So I guess one should finally admit that the cat is out of the bag. The jig is up. It’s not “one or two” extremists, “a small but vocal minority”, “the weeds”. It’s not the few hundred Yeshiva guys exempted from the military in the 1950s. It’s an all-out cultural war on the future face of Israel. Israelis have been dodging this issue for a very long time now. We were always taught to be “tolerant”, to “accept the different”, to “respect the difference”, to “agree to disagree”. The Israeli people were trained that the chairman of the Finance Committee in the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) is always a representative of the ultra-orthodox party. Not because Jews are good with money, as some non-Jews are mistaken to think, but because it is very close to where funds are being distributed, where the pies are cut, where the dough is split and shared. For many years, the government of the State of Israel paid the cost of forming and maintaining a coalition by simply sneaking billions of dollars outside the budget to keep the orthodox political parties happy within the coalition (agreed, they are not the only ones, other sectoral parties “enjoy” this arrangement). It’s called (free translation): “The Law of Arrangements”…
Now one must admit, this is a brilliant (and working) strategy. This is how it works. Ultra-orthodox families are encouraged to live in poverty. Low income, many children, implies poverty most of the time (granted, some very religious families are extremely rich, but most are well below the poverty line, at least according to official records). These children are encouraged to grow up uneducated in terms of getting an income-generating profession. In turn, they grow up to have many more children of their own who will grow up the same way. (There’s a tragic side to it. The ones who are really trying to get out, to leave the ghetto, to escape, are incapable of making a living, of conducting a productive life outside the communities where they came from. They are disowned by their families, and on occasion are reduced to crime, homelessness and prostitution). In the meantime, as they rightfully have the right to vote, they practice their right (possibly the highest voting rates compared to any other sector) and help their representatives into the Parliament, so they can help get the necessary budgets to support such a large unproductive community. Unproductive means: no military service, no profession, low income, no or low taxes. To avoid the fire usually sent by righteous people, I make sure no generalizations are made. Some are very productive, some believe as our sages taught that Torah goes hand in hand with work and contribution.
The working middle class is just way to busy struggling with its own challenges to pay attention to the problem. In addition, there’s absolutely nothing they can do about it. And even if there was something they could do about it, it would be considered anti-Semitic. You see, a Jew calling another Jew “unproductive” is a possible act of antisemitism. A Jew calling another Jew “Goy” (gentile), “Beast” (as only beasts don’t worship God), is considered to be, well, I guess it’s acceptable. Funny, people sometimes tell me that living outside Israel exposes me to acts of antisemitism. I hereby clearly declare that the only acts of antisemitism I ever experienced were by Jews. Ultra-orthodox Jews. I’m not going to start to spell it out, but suffice it to say that I experienced it in multiple occasions.
As I mentioned before, it’s easy to accept a separatist community when it’s small. You figure, you guys don’t want to contribute? Good for you. Don’t want to work? That’s OK. Want to live in poverty? Fine by me. Want your kids to go hungry? Well, I have a problem with that, but it’s basically your business. Don’t want to send your kids to risk their lives and fight for the country’s future? Who does? No taxes? Plenty of services? Special housing? No worries, on the house. Works for a dozen. Works for a thousand. Stops working when there are several hundreds of thousand, and they are spitting on little girls, disrespecting women, (and men for that matter), contribute little or nothing to the economy, and use derogatory terms for people of my kind, while using and abusing the taxes other people pay. Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t working anymore.
And the question is why? Why are they doing it? And the answer is simple: because they can. Israel provides an environment never provided to Ultra-Orthodox Jews ever before. A free country, where the ruling the rulers and the voters are mainly Jewish. Where it is not acceptable to disrespect Jews (it’s apparently OK to disrespect all others, including non-religious Jews). Israel is the only country in the world, where Jews can get women to sit in the back of the bus. In fact, if I am not mistaken, Israel has become the only country in the world where anybody can get anyone to sit in the back of the bus. But it gets better. There are streets for women. There are signs restricting women from walking or as the sign suggests: “Women, Keep Walking”. Women are expected to work, to bear and raise children, to cook, serve, and wash the dishes, to clean, iron, and God knows what else, but they can’t walk the streets side by side with “men”.
I have another question though. How do the women accept this behavior? I told someone the other day that if my father was ever involved in anything disrespectful of women, my mother would smack him hard and send him to work… And by the way, I must also add this: please stop putting these self righteous women who are sweet talking the media into believing that “covering a woman’s body is respectful of women, revealing is disrespectful”, or “I love the fact that I can sit quietly with other women in the back of the bus, it’s more relaxing, and there’s less body odor all around”. First, those women may actually exist, but they are a small minority. The vast majority is quiet, because they must be, because being excommunicated is not something any woman wants to experience.
Now let me say the following. I am a proud Jew. Yes, not a “Self Loathing Jew” and certainly not a “Beast” (forget my weight for a second). I, by definition cannot be antisemitic, as my mother was born in a concentration camp, and my father’s family was kicked out of Spain in 1992. I believe that what we’re seeing now will lead to nothing else but total destruction and annihilation of the State of Israel. The equation is simple: the more Ultra-Orthodox there are, the less productive the country becomes, the more non-religious people leave, the more burden on the ones left behind, the weaker the military becomes. No need for Iran to get nuclear. The Ultra-Orthodox already are.
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