The government of the State of Israel and its Supreme Court this past week demonstrated the very worst disregard for the laws of the land and the related biblical injunctions in their responses to requests by certain groups for special permission to not be held to the same war time restrictions that govern the rest of us.

To recap, ever since the start of the current war on February 28th, issues around the gathering of individuals, whether in public spaces, schools, or houses of worship (i.e. ALL houses of worship regardless of religion), were controlled and continue to be controlled by the Home Front Command of the IDF.  This is as is should be as there needs to be one unified source of such regulations in order not to confuse the public.

For most of that time until this very moment, gatherings of individuals were limited to a maximum of 50 people, provided they can reach a standard protected space in the time available to reach shelter.  In addition, the beaches of Israel were totally closed to the public, sadly a rule seemingly observed mostly in the breach from what we see on news reports.

Nevertheless, last week the authorities distinguished themselves in the worst possible manner by yielding to group pressure on the one hand while, on the other hand, failing even to enforce the law when it was blatantly being violated.

Three cases will illustrate the point.

First, a group of anti-war protestors represented by The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) petitioned the Supreme Court for the right to demonstrate against the war by scheduling gatherings of significantly more than 50........

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