Rabbi Meir Mazuz, head of the Kisei Rahamim Yeshiva, spoke Tuesday night during his weekly Torah class, sharply criticizing reliance on agreements and foreign partners.
"So long as the Maccabees fought the Greeks - Judah the Maccabee fought seven wars - in all of them he came out victorious, until the eighth war," he began.
"Before the eighth war, he made a treaty with the Romans. With the Romans, you make a treaty?! He made a treaty, what can you do? And after that, in the next war, Judah the Maccabee himself fell."
Rabbi Mazuz emphasized, "We need to always remember - you want to be helped by gentiles? First of all, 'Hear O Israel, the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One.'"
Regarding Israel's wars, he said, "The Six Day War, when no country promised us anything, G-d gave strength to the soldiers, and they fought and defeated all seven Arab nations. But when we made an agreement with them during the Yom Kippur War, we did not succeed."
"They see that this entire country, for eighty years, lives by miracle! It lives by a miracle, not in the natural way. So what do you do? But we will pray for them that they repent. We will remember, G-d is the One Who makes miracles. So long as we rely on flesh and blood, we are not living correctly," he concluded.