Lawlessness and Disorder

What do you get when there are so many people saying that their values supersede the values of the nation? You get lawlessness.

There is so much anti government or anti police feeling among various opposing factions in Israel that even if they are at each other’s throats, they will stand as one when it comes to calling the police thugs, Nazis, …what have you.

Charedim and Religious Zionist extremists can’t be farther apart ideologically. But when it comes to the police - they are all on the same page. That’s why there were 2 lawless protests when two religious Zionist rabbis were questioned by police. There are no 2 ideologies further apart than the Eida HaCharedis and Religious Zionism. But the Eida jumped at the opportunity to join forces with the them so they could protest the government.

The end product of this kind of disdain for the government is lawlessness and vigilantism by ideologues.

The government is ignored because they know popular support is waning. Especially when mainstream respected personalities join in the severe criticism against them. The following story from Ynet is just the latest example of that:

Who is trying to hurt Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch? The Western Wall rabbi received a personal bodyguard several weeks ago after getting telephone threats and being harassed on a regular basis for the past few months.

In the past month, unknown assailants threw stones at the rabbi's car. Luckily, he wasn't hurt. In a separate incident, the car's tires were slashed.

"There are radical groups of settlers and haredim which are trying to hurt the rabbi," says a source involved in the affair. "They opposed his activity at Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's tomb on Mount Meron, when he tried to find a solution for the control struggles around the complex, and the renovation of Joseph's Tomb by Arabs, which the rabbi was responsible for.

"Settlers have been making statements against the rabbi, like 'If you harm the Land of Israel – you'll be harmed."

In the past, the rabbi was attacked by an angry mob, members of the extreme Eda Haredit faction, while leaving the home of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.

The Prime Minister's Office, which the Western Wall rabbi is subject to, is funding Rabinovitch's security expenses following the police's evaluation of the situation.