IDF’s spokesman, Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, reportedly
sharply condemned the attack. He also noted haredi leaders’ failure to
"condemn in unequivocal, clear terms the phenomenon of harassment
against haredi soldiers.…I'm trying to think of what would happen if
soldiers were attacked by Israeli non-Jews in the Negev or the Galilee
[heavily Bedouin and Arab areas of the country],” Mordecai said in what
can easily be understood as a veiled threat directed to both haredi
leaders and haredi rioters.
File photo: Haredim throw stones at police in the jerusalem haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim in July 2011
Family Of Haredi Soldier Attacked By Haredi Mob Speaks Out, IDF Issued Veiled Threat To Haredi Leaders
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The family of the haredi soldier who was attacked by a mob of 100 to 150 haredim Monday night in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem has now spoken out against the attack.
David Levi, the haredi soldier’s uncle, slammed the members of that haredi mob and reportedly told Army Radio that his nephew had suffered “great trauma.”
No Ashkenazi haredi leader of note has condemned the attack, which expanded to a full scale riot when police, followed by riot police, the border patrol and a the Yassam police commando unit arrived to rescue the soldier, who had managed to lock himself inside an apartment and call for help.
Speaking on Army Radio, the chairman of the Sefardi haredi Shas Party, Aryeh Deri, reportedly condemned the attack "and all other campaigns against the haredim who choose to serve in the IDF,” calling on the heads of all political parties to “return to dialogue, understanding and reconciliation,” to avoid similar incidents.
Deri’s plea for civility is ironic. His Shas Party – including its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef – has repeatedly demonized opponents with frightening regularity over the course of the past two decades, using everything from base slurs to sophisticated trickery and, allegedly, even extortion to try to destroy opponents.
Yosef’s son, Chief Rabbi of Holon Rabbi Avraham Yosef, who is a candidate for Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, is reportedly under criminal investigation for one of these acts, and Deri was himself convicted on public corruption charges several years ago and jailed.
The senior Yosef – who is the undisputed Sefardi haredi leader – has not condemned the attack on the haredi soldier.
Ashkenazi haredi leaders have repeatedly demonized and secular Israeli political leaders and their Zionist Orthodox counterparts. This demonization has reached a near-frenzied pace since the government began the process of structuring a draft of haredi yeshiva students – something Yosef and his Ashkenazi counterparts vehemently oppose.
Deri’s sudden plea for civility and calm may have much more to do with the mood in Israel after the attack.
Powerful Member of Knesset Avigdor Lieberman threatened this morning to pass “lightening legislation” to deal with the stepped up violence and intimidation of haredi soldiers by haredim, and strongly (and, perhaps, ominously) condemned haredi rabbis’ failure to condemn Monday night’s attack.
Later, the IDF’s spokesman, Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, reportedly sharply condemned the attack. He also noted haredi leaders’ failure to "condemn in unequivocal, clear terms the phenomenon of harassment against haredi soldiers.…I'm trying to think of what would happen if soldiers were attacked by Israeli non-Jews in the Negev or the Galilee [heavily Bedouin and Arab areas of the country],” Mordecai said in what can easily be understood as a veiled threat directed to both haredi leaders and haredi rioters.