Another good reason to have legal civil marraige performed in Israel. The reiligious want not only to control our lives but send woman back to the Kitchen sink.

Tragic. What has happened to the promise of "freedom of religion" in Israel's Declaration of Independence?

I ain't moving to the Israstan to live under its rabbitollahs.

..if you really had the guts to come you would.....blame it on the rabbis or Likud or labour, heavan forbid you should say that you are too scared

Take it from me the corrupt Shas party are trying to turn Israel in to a jewish version of Iran. If you care about your freedom and democracy its better to be a jew in the US where the rights of an individual are recognised.

Unlike many of my coreligionists (wow, I used that word), I have already been to Israel 3 times in the past 4 years. I don't need to blame it on other things. I know that I wouldn't have all the rights that others do, especially when we're talking about the corrupt rabbinical courts in Israel.

Jews – religious and those not yet religious - have one religion and that is the Torah.

This is part of the bargain Olmert is paying to keep Shas in his gov't. $ha$ desires money and power. These days reveal their true colors, for the revulsion of all to see. As Napolean Bonaparte once quipped, Men are led by baubles and trinkets.

Well let me say that you will always find an excuse to NOT make alyah . This excuse will give you a good feeling for staying in your country , were life is certainly much easier as here . If you sincerely wanted to make alyah , you would not look at such details . Well i , a very secular Jew , made alyah in 2001 , and with all the problems we face here , with all the things i dislike , with the bad behaviour of many people , there is something different in Israel . Here it's MY country , it's MY HOME .

If recent current events are a teacher to be respected, let them serve as a caution and a warning. I'm sorry to say that there is going to be more heartache and alienation in Israel with the passage of this bill. I see the events daily unfolding before my eyes in Israel as i read the news. It has been stated, that by the year 2020, Haredization will tip the balance in Israel. This in itself is no danger. Though I myself am not anti-religious, I see many problems ahead for those not of the Hareidi mindset. How many seculars within and without the upcomming generations will decide to stay and defend the country during hostilities. How will Hareidim support themselves and provide for the country with the caste system that they helped to create ? There are too few answers following too many questions here. The serious question of aliya may be a consideration to very few if there is not a dramatic halt to theocratization. If Israel continues along this path the Politicians and Rabbis themselves will flee elsewhere having destroyed Israel in their wake.

#7 makes a Medieval fetish of the Torah and wants to stick all Jews with his idolatry. (I am indirectly quoting Menachem Mendel of Kotsk.) He/she should study a history of Torah.

charles, while you mention "problems", I wonder what exactly they were? How were they different from those any oleh would experience? At this point in time, I am just as likely to go to Saudi Arabia or Iran with their religious laws and try to change them from the inside. (That was funny wasn't it?) The point is - I don't feel like getting lynched in Saudi Arabia or Iran. Neither do I feel like having to live with religious coercion endemic in living in Israel.

With all the problems we face . Are you ignorant mr incognito ? Let me tell you that Israel has some security problems , that Israel has a great quantity of poor people , that 10 people , homeless ones , died from the cold this year . Religious coercision ? Tell me what kind of coercision i have to "enjoy" ? I'm living here , no problems for me , and i'm secular . No , look for excuses to not make alyah , and stay where you are . And be ashamed of your writing .

if you don't get married by a Rabbi, you will have no need for their parasitical legal system...

But your children will be considered "bastards" . And maybe that one day they will reproach it to you .

A Jewish Bastard (Mamzer) is not created by having children out of wedlock.UNLESS it is the result of an adulterous or incestuous relationship. Check your halakha lest you mislead others!

Before calling other man's children bastards , look at your own .