Christians and Moslems have similar issues. Sad.

At least fundamentalist Christians and Muslims will accept someone who converts to their brand of fundamentalist Christianity or Islam regardless of their background, but these folks will hold no one born a Jew is ever and can never be a true Jew. Or for that matter someone who had some non-Jewish ancestry several generations ago, even if they are 63/64 Jewish today. Any drop of impure Gentile blood and to these folks you're out.

Thanks for the article.

The transgressions that these crazy ultras commit is known as Chillull HaShem and it is the worst possible transgression in Judaism.

The ultras are truly an embarrassment and they seem to be getting worse and worse (if that is even possible).

We occasionally see an article about more liberal/progressive people trying to take some of it back, but so much of what I read is about the tightening of screws both socially and politically.

And the Haredim are still mostly a localized problem. Most Israelis don't have to deal much with ultras yet. But it is something they will have to deal with soon since the birth date of the ultra-Orthodox is pretty high.

However, there are well funded groups like IRAC that are actively working to counter the current problems (and potential problems) in regards to extremists. They started late IMO since the Reform and Conservative movements (both groups make up the vast majority of religious Jews) made the US their main center therefore letting the orthodox monopolize religion in Israel.

However, the "if Israel is an Orthodox Jewish state (as opposed to a Jewish state) then you won't be receiving monetary support from us" threat has produced some nice victories for the non-Orthodox side and for plurality in general in Israel.

Reform and Conservative Jews from the US realize that those throwing rocks at us in Israel and vandalizing synagogues are not Arabs or Muslims but the crazy bigoted ultras.

oppose the extremists that have overtaken their religions, they will control the discussion.

But doing so would expose the flaws in their own arguments for why their interpretation of their religion should be taken seriously. Their arguments are the exact same ones as the extremists.

What arguments from the reform movement would be the exact same as the ultra-orthodox?

Belief is not the issue in this argument (or that important to cause a problem for non-orthodox Jews). The argument is which form of Judaism will make judaism survive. Both forms of Judaism are reactions to the fact that Jews (as a people) were eventually able to enjoy citizenship wherever they lived. The challenge was how to keep the tradition as a people going when jews were free to join the rest of society.

The non-Orthodox chose to enjoy citizenship and choose a way that they could be citizens of their respective countries and still make their Jewish way of life meaningful. In contrast, the ultra-orthodox wish to go back to the ghetto where they are shielded from the outside world. And their clash with the outside world cause them to freak out and to become more rigid.