re: #1 Bob Levin

The media (and the NYT in particular) love these stories for a lot of reasons.

On an political/moral/ethical level, there isn’t much room for moral equivalency, no matter how furious they spin. It’s tough to make equivalents out of people conditioned to embrace hate, racism and bigotry..

The haredi issue is a gift by allowing for a more equal comparison on a slice of the cultural/societal battlefield- and the media will try and spin that into an example of moral equivalency in general.

It won’t work, but it will be interesting to watch.