It's time for the vast secular majority in Israel (and other Jewish Movements) to say "enough of this shit!"
Writing in Foreign Policy, Professor Noah Efron of Bar Ilan University, a member of the Tel Aviv City Council, tells of his distress at the state of life in Israel today. “To be a secular Israeli in 2009 is a demoralizing and demoralized affair. We are tired: tired of the Palestinians, tired of the bombs, tired of UN and EU condemnations, tired of having so much of our daily wages taxed to buy guns and missiles, tired of the army reserves, tired of being hated, tired of waking up to reports of kids—Jewish kids, Palestinian kids—watching their parents die or dying in their parents’ arms. We are tired of our lives and tired of ourselves.”
But the main thing Efron is tired of is the increasing role the ultra-Orthodox (call them the ultras) play in Israeli life.
The picture Efron paints is downright depressing. Frankly, I cannot imagine what it is like living in a country where religious fanatics have so much political clout. Yes, we Americans have the Christian right that has successfully insinuated itself into America’s bedrooms. But the Constitution (and specifically the First Amendment) puts limits on just how far they can go. In Israel, there is no First Amendment so the ultras are not just lurking around peoples’ bedrooms but are in every room in the house.
In the last few weeks alone a violent battle (replete with death threats) has been raging over a new (and much needed) parking lot that is open for business on the Sabbath. Another battle is being waged Bin Jerusalem over whether special bus lines should be established for women so that male ultras can be spared close proximity to female passengers.
Then there is the case of the yeshiva student who ran over a young female parking attendant for demanding he pay his parking fee. She suffered brain damage but he was spared prison on the grounds that he is a brilliant Torah scholar whose scholarly undertakings would be damaged if he were jailed.
But this takes the cake. Prof. Efron writes about the latest horror show, which has been page-one news for a week. It was discovered that an ultra-Orthodox woman had starved her three-year-old son down to 15 pounds and was denying the child medical care. Social workers and the police were called in and, following an investigation, the boy was picked up and hospitalized at Hadassah Hospital. The mother was jailed, pending trial.
Efron writes:
“And then all hell breaks loose. A rabbi declares the event a blood libel, comparing the police to Cossacks. Immediately, young men in black robes and fur hats take to the streets, setting bus stops and dumpsters ablaze, pelting police with stones, and decrying the doctors of Hadassah as latter-day Josef Mengeles. Someone sets aflame the government welfare and social services building in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Me’ah Shearim; others enter the building, smashing computer screens as they go. In the first three days after the toddler is taken for treatment, dozens more are sent to the hospital with wounds from stones and broken glass, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of city property are burned or smashed.”
For the vast majority of Israelis, who are secular and choose to live in the twenty-first century, these ultras are the worst thing about living in Israel. The good news is that they are still a minority in the country, albeit a growing one...
http://israelpolicyforum.org/commentary/god-their-side