What would have happened if they had caught them?

I want to know what would have happened if they had caught them.

Yesterday, two skirt-clad, weaponless, female IDF soldiers were rescued by police in Bnei Brak.

V*olence erupted after the soldiers were seen in the neighborhood, and there was a rumor spread that they had arrived to distribute military draft notices.

The IDF reported that they were not, but were in the neighborhood to do a welfare visit as part of their regular duties as squad commanders at the Education and Youth Corp.

The soldiers had requested not to go, in concern of an event like this, but they were told to go anyway.

A local woman had warned them to hide and that they were not allowed to be in the neighborhood. When the chaos began, the two soldiers hid behind dumpsters and waited for the police to come and rescue them.

Hundreds of men were surrounding the soldiers, dumping garbage bins and tossing them and their contents across the streets. The soldiers were evacuated as they were chased by a mob.

22 people were arrested, after stones were thrown at officers, they overturned a patrol car, set a police motorcycle on fire (including the teffilin inside it). 2 officers were injured, and stun grenades were used to disperse the area.

Now I want to say this:

Obviously, in most sects of any religion, there is going to be extremism and sometimes even v*olence.

This is not a commentary on an entire sect or the Haredi population as a whole.

What I'm about to say rests upon these individuals, who engage with the IDF, women, and heaven forbid, female soldiers with v*olence.

This behavior could not be further from the Torah's teachings.

This is how savages act; a perversion of our covenant with God and with each other.

Ish echad l'lev echad. One person with one heart.

To me, this smacks of such intense radicalism.

To carry this level of h*tred in your heart, to run at young women, full speed as if they are your enemy... with the intention of what?

Beating them?

K*lling them?

Ass*altnig them?

What would have happened if they had caught them?

How can we tolerate that there are those preaching to these people to behave this way?

That this is acceptable and morally correct behavior???

I cannot understand the train of thought that goes from our precious Torah- its narratives, laws, oral and written- our values and ethics- to this madness.

There is so much to say about this- about the rejection of the IDF, the responsibility to join and serve like the rest of am yisrael, the obligations of a milchemet mitzvah, I could go on.

And don't tell me I shouldn't share these images. Or this story.

Don't tell me that they shouldn't have gone into the neighborhood.

Don't blame the victim.

I'm so repulsed by all the excuses. I'm all for cultural competence and sensitivity. But this? This is not excusable.

We as a people, and as a nation, cannot tolerate this behavior.

We cannot make exceptions for this moral rot.