The Mitzva Tanks Have Arrived

There were few more incongruous sights yesterday than the arrival at the front of a self-proclaimed “Mitzvah tank”, one of 11 that Chabad, an orthodox Jewish sect, has long liked to send to war zones. In reality the “tank” is a coach emblazoned with slogans such as “Family Purity” and “Love Your Fellow Jew”. One of the group, Chaim Nevo, 50, said they had arrived “to save the soldiers and give them power”, proclaiming that the war had started because the government had abandoned parts of “greater Israel”. “The Torah says that if someone is trying to kill you, you have to kill him first,” he said.