Analysis: The Jewish Department's worst nightmare

[Ian David]

Apr. 22, 2007 2:40 | Updated Apr. 22, 2007 11:08

If, as the police suspect, the bomb that lightly wounded one man near Beit Shemesh on Friday was the work of haredi activists protesting the upcoming Gay Pride Parade, then it is a new development taking the relationship between religion and state back over 50 years.

In the early Fifties, a group of yeshiva students joined together in a clandestine group called "Brit Hakanaim" (Brotherhood of the Zealots) to try to force the new state to adopt a more religious nature. Their methods were threats, arson and primitive bombs. They acted against butchers who sold non-kosher meat and drivers and taxi stands that operated on Shabbat. The members were arrested in May 1951 before they managed to carry out their plan to plant a bomb in the Knesset. One of them was the young Mordechai Eliahu, who 32 years later was elected chief rabbi.

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There is not enough space here to explain why the haredi community regards gays parading as a greater abomination than bacon sandwich eaters driving on Shabbat, but it has obviously pushed them to higher levels of violence than what was previously considered acceptable.

The details released so far about Friday's bomb suggest a level of experience hitherto lacking in the haredi arsenal. If the leaflets found on the spot against the Gay Pride Parade aren't just a ruse, it seems like they have some new recruits - and the Shin Bet's fears might be realized.

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See also:



Jewish World Review Dec. 2, 2003 / 7 Kislev, 5764
The little-noticed alliance between gay marriage opponents and alleged terrorist sympathizers
Queer allies
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1203/marriage_terrorists.php3