Politicians: Act for Your Sake If Not for Ours!
Again Break-Ins over the Holidays
Every Shabbos, every holiday, like clockwork, we get burglaries and break-ins on homes and cars, committed by “Workers” and “Lost Youth”. The plot is known ahead of time. Let’s try and convince our “overlords” to do something about it.
The legend is, the state provides us “paid” protection. Paid. Namely, the Inflation Tax by the Bank of Israel, Income Tax, Title Tax, Gas Tax, Interest Payments, Car Licenses, Marriage Licenses, Breathing Licenses (Oops, not yet!), Tariffs, Lottery Taxes, Luxury Tax, Corporate Tax, Fees, Inheritance Tax, VAT, Bituach Leumi, Negative Income Tax… (The list is getting a bit long so we’ll stop, although the state, on its part, does NOT stop.)
So, as we hear asked in other arenas, “Where’s the promised protection?!” If politicians cannot protect lives and property, they ought to decriminalize the competing, private supply of security and defense!
Alright, the true reason for any protection supplied is so we have something left to pay the state later, rather than the other way around. The problem, exactly as we had with Noble Van Joseph Krotzchsholopolski, back in the old country, is they have too much faith in the citizens. They figure we’ll still manage to pay high taxes (directly and indirectly) even considering a few burglaries every week. No one will call new elections over this, so what do they have to worry about?!
Begging for mercy? Nu Nu. Yosef Hatzaddik already tried that, to no effect. As the Mishnah says, “Be wary of the ruling authorities, for they do not draw a man near but for their own benefit. They may appear friendly when it suits them, but they do not stand by their friends in the hour of their distress”.
But perhaps we can inspire their attention some other way. As we know, the State hates competition of any kind, shape, or form:
You may not sell dangerous drugs unless you are a licensed distributor for a major drug company. No counterfeiting… unless you are employed by the government BOI. Destroying Jewish homes in the Land of Israel is only for those who enlist, you draft dodger! One may not kidnap and torture Jewish teenagers – unless you work for the Jewish Section of the GSS. Beating Torah observant passerby to within an inch of their life? Not unless employed by the Israeli Police. And in our case: Don’t steal from people unless you work for the Israeli IRS, Hotzaah Lapoal, etc. These are “services” only the State may provide.
So how come we don’t witness a hunt against these lawbreaking wannabe copycats?! Against these usurpers; thieves, car window smashers, who lack a license, a badge, a blue uniform, an Israeli flag?! Where is the burning vengeance for the integrity of the state monopoly on these services?! Grant due respect to the authorities of the State of Israel!
Israel: Act for your sake if not for ours!
It is the Charedim who wish to enquire this time: What happened to the glorious “rule of law”?
This article first appeared in Hebrew.
With Heaven’s help, Yehuda Segal
[From now-defunct “Mehadrinews”.]
