Despicable People

Light Rail protesters on Bar Ilan Street in Jerusalem (VIN)

There are few people that enrage me more than than religious extremists. The worst of which seem to live in either Meah Shearim or the West Bank (Judea and Sumeria).  Ironically in both cases these people are uncompromising ideologues whose religious observances would otherwise be laudatory.

Religious people that sacrifice themselves in service to God, which usually entails avoiding any leniencies that would make life easier for them is something to admire and emulate. But that is not always the case. In fact the ideologies of each of the above mentioned groups has inspired many of them to do despicable things. Things that cause  a great deal of harm (and sometime even death) to innocent people. 

This was the case recently when a major Jerusalem street named Bar Ilan  was blocked by extremist protesters that are mostly followers of people like the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchak Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kohn. These protestors brook no compromise. When they detect even the slightest opposition by their leaders to a government project they will stop at nothing to make sure that project will never see the light of day. VIN describes what happened a  few days ago in Jerusalem: 

Hundreds of extremist chareidi elements demonstrated Sunday night at the light rail construction site in Bar Ilan street in Jerusalem. Some of the demonstrators rioted, set fire to infrastructure and blocked the street, causing huge traffic delays in the north of Jerusalem.

Police were forced to drag away little children who participated in blocking the road. The police later said that “tonight too protesters cynically exploited little children to participate in the rioting and disturbing the peace. Many of the rioters called the police Nazis as well.” 

This was after the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchak Rebbe had said he was opposed to violent protest (wink, wink). To these peole the idea of exposing children to danger in service to their extremist religious goals is a matter of good Chinuch. Hurting innocent people and the destruction of property in pursuit of that goal is fair game. What, after all, could be worse than improving that very community’s transportation by building a rail system that would be more efficient, more comfortable, relive traffic congestion, make the streets safer, and make getting around infinitely easier. Based on their Rebbe’s views, they apparently feel the spiritual damage done by replacing buses with trains is worth the sacrifice.  

They have a right to be stupid. But they do not have a right to riot and set fire to infrastructures. That endangers residents in that neighborhood - some of whom are elderly or sick. Andit places their own children in harm’s way. These people are condemnable and  ought to be taken off the streets. Permanletly.  With long prison sentences. 

As a hug fan of Chicago’s former Mayor, Richard J. Daily, I appreciated his ordering police to shoot to kill arosnists in any future riot.  It’s time for law enforcement in Israel to start thinking like Mayor Daley - and maybe even imprison any leader that inspires it. (No. I am not suggesting that these protesters should be killed. Just saying I like the seriousness with which our former mayor took arson during a riot.)

A conflagration burns in the West Bank during an Israeli settler riot (JTA)

On the complete opposite side of the religious spectrum are the settlers who did the following  as reported by JTA: 

Israeli settlers torched cars and crops in the West Bank following a Palestinian terror attack, the latest conflagration in what has been a violent year in the territory... dozens of Palestinians were wounded 

That was in retaliation for the massacre of 4 innocent Jews from a West Bank settlement called Eli by Hamas terrorists. In the minds of these extremist settlers - the despicable and cowardly massacre of innocent Jews deserved a reprisal against innocent Palestinians. And they were going to settle the score.

These people are surely followers of the late Meir Kahane who believed that unless proven otherwise, every Arab is a Jew hater that - given the opportunity - would kill us all in a heartbeat. And therefore worthy of killing them before they have another  chance to kill us. 

This is how they justify what they did here and what they did not long ago in the Palestinian village of Huwara for similar reasons.

(That was probably the motivation of another Kahane follower by the name of Baruch Goldstein - who years ago on Purim  massacred a group of Palestinians while they were worshiping in Ma’aras Hamachpela.) 

These despicable Jews are as devout about religious observances as are the Charedi rioters against the light rail. But as far as I am concerned, they are all despicable human beings whose devout observance is nullified by virtue of extremist acts of violence that result in hurting innocent people. 

In both cases, they may think they will earn Olam Haba - a place in the world to come - by their actions. But in my view they probably burned their Olam Haba. The damage these people cause goes well beyond their immediate targets. By their acts they damage the image of religious Jews all over the world. And they give the antisemites of the world an excuse to hate  us, persecute us, and attack us, All of us, regardless of how observant we are.

Extremist behavior by otherwise devout Jews hurts the very soul of our people. And I cannot condemn them all enough!