First they came for the settlers - and then for all Orthodox Jews

The OU is now objecting to the war on Religious Jews unleashed by the Sharon regime, rather belatedly too. The OU which has remained neutral on the question of expelling thousands of Jews from their homes and stood with arms folded while the government has jailed 13 year olds for civil disobedience and threatened to take away the children of parents who refuse to leave Gush Katif and putting soldiers through training courses for shooting settlers; is now weakly objecting to the police targeting any Jew with a Kippah and pulling them out of cars and buses.

The OU has ignored the Sharon regime reign of terror unleashed against religious Jews since the very beginning. Reform and Conservative conversions are being legitimized, religious institutions defunded to near banktrupcy, investigations opened against both Chief Rabbis, threats of closing Hesder Yeshivot and the expulsion decrees have not stirred the OU. Instead the OU has provided a platform for Sharon's representatives to preach the virtues of expelling Jews and issued vaugely neutral positions reaffirming their respect for both the positions of the people being kicked out of their homes and the position of those who wish to kick them out; as if there was some sort of morally relativistic equivalence between the two; is now shocked that religious Jews are being targeted by the police, wholesale.

Even in its weak letter of protest which the Sharon regime felt free to ignore, the OU complains that all citizens should have the right to travel to any place in the country, barring "closed military zones." Of course since the Sharon regime feels free to make anyone's home a 'closed military zone' the OU's watered down complaint over the violations of civil rights are laughable. If they are prepeared to accept civil rights violations accompanied by a euphemism but not without the euphemism their protests are a sham and Sharon knows it.

If the OU was not prepeared to condemn the criminal closure of Gush Katif and the proposed expulsion of its residents, Sharon knows well enough it lacks the courage to do anything more than send out letters. One is reminded of Hans Blix in Team America telling Kim Jong Il, "We will be very angry and then we will write you a letter telling you how angry we are." The OU has now written a letter and it was ignored. Like the people of Israel, whom Eliyahu HaNavi warned could not remain holding between two options, one moral and one immoral. If the OU is to engage the issue morally it must choose the moral side, inaction only aids the tormentor and silence only removes it from the contest and neutrality favors those in power not those in danger.

Hat tip: CosmicX