shamir because of his stance on the peace negotiations in this article, there IS another one that makes mention of it and of the fact that the idea that the PR"Y was for giving land in return for peace is a MYTH. Here's that article.
Of course there are many that disagree, some of them Lubavitchers, and who remember many of the statements he made in regards to the Golan Heights, like "We've lived without the Golan for two thousand years, and we can go another 2,000 years without it," meaning if it's handed over to Syria וועט די וועלט ניט אונטערגיין. In short, a very Baalebatishe look at politics, clearly out of his league. Like most Rosheshives. But I believe that his opinion on this issue especially changed very often, that it was a very flexible opinion, based on the time and place, and based on the needs of the frum Jews at that time, so maybe both opinions are right... The same goes for others like Rav Ovadia. I mean no harm, it's just that some Rebbes have some sort of S'yata D'Shmaya that today's Rosheshives and Rabbonim don't have. Some sort of BaalShem'ske zechus that guides them to make the right decisions... But even that doesn't ALWAYS work...
That's my Daas Baalebatim.
