Uproar in Israel and Beyond as Netanyahu Yields to Ultra-Orthodox Jews

[SecularMotion]

Source: NY Times

JERUSALEM — A group of Jewish leaders canceled a dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. The president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby, flew to Jerusalem for an emergency meeting with the prime minister. A prominent Jewish donor demanded a refund for the $1 million in Israel Bonds he had just purchased.

The Jewish diaspora has been in uproar in the week since Mr. Netanyahu yielded to pressure from his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners and suspended a plan for an upgraded space for worship by men and women together and for other less traditional practices of Judaism at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which is now under strict Orthodox control.

The government also approved a contentious bill enshrining the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over religious conversions in Israel. That could affect hundreds of thousands of citizens who were entitled to immigrate from the former Soviet Union, but who do not qualify as fully Jewish under strict interpretations of religious law.

In addition to ruling out less demanding, private Orthodox conversions, the bill undercuts a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court by the non-Orthodox Reform and Conservative movements for recognition of their conversions performed in Israel. The majority of American Jews identify with these more liberal streams of Judaism.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-ultra-orthodox-western-wall.html

[Doug the Dem]

1. The Age of Extremism

In Britain, much of Europe, Israel, and, of course, America.

[Nitram]

5. I'd call this extreme conservatism.

[hedda_foil]

2. When AIPAC asks for their money back, that's BIG!

Ok, it's not AIPAC as an organization, just a group of leaders (aka donors) who cancelled a dinner with him and it was only one guy who asked for his million bucks back, but still...

[maxsolomon]

3. Theocracy is coming

Likud has to keep it's ruling coalition together, and that means letting the Orthodox dictate policy: the Haredi at the Wall and fanatical Settlers in the West Bank. AIPAC will issue a stern warning and do whatever Netanyahu wants.

Theocracy is looming in the entire Muslim world but for the dictators. SA is trying to stamp out Al Jazeera to end any hint of secular voices in the region.

The Christian Right wants a Republic of Gilead here, as well.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. I expect this is because Likud needs their parties to keep a majority government.

He needs to be frog-marched.

[Xolodno]

6. Oh the irony....

This:

The government also approved a contentious bill enshrining the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over religious conversions in Israel. That could affect hundreds of thousands of citizens who were entitled to immigrate from the former Soviet Union, but who do not qualify as fully Jewish under strict interpretations of religious law.

In large part due to Russian Jews leaving Russia during the height of the "Pogroms" helped fuel the movement for a new state of Israel. And now, these religious nuts want to spit in the face of the past and possible future.

[MurrayDelph]

8. It's partly because of things like this

that I throw out any appeals from Israel sent to my father's estate (I'm the executor). Apparently, I'm not Jewish-enough; just my money is.

Every year growing up, as the only male child, I had an important role in the celebration of Passover, the celebration of the Exodus from Egypt.

In our family, the takeaway of the story was that everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Bibi and the ultra-Orthodox apparently think Pharoah was a wimp and they're not going to make the same "mistakes" he did.