If you have public transport on Shabbos, how do you deal with drivers who are shomrei Shabbos? When the UK Parliament first allowed Sunday trading a few years back, stores agreed no Christians could be required to work on Sunday, and trading was limited to a few hours on Sunday. Regarding drafting Haredi students, their exemption pre-dates the Tal Law to the 'status quo agreement' between the Chazon Ish and David Ben-Gurion. An agreed number should be exempt, just as the USA gave 4D deferals during the Vietnam War.

seperate state from religion? ok so whay you dont go marry some non jew? than you will have no jewish kids and you can go live to Vatican let say and than you will be seperated and happy . But like for others, jewish state must stay jewish with Torah, it is G-d and Torah what make Israel Israel. Not arabs, not christians only jew still have problem with this what they are... why? You dont agree with Tora? please go study better what is Torah, Torah is law and justice, you dont like it ?ok go live to palestina.

You can also keep your freedom of speech in private. Wear whatever hat you want, peot nohriot included, and burqas also. No, you don't have to take a shower, if you stay in private in your closed quarters.

every person has the right to observe their religious practices as they see fit. but no one has the right to impose them on anyone else. separate religion and state now!

B"H In Judaism they are one and the same

absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is especially a case with religion, which claims infallibility and the sole source of "Truth". Religion should be completely separated from state here, i.e. no law should tell people what to eat, how to get married and when to open their private businesses! The individual citizens of this state must demand their rights!

Which many of us unreligious are happy to follow, why do we have Israel otherwise...?

while Jews themselves have no inkling what "Jewish" means. Being a Jew is NOT ONLY being the son or daughter of a Jewish mother and run around like goyim. A Jew MUST keep every single commandment in the Torah whether you like it or not and may not desecrate a single commandment. Israel is a JEWISH STATE where TORAH rules. Those who don't like it, should get out of the JEWISH STATE and move elsewhere. There are plenty of countries in the world where you can act like goyim. Israel is a HOLY COUNTRY and must be preserved so. Since Israel is a JEWISH state it's orthodox Rabbis who will have the say whether religious boys may join an army of Jewish goyim.

The relgion is the state and you can separate. Weak up !!! Anyhow the gap is closing and majority realise who is running the show!!!!

Okay, now you're just being as ridiculous as nr. 1...

the right to be represented in the Knesset of their homeland, by a Tora keeping Jew. Thus religion can not be separated from state.

or has a ham sandwich

We do have freedom of religion. What we don't have is freedom from religion.

Ora - there is a problem with the ultra-orthodix who have appointed thenselves as g-ds spokesmen on earth. They have turned our religion, the religion of the Jewish people into a hybrid of a Golden Calf and a business opportunity. so do we really want them lobbying in the Knesset. If you look at the ridiculous statements by Mr. Ovadia Yosef for example - do we really need him denigating our religion in public?

The secular society can be very proud of itself it succeeded into turning 45 % of the population into a secular society that doesn't care about Jewish identity . They were able to take Jewish immigrants who wanted to be made stronger in their Jewish identiy and turn them against it or ridiculed it to the point where together with the education system radio tv theatre films all worked together to build a society with no Jewish roots, Congrtratulations !!!! Now lets see if Israel can survive ! While Arab culture and pride grow stronger.

I agree that Judaism is a religion and a culture (or ethnicity), but you can separate the two. In the U.S., most Jews have no problem driving on Saturday, or eating non-Kosher food, yet still practice their faith. Maybe that's because most follow the Reformed or Conservative branches. Not everyone in Israel is Jewish, and they have different Sabbaths. If Israel does not consider itself as having an official state religion, as I've heard many Israeli leaders say, then religious law should not be imposed on the country, unless it wants to be a religious state like Iran or Saudi Arabia. Does the country really want to go down that road? I hope not. Theocracies are never democratic.

Tastes like rotten meat,should be prohibited for everyone. lol

The title of the article is dead wrong! The Israeli public also includes many non-Jews (at least 20% according to Wikipedia) and many children, so a sample of Israeli adult jews doesn't represent the general public. Please stop misleading the "public".

It makes no sense that 53% of secular Jews and 55% of traditional Jews would be in favor of public transportation on the Sabbath. Either they got it backwards...or people aren't always honest when it comes to revealing their religious beliefs to poll-takers. It reminds me of what happens when you ask Americans about their belief in God. It seems that nobody wants to admit to being an atheists...but we know there are quite a few of them out there.

Washed down with a cappuccino

As a religious Jew living in Israel, the only Jewish country in the world, I believe the law should support anyone who wishes to observe the Torah without coercing anyone. So, for example, I don't think the law should prevent buses from running on Shabbat, but it *should* be illegal to offer financial incentives to drivers to take the Shabbat shift over any other shift (a.k.a. time-an-a-half, which is common wage practice in many places for overtime shifts or non-traditional shifts , e.g. evenings and weekends). Just as secular Jews do not wish to be prevented from enjoying themselves, religious Jews should not be made to feel disadvantaged by being religious in a Jewish country of all places...

May I guess that M M stands for Menachem Mendel? Is your post a send-up of what you think a Haredi might sound like? The concept of a Jewish and democratic state is that people do what they choose in private, but in public matters we accept Shabbat as a day of rest from work, we accept Jewish holy days as bank holidays, govt functions observe kashrut etc. People have a right to a private life. Regarding the IDF this has been an issue since the days of the Chazon Ish and David Ben-Gurion. The IDF fulfills the daily mitzvah of protecting the Holy Land and those who live therein.

Sir you have NO RIGHT to dictate what it does and doesn't mean to be jewish. I did not choose to be born jewish and I am not OBLIGATED to follow these rules. The ethic and racial jews of israel to not have to accept this religious oppression, we have the right to express our jewish identity in whichever way we choose, and being what the charidim want us to be is not only barely according to torah laws, but unfair to us who do not want this lifestyle.

Thew problem with saying we want to observe Jewish law is whose version of Jewish law are we talking about? I agree we should keep the character of the Jewish state but we must guard against becoming a theocracy The best route is to keep the spirit of Jewish law but avoid some of he details so that all streams of Judaism can live in comfort.

the average Israeli, secular useful idiot!

Heck, I'm not religious but I'd be offended if anyone ate pork. You might just aswell eat ants or bugs, it's on the same level of hygiene. Ironically I don't like seafood either, atleast that's no worse than fish, but pork? Really?