1) Women attacked by "religious" Jews on Jerusalem busses for not sitting in the back. 2) A Jewish teenage boy nearly killed and probably maimed for life because his family has committed the unpardonable sin of Beliving Yeshua is the Messiah, and the police suspect "religious" Jews are the culprits. 3) Now, a young woman attacked by "religious" Jews with acid because her clothes are are so-called "immodest". What is next? Stonings? Honor killings? I truly hope that these lunatics committing these crimes are only a tiny minority in the religious Jewish community in Israel. But if so, where is all the outcry? Howcome, with only a couple of exceptions, are so many talkbackers claiming to be religious only responding by accusing YNET of making this story? Where are all the Orthodox rabbis going public to completely condemn this stuff? Why are these criminals still at large, and why have their religious neighbors not turned them in to police? I have said this before about American "moderate" Muslims who refuse to publically condemn Islamic terrorism without making excuses for it: Your silence is deafening.

style than this?!!! For those who enjoy doing these things, please go to Iran. AND STAY THERE!!! No doubt, you will be warmly welcomed there!!! # The rest of the words that come to mind are all v e r y m u c h out of the curriculum, so let me stop HERE!!!

Just look at these 49-50 angry teebees! Owowow! How ignorant you are! What is intolerable is not the unpleasant result of the provocation, but the provocation itself! What does a 14 and an 18 years old girl walk about in town in pants and short-sleeved shirts in Beitar? Hmmm? Moderation is a mitzvah and public rebellion is a sin. It's not a question of "taste". Beitar, like many towns and villages in Judea and Samaria are a last refuge for the Jewish Jew who does not care about the Democratic Republic and its wide-spread corruption and moral decay. These religious Jews are faithful to a different set of Laws, to their Creator's Torah Law. Torah is rendered illegal in this secular-ruled republic where everything goes. Jewish Jews are but pushed out to the desert. This attack, unpleasant as it may be, is perfectly legal under Halacha and is the very result of the arrogance of the secular system that pretends to rule over G-d on the Land of Israel. These 49 or 50 secularist teebees are a cause of the attac they react to. Push the religious to the corner and he'll fight as he always did in the past. Don't make mistakes about that and don't miscalculate the simmering anger and full resolution of the Jew! Don't forget the Maccabees, don't forget Bar Kochba!

the guy who did this is a sick psychopathic maniac the only way you can someone is if you first fulfil the mitzvah of and you shall love your fellowman as your self if you pour acid on someone you are only filled with hate i hope the girl has a full and speedy refuah shleimoh immediately

I'm orthodox. I wear a black hat. I find this pathetic. I have long been exasperated that our rabbonim, who are supposed to stand for Torah, have not taken an emphatic, absolute stand against this sort of thing. There is something twisted in our communities. Its not God. Its not our Torah. Its not yiddishkeit. Its a weakness and inability to call a spade a spade and stand up and say "I stand for God!" If the rabbis don't have the integrity to do it, then the common man will have to take the statement "where there are no men strive to be a man" to heart and stand up to these losers. And maybe an eye for an eye needs to come into play as well. Maybe its time we cleaned up our own. Men in black hats need to put an end to this nonsense. Its embarrassing. We need to police our own. And we need to enlist the aid of the police while we do it. Let them rot in jail for a few weeks every time they shame and attack another human being. These fools are desecrating our Torah. They are shaming our God. You don't convince people of the Torah's rightness and holiness by violating its precepts and acting like the back end of a horse. You don't show them how to live in holiness and convince them of the Torah's merits by living like a course-minded barbarian. These self-appointed defenders of Torah are sinners plain and simple and they need to be stopped. You convince people to follow Torah by following its laws, its inner and outer meaning, and showing them the wonderful flowers it creates in your garden. You don't inspire people to righteousness this way. Its not right. You have to be righteous and live by the Torah to inspire people to follow it. Throwing acid on a woman who doesn't dress modestly is a violation of Torah. It is not only disrespect for her, but for the beit din, for the Torah, and for God. It has nothing to do with Torah. It has everything to do with ignorant, evil, pig-headed bad character traits. This is a good example of the falsity of Vox Populi, Vox Dei. The modesty police may have spoken, and they may have popular support, but its not the voice of God. And I suspect they don't have popular support. Its just that most of us, in the absence of rabbis stamping their feet and providing adequate leadership, feel like we're on our own and don't know what to do about it. I bet we're in the majority. And its time for that silent majority to speak out and put and end to this.

I don't care if someone is Charedi, Chassidic, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, or Secular. A Jew is a Jew, and we cannot act in these ways toward our own people! This is how the Muslims act with their people. We need to be united as the Jewish People, religious or non-religious in our support for our country. Terrorizing seculars simply terrible. Yes, they should be more religious, but it is not our place to judge seculars. It is despicable! Even Rav Kahane ZT"L (considered an extremist by many) accepted the fact that a Jew is a Jew. We are essentially all family.

these acid--throwers--watch out of them---they want to turn Israel in to a Jewish Iran.

When I was reading these books I was shocked at the atrocities committed by the taliban in Afghanistan, particularly against women. And all the time I was thinking, if our bearded, black hatted and coated lunatics are given half a chance, they are capable of the same monstrous behaviour. The haredim should be rounded up and given one way tickets to Afghanistan (and I am an orthodox Jew, by the way)

I suspect your definition of what is logic vs. rhetoric will depend on whether or not you agree with the conclusion. But just in case , here it goes: Yea, pouring acid on the girl, even if she were wearing nothing, would be wrong but don't blame 'religion'. How many more were doused in acid and worse by those adhering to a secular humanist philosphy? millions.

Simple answer. 1) You spoke of religion without defining your terms. You are painting with a broad brush and advancing and ad hominem attack. You appeal to emotion, point to an anecdotal case, and offer no substantive arguments. 2) You are drawing a generalization from a specific instance. Its statistically and epistemologically unsound to do so. It constitutes the basic construction of a logical fallacy. 3) You are the one making the bold assertion. The burden of proof is on you, not the religious of the world. Its sheer arrogance to make a petty drive by comment and not back it up. Prove your case or shut up. 4) You confuse the act of a religious boor with the religion itself without establishing his religion actually condones his behavior. His ignorance of the halacha is as great as yours is. The Torah and halacha as understood by our rabbis forbids this sort of behavior. 5) That there are backwards fundamentalists who have denied our traditional understanding of Torah in the Jewish world does not mean Judaism, or all orthodox Jews, are fundamentalists. Indeed, a fundamentalist cannot, by definition, be orthodox as an orthodox Jew lives by a set of orthodox premises that reject that kind of reactionary thinking. 6) In the world of philosophy religion is, in of itself, not considered inherently irrational. Nor is theology considered irrational. Indeed, every religion is, by definition, a philosophy. Each one has to be evaluated individually. Some religions are rational, others are not. But the same is true of every ideology and philosophy. That there are irrational people who are religious does not change the fact that many religions are in fact rational. There are rational, thinking, religious Jews in the world, too. 7) Indeed, your statement is, in of itself, both ignorant and irrational. If bold, unsupported assertions is all you've got - and from the fact that you made such an ignorant statement at all I suspect it is- then its not we, the rational among the religious, who need to justify ourselves. Its you, Sonny Jim. Balls in your court.

How much crime is committed by religious people - the overwhelming is by secular. So get over it. This girl was the victim of a crime - would you feel better about it if it were by Jihadis vs. Haredi? Put the criminal in jail and leave the "Taliban" crap where it belongs - sorry, modesy doesn't allow me to mention where.

Great. Now we are trying to cause the destruction of the third Temple before it's even built. Why did the Rabbonim say that the Second Temple was destroyed? At a time when the Roman's were trying to destroy Israel we were fighting amongst ourselves... baseless hatred. When the Islamo-fascists (and the illiberal left) are trying to destroy Israel we have this sort of cowardly attack by one Jew against another. And don't give me any of that self-justifying trash about Israel being threatened by women who won't wear the 'burka'. This is a clear Chillul HaShem. Refuah Shlema to the poor victim of this attack.

charedi edition! NOWHERE ELSE he could find ANY justification for ANY corporal punishment WITHOUT a sentence from a Beth Din. What happened in Betar, IS VIGILANTISM OF THE WORST GOYISHE KIND, TALIBAN, KKK, WHATEVER!...and it goes hand in hand with their SICK SEXUAL OBSESSIONS, CHILD TORTURE AND INCEST (many cases coming out of that world lately!) I am a Shomer Torah U-Mitswoth, and I can assure you that IMITATING IDOLWORSHIPPERS WITH THEIR BLACK CLOTH IS MUCH WORSE THAN A GIRL WEARING PANTS (allowed by MANY posqim INCLUDING Ovadiah Yosef!) AND SHORT SLEEVES (which is a chumrah, NOT shurath haddin!) I am READY TO DEFEND WITH MY OWN BODY AND MY WEAPONS THE RIGHT OF A JEWISH WOMAN TO WALK SAFE AND UNBOTHERED BY THOSE PREDATORS!!!

that abused children, in the name of religion?

He is trying to hide his non-Jewish roots with the appearance of being an extremely zealous Jew. Yet, instead of taking his complaints to a Beth Din, he takes them to the Italian senate. This is what he calls "being a Jewish Jew". This is his relative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B3bert_Ber%C3%A9ny

Why do I suspect that your comments are a load of BS? After all, anybody who had been planning to send their child to Israel with Birthright would know better than to think the country is either lawless or barbaric just because of this terrible incident. In fact, if your knowledge of Israel is so defective, then your daughter probably needs Birthright more than you realize.

Why don't the parents and the medical staff of the hospital report this to the police? This is an assault with a deadly weapon with the intention of doing grave, bodily harm. Rabbis have no place in the decision; unless, of course, they want to report it to the police themselves.

Yes we must mourn, as religious coercion and intimidation destroy our Israeli democracy. But as long as our distress is limited to armchair venting (I plead guilty to being one of those), we must accept part of the responsibily. We have abandoned our country to arrogant extemists who would replace our Supreme Court with a Council of Torah Sages, and forcibly impose their world view on all of us. We "fight" them from the safety and comfort of our living rooms, while they take to the streets in a frighteningly impressive show of force. There will be some hope for the future of our country, and the Zionist dream, when we finally say "enough", and PUBLICLY fight this mortal threat to Democracy and the rule of law.

and send the "students" to a work and re education camp. Set one up in the Negev. All troubled youth should be rounded up and placed in institutions that can help them. If that does not work,then jail them and let their families pay the costs.

I would find the religious terrorist out and kill their whole family as revenge to make an example.

Clearly Islam and Judaism are two birds of the same feather when it comes to the behavior of those who practice the extreme teachings of both religions. There are many teaching of Judaism that simply have no place in a free and democratic state where the rights and beliefs of all must be respected and protected under the laws, yet in Israel there are pockets of intolerance that exist and seek to deny the those very freedoms. I suppose that one should expect that members of a society who are taught to be so intolerant of other races and religions would also learn to be violently intolerant of other members of Israeli society who believe differently than they do as well.

There are crazy zealots in all countries. The U.S was settled by quite a few of them. Salem witchcraft trials ring a bell? The issue, above the behavior, is what are people going to do about it? If these type of perpetrators are brought to justice, it will discourage further behavior of this sort. However, I must say, that so many of us are just sick of ALL the religious extremists, whether Jewish, Christian, Moslem, etc., who need to be taught to mind their own business. Worry more about your own behavior than your neighbors. Under Orthodox reasoning about obstructing "temptation"; every item in every store should be under lock and key less someone be tempted to steal. It is up to men to control their own impulses. It is not the task of women to camouflage their gender because a man could possibly have poor impulse control. In modern times in most countries, we have a place for such men. It is called jail.

until we've dealt with the Israeli-Arab conflict which has been going on for the past 6 decades. Do you even think before you write?

It's time for them, along with the Arabs, to go.

And he should be punished to the full extent of the law.