Charedi Anarchy
Shutting down the country, causing immense damage - "it's a Kiddush Hashem!"
Originally this post was titled “Charedi Anarchy Day.” Then I realized that pretty much every day in charedi society is anarchy. Today was just more extreme.
The car demonstration, in which over a thousand vehicles headed out from 19 cities around Israel and drive slowly to converge to a military prison, was actually coordinated with the police. The arrangement was that they would drive at 30mph in the right-hand line, allowing traffic to pass on the left.
Of course that’s not what actually happened. Many of the chareidi protestors stopped their vehicles, got out, and stopped traffic entirely. Much of the country was brought to a standstill, and endless thousands of people were severely inconvenienced, or worse. One pregnant woman collided with a car in front that had suddenly stopped due to the protest convoy and was seriously injured.
This event was not merely the extremist Peleg faction. R. Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the Lithuanian “Gadol HaDor,” backed it. And Yitzchak Goldknopf, leader of UTJ, led one of the convoys, driving slowly in a government car with a flashing siren (which is supposed to only be used in case of emergency). The Prime Minister, of course, had nothing to say.
In Jerusalem, rioting charedim caused over 120 million dollars in damage to the Light Rail. That’s the proceeds of an entire Keren Olam HaTorah tour of the USA, except that they won’t be giving the money to repair the damage.
Meanwhile, here’s a lovely poster from one of the cars in the protest:
“We will not enlist in the enemy army.” I’m fine with charedim rating the state as the enemy, as long as this cuts both ways - the state should not fund its enemies.
One leading rabbinic figure (I forget who) said he hasn’t been able to sleep at night due to the charedim who were put in prison for draft-dodging. If only he had lost some sleep over the thousands of soldiers who killed and injured rather than spending a few nights in a safe cell, maybe he would understand why people want the universal draft to be applied universally.
A lot of charedi apologists were saying that if the Kaplanists (those who protested the judicial reform) had the right to shut down roads, surely charedim do too! To which I would personally answer that the Kaplanists also fulfilled their responsibilities to serve in the IDF and support their families. If you’re not interested in emulating the responsibilities of the Kaplanists, it’s a chutzpah to demand their rights.
The organizers of today’s anarchy considered it to be a great success. I even saw it described as a “Kiddush Hashem”! I wouldn’t agree to that, but neverthless, as far as I’m concerned, this terrible thing is actually a good thing. The charedim are making it increasingly clear to people that they are not some holy community providing spiritual strength to Israel, but rather a freeloading dangerous anarchist sect that, left unchecked, will hollow out the country until it collapses. Hopefully enough people will gain clarity to vote accordingly.
