Its Now or Never Part 1
I have been holding off on this post. It is the subject that I am most passionate about and I sometimes cross the line of civility when discussing it. I will try very hard not to do that but it will not be easy. Over the last few weeks, every few days, there is a story about an Israeli soldier who goes to an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, only to find himself surrounded by animals ( sorry I will try not to slip again) who wish to do him physical harm. They are members of the fanatic religious group who call themselves haredim ( one who trembles). The name connotes that these people have a fear of g-d that surpasses that of regular people but this description cannot be further from the truth. They fear no one, least of all g-d.
A recent study of these fanatic's ( I refuse to call them haredim and need a better name. For now I will use fanatic) textbooks show that they teach their children the following:
The founding of the State of Israel was a sin against the Jewish people.
Zionists and reform Jews are the direct descendance of the Hellinests.
Women do not exist in these books and Sephardim, their Rabbi's and Rabbinic Traditions, do not exist either although there are many Sephardim in this community ( to learn more read this http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4983358,00.html )
They believe that the world was created and continues to exist in their merit. That the state of Israel only survives because of their piety. They believe that the maintenance of their backward, fanatic ways are more important than the unity of the Jewish people.
For those of you who don't know, last week, the representatives of these fanatics in the Knesset tried to pass two laws to delegitimize Jews who do not share their opinion. The first was the reneging of a deal that was worked out a year ago by Natan Sharansky, the head of the Jewish Agency. It was over 15,000 words long and was agreed to by ALL parties. It allowed for the permanent establishment of a location for prayer for those people who do not identify themselves with the orthodox ( and certainly the fanatic) interpretation of Judaism. This area was to be set up on the western wall near Robinson's Arch which has had a temporary location for this purpose for close to 17 years. What was supposed to change was that leaders of the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism as well as representatives of Women of the Wall, were supposed to administer their own place of prayer in conjunction with the fanatics that control the Kotel.
Although they originally agreed, the fanatics backtracked and reneged on their word, because some of them saw this as a legitimization of people that they consider more dangerous than any external threat that Israel faces.
After threatening the prime minster with bringing down his government, he too reneged on his word and turned his back on 75% of diaspora Jewry. The same people, who with donations and investments, contribute almost $15 billion USD a year to Israel which is over 6% of the Israeli GDP. ( http://www.timesofisrael.com/crisis-with-world-jewry-could-cost-israel-billions-deputy-minister-warns/)
So to summarize, the prime minister of the State of Israel, who is the leader of the country that was established as a safe-haven for all Jews all over the world, chose to take the side of a fanatic community that does not recognize the legitimacy of the state, does nothing to defend it and sucks money from the economy, all so he could protect his job. This was instead of supporting a large segment of world Jewry that does show it support and contributes to the future of the country.
The prime minister, who is supposed to make sure Israel remains a place for all Jews, strengthened the fact that Israel is the only democratic country in the world that does not have freedom of religion for Jews.
I understand that some of you do not share my liberal opinion of the other streams of Judaism and may not care about this issue at all so the next post will be about the fanatic attempt to delegitimize all the other streams of Orthodox Judaism in the state of Israel and why the leadership of this community is the real existential threat to Israel that needs to be dealt with now.
Stay tuned. It won't be long.