<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1595" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: "Jonathan Baker" <A
href="mailto:jjbaker@panix.com">jjbaker@panix.com</A><BR>>> Israel
is a JEWISH state. Its police is a Jewish<BR>police, appointed by the
(majority-Jewish) government. Its power to<BR>enforce the law is part of
the Torah system. How can it be "mesirah"<BR>to report a crime to the
Israeli police? Police brutality is a separate<BR>issue, but they are
expected to be brutal in the
Torah.<<<BR><BR> name: jon
baker </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>Israel does not claim to be a "Torah" state nor are its laws the laws of
the Torah nor does it follow halacha in most instances nor are its judges and
police the shoftim and shotrim of the Torah. There has been much testimony
about the many Russian policemen in Israel (some with crosses around their
necks) ,and even the Jewish police are the lowest people in Israel, chosen from
the ranks of the most brutal and least civilized strata of society. There
has also been much testimony on Areivim and in many other places about police
brutality against guilty rioters and innocent bystanders alike.
They will wade into a crowd of peaceful protestors, clubs swinging, and aim to
cause injury. DL settlers and charedim alike have plenty of stories to
tell. When the Torah says that police must exercise force, by no means
does it envision the indiscriminate beating of innocent people. In
America policemen who commit wanton acts of brutality against minorities
go to jail (especially if there is eyewitness testimony and video footage) but
in Israel they are deliberately "sicced" on "undesirables." "Undesirables"
are settlers and settler-sympathizers, and any man with payos caught walking
down the street anywhere near a reported "incident" -- whether or not he had
anything to do with it. The police also beat up Arabs pretty
indiscriminately -- though I admit it's harder for me to get worked up about
that, since any randomly chosen Arab is pretty likely to be guilty -- but I
would think that the kind of person who thinks charedim deserve to get beaten
might not feel so unsympathetic towards innocent Arabs who are similarly
victimized. The Torah does not say that shotrim should engage in
wanton, lawless acts of brutality, not even against Canaanites in our
midst. </DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR></B><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Get a sneak peek of the all-new <A title="http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000982" href="http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000982" target="_blank">AOL.com</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>