The only thing in the news nowadays seems to be the protests of the Peleg Yerushalmi - the Jerusalem Faction - over the arrest of two young men who, following the groups opinion, refused to go to the draft board to register for their army exemption/deferral.
It isn't all that interesting, as this has been going on for a while now, though it is currently on an upswing, and they have nothing new to add to the discussion.
The only comment I have is that blocking traffic is, in my opinion, a violent crime. Protest all you want. The right to protest is a basic right in a democracy. Normally it works by making it a legal protest with police permits, but that isn't my issue. Blocking traffic is unacceptable. People have places to be, urgent matters to attend to, scheduled events and meetings and just wanting to get home or to the store or to work or wherever, and blocking traffic disrupts tens of thousands of people's lives when they did nothing to deserve that. Go hold your protest outside a government building, outside the draft board or in some other relevant location to make your point - don't hold innocent civilians hostage to your protests.
And being a violent protest, the police should have extra leeway in putting such a protest down..
As tens of people have been arrested, I do wonder how this works with their beliefs. They refuse to go to the army because it is not a place for a Torah jew to be and going to the army will supposedly hurt them spiritually. Is jail really a place for a Torah Jew to be? Does jail present no challenges to a Torah lifestyle? Why is that a good reason to avoid the army but not to avoid doing things that will get them arrested?
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