“Like all liberal societies, Israeli society contains anti-liberal elements, and these anti-liberal elements, both religious and secular, have become increasingly prominent, and increasingly wanton, and increasingly sickening, recently. This anti-liberalism cannot be conspiratorially imputed to foreigners or enemies: Jews are doing this to Jews. The odious misogyny of the ultra-Orthodox is certainly not typical of Israeli life, from which the ultra-Orthodox have anyway seceded (except to exploit the welfare system, which magically makes practical men out of zealots); but more needs to be said. There has occurred a renascence of Jewish fanaticism in the Netanyahu years.”
One can guess that not everyone was happy with such honesty, and such accuracy. In any event, this week the New Republic published the “anti-Wieseltier,” a piece by Gil Troy, a Professor of History at McGill University, that was as deceitful and obscurantist as Wieseltier was honest and refreshing. Troy sums it up this way:
“The demonizing of Israel, dismissing the democratic Jewish state as a right-wing, religious, racist project, continues. The latest storyline describes ultra-Orthodox Israelis—known in Hebrew as haredim—as medieval Neanderthals rapidly converting Israel into an Iran-style theocracy. This popular caricature encourages those liberals seeking excuses to stop supporting Israel. The appalling images of bearded, black-hatted zealots spitting on eight-year-olds, forcing women to the back of public buses, and parading their children with yellow stars in protest, are all being read as tea leaves predicting Israel’s imminent degeneration into Haredistan. But what if the opposite is true? Haredi rampages seem more like impotent attempts to build a firewall against modernity than harbingers of conquest.”
After happily demonizing anyone who would dare to criticize Israel—“liberals” simply looking for an excuse to give vent to what seems to be their “natural” anti-Semitism*—Troy tells us of all the “heroic” things the haredim have done—setting up soup kitchens and saving lives. As for the horrible case of the eight-year-old girl who was spat upon—for dressing like a “whore”—Troy quotes Rabbi Yeshaya Ehrenreich, who said “The haredim who live in the same neighborhoods as these [the people who spat on the girl] suffer more than anyone else.”
Really, rabbi? What about the eight-year-old girl? Didn’t she suffer? And how about her parents? How did they feel about their daughter being exposed to such medieval prurience? Didn’t they suffer, just a little?
In a ghastly turn of phrase, which one can surely believe was inadvertent, Troy sums up things as follows: “The recent spate of spats may be a good sign.” One can hardly agree.
Afterwords
Troy does have a few criticisms of the haredim. “The separation of women often entails inequality.” No, professor. It guarantees it. He also says that the haredi rabbis need to “control the bullies.” No, the state needs to lock them up. He encourages Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “leverage the generous subsidies the haredim currently enjoy to force the rabbis to control the bullies and accept more responsibilities as Israeli citizens.” No, he should remove those subsidies entirely. European states are justly criticized for providing state funding to fundamentalist Muslim organizations. No more should Israel fund its own vicious obscurantism.
*Wieseltier is simply ignored. The idea that Jews themselves might criticize the haredim and the privileged position they enjoy and exploit in contemporary Israeli society is apparently a non-thought for Professor Troy.
