Haredis are a nasty bunch, and you don't know the half of it.  In Israel they are loathed for their demand for special treatment, but also their attitudes have tainted the debate of Judea and Samaria.

 

The further problem is that they are really double first cousins to the nastier Muslim groups so it makes it difficult to deal with either on a consistent basis.

 

I will add that according to Arutz Sheva, the Haredi reject even volunteer service for their people, tossing them out of the community if they do so.  Israel has had to include them in their programs for refugees.

 

In NYC, they Hasidim do much the same sorts of things, though being politically potent don't have to be so aggressive.

There are real issues here that need to be addressed about mixed men/women serving, as well as religious men and women serving in the IDF..

 

I speak from experience as the father of a son who has just finished serving his 3 years in the IDF. We are religious, although not 'Haredi', and view many of the actions of the extreme Haredi as out of line as can be...

 

but many times when my son was standing guard duty, he was told to wake up his replacement if needed when he went off shift. If the replacement soldier was female, that would mean going into the women's barracks, at perhaps 2 in the morning.

 

First of all, this would have been a total violation of military regulations.In theory punishable by time in the stockade...

 

Second of all, as a religious and modest young man, to enter a woman's sleeping quarters at that hour was out of the question.

 

The first time it came up, he was told - oops, it will never happen again. The second, third, fourth, etc....he was told 'what's the big deal'. Almost as if the assumption was that any young guy would jump at the chance to see a bunch of girls in their sleepware

 

Many of the incidents that have been publicized over the last few months involve situations where religious men enlisted based on a 'Framework' - a set of agreed upon rules, that were then totally disregarded by commanding officers at the base they were serving on. This is not a negative reflection on the religious who are serving, but on the commanding officers who are violating the rules.

 

 

 

Not mentioned in the article; the religious schools get government grants. Talk about irony!