If they did, I’m sure they’d be calmer and happier.
Since they don’t, they go around destroying Internet Cafes. Why? Because they see Ultra-Orthodox Jews like themselves surfing the Net and believe this is evil.
Why do I suspect this is a crowd similar to that which protested very aggressively to have the father, Israel Valis, who apparently murdered his infant son, released?
Why do I suspect this is the same crowd that earlier today, in commemoration of Yom HaZikaron proceeded to have a little barbecue on the streets using other people’s and the city’s objects for fuel?
Why do I suspect that one of these jerk-offs was the idiot who spit on my wife on a Jerusalem street long ago because he didn’t like her t-shirt (some people here understood that one)?
ENOUGH!
Time to use the Israeli police to end this mayhem. They don’t do it because they are afraid, but they should stop being afraid of these bullies. Israel has prisons and a legal system and it is unacceptable that these CRIMINALS and HOODLUMS can go around burning, destroying, protesting on behalf of apparent child-killers and getting away with it. There are demonstrators at the security fence who feel the ire of the police for doing far less than these Ultra-Orthodox. Whether they like it or not, they live in a state called Israel and it is time they began to respect the others who live around them.
ck
5/2/2006
HOODLOOMS?
There’s no excuse for rioting and destroying either public or private property. The police were certainly remiss in not arresting anyone. That having been said, let this not become an indictment of ALL Haredim who are by and large honest, law abiding individuals. Also, I doubt the Police are afraid. When enforcing the law in the midst of a full scale riot, restoring calm and not further inciting the crowds is often deemed to be more important than making an arrest. It’s one thing to cause dammage to property, it’s quite another to possibly cause serious physical harm to someone. Just try and take a deep breath and relax TM.
Chutzpah
5/2/2006
This again shows that fanaticism of ANY kind is ultimately dangerous.
themiddle
5/2/2006
No problem, ck, I was actually very relaxed when writing that. I just like to use CAPS because it’s a way of, you know, emphasizing things. The nice thing is that I currently attend a Conservative synagogue and a Reform Temple (ugh, who came up with “temple,” it sounds almost Protestant), and therefore do not get to experience these little incidents with crazed Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Did I mention that I also get to hear women praying? Beautiful stuff.
michael
5/2/2006
No, no, you spelled “hoodlums” wrong and drew further attention to it by putting it in capital letters.
She
5/2/2006
As long as these people choose to reject that they are actually living in an existing state, there is no reason for the security forces of that state to protect them in anyway. Clearly, they don’t deserve to be treated with kid gloves, and it’s quite obvious that they don’t give a damn about Israel, so why should Israel go out of its way to give a damn about them? Obviously, I’m not referring to all Haredim here, but those who go out of their way to disrespect Israel, its laws and its people should be treated harshly.
Puirm Hero
5/2/2006
TM, the term “Temple” was used intentionally by Reform Jews. (It certainly wasn’t meant to sound protestant.) In 1869 the Philadelphia Conference was held and the ‘Philadelphia Platform’ of Reform Judaism was created. The following is an excerpt from its statement of principles.
“The Aaronic priesthood and the Mosaic sacrificial cult were preparatory steps to the real priesthood of the whole people, which began with the dispersion of the Jews, and to the sacrifices of sincere devotion and moral sanctification, which alone are pleasing and acceptable to the Most Holy. These institutions, preparatory to higher religiosity, were consigned to the past, once for all, with the destruction of the Second Temple, and only in this sense – as educational influences in the past – are they to be mentioned in our prayers.”
-Taken from “Judaism: A Very Short Introduction” part of the Oxford series.
Early Reform Jews believed that the Temple of old was no longer something relegated to just Jerusalem or any particular time. They purposely used this term to describe their congregations to emphasize this fact. “Berlin is the new Jerusalem” after all…
themiddle
5/2/2006
Well, I was writing very late and I was in the middle of writing a long comment to Juan Cole. So I have ready excuses.
Purim, thanks for your post, but sadly I have to say that Temple and especially the music in many of the services I’ve been to over the years, just seem so foreign after years of attending Orthodox and Conservative services. Hence my bias. It has nothing to do with history, it’s a purely personal thing.
DK
5/2/2006
TM, you wrote,
“The nice thing is that I currently attend a Conservative synagogue and a Reform Temple (ugh, who came up with “temple,” it sounds almost Protestant), and therefore do not get to experience these little incidents with crazed Ultra-Orthodox Jews.”
Wow. I guess I would have to try that, being that all my secular-Orthodox synagogues are rampant with fundamentalists who want to burn down shit.
themiddle
5/2/2006
Kelsey, how are ya! You’ll note that ck and I are having fun with each other. Try it some time.
ck
5/2/2006
I think Kelsey’s having fun with you too TM … Happy Yom Ha’atzmaut – I’m a gonna go spray string on hotties as per Ariel’s suggestion.
DK
5/2/2006
Hey guys! Happy Zionist Day. You are probably surprised, but I sit this one out too.
michael
5/2/2006
Whoa, Kelsey, you are like sooooooooo cool and like against the grain and stuff! You enjoy the dead culture of your grandparents! Eat a knish for me! Me, I’m going out to play in the very much alive Jewish state! Whoooo!
DK
5/2/2006
Enjoy, Michael. Unlike the Zionists and the anti-Zionists, I don’t know for sure what this whole thing means, and so I follow the path of the 1st and 2nd commonwealth, which had no Independence Day. Normative Judaism, Michael. A great default position.
Jobber
5/3/2006
The Hareidim that I meet, have this intense superiority complex. Yet I always wonder, oh yeah, what scheme are you getting away wit?
Haven’t lived in both worlds, I understand how you can get taken in with that lifestyle. But it shouldn’t mean that you be stuck in it for the rest of your life, If it no longers makes any sense to be so fanatical, drop it like a sack of old clothes.
They don’t own Judaism. They don’t own chessed.
Then you have this Puker Matisyahu, wit all his Ha-Shem talk, and look how he acts. What a shameful and arrogant travesty.
Molten God
5/4/2006
Very difficult and self serving to make statements like this since these folks were kicking out OTHER Haredim who were there. They probably could care less what you do or where do it. So at a minimum a large number of Haredim are at least modern enough to be in an cafe to begin with.