A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Wearing A Kippa In Israel

I've also been too busy to write a cogent response to Yaron London's despicable piece in Yediot Ahronot.

London defends the prevention of any men wearing a kippa from attending a public event in Eilat at which Prime Minister Sharon spoke.

London writes that "the kippa is no longer an innocent head covering, but a warning sign, presumably because it identifies the wearer as a potential danger." He compares the barring of Orthodox Jewish men from a public event attended by Sharon to racial profiling, which he says is "fair enough, if not very nice." In an unintentional statement both of his hypocrisy and his bigotry, London wrote: "Liberals we may be, but in the real world we cannot avoid quick judgments based on assumptions."

As anyone who lives in America knows, London's analogy to racial profiling here is totally off-base. Whatever one thinks of the practice - which particularly in New Jersey resulted in much litigation - it never legally allows the barring of every member of a particular group from a public event; even private persons may not discriminate under most circumstances, pursuant to Supreme Court decisions. If some observant Jews with a kippa were barred based on some evidence that they pose a security threat, or even if all were subjected to extra security checks, the practice might be defensible. But preventing all observant Jewish men from attending a public event is a terrible travesty.

If London were an American columnist who called for barring all blacks or all Muslims from public events, he would be fired. If he were an Israeli calling for all Arabs to be barred from public events, he would be investigated for incitement. Since he is a "liberal" calling only for all religiously observant Jews to be barred, he remains in good (perhaps better) standing among Israel's media elite.
posted on 3/30/2005