A frum journalist recently told me that a major news agency had contacted her organization to ask for their views on the saga of the segregated buses in Israel. But she continued no one wanted to take the call for fear of not knowing what to say. That story along with the one about chareidi soldiers walking out of an army event featuring women’s singing has filled the media for weeks now even prompting Hillary Clinton to remark that when things like this happen in Israel it reminds her of Iran.
Personally I must admit it was actually heartening to hear Mrs. Clinton’s comment. Given the Obama administration’s apparent obliviousness to the looming threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb anything that might remind the secretary of state of Iran’s existence can only be for the good. But I digress.
I told the journalist it was too bad they didn’t refer the call to me because I could have brought a bit of clarity to a topic regarding which there’s lots of misunderstanding and misinformation. But since the call never did come I share my thoughts here and readers are more than welcome to share them with their high-placed friends in the media.
The following paragraphs will not address the halachic aspects of the story on which I’m unqualified to opine. Nor will I speak on a practical level to the wisdom of seeking gender segregation on public transportation in Israel which I’ll leave to social and political commentators closer to the scene. Instead I’ll address a topic I actually know something about: herring. You see the whole separate seating brouhaha (which given the major media attention to this might qualify for yet another “haha” after the first “haha”) is one big red herring defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (third edition) as “information … intended to be misleading or distracting from the actual question.”
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