This is from an Areivim list member and it so important that it needs to get wider exposure. It happened yesterday.
Sorry to bring up an old topic; but it hit close to home this time. This is addressed at all those readers who don't believe that this happens without provocation:An hour ago my brother left my parents in Ramat Bet Shemesh and got on a Mehadrin bus with 2 of his kids - and my Mother came on behind him with the baby, intending to put the baby down and get off before the bus leaves.
A Kanoi jumped up and pushed my 70 year old mother (holding a baby) backward and pinned her to the front of the bus, yelling at her to get off, ignoring her explanation of why she was on the men's side. Of course she couldn't get off because she was being pinned against the front of the bus.
Her arms are aching so badly so can hardly function; and the only person who intervened on a full bus of Frum Yidden was the Arab bus driver!!!!
What's the heter to touch women? - What's the heter to attack anybody? - Whatever has happened to simple common decency?And you still wonder why Moshiach hasn't come...
I echo this writer’s sentiments.
What this demonstrates is that the large community of wild animals that inhabit Ramat Bet Shemesh B are still acting like… well, wild animals. They are the absolute worst among those of us who claim the Torah as our guide. Here is what is important about this.
When a similar story happened to Mrs. Miriam Shear, she was trashed by some defenders of that community as having a feminist agenda. Those same defenders said not to judge an entire community by a few of its hooligans.
I said then that this was a complete misreading of what happened and a total fabrication of Mrs. Shear's motives. But since she had a religious Zionist background, the defenders of that community just chose to believe what they wanted. They judged her unfavorably, L’Kav Chova and the criminals who beat her up favorably, L’Kav Zechus! Why? Because they looked like Charedim.
But there can be no such claim made here. This was a 70 year old woman holding a baby! And the good people on the bus just stood by and did nothing! Who was the hero here? A righteous gentile!
Who can look at this event and honestly say that these incidents are an aberration ...or that most of the citizens of Ramat Bet Shemesh B are fine upstanding people? One must deal with the reality of what happened here. They must deal with the fact that, though stemming from there, these are not the same people who live in Meah Shearim and have violent trash and tire burning riots These are no the same people who beat up Mrs. Shear. They are different people.
But they do have one thing in common. They have all been raised to behave in certain ways to things they don’t like. What we are witnessing here is an actual Hashkafa. It is an Hashkafa of Kanaus about one’s belief that permits using violence in achieving goals acceptable!
I want to be clear. I am not talking about Charedim in general. Most of Charedim are on the same page as I am here. But I am talking about an entire community pf people, not just a few hooligans from it.
Nor I do say that the rabbinic leadership of this community condones what is going on. They clearly don’t. But, I blame them! They are responsible for instilling extreme values in their people. The protesters and thugs who do this kind of thing have maybe gone futher than their leadership intended or condone. But they are nevertheless given a pass of sorts for doing it. Violent protest has been interpreted by most people from this community is a legitimate means in achieving their goals even while the leadership tepidly condemns it.
The condemning posters in Ramat Bet Shemesh B put up by the Edah HaCharedis have been pointed to as eveidnce that the rabbinic leadership is strongly opposed to violent protest. But those posters in the same breath endorsed the very goals sought by those violent demonstrators. That is almost the same as excusing it. Not much of a protest, if you ask me. What happened to a 70 year old woman happened after these posters had been put up. It wasn’t a gang member doing it to her. It was an upstanding citizen of that community who rose to the occasion! …while others watched!
I said it before but it bears repeating.
They need more than a poster. They need more than the Edah. They need a unified and public condemnation by all Torah leadership across the board. And not just on a poster, but a public and unified statement in person in front of all the media, print and electronic... broadcast on national Television and videotaped so that the world can know.
These people must be made to understand that rabbinic condemnations are not just put up just for public consumption. Although I'm sure the Edah was serious in their poster, this community did not take it seriously for that reason.
It should contain hard and unmistakable condemnations... backed up by support for police arrests, prosecutions, and convictions for those who violate the law. No apologetics about their just cause. No blaming the police.
Future violators will then be the unmistakably criminal. They will be treated accordingly by the police, the criminal justice system and the rabbinic leadership. If the entire Torah world comes down hard and backs the police and the courts, this will stop.
