Tel-Chai Nation

I found this most galling news clip from last month about another part of society that's got a problem with Haredi extremists:

IDF soldiers touring the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem were asked to wear civilian clothing for fear that haredi extremists would throw stones and eggs at them, Israel Radio reported Friday.

Upon exiting the neighborhood, the soldiers donned their IDF uniforms and continued their tour of Jerusalem.

It got a response a few days later in the letters:

There are almost no words to describe the sense of shock I felt when I happened across the small news item about our fine Israeli soldiers not being able to walk through Mea She’arim while proudly wearing their uniforms (“Soldiers shed uniforms in Mea She’arim,” News in Brief, September 16).

Anybody who would dare throw stones or eggs, or in any way denigrate a person wearing the uniform of the State of Israel should be hauled away and reeducated about the meaning of honor. (The rest of what I have to say is unprintable.) Are the haredim not able to control the extremists in their midst? Until such time as sanity reigns there will be enmity and bad feelings among our people.

How very sad.

Sometimes, I wonder the same thing. But just as offensive is that the commanders would instruct them not to wear their outfits, or, that they wouldn't even arrange to have the police on standby to deal with these situations, or wouldn't think to call them in if needed. The commanders of the group are indeed partly to blame for this cowardice, and owe the soldiers under their command an apology.

Update: in another item related to the Mea Shearim case, while the representatives of that neighborhood may have agreed not to come up with segregation between sexes, there was still a case of stone throwing there that injured a reporter during Succot holiday. This is absolutely awful.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, military, Moonbattery