It is easy to laugh at leftist ‘rabbis’ for misquoting the Torah, which they have never learned. It is strange, though, to hear similar opinions from the immensely learned Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

In reference to the segregation issue, he is widely quoted as saying that coercion contradicts the letter and spirit of the Torah. We fail to see how it can be so when coercion is mandated throughout Torah in the most plain language. Jews must execute transgressors of Shabbat, for example, and numerous other religious offenders. Fine, Rabbi Ovadia may be able to rely upon the standard “no-Sanhedrin” argument against execution. But that argument certainly does not rule out milder coercion. Indeed, it is a rabbinic tenet that Jews may be bribed and coerced into observing our religion.

Back in the 1980s, when the state was battling Rabbi Meir Kahane, the president of the Knesset was granted legal power to prevent voting on any bill he might consider racist.

Since then, “those who have served in the IDF or the National Service” has become an acceptable euphemism for “Jews.” So MK Ben-Ari has fielded a bill which would bar those who did not serve from judicial positions. Theoretically, the bill targets not only Arabs, but also haredim, but they refuse state offices anyway.

In response, Arab MK Tibi fielded an alternative bill barring from judicial positions those who live “in a place that violates international law,” i.e., settlers.

Curiously, the Knesset’s legal advisor approved both bills as technically non-racist, though on numerous occasions the Attorney General has banned such euphemisms, including attempts by Jewish employers to limit job offers to IDF servicemen.

Jewish religious law plainly prohibits any non-Jew from occupying any position of authority in the Land of Israel, including judges, of course.

We did not hear the world screaming, and human rights organizations did not petition the UN to set up a hearing on war crimes, when two shells containing white phosphorus landed in Israeli territory.

We remember the outcry of three years ago, when they were fired in the opposite direction. Since then, the Arabs have fired white phosphorus shells at Israel more than a dozen times, but who has heard about that abroad?