Haredi Media ignores Beersheba massacre

While the massacre perpetrated by Itamar Alon on Monday at a Beersheba branch of Bank Hapoalim sent the country spiraling into shock, the ultra-Orthodox media ignored wholesale the story that generated frantic coverage in mainstream outlets.

While Yeted Ne'eman, Hamevaser and Hamodia – traditionally considered mouthpieces of the United Torah Judaism party, or at least closely affiliated to it – kept quite on the tragedy as part of their policy to hedge their readers from the atrocities of the world, Hapeles, a more radical outlet of the Lithuanian haredi movement, devoted a fiery editorial to the bank killings, lambasting the secular values which they say triggered them.

"The lawlessness prevailing among those distant from Torah exacted yet another bloody toll yesterday" the newspaper said, explaining the choice not to report the incident in their news section stemmed from their wish to "steer clear of the ugliness and everything like it."

The editorial said such events take place on a regular basis: so frequently that terror attack by the Palestinians no longer represent the main threat to Israel's security. "Homegrown brutes," which society's cruelty made even worse, carry out violent acts with such frequency, HaPeles claimed, that the rest of the population have grown used to them.

The editorial said the poisonous atmosphere that breeds such atrocities derives from the media which, in turn, copies the cultural trends and styles of the "inferior" Western civilization. Scenes of violence represented in theater, film and computer games are contributing factors to the dangerously wayward ways of today's youth, according to HaPeles.

"Secular education" too was on the receiving end of the outlet's attack, and the newspaper stated that "in view of the horrific sights of 'murderous fun and games,' considered part of normative education, no wonder those things trickle down to the lowest strata of the human soul, and finally find their release in bullying, where the imaginary stimuli become real acts of violence."

Finally, the editorial linked the Beersheba massacre to the ongoing efforts toward universal enlistment, saying it is all the more sad that in times like these all some people are concerned with is the yeshiva students devoting their lives to the study of Torah.