A cultural war has erupted between Israel's rising political star and his ultra-Orthodox rivals.
Newly minted Finance Minister Yair Lapid, hugely popular for opposing the long-standing preferential treatment enjoyed by the religious minority, is moving swiftly to slash state handouts to large families, compel lifelong seminary students to work and join the army, and remove funding for schools that don't teach math, science and English.
The religious - labeled "parasites" by one Lapid emissary this week - are crying foul. But they appear helpless, at least in the short run, to stop Lapid from pressing his agenda.
For most of the last three decades, the country's small ultra-Orthodox minority sat in governing coalitions, securing vast budgets for religious schools and automatic exemptions from mandatory military service for tens of thousands of young men in full-time religious studies.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_CULTURAL_WAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-25-17-14-20
Matt's thoughts:
Hateful, surprising words from an individual detached from God, as well as the detached individuals who support his vitriol.
It's amazing how quickly people in Israel forget why the ultra-Orthodox receive the treatment they do, for after the state of Israel was formed, the intent was to allow a portion of society to pass on the religion so as to prevent it from disappearing after events of the second world war.
Now, in their material comfort, amply supplied by American weapons and apparently no longer in need of God, Israelis criticize these families for studying a scripture most of them probably have never even touched in their lives.
These individuals do not fight in wars because their duty is to preserve the religion should just such an event happen, an instruction also clearly laid out in the Quran.
One must wonder if the only obstacle to piece in that region is a bunch of men in suits, pretend Jews, who crave the material would so much and lust after wealth and power to such a gross degree that they'll sweep anyone aside, Muslim or compatriot.
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