Normally I would have agreed with Meir Shalev whole heartedly. Richness of language is not something that should be swept away. All these sensitivities have importance.

However, in recent months I'm seeing my non-Israeli, non-Jewish partner's struggle to learn to read and speak Hebrew. He's working very hard at it, but it's a very difficult language to learn for someone who has had no experience in it whatsoever. One of the main things that confuse him is that you can't really tell how words are pronounced by how they are written. I bet simpler 'nikud' would be of great assistance to him and to others, who could gain better practical knowledge of the language if the connection between reading and speaking was more obvious. Of course, in other languages pronounciation isn't obvious either, but if it's possible to make changes, it's not necessarily a bad idea.

The catch is where you say "after a person knows the nikud". Most words and expressions, beginning with mundane things like road signs and people's quick handwriting, and ending with things a professional adult needs, like professional articles, do not come with nikud. Thus, there are several ways to say every word. Perhaps if there is a simpler system, and public signs use it (and, by it being simple and quick, people can write using it), it will be easier.

Actually, there are Latin languages that are even easier than Hebrew in this respect, such as Spanish, the ultimate phonetic language (except for very few words). The additional bonus is that Spanish sports five simple vowels which actually appear in every spelling of the words (as opposed to nikud which is seldom used in everyday communications).

Actually, the nikud problem is not just an issue in itself. If you add it to the fact that people learning Hebrew have to learn to use a whole new Alphabet - which has two commonly used forms (dfus and ktav) the plot thickens.

.

Why of course. But firstly, many people do not handwrite in cursive, and secondly, it is not as different from print as is "ktav" from "dfus".

Hear
Heard
Heart

"Others may stumble, but not you"

Hah! I emailed the webpage to my partner and he laughed and said he'll stop whining about the Hebrew.

"Marks placed above, below, or within consonants to indicate vowels or other aspects of pronunciation. A feature of Middle Eastern scripts."