The Hareidi Share the Burden Puzzle

Among the most contentious of issues in the last Israeli elections was whether and how to integrate the Hareidi into IDF or public service in an equal manner as the rest of those Israelis who are required to serve. Some of the debate was whether it was fair to demand such of the Hareidi while continuing not to require the same sacrifices from the Israeli Arab and other non-Jewish minority populations. Obviously in a perfect society all of the peoples would share equally in all State functions and face the same obligations and requirements while receiving the same benefits. No group would be exempt from service and no group would be denied the privileges which go with citizenship. Unfortunately there are no perfect societies though mankind over the millennia have strived and made strides towards that society. The Israelis are currently debating such a change in the requirements of the various and different sectors of their society in order to make all carry an equal share in the burdens.

 

The first point of contention which has to be conquered is how to integrate the Hareidi while also permitting the continued Torah study, a service to Israel and to Hashem which is of particular concern and the primary of importance to the Hareidi society. Previously the Hareidi had been exempt from performing mandatory IDF or public service as long as they were engaged in study of Torah and other religious disciplines. Yair Lapid leads the Yesh Atid Party, the second most numerous in the coalition, which is a secular party which has promised during the campaign to force all Hareidi to serve in the IDF or face heavy criminal penalties. They are facing the head party of the coalition with Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as their primary partners in the Bayit Yehudi lead by Naftali Bennett who both agree that the Hareidi need to be included in service but do not believe they should face as serious criminal punishment if they choose not to serve. They believe that the Hareidi should be treated more like conscientious objectors if they should choose not to be drafted into IDF or public service. The question that will now play out is can some compromise be found which will be acceptable not only to the two political camps, but even more difficult, one that the Hareidi will accept which finding such a solution would solve the entire disagreement returning tranquility to the Israeli public.

 

So, the first step to finding a solution is to properly define the problem, the entire problem and not just the talking points which the two sides use to stir up their supporters. The problem is not honestly finding how to integrate the Hareidi into all sectors of Israeli society, not just into primarily IDF service. Up to now the Hareidi not only enjoyed a permanent deferment from military service but were also left apart from all of Israeli society which included most areas of employment. The public call for the Hareidi to be made to carry an equal share of the burden of IDF and public service must also include equal opportunity in all areas of Israeli society for the Hareidi including in employment. One of the other complaints which have come to the fore is that the Hareidi are subsidized by the government to a larger degree than any other sector of the society. This is simply a symptom of their not being integrated into the workforce, something that was not entirely their preference. Of course the rest of Israeli society gave a reason that the Hareidi were facing such reluctance in gaining employment was due to the fact their education was so focused on Torah that they were unemployable. That excuse was not completely true as many Hareidi have studied subjects outside of Torah plus not all employment actually requires any specific or special education beyond a solid morality combined with a work ethic and an ability to learn, traits very strong within the Hareidi community. Add to that the logic and discipline mastered as a necessary byproduct of learning, understanding and interpreting Torah and related commentaries. So, the real problem is not so much forcing the Hareidi into IDF and public service as it should be making society more accommodating and acceptive to the members of the Hareidi community.

 

Perhaps what is needed most is reconciliation between the majority of Israeli society and the Hareidi community. It would be beyond unfair to expect the Hareidi community to only carry an equal obligation to serve without also providing them with an equal opportunity to be integrated into the whole of Israeli society. Full service has to go hand in hand with full integration and full opportunity. This will need to be a two way street. The rest of Israel has to learn to appreciate and understand the Hareidi dedication to Torah learning and performing mitzvah before Hashem. I would be willing to bet that the Hareidi already possess some level of understanding of Israeli society outside their communities but also that they may need to soften some of their misgivings and might be surprised that the differences between their communities and Israeli society are not as dire as initially perceived. It would be understandable if there were some misunderstandings and misgivings between the two groups but that with time and familiarization there would come some level of comfort between the two societies, after all we are all members of the same family. The one thing that Yair Lapid is going to have to come to understand is that the new arrangement he wishes to implement with such great urgency could be made far smoother and with less calamity provided patience and understanding replace urgency. On the other side, the Hareidi will need to make the effort to accept that their strict regimented rules will never be accepted or even tolerated by the most militant secularists in Israeli society if they refuse to educate them and allow for a period of adjustment and acclimation on both sides. There are going to be those among the Hareidi and among the secularists who will never interact well and will refuse any interactions. Those are the lost souls who simply should be left to go about their particular ways and excluded from having to tolerate as long as they also do not impede everybody else or impinge on any cooperation or interaction. Tolerance must be the byword and theme behind everything in this period of adjustment. Impatience and demanding that one side’s view be dominant and superior over the other side’s comfort must not be acceptable. Time, patience, understanding, sympathy and even possibly empathy are the essential requirements in finding a path which will have the best possibility of success while causing the least damage and hardship on all of Israel. Hopefully the Knesset Ministers will recognize such and for those exceptions, they must be muted before they cause damage which will be irreparable.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Yet Another Shabbat Bombshell

The election season in Israel emphasized and cemented the concept and use of the late in the day Friday news shocker. It seemed that late in the day every Friday there was some revelation about occasionally Likud and more often Jewish Home which was over-hyped and cast as a game-changer or the end of their campaign garnering a high finish in the next Knesset. The election really did not turn or even appear to respond much to the hyperventilating press and their alarming discoveries which appeared like clockwork minutes before Shabbat. Now that the election has passed into the coalition forming mode where results are supposedly more easily determined the press still will not give up on their Shabbat bombshells. So, in another alarming news rumor timed just in time for Shabbat we are treated in one of the television news reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning to impose another building freeze on the areas of Judea and Samaria excepting the recognized settlement blocs. This was claimed to have been imparted to MK Uri Ariel of the Bayit Yehudi Party during coalition talks by unnamed Likud representatives. The amount of credibility which can be relied upon from this Shabbat bombshell is highly dubious and will likely get a full rebuttal likely from both parties, or at least some clarification which will no doubt muddle up the whole deal placing the fog of political spin replete with at least a few words of unknown or variable definitions which adjust as reactions are measured. Well, we should see these from various party officials and possibly even from Netanyahu or Bennett themselves. But what if these reports are true?

 

Well, the one thing we know about which might be the driving initiator of such a move would be the approaching visit from United States President Obama who is rumored to be accompanied by his new Secretary of State John Kerry. Secretary of State Kerry, as we might recall, is the man with the latest and newest plan to revitalize the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis and who also knows exactly what needs to be done in order to steer the negotiations to a final solution consisting of a Palestinian state next to Israel with both living together with peace and security. Just what the world needs, another expert with promising self-promotional claims, declarations and assertions claiming to know the route to Middle East Nirvana coming on the scene in his new position which will allow him to test his presumably great ideas. Perhaps Prime Minister Netanyahu is expecting Secretary Kerry to simply rerun through the same absurd ideas which his boss, President Obama, applied in his first try at solving the foremost Gordian Knot in the world of diplomacy. Whatever the reasoning behind this latest idiocy, which is the sole applicable term for another building freeze, be it limited or permanent, it is an idea whose time should never return.

 

But what if some unknown form of insanity has gripped Prime Minister Netanyahu and he is actually planning another building freeze, what will be the likely results? If, as the report claimed, Netanyahu is actually attempting to punish those living beyond the Green Line because of the assumption that they register in fairly significant numbers to the Likud Party in order to vote for people who will support their efforts and positions placing them higher on Likud’s Knesset list yet did not vote in matching numbers for Likud in the elections, this is honestly a real good way of reinforcing their idea that Likud does not want them nor does it support them as a principle plank for the party. Actually, it is very likely the negative campaign run by Likud which was largely aimed at Jewish Home Party or their leader, Naftali Bennett, often using the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria as a divisive, polarizing wedge issue. This seeming condemnation and deriding of the support for the settlement enterprise which is at the heart of the Jewish Home Party by many Likud attacks during the campaign were very likely responsible for the lack of support and number of Likud Party members from these communities to decide to take their vote elsewhere as they felt unappreciated and even a victim of the Likud Party’s political attacks. This was on top of the original building freeze imposed after United States President Obama demanded one as part of his original pressuring of Israel to facilitate conditions which would bring Mahmoud Abbas back to the negotiating table. Mahmoud Abbas had made some claims as the building freeze was nearing its conclusion that he was prepared to return to negotiation if the freeze was extended until negotiations reached an actual peace accord between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Perhaps Secretary Kerry or possibly President Obama himself have made known to Prime Minister Netanyahu that their first step in efforts to restart the negotiation will be to insist Israel impose a permanent building freeze on areas beyond the Green Line and the Prime Minister is simply informing those who are considering joining the coalition what he is being pressured into doing. Whatever the reason, another building freeze in Judea and Samaria will very likely bring about the end of Likud as a center right or nationalist party and very well could lead to Likud following the same path to oblivion which appears to have been taken by Kadima. Surrendering to world pressures by imposing building freezes or disengagements granting land to the Palestinian Authority while receiving nothing in return is the fast track to becoming a nonviable party in Israel. If this Shabbat bombshell proves true, then we are very possibly going to see new elections fairly quickly as it is doubtful that Netanyahu would even be able to survive a no confidence vote even if it were taken solely within the Likud Party, let alone the entire Knesset. Promising to impose a building freeze might even make forming a coalition impossible for Netanyahu and the Likud Party unless a way would be found to have the Labor Party and Shas to join the coalition. Of course making a coalition with the Labor Party as a crucial member would make the coalition very fragile and unlikely to hold together through any vote of no confidence. Such a coalition would ironically find itself vulnerable to the exact same wedge issue used by the Likud Party in the campaigns, anything pertaining to curtailing the expansion of Jewish settlements beyond the Green Line.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

A Question for Netanyahu

The election results were a ray of hope and promise for many in the Zionist communities. But there is a question which must be asked of Netanyahu because if there is any chance that his intended direction has been indicated by bringing Livni into the coalition while also acquiescing to her every demand; then the Zionist should stop any celebrations and begin to worry that another Likud Prime Minister is headed to the dark side. What would be the indications that Netanyahu intends to fall before the pressures from the Europeans, United States President Obama backed by his recent appointees to be CIA Chief and Secretaries of State and Defense, the numerous leftist NGOs and the rest of the world support groups backing the Palestinian ploy by the Arab and Muslim world to destroy Israel?

It truly was a shocking revelation to read that Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted Tzipi Livni into the coalition and agreed to grant her the Justice Ministry which was the expressed position sought by Yair Lapid and also granted her request to be the lead in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority as her position supporting surrendering most if not all of Judea and Samaria along with half of Jerusalem including all of the Old City as well as the Kotel which would make it next to impossible for Naftali Bennett and the Jewish Home to also enter such a coalition. The first question that comes to mind is how Netanyahu could form a coalition without compromising his promises to Livni. The first sign of the unthinkable may have been occurring right before our eyes as Netanyahu appears to be spending great amounts of time wooing Shelly Yachimovich and the Labor Party to join his coalition. Should Netanyahu succeed in his wooing of Yachimovich and the Labor Party he would be well on his way to forming that both sides of center coalition which has been the center of much chatter since the election. This would also fit in with the rumors that Netanyahu will go to whatever length is necessary to keep Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett out of the coalition. I know, how could Netanyahu fill out the rest of the needed Knesset seats to reach the minimum of sixty-one seats as even with Kadima along with Labor Party, Hatnuah and Likud-Beiteinu only gives him fifty-four?

That is where the unusual leadership by triumvirate of Shas comes into play. Despite the story fed to the media and membership of Shas that the three members of the triumvirate, Eli Yishai, Ariel Atias and Aryeh Deri, were equal and were working together there will always be the suspicion that not all members are truly equal. The truth is that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as the spiritual guiding light is the true and undisputed true leader of Shas and he was the one who decided upon the triumvirate form of leadership in order to soften the inclusion of Aryeh Deri back into a leadership position immediately after he returned to politics after his conviction. This would likely mean that anything which Aryeh Deri decides for Shas will be supported by Rabbi Yosef and thus nobody would ever think to counter his decisions. Deri was well known to prefer Labor over Likud though he would ally with whichever was necessary to gain considerations for the Hasidic heart of Shas. It is this flexibility; some might say pragmatism, which has made Shas the coalition builder in Israeli history. Should Shas also join the above parties in a coalition, then Netanyahu would have his broad based coalition with sixty-five seats. The guarantor that this is Netanyahu’s desired outcome would be some generous deal made with Shelly Yachimovich in order to bring Labor into the coalition over her original denial of any possibility of her being in a coalition with Netanyahu.

 
Should this actually come to pass, then there are some additional questions which would soon surface. One of the foremost among them is what will Netanyahu do to keep such a coalition together with a number of his fellow Likud members probably having misgivings about their fellow coalition members? With Moshe Feiglin and Tzipi Hotovely and other Zionist and nationalist members within the Likud faction, how does Prime Minister Netanyahu expect to hold his coalition together and avoid losing a sure to follow vote of no confidence. Such would most certainly come attached to some piece of legislation made to satisfy either Tzipi Livni or Shelly Yachimovich or members of their parties by one of the parties not within the coalition, especially should such legislation either be detrimental to the Israelis residing in Judea and Samaria or other controversial subjects. Would Prime Minister Netanyahu purposely hold the members of the coalition to vote for anything which was brought before the Knesset by any coalition member? On the other hand, would Prime Minister Netanyahu deny members of the coalition bringing any motion which might challenge the coalition? And if either were the case, how would such a move be enforced? Would the coalition survive if Prime Minister Netanyahu challenged one of the other party leaders to hold their members to vote with the coalition or be removed from the Knesset and replaced with another minister appointed in order to enforce compliant voting? Would Prime Minister Netanyahu replace members of his own Likud Party in order to sustain his coalition? What would be the result from either of these actions? Such a coalition even if formed would appear on face value unsustainable. This may be conjecture but the possibility that Prime Minister Netanyahu may be headed in this direction is possible. This becomes even more likely if Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid hold to their agreement not to enter the coalition without the other, an agreement I believe both will truly honor despite what some, including Netanyahu, may think or even be counting on.

Beyond the Cusp