When I was first apprised of this, I thought I would just ignore it since I have already stated my views when it happened the first time to Hillary Clinton. But now the embarrassment is far more public and deserves a condemnation of its own. (See the video below.)
It is one thing to insist on the most extreme separation of the sexes in any and all forms – including not publishing pictures of women even in perfectly modest dress by an Halachic standard. But now it has hit the mainstream media.
There is absolutely no excuse for what they did. They wanted to have their cake – and eat it too. They could not resist that picture because it indeed tells more than a 1000 words to see an act of solidarity like that taking place instead of just writing about it. But distorting it by photo-shopping out women is dishonest. And worse it has made us look like primitive misogynists. Not to mention the fact that it is insulting to a world leader who is one of the most supportive of the Jewish State.
For anyone to simply push it aside by saying that this newspaper does not really represent mainstream Judaism is the same thing as saying Islamist mass murderers do not represent mainstream Islam. The fact is that both groups are rooted in the tenets of their own religion albeit taking those tenets to an extreme level. Mainstream Judaism cannot anymore disavow its extremists than Islam can disavow theirs.
Lest anyone say I am making even the slightest comparison of ‘our’ extremists’ to ‘their extremists. I have one thing to say to you: ‘Get a life!’ In no way am I saying that at all. Which should be clear from my words. I am not comparing mass murder to photo-shopping women out of a picture. I’m only showing how extremist interpretations of religious tenets can lead to erroneous but not unreasonable conclusions about the mainstream.
Photo-shopping women out of iconic pictures in order to satisfy extreme notions of modesty is not the way to be a light unto the nations. It teaches nothing about the beauty of the Torah. Instead it teaches the nations that we are a bunch of misogynists who believe women belong in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant. At least according to one stream of Jewish thought.
These publications have a responsibility to tell the truth and not lie. Photo-shopping people out of pictures is a lie. And it is a lie that causes us to be ridiculed.
If they really feel so strongly about not publishing pictures of women – they should not have published the picture at all!