Not at my expense
Op-ed: Solution to religious clash is simple - government should stop financing haredim
Every day I read with increasing dismay the stories and op-eds in our media about the radical Jewish menace plaguing our society today. I read and I weep; for the little girl who was spit on and cursed, for the soldier who was called a whore for boarding a bus and sitting in the front, and for our society which seems to be oblivious to the true problem. I weep as I see haredim affix a yellow star to their jackets - as if that symbol should be displayed anywhere outside the walls of Yad Vashem.
I weep because here, in the Jewish homeland, there are those among us who consider themselves more righteous than the next. As if to prove it, they assault our mothers, sisters and daughters with violence and bodily fluids, and they yell at the top of their lungs that these women are “whores,” “sluts,” “shiksas.”
We pay for it directly, by financing haredim and their large families. We enable them, by making payments every month so that they can send their 12 children to yeshivas and not hold a job. We pay the yeshivas, which in turn refuse to teach even the most basic core curriculum tenets. We pay for the legal system, which is starting to handle the problem we face. We pay for a lawyer to defend these radicals in court. Then, if convicted for calling someone a whore, or assaulting a little girl with spittle, we pay for them to sit in a jail cell until their sentence is served.
Lose your welfare
Many of the most extreme don't believe in the very existence of the State. Yet they happily take our money every month - without fail. Our democracy allows them this right, thankfully. Just as it allows me the right to sit here and voice my dissent. If you don't believe in Israel's existence, if you tell me you live in Palestine, go ahead. But why should our government pay you money that we sent in the form of taxes, if you don't believe it is the legitimate government of this land?
I do not pretend to have all the answers. But there are reasonable solutions and required reactions to this problem which can and should be implemented without delay. The proper reaction is not to get on a segregated bus in a bikini and sit at the front. That is incitement, and it is stooping to their low level. The ultimate solution to this problem is to stop the funds. This is the only problem we can solve by not throwing money at it. In fact, it is one of the few problems that we can solve and make money from.
Do you think a soldier is a whore for being in the wrong section of your Taliban bus? Keep it to yourself - or lose your welfare (better yet, serve in the army.) Do you fervently believe that an eight-year-old girl should be spat on because her ankles and wrists are showing? Kindly keep your thoughts and your spit to yourself - or lose your welfare. We all have the right to procreation, and this world needs more Jewish children. But not at my expense - I have enough trouble paying for my own, thank you.
