Great. Now the Israelis are being bullied by the conservative Jews who want a society as ignorant as most of their neighbors. People who have been saying for years the whole middle east is a lost cause may be right. They want to go back to the caveman era, let them, and let them fight each other like the goths and vikings.

We are allied with Isreal? I say let them drown on their own. No more foreign aid to them. Keep it here where it is most needed. If our government would stop spending our money on these third world toilets we probably could get a hold on our national debt. Our policy should be the same as China. F@#k the rest of the world and help ourselves.

And they talk about the mulsin treatment of women...I live in a multi cultural neighood and the way I see the way Indian men treat their "pre arraigned" wives is a disgrace......Most of them {wives} are village girls who donot even have access to their own passports once in america, no money other than what their husband displeanse to them...When I lived in brooklyn, I saw how the hasidic men treated their women....As if they were "fourth" class citizens with only the rights that are given by male "religious" members... It's not a mystery that the conditons of these women are closely related to "religious " groups {amish, hasidic, Indian, muslim} who use "God" as an excuse to control their women's lives...Consertive Isreali's need to pay close attention to the demands of these "religious fanatics", just as conservative muslims, and Indians need to..Radical religious people have become on the borderline of terroristist , with anyone not believing in their way a life, a infidel....With it's propblems of sercurity from the arab world, and it's being pushed by the hasidic groups to take all the land from non hasidic people , this group will only create an endless religious war between the arabs and jews....The mentality of the so called "religious" men wanting to seperate from the women reeks of their insercurity in their man hood....God ,I donnot think mean for the segration of people whether the sexes or races....I suspect that this will show how the war between the jewish people and the arab world is created by the religion of both groups....I have no respect for any group or religion that creates an unequal treatment of any of its people....As long as their is social order..Maybe the young israli's will begin to see what the rest of youth in the world see..How the world's government leaders are destroying their future and the future of their chidren and how religion and its use have been created more distrust, upheaval, death then the government itself.....

It seems like most of the world wants to go backwards, even in the US. The conservatives talk about the old days and how America used to be? Like what? The slaughter and stolen land from the American Indian? Slavery? The internment of the Japanese? Segregation? Women couldn't smoke or vote? We have made great strides in putting our money where our mouth is. Making the bill of rights actually work. And where do most of our politicinas want to take us? BACK THERE. Well, look at the rest of the world. I am glad I was born in America, because if I had been born in my ancestors country, Italy, who knows what crazy "traditional" values I would have grown up with. And Italy is a relatively westernized society. Look at the middle east. I know the Islamic culture is repressive and is trying to turn the clock back. And I know the traditional Jews have a "traditional" society they self impose on themselves. But now they want to impose it on all of Israeli society. And the Israeli people and politicians are buying this nonsense? Pull up stakes everywhere. Time to let all these other socities wallow in their own nonsense. Despite all, we built up a great country before WWII, when we became the world's policeman and tried to sell some version of human rights and democracy to the rest of the world. They don't want it. Except for China, stilll ruled by communists whose time is running out, the rest of the world wants to go backwards. let them.

Well, those ultra-Orthodox customs would seem perfectly reasonable to one other group...their cousins, the orthodox Muslims. That makes it a war of brothers, like the one that started 150 years ago...and we Americans can tell them that there's nothing worse than that.

This article is appalling! The anti-religious bent here is frightening. I have walked around Jerusalem in jeans, skirts, overalls, and have never suffered any of the abuse they write about here. My neighbors, who are way more religious than I am, have only ever been kind and helpful. While there are elements in Jerusalem who do try to apply their own rigid laws to others, the majority that I know and live with just want the freedom to worship as they will, and they do NOT abuse those who do not follow them. You lot should be ashamed for jumping on the bandwagon. I thought Americans were smarter than that.

And that last photo of the orthodox man walking by the deface poster is just manipulative. Where is the proof that it was defaced by an orthodox Jew? Whatever happened to burden of proof?

Ultra-Orthodox religions need to get over their erection phobias! Talk about misogyny gone wild.

The "Taliban" is beginning to rule in Israel. No wonder they want to 'export' all their radicals to settlements in the West Bank.

Religion in small doses can be good. But anything beyond that small dose is poison.

This is the reason I'm an atheist, that there is no such thing as god and that organized religion does so much more harm than good. Prove me wrong, I'll go to the religious building of your choice on whichever day you choose, I'll sit there and I'll listen. Won't change a thing but I'll do it.