Vice President Mike Pence has been visiting Israel and speaking with officials, including Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu about matters of security.

While there, the Veep made a traditional visit to the Wailing Wall, a vestige of the Second Temple of Jewish antiquity.

Pool reporters were ganged up behind the obligatory twisted ropes for photo ops and to shoot questions at the white-haired, sleek vice president as he honors the historic Wall where millions come annually to pray, put in their requests for healing or other benisons, and feel the aura of holiness.

Unfortunately for some of the female reporters and correspondents in the pack, it seems the males shouldered their way to prime places, leaving the female press to scramble for optimal locations.

One woman, Tal Schneider, was disappointed and upset that she could not get to the front of the scrum. She tweeted her annoyance.

A colleague asked if this was a problem, indicating that Israel did not make enough effort to ensure the distaff side of the media crews were given adequate and equal space for the best photos and question lobbing.

In reality, this is a complicated issue, and involves decades of jockeying between the Orthodox and the local Reform or “frei’eh,” irreligious factions of Judaism in Israel. It also involves, because of extended sympathies, liberal Jews in the U.S., who are barely even dictionary Jews, since they have, for the past 30 or 40 years, been bedazzled and bewitched by the bottom-feeding contrarian liberal ideologies that reject authenticity in religion, or anything approaching traditional faith observance,

In addition, the Democratic Party has manifested pretty clear signals of anti-Israel (and borderline anti-Semitic) viewpoints by the top cadres of radical leftists among their ranks. Another result of wanting to fit in so badly is that U.S. Jews often transgress against their own best interests and heritage: the post-20th century modernist, fractionated Jew.

The Jerusalem Wall tussle also involves the press corps female XXes fighting -- rightly, this time -- with their XY counterparts, who are generally taller and bigger, and thus at an advantage over their female numbers. 

It would be nice if the guys would kindly stand behind the shorter women, as would be the customary, collegial, and sensible thing to do. That the male media fail to accommodate their shorter colleagues and friends who are vertically challenged speaks ill of their acclimation to the current #MeToo thing. Doesn’t say much for their humanity or manners, either.

Schneider writes for the Israeli Globes, a Hebrew-language daily evening financial paper, updated throughout the slim state throughout the week; the largest and oldest of its kind in Israel. Though Tal is employed by a substantial political news outlet in Israel, she might, even so, bear a grudge, as do many journs and media in general, against her employer or, more likely, her country, Israel, even against fellow Jews. The Left in Israel is pretty powerful, though less so than the Left is in the U.S., proportionately, anyway. Israel has, after all, a population of only 8.8 million at the most recent count.

And yes, Virginia, even Jews can be anti-Semitic, if brought up by radical and/or non-Orthodox, Red Diaper, or atheist parents. Or if they fill themselves with self-righteous rage at what they consider restrictions on women in the dominant religion they do not follow except perhaps to attend a Seder or something relatively insignificant when a cousin once removed insists. 

Looked at in another way, the agitated femme journalist can in one fell swoop kill three birds with one snide Tweet:

1. Slam her fellow journalist males, good for a couple of Brownie points in the current (Stalinist one-sided vendetta against men) climate;

2. Slam Israel for its supposed lack of supportive empathy for (shorter) female media reps;

3. Get in her dig at Israel and Judaism in general, for their attitude toward women, which, if she is a lefty, is not open enough for her, though Israel has the broadest and most openminded attitude to LGBT of any other nation in the Middle East.

I was in Israel, and at the Wall, when women and men could freely pray there without a mechitza, a prayer barrier, between the genders. And also in Israel since then, when there was a clear no-cross prayer barrier. At one point, since I was serving as a volunteer in the IDF, and wore an Army uniform, I tested the divide, and went into the other side as a dare. Could I get away with it? For a time. When caught, I was given a sharp rebuke from some guardians of the faith in a holy froth. And remanded to the Other Side of the divide.

I too may resent the limitations, but I understand the stricture, since the Orthodox do not cotton to the relaxing of religious adherence, as has happened in the U.S., often, save in Orthodox synagogue circles.

So Schneider may have a gecko in her kepi for any one of a variety of reasons, most of which could be alleviated by tapping a taller colleague on the shoulder and requesting he step aside so she can take her photo and get her story.

It has little to do with "Jews being cleverer than” to permit a woman to be in the back of a crowd of male associates, as a colleague had snidely pointed out."

Solution?

She could simply continue to do what she does apparently so well.

Kvetch.