Israel 'Back of the Bus' Rule Sparks Religious Row

According to this article, the nutty ultra-orthodox Jews of Israel are behaving like their medieval neighbors in the Middle East, insulting and physically threatening women who ride the bus wearing trousers, and relegating women to the back of the bus, as if this were the pre-Civil Rights Movement era of the American south. I suppose we should give them credit for not stoning women to death as is done in some Muslim countries, but it just seems like a reward for not being as crazy as possible...only almost as crazy.

In discussing middle eastern politics, I take pride in defending Israel as an island of democracy and western values in a sea of Islamic fundamentalist insanity. But stories like this destroy the credibility of this argument, and make Israelis look like any other religious lunatics. I can only hope that the secular majority will eventually disempower this embarrassing minority.

If these religious chauvinists want to live in a country where men and women don't mix, they should move to the sandy paradise of Saudi Arabia.