In Israel, civil law should rule over Jewish law (Ha'aretz editorial)

[Violet_Crumble]

Those who oppose racism can be satisfied with the first part of the decision, while advocates of anti-Arab racism can enjoy the legal canopy the attorney general spread over Jewish law

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein decided to make things easy for himself. On the one hand, he ordered police to investigate Safed chief rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu on suspicion of making statements that constitute racial incitement. On the other hand, he refrained from ordering that Eliyahu be investigated for halakhic rulings he issued that were also allegedly of a racist nature.

In theory, there was something here for everyone. Those who oppose racism can be satisfied with the first part of the decision, while advocates of anti-Arab racism can enjoy the legal canopy the attorney general spread over Jewish law.

The practical result should not surprise anyone: From now, every racist and person who hurls invective can formulate his opinions as a halakhic ruling, sprinkling it liberally with the relevant biblical verses, and thus protect himself from a police investigation.

This is not a new invention; one can find such formulations on hundreds of websites run by radical Islamic organizations, who know well how to adapt religious law to their ambitions and hatred.

Meanwhile, when left-wing groups are accused of racism, let alone of "forgetting what it is to be Jews," they aren't subject to investigation, but rather to brutal laws hastily legislated against them.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/in-israel-civil-law-should-rule-over-jewish-law-1.397382

[Taverner]

1. Get rid of the religionism, bring in the secularism...

And make peace with your neighbors....

[The Magistrate]

2. And the Bible, Ma'am, Will Well Deserve The Beating It Gets In Consequence

People may actually get to reading the bloody thing....

[oberliner]

3. Bloody is the right word for it

What a brutal world it must have been.