MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) has announced that with the increase in prices, due to cancellation of public transportation discounts in certain areas including some Haredi areas, he is going to work on establishing a private bus system for the Haredi community.

Several years ago an initiative began to operate private bus lines for free on Shabbos. It expanded fairly quickly to a number of cities - the best name was the one in Jerusalem called "Shabus". They seemed to be takin advantage of a loophole in the law prohibiting public transportation on Shabbos. Different ones operated in different ways, with some being entirely free while others functioned as a cooperative of sorts. They could not just sell tickets to passengers as that would turn them into something too similar to public transportation to be able to get away with it. 

One thing about Bnei Braq is that it is a big mix, a cholent, perhaps, of types of Litvishe Haredim. You have the far more mainstream people affiliated with rabbonim lik Rav Kanievsky and others, along with being affiliated with the great yeshivas there, and you have the more modern haredim in the more gentrified slice of Bnei Braq with some serious wealth and often a somewhat more modern approach (though these do not necessarily go together). While some crazy extreme chumra-hocking comes out of Bnei Braq, a lot of it is really led in other cities and towns and not in Bnei Braq itself. For example, issues such as mehadrin buses, when they were a thing, never really took hold in Bnei Braq. The various tzniyus signs are not really an issue in Bnei Braq.

Yet now that a Sefardic rav has been appointed in Bnei Braq, that very well might change.

Behadrei is reporting that Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Bnei Braq Rav Masoud Ben Shimon is working now on preparing a list of new decrees for the residents (and visitors, I guess) of the city.

Rav Ben Shimon is planning on trying to decree that avreichim should not have [kosher] phones on while they are learning. It is too much of a distraction and prevents avreichim from truly growing in Torah. That's reasonable and fair. I don't know that it should be a city-wide decree, but yeshivas should be able to implement such a rule if they want to, each for their own avreichim and bochurim.

Rav Ben Shimon complained about when he goes out Friday night to the shul he sees the entire Chazon ish St is filled with men and women walking around, shpetziring, and one cannot even walk int eh street because of the crowds, the mixed crowds. Rav Ben Shimon did not say what, but he said something must be decreed about this matter - perhaps men walk on the sidewalks and women in the street, or vice versa, but something must be done. The problem is not so serious during the weekday but on Shabbos when people are relaxing, he says, it is a big problem and is inappropriate for such a Torah-centric city..

Interestingly, Rav Ben Shimon relates that there was an area that a similar situation greatly disturbed Rav Shach and he asked his talmidim to avoid that area. I say "interesting" because according to the story he related, Rav Shach did not say it is a problem and we must make a city-wide decree. Rather, Rav Shach gave his students specific instructions. yet Rav Ben Shimon wants to make a decree out of it.

Unless the rabbonim he consults with, presumably the other Chief Rabbis of the city, tell him not to start making trouble and making radical changes the public will not like, you can look forward to big changes in Bnei Braq.

Here is the real story of why I am voting for Eli Cohen as mayor of Bet Shemesh...

About 10 months ago I was introduced to Eli Cohen. I was brought to a small meeting, with about 10 other people though some of them knew him already, to meet him, hear his background, his ideas and his vision, and to talk about what we wanted from the next mayor.

Most of the people in the room, myself included, described some of the problems of the city - be it clean streets and parks, be it roads full of potholes, be it the falling socio-economic rating of the city, or whatever else - expressed their main issue being we want to live in a normal city - no fighting, no extremism, crazy fights over mehadrin buses, fighting over where schools can and cannot be located, and pointing to Mayor Moshe Abutbol's main failing being in that area - the city has gotten far more extremist under his leadership. I am tired of cringing when I tell people I am from Bet Shemesh.

I am tired of having to explain that it is only a small group of crazies, but they are very loud and cause harm to the haredim as much as, or maybe even more, they cause to the rest of the city. I, as did most others is the room that night, said I want to live in a normal city. Clean, well run, diverse, and normal.

So what happened?

I think that as the campaign got off the ground and it took a direction of running on the platform of being a professional I simply got caught up in that idea. Sure, I have written and talked about Moshe Abutbol's failings in giving in to extremism, especially regarding the Orot school incident, in private to people, but not really as the main idea. I think I got caught up in the campaign theme of professionalism as being the main idea. But it is not, for me..

I have refused to participate in online discussions fighting about who does or does not get credit for the various advances in Bet Shemesh in the past few years, such as new malls and road development. While surely one can argue who precisely deserves the credit, I felt uncomfortable doing so, as if denying Abutbol any credit for the successes of his term rings of being ungrateful. Even if I don't like him for some things and think someone else can do it better, it does not mean I have to deny him the credit for his successes, or at least some of the credit.

Nobody is perfect, and no mayor anywhere in the world, as successful as he or she might be, has perfect success in every aspect of running his, or her, city. Every mayor has successes and failures. I am even sure that Eli Cohen, as professional and experienced as he is, won't be perfect and not everything will work out as planned. Running any city, especially Bet Shemesh, is complex and so many things are involved in every aspect of the city management, and not everything can be changed so easily or quickly. Somethings will work and some won't. That's just the way it is.

That being said, even on purely a professional level, I think Eli Cohen will be a better mayor than Moshe Abutbol has been. I disagree with the retort that at least Abutbol is better than Dani Vaknin was - because so what? Yes, I agree he is better than Vaknin was, but looking to be better than Vaknin is setting a very low bar, and accomplishing that is not a reason to deserve a second term.

But that is not the main issue.

The main issue is that Moshe Abutbol has allowed the city to go the way of the crazies. We are living in a city where extremists have the upper hand, where I have to explain myself when telling colleagues in Tel Aviv or elsewhere where I live, when someone comes from elsewhere to meet with me in Bet Shemesh he confirms whether the directions I gave him will take him through an area where they are throwing stones.

So what changed? Why am I suddenly realizing that this is the main issue and not the idea of professionalism that I and everyone else has been touting all along?

I think there were two things in the past few days that happened.

1. Suddenly I saw laid out very clearly Moshe Abutbol's successes. As part of the campaign, people arguing on behalf of Moshe Abutbol have pointed to a series of successes (ignoring the failures, of course, but that is besides the point). And when looking at the list of successes, which are almost completely limited to the "big picture" and not the small details of the situation of the city, I thought to myself so he has some failures, but look at all these successes. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe he deserves to keep his seat. Eli won't be perfect either.

and

2. the following guest post was originally posted on Facebook on a page supporting Moshe Abutbol (I got the author's permission to post it below), and that reminded me of how I got involved in all this in the first place, and that the real issue was not whether Moshe Abutbol cleaned the streets well enough or not, but did he give the crazy extremists too much power and recognition. And he did. And with all the other problems, many of which I only became aware of because of my involvement with the campaign, the issue of the extremists is really the problem with Bet Shemesh.

Saul said it better than I can, so continue reading Saul's post below..

a guest post from Saul Behr

I'm going to cut through a lot of fluff and distill down to the core of the reason why I'm voting for Eli Cohen rather than Moshe Abutbul.

You can post as much as you like about the "fantastic" achievements of Abutbul's term of office: Road 10, Kenyon Neimi, Rama Gimmel, whatever. Frankly, I don't give a ki hu zeh about that. Because to me, the defining theme of Abutbul's term of office has been that he has been as divisive and parochial a mayor as you could imagine.

Five years ago, hot on the heels of Barack Obama's successful employment of the tactic, Abutbul came to power on a similar hopey-changey ticket, where he posed as the "Mayor for everyone". He had gathered a broad base of support, not just from charedim, but also from many secular and traditional parties. I seriously considered voting for him, though I eventually voted for Lerner, and when he won, I was just glad that Vaknin had been ousted.

Like Obama, Abutbul pulled a bait-and-switch on us. Everything about his stewardship of this city for the past 5 years has been about furthering the narrow UTJ/Shas agenda. I'm not saying he did nothing for other parts of the city, but whenever the extreme charedi agenda came into conflict with anyone else, Abutbul reflexively took a position to either bolster or appease the extremists. Examples: Near lynch of Natalie Mashiach, Orot Banot, bus stonings, Residu Center, the Ma'ar, exercise equipment being removed from parks when extremists schreied about tznius, general contempt for the law in RBS-B. And don't hide behind the argument that law enforcement isn't the mayor's job: if you have a mayor who makes it a priority to stamp out crime, violence and intimidation, then he can do for RBS-B what Rudy Giuliani did for Central Park.

As a result, from having the broadest ever coalition at the start of his tenure, every single non-Charedi party has since left the coalition, as well as Tov. Take a look at who is supporting him now: only the charedi parties. Not a single non-charedi political party, NGO or other interest group is endorsing Abutbul.

On the other hand, Eli Cohen, whom the Abutbul campaign keeps baselessly accusing of being anti-charedi, has support from every sector of the population, including the charedim (Tov).

Does that not give you pause for thought?

Of course it's important to have proven managerial skills, but as far as I'm concerned, it's far, far more important that the mayor of the city should be doing the job with the interests of all its residents at heart, not just the sector that elected him. A divisive mayor causes sin'as chinam, in both directions.

As it happens, Eli Cohen satisfies both requirements. Moshe Abutbul fails on both.

The following Letter to the Editor in this past week's Hamodia struck my fancy..

On Mehadrin Buses

To the Editor:
I would like to recall a historical fact that can be checked out by anyone.: If you remember, a few years ago it was frightening to ride on buses in Eretz Yisrael. Suicide bombers would get onto buses packed with innocent people and blow themselves up, killing and maiming hundreds. Nothing could be done about them; the army was helpless.
Then it was decided to launch mehadrin buses. As soon as these chariots of kedusha started running, the suicide bombers stopped.
unfortunately, the Supreme Court came out against mehadrin buses. Whereas before, women could enter through the back doors of the bus, now they have to enter through the front door, making it necessary for them to pass through the men. At one point, I read in Hamodia that Rav Kav "readers" (like they have on trains) would be installed on buses so women could enter through the back, but this never came about. Why don't we insist on this?
Also, there are signs on every bus saying that one traveler cannot tell another one where to sit. I have been told that one can end up in jail even for politely asking people to move. But why should anyone have to be told to move in order for the bus to be modestly segregated? The mehadrin buses pass through "our" neighborhoods, and each individual should be looking out for the kedusha of Am Yisrael, concerned about protecting his family and neighbors.
How long does a bus ride take? Must couples sit together when it is compromising the security of everyone, including themselves? (You can always talk when you get home.)
Please, I beg you, men sit in your part of the bus and women sit in yours. The safety of our nation depends on this.
May we be zocheh - in the zechus of showing Hashem that we care about His Torah and His having asked us be kadosh - that the redeemer should come to Tzion in mercy, very quickly.
With Torah blessings,
Rav Shmuel Littmann

By now you have surely heard of what happened yesterday in Bet Shemesh with the Egged bus incident.. I know that most of the postings online in the news media is inaccurate, so I want to clarify what I can.

First, here is the Channel 2 news report on the incident.



More interesting is the article on Mako than the video clip:
Channel 2 news spoke with various parties and interests and here are their responses:

Deputy Mayor of Bet Shemesh Shmuel Greenberg:

There was no "hadarat nashim". the bus driver enflamed the incident. A woman got on the bus and asked another passenger to change places with her so she could sit near someone she knows. The woman agreed, but the driver then turned it into an incident and began to go crazy. He called the police who came and stopped the bus and arrested the man and woman. After the police arrived, haredi residents began to gather to the area and throw stones at the bus. "Maybe it is connected to elections. There is incitement because of the upcoming elections. That is the power of incitement."

Aliza Bloch, candidate for mayor, said:

We can not in any way give in to the extremists. Incidents like this must be dealt with with an iron hand, and we are obligated to uproot such violent behavior and take care that all residents of Bet Shemesh and Israel know that nobody is above the law.

Eli Cohen, candidate for mayor, said:

Again violence and incitement of the extremists against the general population in the city has returned. It is incomprehensible that the residents of Bet Shemesh should be afraid to go around the city freely. We will uproot this phenomenon.

MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) said:

I call upon the Haredi leadership to make its voice heard, to uproot from within it the rioters and make clear that there is no place for such behavior. If they do not do this, the situation can deteriorate to harming someone. We cannot give in to violence, and we cannot allow extremist groups to set how the public realm appears. I hope the police will punish the rioters to the extent of the law in order to prevent such incidents form happening again in the future.

Rabbi Uri Regev, director of Hiddush, said:

the unending violence on the segregated lines proves that they must be completely abolished and serious criminal sanctions must be placed on those who exclude women. Areas in Bet Shemesh have become centers of violent Haredi gangs and the time has come to begin to impose Israeli law there

MK Rav Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid) said:

Such events of excluding women are an invalid phenomenon that need to disappear from the world. Even in the Torah it was prohibited to degrade women and there is no place for this in Israeli society.

Egged Spokesman Ron Rettner said:

Egged completely condemns any attempt to force seating arrangements on buses, and any attempt to use violence, verbal or physical, against any passengers or the driver. We expect the Bet Shemesh police to locate the small group of rioters and use the full extent of the law against them in a way that will be a deterrent, that will uproot this unacceptable behavior.

Now for what I want to add.

With all those responses, I must say that I wonder where the mayor himself is. I did not hear or see any statement or comment on the incident by him. Is he out of town? Is there a reason he does not want to condemn the violence or condemn Egged or play it down or whatever? Where si the mayor's leadership or his activity to calm the waters?


Regardless of that...

The reports in the news spoke about an incident in which a woman got on the bus #497 - from Bet Shemesh to Bnei Braq, and sat in the front. A woman and a man told her to move to the back of the bus as it is a mehadrin bus. The police got involved, arrested the man and woman, and that led to the bus being stoned and then 2 other buses being attacked with windows smashed.

Last night I heard on Radio Kol Chai, while on my way to shiur (so I did not get to listen to the entire discussion with all the interviews), an interview with the woman involved - the one who was told to move to the back of the bus. She sounded like an olah chadasha, though her Hebrew was very good. I read elsewhere later that she moved to Israel from London and had recently been with her family on shlichut to the Ukraine..

Her name is Rachel Rosenfeld, she is 27 with two children. She is not charedi, but is Dati Leumi (in her words).

She said she got on the bus with her kids and some packages. She sat in the front. She is fairly new to Bet Shemesh and did not know that this is a mehadrin bus. A charedi woman came to her and told her to move to the back. She said no because it is too difficult - her kids, her bags, etc. The woman offered to help her move. A man spoke up as well. The woman agreed to move. At that point, against Egged policy (supposedly Egged policy is the bus driver does not get involved unless it seems like the situation will get violent), the bus driver intervened and started screaming about calling the police, and from there the situation deteriorated and the rioting began.

I don't know if that justifies anything that happened later (actually I know it does not), but it is good to get the story straight.

According to the victim, the initial story was turned into a mountain, when it was just a molehill. There was not a serious attempt at forcing a woman to the back of the bus - it was a polite request to which she had agreed.

We do not know the bus drivers version - maybe he saw them being more aggressive than what she is admitting to, maybe he perceived it differently than she did, or maybe he lost control. I don't know.

And, again, this does not justify rioting, violence, destruction of property, putting people into physical danger (thankfully only one person was hurt with only minor scrapes from the broken windows). The criticism on the violence that happened after the incident still stands.

The big news of the day seems to have been an article in Hamodia (Hebrew edition). Hamodia wrote an article suggesting the formation of an autonomous Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael.
(sources: NRG, kikar, Ladaat, INN)

Before I say anything else, I would first point out that the two State Solution has gone from Two States to One State back to Two States, then Three States and it looks like Four States is also a possibility now!

I saw articles about this in just about every Israeli news website, but will quote from INN (out of laziness, so I dont have to translate it myself):

In an article published Wednesday, the paper attacked religious-Zionist politicians who formed an alliance with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party rather than with hareidi parties, and laid out the significant ideological differences between the hareidi-religious and religious-Zionist communities.
The article then accused, “Led by the media and Supreme Court, which are fed by left-wing organizations funded by anti-Semites, they chose to deny the status quo which was achieved through great effort, and to break all the agreements, like the authorization of fictitious conversions and civil marriage, and to interfere with - and harm - the hareidi community.”
“If there is no improvement, there is an option that must be considered as a last resort – to create a Jewish autonomy in the Land of Israel,” it continued.
“Autonomy means administrative independence regarding internal affairs, without the status of a sovereign state, with legislative and economic independence and police, and without an army or foreign policy,” it stated.
According to the writers, the plan has a real chance of success. “If we managed to establish Bnei Brak, Elad and Modiin Illit, Laniado [hospital] and Ezer Mitzion, we can also establish an electric company, highways, and whatever else is needed,” they wrote.
The article suggested that economic independence would benefit the hareidi community, as it would allow for a system in which hareidi workers are not limited by non-recognition of their academic background or by immodesty in the workplace.  In addition, it argued, the hareidi autonomy would not need to spend large sums on sports, modern culture, prisons or treatment centers for drug addiction.
“Torah scholars will be respected members of society and will get decent stipends, and we will ensure housing at reasonable prices,” it added.

Considering that there already is "Jewish autonomy" in Eretz Yisrael, this would likely actually be "Haredi autonomy". I am not quite sure how this will work.

• Will they demand a certain piece of land?
• Will they demand Jerusalem as their capital or maybe Bnei Braq?
• Will they have demands and negotiate with Israel to get them?  
• will they expect a contiguous piece of land for their new country? 
•  they say they wont have the need to spend money on prisons and  drug addiction centers - do they think everyone in their new society will be perfect or will they just kick anyone who misbehaves out and send them to Israel? When a young haredi man will be caught smuggling drugs into some country or other, will they fight for his release and then just send him to kollel?
• they wont be limited in the workplace by their lack of education - I wonder what their hospitals will look like as far as the quality of the doctors who did not get an education, or how safe their buildings will be being built by people who were no longer hampered in the workplace because of no education. Fly on one of their airplanes and then you find out the pilot is a graduate of the best yeshiva in Bnei Braq. 
• Is it safe to assume that this will be an Internet-free country? 
• Will all buses be mehadrin? Or maybe it will be a female-free country and they will only take the men into this new country.
• A serious crime in this new country will not necessarily be drugs or violence, as of course there will not be any, but being caught with a smartphone will get you 7 to 10 years in prison.
• Will they run the legal system as a halachic state? Will it be a democracy? Elections?
• Will they say hallel on their Independence Day? Will they need passports to get to Meron for Lag b'Omer or will they demand Meron as part of their country?

While the courts already decided that gender-segregation is illegal in the public domain, both having decided thusly in the situation of "mehadrin" bus lines and in regards to banning advertising bearing images of women, in actuality it was still allowed to continue by those interested by turning a blind eye.

Regarding bus lines, a 13 year old girl from Bet Shemesh just won a lawsuit against Superbus for a claim of having been sent to the back of the bus. She is being awarded a settlement of 13,000 NIS, and the specific driver involved in the incident might have to pay part of the fine out of his own pocket.

If Superbus though they could turn a blind eye until now, letting the "mehadrin" arrangement continue in an unofficial arrangement, now it is going to hit them in the pocket. Superbus might not be able to continue letting it happen even unofficially.

In a second situation that happened on the same day, the State responded to a lawsuit in the Supreme Court. A group of people in Jerusalem tried to advertise on buses. The advertisements they submitted bore images of women. After their ads were rejected, they sued for discrimination against women.

In a surprise move, they ended up getting the support of the State. Representatives from the Ministry of Transportation came forward saying they support the claimants, and that it is illegal to reject advertisements just because they bear the images of women (or other forms of discrimination). They also said that they will enforce the law and there is no need for the lawsuit.

Egged responded by passing the blame onto the advertising company that manages the bus ads.

The claimants expect that with the support of the Ministry of Transportation, the discrimination will finally come to an end. Being that the Ministry put out such a strong response, they are expected to continue with enforcement. Good luck with that.

While letting sexy and malnourished models appear on advertising in skimpy clothing is important (that was meant to be humorous. I know it is important, and plenty of ads dont use those kinds of models but can use modest and appropriate models as well), the real fight against discrimination should be in gaining equality in the workplace - equal opportunities for advancement, equal salary levels, along with equality in many other realms of the public sphere in which women are still treated as far from equals - in all sectors of society.


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The level of "bus fare avoidance" on the mehadrin lines is in the news again.

The supporters of the mehadrin bus lines every now and again publish advertisements reminding, or encouraging, riders to be sure to pay the bus fare even when they get on at the back of the bus. There are regular complaints about the high percentage of riders who use the cover of the mehadrin bus line honor system to ride without paying. At a transportation committee meeting in the Knesset two years ago the director of Superbus claimed that on mehadrin bus lines 30% do not pay. While that number seems impossibly high to me, that is what Balilius claimed at the time.

In this past week's Chadash newspaper, the issue came up again. Superbus drivers regularly catch people who did not pay. They decided to make an example out of someone they repeatedly have caught not paying when getting on the bus. They figure, they say, that they have been screaming until they are blue in the face to no avail, and if they now make an example of someone it will go a long way to ensuring riders pay.

How are they making an example of one rider?

Superbus is suing a female passenger that did not pay when she got on the bus using the back door. Superbus has installed "smart card readers" next to the back door for the "mehadrin" buses and by the honor system riders boarding in the back are meant to swipe their card. The article says they plan on suing for thousands to tens of thousands of shekels for damages.

Superbus responded, when asked, saying that they spent a lot of money installing systems to make it possible, all out of desire to respect the wishes of the community that wanted it, while trusting that the riders in the haredi community would be careful to pay. After investing a lot of money in machines that are easy to use, instead of making it easier for everyone involved, it has become a source of a breach in the system, allowing people to not pay and causing them a lot of loss of fees and has become a tremendous bother for them.

Superbus has admitted that the lawsuit being filed is in order to teach a lesson so that others will begin paying and not be prone to such suits of their own. Riding without paying is illegal and each time it is done it is subject to a fine worth thousands of shekels. Suing one person, they say, will hopefully cause others to decide to start paying for their rides.

Who would have ever thought that riding with separate seating was more important than theft? With the knowledge that this has been going on for years and all their encouragement to pay, a significant enough percentage of people (whatever the actual percentage is, it is clearly significant enough) still do not, the rabbonim and askanim should simply cancel the mehadrin lines. They should say that enabling theft is not an acceptable byproduct of sitting with gender-segregation, and if people are going to continue not paying for their rides they will make everyone get on in the front of the bus and pay the driver directly.

We don't blow shofar when Rosh Hashana falls out on Shabbos out of concern of one ignorant fellow that might carry the shofar in a place he isnt allowed to. We have many takanos in our religion to prevent people from getting anywhere near sinning inadvertently, or to prevent temptation of sin. Here we have a situation that is causing the temptation of theft - if theft is rampant on these buses, the mehadrin status should be cancelled by the rabbonim who have backed them until now.

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The issue of the operation of public transportation on Shabbos in Tel Aviv has really taken on a life of its own. I don't know if it will be possible to prevent it or to curb the momentum of this movement.

Some of the interesting points made in the discussion about the issue:

• On a radio program discussing the issue on Galei Tzahal, Avri Gilad (a local television and radio broadcaster) said he is opposed to turning Shabbos into just another day. He said that he, as a secular Jew, wants to enjoy a Shabbat atmosphere that does not include the diesel pollution of buses. He does not want it to be another day where all the stores are open and buses are running.
  
  Gilad also said that the push to operate the bus lines seems to be not initiated on its merits, but as a reaction, an act of revenge so to speak, for the recent spike in the need for mehadrin buses,  which he also calls a reaction of sorts.
  
  
• 
  Avishai Ben-Chaim, also a broadcaster who is a correspondent on haredim, who was talking with Gilad, said the issue isnt his but needs to remain completely an issue to be decided by the secular - they should fight about it and they should decide. Ben-Chaim said he hopes they decide against it, but the haredim need to undergo some introspection and realize that through Bet Shemesh and mehadrin buses, the operation of public transportation on Shabbos came about.
  Ben-Chaim added that this is specifically the fault of the mehadrin buses and whoever among the haredim say "why do the secular care how we live, they should just leave us alone and not interfere with how we travel" cannot come along now and say they have the right to interfere in how the secular live and travel on Shabbat.
  
  
• Mayor of Tel aviv Ron Huldai spoke on Menachem Toker's radio program about the issue. Huldai said "the general public in Israel wants public transportation on Shabbat. Judaism was always sensitive to the needs of the more needy people. Many people want to go on Shabbat to the beach or to visit relatives. if there would be a Sanhedrin today, it would find a way to permit public transportation on Shabbat... Anyways the streets are full of cars on Shabbat. Whoever can afford a car is out driving. There is nothing written in the Torah about "status quo" - as well, the mehadrin buses are also a breach of the status quo.
  
  
  
  In a different interview Huldai said that in Haifa public transportation has been operating on Shabbat for a long time and has never caused any problems.... He added that he is in favor of all the stores being closed on Shabbat, but he is in favor of the operation of public transportation. Many residents in Tel Aviv, Huldai said, need to travel to shul on Shabbat and they cannot because there is no transportation available. Currently they have to go by foot or by private car.
  
I find it interesting that he tries to justify the decision as if halachically, or from a Jewish perspective, it is ok to break desecrate Shabbos for these reasons.
• 
  In Tali Farkash's column in Ynet (Farkash is a haredi journalist), she explained that in her opinion the haredim should not mix into this discussion. Let the secular have their buses on Shabbos. Mixing in will only make the haredim look bad, as if they are trying to control the secular and how they live. Anyway the streets are full of cars and the stores are open, so the buses don't really add anything. Tel Aviv will never be a suburb of Beni Braq, so what is there to fight about - for Shabbos in Tel Aviv which is already not kept?
  
  I do not disagree with Farkash, though I think voicing a protest is also important. I would say perhaps political power should not be used to stop it, but some form of protest must be made, as this is a major issue.

The big news item of the day is the City of Tel Aviv wants public transportation in the city to operate on Shabbos and holidays.

After Meretz and "Free Israel" activists made the proposal that buses should operate in tel Avvi on Shabbos, the city council of Tel Aviv discussed it and then approved the proposal by a large majority. The decision is not final, as it has to be approved by the Ministry of Transportation. While the religious council members of Tel Aviv might not have had enough power to thwart the initial vote, the representatives at the national level hold much more power and will surely work to avert the approval.

The mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai supported the approval of the law. In his words, "whoever does not want to get on a bus on Shabbat, does not have to get on", meaning they arent forcing anyone to ride the buses on Shabbos but the current situation in which only people with cars can do what they want it - go to the beach, entertainment, restaurants, etc. - is not acceptable.

I imagine that just like the issue of mehadrin bus lines was approved and then went to the Supreme Court to be knocked down, I imagine chances are that this will as well. Of course the Supreme Court might approve the transportation on Shabbos, but I suspect they will uphold the current law in which the public transportation remains offline on shabbos (the only exceptions are individually approved for very essential reasons, such a large non-Jewish population among other exceptional reasons).

The activists involved say that if the law will be rejected, they will work toward creating a private bus system. I would note that doing so is not so easy, as the transportation authorities, in conjunction with Egged and other companies have generally fought against such initiatives.

Rabbi Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, has regularly said that Tel Aviv is far more religious than it appears to be. Rav Lau says that people see the tourist face of Tel Aviv, where people come to party and then leave. They don't see the tens of shuls operating daily, the hundreds of minyanim and shiurim, the increase in kashrut certificates in restaurants, and the like. This, if it is passed, is going to put a damper on that attitude. Rav Lau said "operating the bus lines on Shabbos would cause tremendous harm to the holiness of Shabbos and to the history of the city... Tel Aviv-Yafo was founded 103 years ago as the first Hebrew city, and Meir Dizengoff, Ahad Ha'Am, and Chaim Nachman Bialik did a lot for keeping the atmosphere of the city so that Shabbos should be protected publicly.... the plan to operate the public transportation on Shabbos will harm the status quo upon which is based the position of the government since the foundation of the State."

MK Zahava Galon of Meretz said about this issue that she turned to the Attorney general and asked him to instruct  the Transportation Minister to consider the request only from a professional perspective and to ignore the discussion of status quo. Galon says that the status quo has no actual legal standing, and should therefore be ignored.

MK Uri Orbach of HaBayit HaYehudi (aka Mafdal) said that Huldai should first deal with the problems of the  public transportation in the city during the weekdays before he worries about public transportation on Shabbos (Tel Aviv is famous for the complex bus system. It was recently overhauled, but many many complaints have not been dealt with).

One other point, the main fight against it seems to be the issue of the "status quo". The status quo argument is one I never liked. The "status quo" is too ambiguous, as nothing really defines what the status quo is, and it is broken regularly in the direction of more religion, but is always opposed in the direction of more secular. The fight against the operation of buses should remain within the law that says public transportation is "closed" on Shabbos, as well as from an ideological discussion of being a Jewish State and what the public sphere should appear as in such a state.

People are putting up self-made videos related to the issue of mehadrin buses, gender-segregation, and the like. Both making fun of it, and supporting it.

Here are a couple videos...



and

Yesterday was a crazy day regarding the mehadrin bus issue. A storm erupted over an incident on the Egged #451 bus from Ashdod to Jerusalem the other day. A woman, Tanya Rosenblit, got on the bus and refused to move to the back. While most passengers ignored her, one got on a few stops later and did not like what he saw. After she refused to move, he stood in the door of the bus, causing a 30 minute delay, with Rosenblit holding her ground just as firmly.

People complained, eventually the police were called, Rosenblit continued to refuse to move, and eventually the fellow got off the bus, to show his disapproval, and the bus continued on its way. From what I understand, a number of his buddies also got off in protest, and reports also say that passengers at stops further along the route were told not to board the bus.

While there has been talk of provoking responses, of riding buses just to find the idiot who would put up a fight and all that, so far none of the incidents have been successful in creating the ruckus. Until Rosenblit, Rosenblit herself might have become the Israeli Rosa Parks. The entire country was in a tizzy yesterday about this case. It was discussed in the Knesset, by the Prime Minister, on all the news sites and media, as if nothing else was happening in the country.

Those supporting the mehadrin lines eventually responded claiming she did more than just sit there. they said she had touched men as they walked by (brushing their arms as if accidentally), had threatened to sing loudly, had threatened to disrobe (Rosenblit denies touching anyone and says threats she made were only after the fact in the heat of the argument, not the cause of it).

Today it was announced that the haredi community plans to re-establish the haredi lines they used to operate. Supposedly, 72 million shekels has been donated by some haredi philanthropists for the establishment of these bus lines, and along with the mehadrin method of operation, tzedaka boxes will be placed on the buses (front and back) so passengers can donate for their continued operation. In Bet Shemesh the private mehadrin bus lines have been operating for years, and there is no reason it should not work in other places as well (in general the haredi community of Bet Shemesh seems far more unified and organized than haredi communities elsewhere)

Was Tanya Rosenblit the straw that broke the back of Israeli society on this issue?

In this latest installment of updates in the gender-segregation fight, also known as the removal of women from the public sphere fight (we really have to come up with a good general name for this - ideas anyone?) we have some interesting issues:

• Aryeh Deri spoke up recently criticizing the "mehadrin bus movement". He said, in addition to other things, that a shul is a place where men cannot sit beside women, due to the holiness of the place. But in a bus? We have turned the bus into a shul! Aryeh should watch his comparisons, as I have been on plenty of buses and trains that were literally turned into shuls with minyanim and people davening. 
• The voting in Geula for the local council was a disaster. Kikar reports that at a certain point, after the mayor and other reps left the site, the sikrikim showed up and vandalized the entire place, screaming at the women for destroying the fences of tzniyus. They also broke into the ballot room and destroyed the box containing the ballots already voted. Various haredi municipal reps criticized the Iryah (themselves as well) for not being sensitive to the situation and for not preparing properly in advance. 
• Rav Elyashiv was widely quoted the other day by one of his askanim/bneibayit/handlers, and the quote was picked up by the national press pretty quickly, saying that while mehadrin buses are fine, it is not an issue to be forced on anyone and is not something that should be pushed for in the public domain. I didn't quote it because I was suspicious the entire story was not yet out, and more has come out now, and it is interesting enough to mention. After the initial quote made the waves it made, another handler spoke out denying Rav Elyashiv's original quote, saying Rav Elyashiv
  
  supports the mehadrin bus lines, and people should use it whenever possible. And then, sure enough, another one of Rav Elyashivs askanim spoke up denying the denial, saying that rav Elyashiv has said many times that he supports the idea of mehadrin, but there is a difference between a good idea and forcing it on the public. He says Rav Elyashiv supports private bus lines that would be mehadrin, and when such lines exist people should use those rather than the public bus lines. However, the mehadrin should not be forced into the public bus lines. I see the main story here as being that once again nobody knows what the gadol said because each handler quotes something exactly the opposite of the other.
• A group has arranged an event for January 1, 2012 at which hundreds, or thousands depending on how many sign up, of volunteers will show up in Jerusalem to the various bus lines that have been designated as mehadrin, unofficially of course, and will ride the bus provoking responses. So far 500 volunteers have signed up. Clearly they did not read the item in the JPost the other day in which a woman told her tale of spending weeks riding a mehadrin bus while sitting in front and encountering no harassment or violence.

I would be remiss if I did not write about the recent court decision regarding mehadrin bus lines, even though it happened when I was offline on Thursday.

The courts finally came to a decision, after a long period of deliberations and listening to arguments, regarding the legality of mehadrin bus lines. The decision is that mehadrin bus lines can continue to operate as a voluntary arrangement. Egged (or other bus companies) will have to post signs in the relevant buses stating that the bus is mehadrin and men are requested to sit in front and women in back, and that nobody can be The Mechitza: Maintaining the Sanctity of the Synagogueforced to do so. The  ministry will then allow a trial basis for 30 days to ensure that there is no coercion taking place and things are operating well. if all goes well, they will finalize the decision and make it a permanent arrangement.

What's funny is that every side is seeing this as a victory, which I guess is good. The kannoi-haredi community that pushed this sees it as a validation that the State supports their desire to have separation. The opponents see it as a victory that the courts said it is voluntary and if not it will be canceled.

What is a shame is that this was presented as a fight between haredi and conservative movements. Many haredim do not support this arrangement, but with the fight being waged by the Conservative Moevment, they have no choice but to support the separation. There was an article the other day I saw about the haredi reps having said "off the record" that despite the victory in court they regret that this battle was brought public and fought, as it only harms the interests of the haredi community and that is why they kept a  very low profile and never spoke about it publicly, and only certain reps assisted on it.

An issue raised was that women, even secular, support separation because in times of overcrowding buses there is very inappropriate contact between genders, due to the crowds. That really is a problem, but the solution should have been limiting (and there are limits already in place, they just need to be reinforced) how many people can be on a bus and not let it get so crowded that people are smashed up against each other. Even without the groping and touching, that type of mass crowding should not be allowed to happen. It is dangerous and disgusting, even when men are rubbing up against men, with no women in the picture.

What I see from this case is that the court took the easy way out. Everybody feels like a winner, but no real decision was made. On any bus in the country nobody is telling anybody where to sit. If women wish to sit in the back, nobody is stopping them. To not allow mehadirn bus lines, what would the courts have said - women are not allowed to sit in the back of the bus? People can sit where they want, and if a community commonly gets on the buses and the men go to the front and women to the back, they can sit where they want, and they have always been able to.

With the system voluntary alone, if they sit separately and I get on the bus I can choose to sit in the front or the back, depending on wherever I feel like sitting, and nobody can tell me otherwise, just like the courts cannot tell the women to sit in the front.

To support mehadrin bus lines, they would have had to allow a certain level of "coercion", which they did not do. To oppose mehadrin they would have had to say women must sit in the front with men and men in back with women, which is ridiculous. Their decision is basically a no-decision allowing people to choose where to sit, just like on any other bus in the country.

According to Bechadrei News, the Ministry of Transportation has finally finished its study and has come to conclusions. The ministry has decided to support mehadrin bus lines being legalized and available to haredi communities that request it. As long as there is no coercion, there is no reason to not allow it legally.

The study was conducted by taking 3000 rides, using all buses that are deemed to be mehadrin lines. During these 3000 bus rides, not a single incident occurred indicating coercion or any other problem.

The Supreme Court will, supposedly, be deciding at the end of next month how to rule on the legality of the mehadrin lines. I say "supposedly" because they were supposed to come to a ruling a number of times already but it was delayed each time for further study.

I did not do my own investigation into this, nor confirmation, (am way too lazy for that right now) but am translating (mostly paraphrasing) something that was posted on the Hebrew Bet Shemesh board in the Bechadrei forums.

If you live in RBS/BS, you might have noticed the new brown buses driving around the city with the company name "Mehadrin B'Tnuah" across the side. Even if you are not from Bet Shemesh, the background of this might interest you.

So these new buses cater to the people who want mehadrin bus service - separate seating, no radio, payment is collected not by the driver but by someone else (thus getting around the problem of not being allowed to operate a bus service), etc.

The previous company employed by the kitzonim who have fought for mehadrin service and against Egged (even when they wanted to provide the mehadrin service) in the past was called "Movilei HaVradim" stopped working with this group after deciding it was no longer financially worthwhile, along with some other disputes. After a number of years they decided to call ti quits in this market and the kitzonim had to look for a new provider.

The only compnay that agreed to operate under the difficult conditions of the "mehadrinn" format was a company from Kiryat Gat called "Metailei Lachish", and they bought new buses for this project.

They agreed to change the name on their buses used for the "mehadrin" operation in Bet Shemesh to "Mehadrin L'Tnuah" because they are a company that does not keep Shabbos and the kitzonim operators could not allow the real name to be used and displayed publicly under their authority.

How does sitting separately yet at the same time supporting chillul shabbos make a bus "mehadrin"? Is it ok, according to them, to eat in a restaurant that is mechalel shabbos - can the restaurant still obtain a mehadrin hechsher? Is chillul shabbos not a problem when money is involved? Is the "ideal" of sitting separately so overwhelmingly important that it even trumps such basics as Shabbos?

There have been a number or protests recently against the mehadrin bus arrangements. The court has recently given the State 60 days to respond regarding why they have not recommended how to stop the violence on the bus system and what their plans are for the future if it would be allowed, as per the recommendation of the Ministry of Transportation.

In a protest against the mehadrin buses, in which they hung signs on mehadrin buses in various areas around the country, one of the organizers of the protest said something very interesting. he said, "The separate lines exist in many cities around the country and between many cities, and not just within haredi population centers. We are protesting the statement of the Minister of Transportation Katz and Egged ignoring the degrading treatment of women that are sent to the back of the bus - sometimes with the use of violence, both verbal and physical. The mehadrin bus lines are serving the general mixed public and not just the Haredi public, and that separation is being forced upon the general public." (source: Ynet)

If he is to believed, it sounds like even those opposed to it are really ok as long as it is limited to internally within a specific haredi community. The problem is when it spreads out to areas that are more mixed and then the general public is affected.

The latest posters plastered around Mea She'arim are against the mehadrin bus phenomenon.

According to Ynet they call out those people who are machmir on "light" mitzvos and lenient about heavy mitzvos. They get on buses and they bother our pure and tzanua women... the only thing they do mehadrin is chilul hashem l'mehadrin, embarrassing others, lashon ha'ra, and damage...

Many are taking the words of Transportation Minister Yaakov Katz in support of unofficially mandating the mehadrin buses operation as a sign of success.

As I mentioned then, it is simply the statement of a position. It is not up to the Transportation Ministry to decide. It is up to the courts. Katz's opinion might have weight in the decision, but it alone is not a decision.

There is a feeling in the Haredi press that Katz's words are the final say. In this week's Eidah weekly newspaper, for example, their article on the issue states that the mehadrin buses have won the battle and those who oppose them have lost.

They will be disturbed to hear that in a meeting today in Supreme Court about the mehadrin bus situation, one of the judges on the panel responded to the government representative, after the rep stated the ministers position on the matter and that signs could be placed around telling people where it is recommended they sit, very sharply. he cynically asked if they could also put up signs telling people not to get violent if someone sits in the wrong area and if that would solve all the problems with the mehadrin buses....

While no decision has been made, it is way too early for anyone to celebrate (one way or the other) thinking themselves victorious. At least one judge on the panel seems to be against it...