Israeli Orthodox rabbi, educator and negotiator. He was one of the few Israelis who spoke with Palestinian Islamists of Hamas and  thought that was  possible peace with this movement that advocates the destruction of Israel. He was the rabbi of the Jewish settlement of Tekoa, south of the occupied West Bank Border, that believed that peace was possible with Hamas on the basis of a religious understanding. He believed it was  “impossible to achieve peace without considering religious issues, because all who tried failed”. He met with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in particular its historic leader Yasser Arafat. So did the spiritual leader and founder of the Islamist movement Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, after the assault by Israeli commands against a Turkish flotilla destined for Gaza in 2010, to try to reconcile the two countries. He was the founder of Eretz Shalom, a peaceful movement that brings together Jewish settlers and Palestinians. He died at home in Tekoa, in the northern Judean Hills, the northern part of the southern area of the West Bank Barrier. (bio by: Errete)