It hurts the most when someone you care about disappoints you. This time it’s Israel. The Middle Eastern nation is blocking access to online gambling providers from overseas. It seems that online gambling is illegal in Israel and the country is protecting its citizens from themselves.

I would expect such a thing in Saudi Arabia, Iran or Syria. Israel, however, prides itself on being a bastion of freedom in the Middle East. They pride themselves on being a symbol of Western civilization, technological advances and liberty. For the most part, this is true. The people of Israel, regardless of race, religion and socioeconomic status, live mostly free from oppression and government control. Like the United States, though, the government has grown over time while spending more and more money, putting the nation in the red. Facing tough economic times, the country needs extra revenue now more than ever, so this would be a good time to legalize online gambling and tax it, but the country is going in the opposite direction.

Last month, Israeli police began visiting the internet service providers (ISPs) in the country, brandishing orders to block access to overseas online gambling websites. The police handed over a list of blacklisted websites, including their IP (Internet protocol) addresses. The ISPs are ordered to block those IP addresses to prevent Israeli citizens from being able to access online gambling sites.

There are several problems with this. First of all, though Israel has every right to enforce their own laws, I am against laws that ban online gambling in the name of protecting the people. Let the people protect themselves. Secondly, using an IP address to block websites is not very effective, since the online casino owners can simply start a new website with a different IP address. People smarter than me can also find ways of faking or cloning IP addresses. Some also say that the law the police are using applies only to brick and mortar casinos, not online casinos, and therefore the government is overstepping their authority. Since I’m not familiar with Israeli law, I don’t know if that’s the case.

In any case, most ISPs are cooperating fully with the orders, though some plan to contest the orders in court. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Israel isn’t the only Western or Western-influenced country to attempt to censor the Internet by blocking certain websites. Australia, France and Norway come to mind.