"If there is one thing the haredim cannot be accused of, it is having
respect for the other's worldview, beliefs and needs. They demand
everyone else's respect as the (sole) representatives of the Torah, but
they do not have to respect anyone else in return. They have a right to
meddle in every affair under the sun, while others are forbidden from
intervening in their affairs.…The Amish in the US are just as isolated, but at least they do not ask
to head Congress' Budget Committee in order to transfer huge sums of
money to their communities."
Haredi political leaders and their ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have complained over the past few days that the right wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi and the centrist Yesh Atid political parties are "boycotting" an "entire segment of the Israeli public" – i..e., the haredim, because neither party seems willing to give in to haredi demands not to begin drafting haredi yeshiva students into Israel's military.
HaBayit HaYehudi and Yesh Atid leaders are being accused by haredi leaders and Netanyahu of bigotry and disrespect.
But, as Aviad Kleinberg notes in Ynet, that claim is laughable:
…If there is one thing the haredim cannot be accused of, it is having respect for the other's worldview, beliefs and needs. They demand everyone else's respect as the (sole) representatives of the Torah, but they do not have to respect anyone else in return. They have a right to meddle in every affair under the sun, while others are forbidden from intervening in their affairs.
This isolationist and condescending outlook of haredi society in Israel could have been its own business had it not chosen to run our affairs as well. The Amish in the US are just as isolated, but at least they do not ask to head Congress' Budget Committee in order to transfer huge sums of money to their communities.
The ultra-Orthodox in Israel chose the political arena because they want to enjoy the best of both worlds. Now that there is a possibility that they will be treated like any other player, they yell "Gevalt! A community in Israel is being boycotted!" But this is not true. No one is boycotting the haredi community. The ultra-Orthodox public enjoys many rights, and even those who do not want them in the coalition are not trying to marginalize them, but rather to drag them towards the center. Opposing a political agenda is not akin to a boycott.…