"250,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews in black suits, as well as women
in modest dress, are praying with devotion. On the other side
of the boulevard are a few thousand secular Jews, who could
easily be American students demonstrating on a Los Angeles
campus with all of their paraphernalia and music," were the
words with which Europe's media described, in major
headlines, what they called "the two faces" of Israel: one
Israel of ancient Jewish tradition, and the second one of
secular Israelis in search of material pleasures, and who to
outsiders are no different from non-Jews. Aside from this
description of the secular demonstration, the European media
did not relate to it at all. Attention was focused on the
chareidim whom the reporters suddenly discovered, unfiltered
by the usual incitement of the Israeli media.
The huge massive prayer rally of the chareidim impressed,
Europe by its spiritual strength, and the television channels
repeatedly showed scenes from the rally which dispelled all
of the prejudices and the distorted descriptions of "black
fanatics" promulgated by the Israeli media. This time, they
didn't compare the chareidim to Islamic fanatics.
Quite the contrary. The standard claims of the secular that
the chareidim "don't belong to Israel, did not participate in
its establishment and are exploiting the State," and the
flaunting of the ideology of hefkeirus in the name of
freedom of the individual, sounded like the claims which Le
Pen, the head of the fascist party, makes here in his
nationalistic propaganda speeches. Another paper quoted a
secular Israeli who sounded almost exactly like Le Pen: "The
chareidim don't work, and want us to pay for them, because
they pray for us. They exist here only because of the
politicians. Without the politicians, they wouldn't exist at
all." Jews of France say that Meretz is becoming more and
more like the party of Le Pen -- a nationalistic, racist
party in Leftist clothing.
The accusations that the chareidim undermine democracy are
not accepted here. Not even one European country has a
Supreme Court with the broad authority that the Israeli one
has against the legislature.
Liberacion described the laws which the Supreme Court
forces on the public, against the halocho, as absurd.
In order to explain to its readers why the chareidim oppose
the decisions of the Supreme Court on religious matters, it
described a hypothetical situation in which Catholics in
Europe would suddenly be forced to change their rites. "They
are trying to undermine the foundations of religion," the
newspaper quoted one of the chareidim as saying.
Other newspapers published articles about the motives of the
chareidim for protesting. The Herald Tribune wrote that
for the chareidim "the Reform and Conservatives are not a
Jewish religion." It said that the secular feel that except
for the Supreme Court, all of the government institutions
function under chareidi and religious influence.
La Monde wrote that the Reform in Israel are only a
handful of clergymen. But the problem of "who is a Jew" comes
from the United States, where the Reform appoint non-Jews
even as heads of their temples.
The elite and the secular establishment were busy until now
with the war against the Arabs. Now that the existence of the
State of Israel has been "guaranteed," they worry about their
status in a society which is divided between Sephardim and
Ashkenazim, religious and secular, old-timers and new
immigrants, and all are fighting against each other.
