You expect the JEWISH public in the JEWISH state to rely upon a mish-mash of Ottoman, British, Jordanian, and other law? No. ONLY Jewish law for the JEWISH state.

The problem isn't the law so much as the people behind it, it seems to me. I doubt "Jewish Law" under rebbaim who insist non-Orthodox synagogues "smell of hell" would operate a better system. My own experience with batei din is that they are not more impartial or wise than secular courts. What's needed is wise, fair, unbribable judges. Once you have that, you can start debating the plusses and minuses of the type of legal system.

people in prison than in Red China that has a much larger population. One in 32 people in America is in prison or is on probation, mostly for illegal drug offenses. There is an enlightening article in the Nov. 2007 issue of Free American magazine by a former editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Craig Roberts. He said the police and district attorneys are not interested in who is innocent or guilty, but only in getting convictions, even of the innocent. There is a 95% conviction rate on felonies which is higher than under the Spanish Inquisition of the Middle Ages when Jewish corpses were dug up and put on trial to steal their property. The object is to destroy people's lives, not justice. Frame machines and false witnesses are used to get convictions of the innocent. So many people were framed for murder by police and district attorneys that the governor of Illinois had to suspend the death penalty after DNA proved so many people innocent. But the judges do not want to release those who are found innocent by DNA and other evidence. There are a few honest district attorneys, but since they do not get a lot of convictions, being honest, there careers look bad. What the district attorneys and police do is to keep adding more charges with longer sentences if people refuse to plea bargain when they are innocent. The Border Patrol agents Ramos and Campean who were framed and sent to prison for 11 and 12 years were offered a plea bargain of one year in prison. When they refused, the district attorney became enraged and framed them with false witnesses. $100,000. legal bills just to be convicted with false witnesses is normal in America. BE THANKFUL IF YOU LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE because there is more justice in every other country on earth if the percentage of the population in prison is a fair indicator. One man was convicted of marital rape and sent to life in prison. Another was accused of molesting a teenage boy he would not allow to buy illegal drugs when on a group outing. He was sent to prison for 20 years on NO EVIDENCE. What do you do when such things happen to you or your family? The Bible says to shake the dust from your shoes when you leave there. Then God will judge that place and those evil people.

And you call that justice?

Of course no one is happy seeing the light sentences that murderers, raptists, pedophiles, women slave traders and just any criminal around is geeting here. A Disgrace.

When everything possible becomes somehow "politicized" what else can you expect? How to find an acceptable balance is no easy task when judges pursue an ideologic agenda, where self-interest is perceived as all-pervasive, & where there is an enormous disconnect between politicians & the people they theoretically serve. It should be obvious to anyone, except of course, to our political elite, that we need extensive political reform. The unfortunate fact of the matter, however, is that most people are so alienated from political life, have become so cynical about politics & politicians, that they ignore the issue of reform & instead concentrate on their own personal lives & interests in the mst narrow sense, oblivious to the danger a failed system poses to them. Rather than the usual rhetoric about democracy, we should realize that the real term is "participatory democracy" - that democracy depends on the informed participation of the electorate. Our political system's lack of accountability is the greatest threat to our country's survival.

Nannette, don't you think it's a problem that the leaders of the "Jewish system" allow their own corruption and vice to fester? I won't get into examples, but if you follow the news you'll find no shortage of them. As I said, it's about the quality of the people. No system works when the people behind it are crooked.

Justice in Israel forget it. In any country that sends 14 year old girls to prison for protesting, dont look for justice. The only satisfaction I get from the Justice system is watching the BBC series of Judge John Deed, I love it.

We in the diaspora protest and fight as much as we can, but ultimately Israelis should demand a vote of no confidence, followed by a general election.

We do, but it doesn't help. Our system is more responsive to voters in the US who vote for a president who tells his foreign secretary to tell us what to do, than it is to us. Remember the quarter million who demanded that our PM step down after the war? Did he step down? We have more constructive things to do than "protest".