MORE ON THE BEIT SHEMESH PROBLEM

Here's an article about Tuesday's protest against pseudo-Hasidic segregationists, co-organized by Rabbi Dov Lipman. And in this article, a special note on just where this whole problem could originate:

[Eli] Yishai told a Shas faction meeting that such behavior goes against the values of the Torah, and the law must be enforced “with all its severity.”

The Shas leader related a Talmudic story in which the sage, Rabbi Yohanan Ben-Zakkai, opposed an extremist group called Sikrikim, after whom the modern-day haredi group is named, saying that the phenomenon in which a minority is more extreme than leading rabbis is at least 2,000 years old.

I see. Glad he's also stating at least one thing I can agree with.

The whole problem with pseudo-Hasidic segregationists, as I'll call them, is still keeping on, with this latest report of one who was busted for harrassing a female soldier in Jerusalem. MK Tzipi Hotovely, herself a religious politician, has said that the segregationists are desecrating the Torah, and indeed they are, what with the kind of language they're resorting to. Even Rabbi Lipman was sadly menaced a few days ago by these extremists (via Beltway Buzz).

What really makes me mad here is that these pseudo-Hasidic extremists are potentially taking away attention from the more serious crises with Islamofascism, and with something that much more vicious around, that's exactly why we cannot afford to face more problems like these in our own midst.