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| A burning bus in Bnei Brak (Life in Israel) |
(F)ringe youth led the riots yesterday in Bnei Braq, and I am guilty? My children are guilty? Why are we getting this image? The Haredi community has suffered the most from the pogroms this week and the people meant to deal with them are the police of Amir Ohana... Suddenly now the morbidity rate is high, so they have started to attack us again. We are not guilty. You made us go live in these crowded conditions, you are guilty.
Is he guilty? I don’t think the answer can be any clearer. The guilt lies not with him personally but with the very people from whom he gets direction, the Charedi leadership. Instead of complaining that it’s not his fault he ought to recognize that his leadership has failed in their mission to guide their people.
I hate to keep harping on this. But every day the news from Charedi community seems to be worse than the day before. The latest of which is rioters setting a bus on fire in Bnei Brak!
Of course Gafni’s right about personal responsibility. The ‘fringe’ he references are the guilty party. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But just as former President Trump is guilty of inciting his fringe supporters’ towards insurrection, so too is Gafni’s Charedi leadership guilty of inciting their fringe element.
That they so often angrily say that the ruling government is anti Torah out to destroy Judaism, sometimes even calling them Nazis, what do they expect will happen? Do they think that words don’t matter? Do they think that their fringe element won’t react? Of course they will! Just as the Trump’s fringe supporters did in Washington on January 6th.
Blaming the government for all that’s wrong in their world is worthy of being called a conspiracy theory. When the obvious goal of a law is to prevent or contain a deadly virus from spreading, and Charedi leaders insist instead that they are being picked on - singled out as Charedim, they should expect these kinds of consequences. It’s not like this is he first time their fringe has reacted this way.
It may be true that some members of the government are anti Charedi. But that is not the reason for targeting these communities. The reason is because they are the ones with the highest infection rates. It’s true that their claim of crowded conditions are part of the reason COVID infections are greater there. But so too is their attitude of not taking COIVID seriously enough.
But whatever the reason for the high rate of infections is, it doesn’t make any difference. You aim your hose at the fire regardless of how it got there. You don’t say, it’s not their fault and free them of their legal and moral obligations. You put out the fire!
I realize this will never happen, but Gafni and his leadership would do well to understand their own contribution to this mess and change the way they react to government laws they don’t like. They should certainly treat the fringe youth that did this like the unrepentant criminals they are. And make sure they are put away for a long time. You never know. It might save some lives. Including their own.
