Let me explain.

Like most countries, in Israel anyone is free to live with anyone else (assuming they are consenting adults) in any manner they wish. Unmarried singles can "shack up" without being married. Gay couples may cohabitate. Shimon Peres can honeymoon with Arafat. And like elsewhere, such "couples" are free to rent and buy housing together, may sign contracts leaving their property to one another, may operate joint bank accounts with rights of survivorship, may name one another in life insurance contracts as beneficiaries, can have joint credit cards, and so on.

But like most countries, Israeli laws and regulations generally distinguish between Marriage and these other living arrangements. Marriage is quite simply regarded as something better, something morally superior, and something to be encouraged. Marriage is considered by the law to be the best framework for raising children, regardless of the what the PC hordes are now claiming. Society is better off when most people marry and where most children are raised by a married mother and father. Or that at least is the presumption of the laws and rules.

And because Marriage is regarded as superior to other living arrangements and worthy of being promoted, society creates small rewards and incentives for people to marry. Even if not all marriages last a lifetime, the institution still beats all the alternatives by far. Among these are some tax benefits, where married people can file joint returns, and the right to grant survivor benefits under social security and similar things. (Actually the non-married may already list one another as dependents for tax deductions, so they "need" no reforms there.)

And some other perks are reserved for the married. The married for example get preferences in terms of subsidized state mortgages for those who do not own an apartment. Such horrendous discrimination and racism has long upset the PC hordes, who insist that a three and a half minute gay relationship should be regarded as marriage and enjoy exactly the same perks as the married. And that gay "couples" should be given equal chances for adopting children as married couples.

The jihad against Marriage has already made some inroads in Israel. A few years back in one of those famous acts of judicial activism, Israel’s imperious Supreme Court ruled that El Al must recognize gay marriages by allowing gay stewards to grant "spouse tickets" to their gay partners. That Supreme Court ruling was of course not based on law, since the Knesset has refused to hop on the PC bandwagon in its war against Marriage. Incredibly, that Court decision was based on the writings of Michel Foucault, the gay Marxist deconstructionist philosopher murderer.

This week, Israel’s tax officials decided to take another giant step further along the diving board of PC. Led by tax czarina Tali Yaron Aldar, head of Israel’s IRS, the tax office decided to allow all non-married couples, gay and hetero, to receive precisely the same tax perks as people who are really married (Haaretz Feb 24). There is not the slightest legal basis for this decision, and it is yet another case of PC trendiness trumping the law in Israel. My hope is that the Knesset will pass a law restoring the "M" word to its sanctity.

You might wish to drop Finance Minister Sylvan Shalom a note and encourage him to toss Eldar into the PC dustbin and then to join the struggle to defend marriage.