That's Peter Beinart's read on the harrowing stories of sexism within the ultra-Orthodox community, including a young girl spat upon while walking to school because she wasn't dressed properly:
[U]ltra-Orthodox coercion stems in large part from ultra-Orthodox control of key ministries in the Israeli government. Israeli prime ministers give the ultra-Orthodox control over these ministries in return for the Knesset votes that keep them in power. And why must Israeli prime ministers include ultra-Orthodox parties in their governments? In large measure because they will not include Israel’s Arab parties. …
What gives the ultra-Orthodox the ability to oppress women, in other words, is partly a political system in which Israel’s Arab citizens are largely barred from power. What the protesters in Beit Shemesh and their supporters in the United States need to remember is the fundamental interconnectedness of equal citizenship. When you deny it to one group, you produce ripple effects that undermine the equality of others as well.
Marc Tracy is on the same page:
Prime Minister Netanyahu has decried the "religious extremists." Right-wing minister Uzi Landau added, "Haredi extremists should be dealt with like leftist anarchists and right-wing settler youth—decisively." Presumably, however, they should not be treated the way Palestinian protesters are. Hopes that religious settlers who have vandalized mosques and even attacked an IDF base in the West Bank would face similar consequences to Palestinians who break laws protesting the occupation appear to be dashed now that the IDF has argued against trying the settlers in military courts (admittedly, the IDF is more concerned with dividing the army, which has a large religious-settler contingent).
(Photo: Secular Israelis (R) argue with ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters in the central town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, on December 26, 2011. Extra Israeli police patrolled the streets of Beit Shemesh after a campaign by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate men and women erupted into violence. By Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images.)
The Dish 