The extremists are taking over Israel and kicking the moderates out

Israel's moderates are getting kicked out of power by the religious extremists. Israel is turning into Iran, but a jewish Iran.

Ultra-Orthodo x need not protest Israel, they run it

Someone just woke up and discovered that women have been banished from advertising billboards throughout Jerusalem. Good morning! The Modesty Police has been ruling the streets for years and none of you have done anything about it.

These demonstrations began at the beginning of the 1950s when the entire religious community gathered in Jerusalem to protest against the laws passed by the government to enlist women in the army. They evolved into riots against the passage of cars in the streets of the city on Shabbat, against the “desecration” of corpses in the hospital pathological departments and in archaeological digs, against the construction of a new municipal football stadium.

Only a fanatical ultra-religious minority still demonstrate in Jerusalem. The rest of the Haredi community has realized long ago that there is no need for protests when you control all the necessary committees and budgets.

The secret municipal committee that censors all advertising publicly displayed in Jerusalem has two Haredi members and a third secular member who hasn’t attended meetings for years. Last week he admitted that he thought the committee had been disbanded.

Why blame advertisers for authorizing billboards in Jerusalem that don’t show female faces or bodies? No official poster of City Hall has shown a woman or even a girl for a decade and, if a billboard gets defaced no one, not even Jerusalem police, will take any action.

But maybe it’s a good thing that citizens in other parts of the country are taking action. The Jerusalem Syndrome is being replicated in other cities.

Israel’s political class has long ago sold Jerusalem off to the ultra-Orthodox. The deal was legal and democratic and if Israelis don’t wake up, it won’t stop in the capital.

Israel is falling to extremism, turning into a theocracy. The latest from the crazies in Israel :
Top settler rabbi: Soldiers will sooner choose death than suffer women's singing

Israel Defense Forces soldiers should choose death before they remain at army events which include women's singing, a top settler religious leader said in an interview on Thursday.

Crazy bastard. No better then the Talibans.

Israeli parents protest growing extremist bent in religious schools

Parents of some 400 children are protesting issues such as prohibition against kindergarten girls singing.

Another mother said that the main extremist influence was coming from organized groups of Orthodox people moving into a community with the purpose of increasing religious observance in that community. "But make no mistake, the Education Ministry is a full partner and is pushing them forward," she said.

The Religious Rot In Israel

Religious extremists are attacking the Israeli military from without, and from within. The Israeli armed forces have, over the last decade, spent an increasing amount of their time dealing with religious extremists.

A big problem is draft exemptions granted to members of conservative Jewish sects.

The problems extend beyond draft dodging. Last year, the head of the armed forces openly reminded all officers that, when they are on active duty, they must obey their officers, and not their rabbis. The major dispute comes from the deeply religious settler (in the West Bank) community. These are the Jews that believe in “Greater Israel.” That is, an Israel that takes over the West Bank and all other territories that were once part of Israel in the ancient past.

Israel has a conscript army, thus many of the troops are believers in the Greater Israel concept. These soldiers are being told by their religious leaders that they should refuse orders to assist in the removal of settlers from Gaza.

The fear in Israel is that some of the deeply religious Jews will become radicalized, and violent. As some Israelis have been heard to observe, “Israel is turning into a Middle Eastern country.”

Religious extremists of all religions are nuts and shouldn't hold any power.

Wow - maybe if they start stoning 16 yr old girls, hanging gays etc the left will love them as much as Iran - you never know they might even get invited to Columbia to speak!

Maybe they can expect more sexual inequality based on religion.

reply to post by Vitchilo


One question. When they going to start reconstructing the temple? Never hear much about that coming out of Israel. 2000 years of not having your sins forgiven has got to be rough.

Yep, extremism is bad. Hitler was an extremist and look what he did. Extremists stone women to death in middle eastern countries (like Iran) and treat them worse than dogs. A woman can be stoned for being raped, and this is what they call justice? Backwards thinking brought on by superstition is never a good thing.

First, to just make things clear, a society is always based on a philosophy held to by their political leaders.

This is why in Israel and other liberal media outlets, the Orthodox, traditional Jews are branded "Ultra" and "extremist".

I also find it amazingly ironic that in Muslim countries, or even in America, the Hijab worn by Muslim women isnt regarded as 'oppressive', and indeed, to suggest that it is is often interpreted as discrimination. So, its OK to treat Jewish forms of modesty as "ultra" and "extremist", but not the Muslim form, which is done for essentially the same reasons???

While i agree there is an 'extreme' type of asceticism and austerity that says a religious Jew should suffer death rather then listen to a women sing, MOST Orthodox Rabbis would not agree with that. This again is an example of picking out one case of a radical moralism and treating it as if its a common Haredi opinion.

In addition, not all Rabbis feel the singing voice of a woman is bad. Only in certain contexts and situations is it prohibited. And this again goes back to the need for holiness and sanctity of consciousness, to remove those obstacles, such as the salacious sound of a woman's singing voice, a woman's natural hair, legs, upper arms, cleavage, etc, from promoting thoughts in consciousness which lead to what Judaism deems the great moral failure of civilization: the failure of mankind to contain their sexual energy. Judaism regards the wasteful spilling of semen to be the ultimate disease of consciousness, which when it becomes the 'norm in society', leaves man in a perpetual struggle between right and wrong, good and bad, all so because he doesn't have the strength of will to control this inner fire.

Judaism is all about this. Its very strange that non-traditional forms of Judaism, reform, conservative, etc, treat the wstern objectification of women, propagation of sexuality, which they interpret as "liberty" to act as one feels, as authentically Jewish.

I say, don't be so puffed up and sure that the western way is the right way. Let people live as they please. If the orthodox population of Israel grows - and it is growing - and Israelis decide the country should be run in a more authentically Jewish manner, let them. There's nothing i despise more than this obnoxiously hypocritical stance taken by liberals (who ironically, are far from liberal, otherwise they would allow others to live as they wish) that anything other then democracy, secularism, egalitarianism, humanism, is unacceptable, evil, backwards, only because it contradicts your own liberal views.

In the end, nobody knows what the truth is. We each are attracted to our own truth, and i would hate a world that subscribes mindlessly to just one doctrine. There is nothing "immoral" about traditional Jewish law. A world without posters of women is still the world; its just not the western matrix us 'modern" conditioned minds are used to. So woman cant sing? Big deal. Different society, different values. Different matrix.

Another mother said that the main extremist influence was coming from organized groups of Orthodox people moving into a community with the purpose of increasing religious observance in that community. "But make no mistake, the Education Ministry is a full partner and is pushing them forward," she said.

This can all be reduced to: Do these women respect Jewish law? I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough of Halacha to comment on this, but i know its a fairly accepted idea that women are not allowed to sing...I'm not sure , and maybe there are divergent views. Perhaps this is an issue best dealt with by Israels Rabbis, some of who take a more lenient stance, and would permit little girls to sing (since they're just children), while others will take a more stringent, conservative view, that it is simply unacceptable because it goes against traditional Jewish authorities..

I'm neither for, nor against, because I understand the rationale for, and the rationale against, and both sides make sense. I would just hope people would refrain from harsh opinions and show more tolerance for views they have little knowledge of.

The fear in Israel is that some of the deeply religious Jews will become radicalized, and violent. As some Israelis have been heard to observe, “Israel is turning into a Middle Eastern country.”

This is without any merit. Not surprising. HaAretz is the most anti-religious, and some would even say, antisemitic, newspapers in Israel. They simply hate traditional Judaism.

Please provide just one example to give justification for the claim that Israels religious will resort to terrorism the way Islam has. Judaism has ALWAYS been a religion that revolves around the concept of peace. Name a religiously incited Jewish massacre: whereas in the case of Islam, thousands of individual events can be recalled.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


Jewish law is the complete opposite of Sharia law. Its actually quite surprising. According to the Talmud, a court which executed 1 person in 70 years is called the "killing court". So, when a person is tried, the judges, typically, 3 judges. In the case of a more serious offense, a court of 23 Judges, called a 'minor Sanhedrin', would analyze the case from both the position of the plaintiff, and that of the defendant.

Unlike in traditional law, in Jewish law, the circumstances of the defendant, his emotional state, etc, are considered relevant to the final verdict. Just as in traditional law, circumstantial evidence is disregarded.

As for sexual offenses, rape is absolutely forbidden in Judaism, and anyone, Jew or non-Jew, that commits rape, according to Halacha, is stoned to death.