Supposedly, Walla news reported first and then Kikar Shabbos joined in, representatives from the haredi group called Chalamish (they built the one hut illegal hilltop settlement outside Kiryat Sefer a while back, along with some other items) approached Rav Simcha Kook, the rav of Rehovot, and asked for his support. They are trying to put together a lobby of haredi MKs to fight against the possibility of the construction freeze being extended. They believe that if it were to be extended and a peace agreement were to be reached, it would threaten the existence of the haredi cities over the Green Line as they would be attacked by rockets and terror attacks.

Rav Kook expressed his support, and they asked him, realizing that the only way the MKs would agree to join the lobby is if the gedolim would tell them to, to get the idea, and them, in front of Rav Elyashiv so they could try to get his support.

When they recently met with Rav Elyashiv and explained their concept, Rav Elyashiv expressed his dismay at the possibility of the freeze being renewed and extended. He said, supposedly, that a continuance of the construction freeze and the peace process would bring a second holocaust.

And once on the topic of holocaust, Rav Wosner said, during the recent "funeral" ceremony in Bnei Braq for 11 burnt sifrei torah, that the cause of the Holocaust was the fact that the people did not treat the shuls with proper respect. He said that he heard from gedolim of that generation that this was so, and that they said the reason there had been no holocaust in the sefardi countries is because of the great respect with which the sefardim treat their shuls.

Thoughts:

1. I dont know how anyone can say definitively what caused the holocaust, but I have heard that reason before.

2. Their concern, as expressed in the report, irks me a little - they seem to only be concerned that the haredi towns might come under attack, rather than being concerned for the klal. I will assume that perhaps their words were taken out of context or relayed inaccurately.

3. Rav Elyashiv was never particularly "right wing" in politics, so this report remains, to me, questionable. Does he really believe that a peace process would lead to a holocaust? Why did he not express himself so strongly by the disengagement from Gaza or at any other time since Oslo regarding the peace process?