Praying women attacked ay Western Wall

The Western Wall, one of the most sacred and prominent sites for Jewish and Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, was the locale for anger, rock tossing and controversy last week when several hundred Jewish women exercised their legal right to pray at that prominent locale.

The way the world seems to be heading might lead one to conclude that the more prayers, the better, but not so for the ultraorthodox Jews who were furious because these brash women came to pray in a spot that they claim is reserved for faithful Jewish men only. And so the 200 women praying at the Western Wall were assaulted by rocks and bottles from a crowd of 2,000 rock- and bottle-throwing ultraorthodox women determined to hurt those whom they considered trespassers and maybe heretics.

The angry female demonstrators were incited to violence by their ultraorthodox rabbinic leaders who urged them to protect the sanctity of the site and only the presence of 500 Jerusalem police officers separated the praying women from the women taunting and throwing missiles. Anticipating the violence, those who came to pray arrived and left in armored buses, and even the vehicles themselves were attacked.

What is one to make of such an outpouring of hatred and violence? It