Faith Matters: Israeli press and NGO's make State Dept.'s work easier

The US State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report on Israel came out this week. Read it in its entirety here.

The 12,000-word report covers a lot of ground, but the weirdest part was the following excerpt:

In order to marry in government-recognized ceremonies, Jews had to undergo marriage counseling administered by the Orthodox religious authorities. As part of this counseling, all Jews - including the secular majority and those who practice reform or conservative Judaism - were instructed to respect traditional Orthodox family roles. A brochure used in the counseling during the reporting period compared women to clay and urged the husband to "shape and mold her as he pleases." The husband is also instructed not to become "spineless" or tolerate disrespectful behavior from his wife: 'If she is disrespectful you must not give in; you can become angry and stop talking to her until she realizes she is wrong.' The husband is also admonished to compliment his wife regularly, 'even if it is a lie,' because 'a woman who has not been complimented is like a fish out of water.'

Why would the US State Department go into so much detail about one brochure used by a marriage counselor? In a report on the infringement of religious rights in the Middle East it seems hardly worth mentioning the fact that some Israeli couples have the bad luck of being exposed to a little chauvinism.

The second half of the report, which scrutinizes the level of religious freedom provided by the Palestinian Authority, lacks such  detailed accounts.

But of course the reason for the discrepancy is obvious: Israel has a robust, self-critical network of NGOs, news media and watchdogs that make the US State Department's job a heck of a lot easier.