Long time coming

With regard to “Police: We handled haredi draft protesters carefully and cautiously” (October 22), it might be factual, but failing to do so in a timely fashion is what is irksome – and aggravating to most. It is also debatable whether these protesters should have been handled so “carefully and cautiously.”

There was more than a 12-hour warning of the impending closures. A mere minuscule percentage of the larger haredi sect, the so-called Peleg Yerushalmi was able to bring a country to its knees for much of the day, robbing precious time from thousands of commuters, causing the canceling of work for many and stranding thousands of working people and schoolchildren.

The police knew beforehand, and many thought they were preparing to prevent these intolerable protests. Instead, the despicable, irrelevant minority “allowed” the police to proceed with careful and cautious behavior.

Putting aside the irony of their hefty list of sins against a Torah they claim to hold dear (in addition to breaking laws), let’s compare a protest that actually had the basis and affected a greater percentage of Israeli citizens on the physical and emotional level – the Gush Katif protests of 2005, when police behavior seemed to border on brutality.

Where was their concern to handle the protesters “carefully and cautiously”? A considerable number of school-aged girls were jailed for weeks at a time for their crime of standing on street corners, not blocking anybody and exercising their freedom of speech. Theirs was a legitimate cause – and a tragic ending. Peleg Yerushalmi’s cause is stupid, sadly resulting in only law-breaking and the breeding of civil hatred.

Bravo to the police, who have perhaps come full circle and perhaps are doing penitence for their past behavior. PHYLLIS HECHT Hashmonaim