January 18, 2012 | 3:52 pm

Blowin’ in the wind

Posted Ian Shulman

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Starting from December 2011, the nation of violent murderers of Palestinian children has also notoriously became the nation of women- and children-hating religious fanatics. And don’t forget, they used to kill Christian children and drink their blood back in the days before we kicked them out of Europe!

But seriously, we all hope everyone understands that spitting on the 8-years old girl and calling her ‘prostitute’ is not a part of Judaism, Jewish or Israeli traditions, but rather a disreputable action of a very specific and non-representative segment of Jewish religious society. But of course, everyone is perfectly aware of all the peculiarities of traditional Jewish rules and ethics. But of course, the whole world supports Israel in everything it does.

Although, why should one care what others think about Israel? Why should one care about Israel at all? Maybe because ‘Israel’ equals ‘a Jewish state’. After all, that’s how it was meant to be and is perceived. And Jewish ethics are equality ethics, where women always took a very important and special place. Their rights and duties are indeed different from those of men, but that only underlines their exceptional status. The core of those ethics lies in respect and dignity. Those are one of the values which Jewish culture is naturally striving to protect, both in own and often in the surrounding society. The freedom of religious expression, which was obviously the matter of this tragic case, should be protected too. And as rough as it made sound, the protection of religious groups means something for which they themselves strive too - an isolated life; which, in turn, protects the public from the groups’ radical actions.

I don’t intend to suggest the way to solve this old story. In fact, this way remains plain and simple - knowing and adhering to the core values of own religion or belief and putting it ahead of everything, especially ahead of the contradicting complications.

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This and other articles by this author are also posted in his blog: http://ishulman.wordpress.com/