As a former Baltimorean, and a 30-year resident of Kiryat Arba-Hebron, I often find myself explaining Israeli history to some of our American eighteen-year-old yeshiva and seminary Shabbos guests, who don’t have a clue about these things. In 1967, I tell them, Israel conquered Judea and Samaria, known in the Western media as the “West Bank.” Judea and Samaria is the section of the Land of Israel that Jordan grabbed and held on to in 1948, which happens to contain the most famous Biblical cities: Hebron, Bethlehem, the City of David and the Temple Mount, Shilo, Bet-El, Shechem, and many more. Since then, much of Israeli politics has consisted of answering two questions: 1) Is it morally right for us to hold on to those territories? And, if so, 2) to what extent should we pursue our national interests there even if the American president or State Department opposes this? Those who wish to hold on to, populate, and develop Judea and Samaria are the “Right,” and those who don’t are the “Left.” No Israeli government has so far annexed Judea and Samaria, making it part of the State of Israel, although 365,000 Jews now live there.
All that said, Israel’s nineteenth general elections are scheduled for January 22, 2013, and, as always, they are about the struggle between the Right and the Left. I am writing these words on December 8. That leaves slightly over six weeks until the elections. As things stand right now, these elections look like they are going to be quite favorable to the religious and the Right. If the Right-Left divide in the present Knesset is 65 to 55 votes, that is going to shift further in the Right’s favor.
There are a number of reasons for why this may happen. First of all, a major part of it is the fact that Binyamin Netanyahu has matured into a really first-class prime minister, and I think the whole country knows that. He has gained in self-confidence, and this allows him to take advantage of his brilliance to do the best job he can. Faced with challenges in the international sphere, he has learned to be assertive without being aggressive or obsequious. He has done the country proud. Indeed, the pride most people in Kiryat Arba felt when he made his subtle speech to Congress was like nothing we have experienced since Menachem Begin. He’s doing great, and he is naturally attracting people to his party. And it looks like, with him at the helm, Judea and Samaria will quietly increase from 350,000 to 400,000 people without anyone noticing it, thereby further consolidating the country’s security and warding off dangerous evacuations.
Second of all, the population of Israel is very right-wing right now. Israel is still licking its wounds from the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, and from the Gaza Disengagement of 2005. Over a thousand Jews died as a result of the first, and three wars have resulted from the second, most recently the “Pillar of Defense” campaign, in which, for the first time, Southern Tel Aviv was bombed. Thus, in that most recent confrontation, we bore witness to the paradoxical situation of the government stopping Hamas’s bombing via a ceasefire, while a majority of the population wanted a ground attack to be launched.
Third, in calling snap elections, that is, elections ahead of when they were normally scheduled to occur, Binyamin Netanyahu is hoping to catch the Left unprepared, and he seems to have succeeded gloriously in this. The Left-wing, as of this date, has no credible candidate for prime minister. Moreover, they are terribly divided. They should be fielding one unified party, but instead they are fielding five almost identical parties: Kadima, Tzipi Livni’s break-off party (“the Movement”?!), Labor (Shelly Yachimovitch), Yair Lapid, and Meretz, which may be a smidgeon more left wing than the others. The Left has blown itself out of the water, and one or more of these parties may not pass the voting threshold, leading to their votes being forfeited.
By contrast, as this election approaches, the Right is unified in a way it never has been. The two biggest right-wing parties, Likud and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu, are now one. As far as the religious Zionists, they are fielding one party, called Bayit Yehudi, where most religious Zionists can feel comfortable, whether settler, big city, or periphery. Moreover, because Bayit Yehudi ran primaries for the first time, the result was that the most exciting, appealing candidates will be on the list.
Naftali Bennett, elected head of Bayit Yehudi in the primary, is an exciting candidate indeed. He is larger than life, a cross between Mark Zuckerberg and Binyamin Netanyahu, but he is a religious Jew who studied in a religious Zionist yeshiva high school. First he was an elite combat soldier, commanding forces in Lebanon as a major. Then he became a lawyer. Then, at age twenty- seven, he began a hi-tech start-up company and six years later sold it for 145 million dollars. Then he joined the Likud and was Binyamin Netanyahu’s chief-of-staff for two years. Then, still in the Likud, he became head of the Council of Judea and Samaria. Recently, he quit the Likud and successfully ran for the top spot in Bayit Yehudi.
As a spokesman for the Right, he is an excellent, forceful debater, one of the best we have seen in a long time, and because of that, the political shows on Israeli television like to have him on to debate left-wing media stars, which they haven’t really bothered doing with religious debaters in a while. I saw a debate between Naftali Bennett and Dr. Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of Oslo. Bennett put Beilin in his place, and did it so well, that Dan Margalit, the left-wing host, could not conceal his pleasure at Bennett’s success. I saw him do the same in English against Tzipi Livni, and once more he was far the superior. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that he has American English, learned from his American parents in Haifa.
Bennett combines the worldliness of the old National Religious party with the staunch idealism of the National Union, coupled with the latter’s humble respect for the chareidim and the desire to seek increased unity with them as well. This makes him the perfect man to run Bayit Yehudi.
This Shabbos, a friend of mine had a guest from Tel Aviv, who reported that the streets of Tel Aviv are full of signs advertising Naftali Bennett as a viable alternative to the Likud/Yisrael Beitenu. I think that, with Bennett in charge, this is a plausible option. If in the last election the two religious Zionist parties held seven seats between them, this time around the polls are showing that the number will be closer to 12 or 13. I think a strong, forceful Bayit Yehudi has something to offer to an Israeli right-wing coalition. Perhaps Israel’s 10-month housing freeze or its evacuation of the Ulpana neighborhood could have been avoided by having Naftali Bennett and 13 seats as part of the coalition.
This brings me to another point about this and future elections. In the long term, the population of the State of Israel is changing. Two parallel processes are occurring. First of all, the religious, as a whole, are producing more children, and second, many people in this country are turning to religion. The religious are making inroads in all walks of life, starting with their taking over the command structure of the army, but also including law, medicine, and the media. My chavruta Rav Yitzchak Rodrig’s son, Betzalel, after learning in yeshiva for four years, became a captain in the army. Now he is in law school, hoping one day to become a supreme court justice, and I think he will succeed.
Religion is even starting to be fashionable. Idan Amedi is a young heart throb singer who recently vaulted to fame through success on an Israeli television talent show, “A Star is Born.” When he performs before large audiences, fifteen-year-old girls shriek. Amedi doesn’t cover his head, but he puts on tefilin every morning, and he proudly advertises that fact and speaks of its benefits.
I saw a pathetic headline in a major Israeli newspaper two days ago. The headline stated that a recent poll had shown that the Likud was going to receive 35 seats in the Knesset, but that the major left wing parties were also going to win the same 35 votes. The point was clearly meant to be, “See? The two sides are equal.”
Of course the article left out one small detail. Besides those statistics, the religious parties are likewise expected to win about 32 to 35 seats among them. Shas is expected to rise from 11 to 14, Yahadut HaTorah from five to six, the Religious Zionists fromseven to 12 or 13 (and perhaps Otzma of Michael Ben-Ari and Arye Eldad will pass the threshold). In fact, this is the first time that the religious parties are expected to reap so many. Imagine all those parties joining together on a joint list and offering an alternative to the secular right and the secular left. With each approaching election, that possibility will be more likely. I think that, as the religious population increases, as the religious Zionists continue to grow in their level of Torah learning and practice, and as the chareidim continue to edge closer to the army and workplace, this possibility of unity will become more and more of a reality. This is something I fervently pray for.â—†
