I've been avoiding this topic, but I cannot contain myself any longer. All you people who don't like my political rants should just log off now. You will be missing a good rant, but it's up to you.
Last week, in Jerusalem, the media reported that an ultra-orthodox woman had been caught on video tape in her son's hospital room; she was disconnecting his feeding tube. As it turns out, this three-year old boy weighed seven kilos (15.4 lbs) and was severely malnourished. Apparently, he had been in and out of hospital several times during his short life. His "community" -- or as I like to call them, a bunch of grown men who voluntarily got stuck in 19th century Poland -- argued that the boy was a victim of a cancer misdiagnosis by Hadassah Hospital. The reason, they said, that he was so small and malnourished was because of chemotherapy.
I am not -- even for one second -- going to suggest that a misdiagnosis wasn't possible. Doctors are human and subject to human error. But here's where things go off the rails for me:
First, the woman was caught on film disconnecting the feeding tubes.
Second, her bizarre behaviour in court -- lying on the table like an inanimate lump rather than vigorously defending herself -- didn't buy her any public support. It would have been comic -- if it hadn't been so pathetic.
Third, those furry hatted, bathrobe wearing men that constitute her community resorted to all sorts of bad behaviour that does not reflect the things that their garb suggests they believe in. In other words, they are hypocrites. Just because you wear the clothing of an ultra-orthodox, holy person doesn't make you one. You can wear torn jeans and a dirty t-shirt and be a good and holy person. Clothes are simply the costume you choose to define yourself. We have no control over who denies the truth about themselves through their fashion choices.
The court -- not that they asked, but against my better judgment -- let the woman go free on the condition that she went to therapy the following day. (She didn't show up.) It has been suggested that she is suffering from Munchausen-by-proxy syndrome. I don't know how anyone arrived at this diagnosis since no one has been able to get a word out of the woman, but somehow this is the public perception.
I think the courts caved to the demands of the demented religious pajama wearers with the unnatural attachment to fur because when they didn't get their way, they went beserk on the streets of Jerusalem. Now that's mature. They were throwing stones at city workers and lighting garbage cans on fire. It was causing havoc on the tiny, winding streets I referred to a few weeks ago.
The problem is that the woman belongs to a sect of ultra-religious Jews, the Nuturei Karta, who do not even believe in the modern State of Israel. And to make that point as obvious as possible to the baffled world, they travel to places like Iran so they can have their photos taken with the likes of the death-eater Ahmadinejad. I mean, really, do the Israelis have a bigger single enemy on earth at this moment than Ahmadinejad? Well, maybe, but you get my point. (Look at them in the photo above -- a picture is worth 1000 words.)
In the meantime, there is a little boy who could have died. And there is a group of people who are supposed to be his community and by default, his protectors, and the bottom line is that they couldn't give a rat's ass about him. Instead, this so-called community is hell-bent on taking out all of its anger at the State on their fellow Jews.
I just read in the Jerusalem Post that the ultra-orthodox are reacting as they are because they feel put upon by the more secular segments of Israeli society. Oh, well, that explains everything and excuses all their violent behaviour. What a load of baloney. As far as I can tell, their instincts to address their problems with violence doesn't take much to trigger. Wear the wrong clothes in their neighbourhood and they will give you a good whack. And don't even try to sit next to one of these guys on the bus -- he will most likely toss you right off your seat if he doesn't like your outfit.
As far as I can tell, they are bullies who cannot tolerate anyone who isn't like them. And once again, I am left pondering an old theme: who, in Israel, even has time to worry about the Arabs? We have such nuts inside our borders and supposedly in our own community-at-large.
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