Israel’s Election: Netanyahu Holds On, Center Does Well
As expected, Israel has once again made Benjamin Netanyahu its prime minister. The results were not as positive for him as they might have been but are good enough to reelect him.
While some might find this paradoxical, the results show that Israelis have a basic consensus and yet have very different ways of expressing their political positions. This isn’t surprising given the fact that 32 parties were on the ballot.
First, though, a myth that has at times become a propaganda campaign should be exposed. There were numerous reports in the Western media that the Israeli electorate was going far to the right, didn’t want peace, and that Israeli democracy was in jeopardy. None of this had any real basis in fact and the election results show these claims to be false.
The main story of the election was supposed to be the rise of the far right Ha-Bayit ha-Yehudi Party. In fact, though, it received only about 10 percent of the vote which is usual for that sector. In comparison, about one-third went to liberal or moderate left parties, and about one-quarter to centrist parties.
According to the final vote count, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beitaynu list received 31 of 120 seats. The Labor Party made some comeback with 15 but came in third. Labor’s hope that its showing would make Israel a mainly two-party system clearly failed.
The real news of the election is the vast centrism of Israeli voters. The big winner was Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid with 19; it became the second largest party. Tsipi Livni’s party, Hatnua, obtained 6. The appeal of Lapid and Livni is precisely that nobody really knows what they stand for but it is certainly nothing to either extreme. Kadima received 2, and former army chief of staff Shaul Mufaz will be highly motivated to go into a coalition.
In other words, 27 seats went to vaguely reformist, somewhat centrist, or mildly liberal parties that don’t have any clear or strong stands except to promise better government.
On the far right, Ha-Bayit ha-Yehudi, led by Naftali Bennett, got 11.
On the far left, Meretz obtained 6, while the Communists got 4, the Islamists 5, and the Arab nationalists 3. The last three parties depend mostly on Arab votes and it was a poor showing for that deeply divided sector.
Finally, in the Jewish religious sector, Shas, representing Mizrahi (Middle East-origin and especially Moroccan-origin) Jews, received 11 and the Askenazic (European-origin Jews) Yahadut ha-Torah party received 7. While socially conservative, these parties do not have strong stances on issues other than gaining government support for their communities.
The bottom line is, then, that the old talk of a left and right camp dominating the scene is no longer meaningful given the large centrist vote. And with the moderate left and center-left so divided, they cannot beat Netanyahu.
I first encountered Barry during his live coverage on the net iof an earlier election and immediately got it that that Israeli politics are very different than any I am long familiar with in the US and Australia. So when I saw the range of headlines spinning the election results pro and anti Netanyahu I knew it was just best to wait for Barry’s analysis. And I am not disappointed – it really is a different playing field. That said, one thing I notice from the above analysis is that there seems to be a healthy debate in Israel about infrastructure coming from the left as well as perhaps less healthy demands coming from special interest groups wanting government to give them more. But what I see that is so encouraging is that Israel seems to have struck a sustainable economic balance the public and private sectors while the US and Europe seems bent of an unsustainable level of public sector spending. I remember Netanyahu on Charlie Rose using the metaphor of a race in boot camp among three sets of soldiers – one a big guy carrying a small man on his back, one midsize man carrying a midsize man on his back, and one small man carrying a large man on his back. His point was that if you make the public sector too big it is like the small man trying to carry the large man – he can’t do it. That is just what Obama and the Euros are stuck with doing – and the terrible secret is that they can’t back out. But I think Israel is in much better balance between the size of the private and public sectors – in part thanks to the efforts of Netanyahu and Likud. Let the debate about the size of government continue in a healthy economy. What a relief to see a country managing itself well after watching the extend and pretend politico-economics of the US and Europe. It sounds like Netanyahu has a real challenge on his hands to make an effective coalition, but if anyone know how to he he does. I will be interested to see how it works out.
There is nothing more fun than Israeli politics!
I’m not a Naftaly Bennet supporter, but I don’t think it’s accurate or truly informative to categorize him as “far right” without further explanation. In a Eropean context far-right parties are identified with racism. In the Israeli context “far-right” usually means parties that either oppose an Arab-Palestinian state west of the Jordan river or advocate a tougher stance toward the nationalist and religious radicalization of the Arab/Muslim minority or siginificant elements within it. In the latter sense they resemble the European parties currently categorized as the “new right” or “new far-right”, parties that unlike the classical far-right, are not based on a belief in racial superiority and xenophobia, but advocate a tougher stance toward Islamic radicalism in their countries.
HaBait HaYehudi’s platform opposes an Arab-Palestinian state west of the Jordan river since they consider it an existential threat to Israel. They don’t support annexing most of Judea and Samaria though. Their position is based on the recognition that there is currently no solution to the conflict since the Arabs don’t accept the existence of a Jewish state in any borders and do not support a compromise peace. This recognition is quite common in Israel. It’s the course of action they propose that isn’t concensual. They suggest Israel should take unilateral steps to keep some vital assets in Judea and Samaria, including annexing the part of Judea and Samaria which is majority Jewish (the part that includes the large settelment blocs with about 250,000 Jewish inhabitants) and offerin an Israeli citizenship to the Arab minority there, leave the rest to Arab control, dismantle all checkpoints therein, but keep the overall control of security in Israeli hands. They also oppose resettling the descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees in Judea and Samaria as non feasible and an existential threat to Israel. As for Israel’s Arab/Muslim minority they advocate a tougher stance towards radicalism combined with a stronger effort to reward and improve the economic condition and integration of the non-radical segments.
Lapid is a huge media star in Israel. Unlike his father, he is a handsome charismatic figure with an enormous appeal to women. He has that “cool” factor going for him similar to Obama’s. If he plays his cards right, he will surely be Prime Minister in a few short years.
I really don’t think his looks is the main appeal of his party, as I explained below, though it may add to it. His father’s party, Shinui, was pretty similar, though more aggressively anti-haredic, and won 15 seats back in the day, even though, like you said, his father wasn’t what most people would regard a good looking man. Shinui had a similar, though not identical, platform — centrist, emphasis on the middle class, and created specifically to combat the haredic influence. Yesh Atid is less aggressive in its attitude towrards the haredim (which I think adds to its appeal — most people would like changes, but not necessarily hatred), though I wouldn’t describe Yair Lapid as haredic-friendly, except compared to his father. It deals with the same issues, and it also targets specific economic issues that are highlighted these days, such as housing.
Don’t think he would become a PM, unless he proves himself to be exceptionally qualified, which I doubt. Lapid could only lead a center-left coalition, but the right (center-right to right) still has a majority in Israel, including the right-wingers that for some reason or another voted for Lapid. The so-called equality of the right and left blocs is an illusion since: a) it includes 12 seats of the Arab parties that are made of Islamists, Arab nationalists (actual Nasserists, and quite open about it), and extremely anti-Israel and pro-Arab communists — in other words parties with which it’s nearly impossible to form any coalition, even a leftist coalition, b) Lapid got votes also from some center-right voters based of his party being centrist — if he will lead a left or center-left coalition he would lose those votes.
Likud after Netanyahu will be weaker since there isn’t any other natural leader there right now, but it’s still difficult to imagine many current Likud voters moving to Lapid’s party next time, even if he is successful with the goals he set for his party, which are primarily internal. Security and the Arab/Islamic-Jewish conflict will still dominate Israeli politics, possibly even more so than now, and Yesh Atid doesn’t have much to offer in this regard. With the exception of Perry no one there has any significant experience with security matters, and its worldview pertains more to the Western outdated fantasy world, where Islamists didn’t just take over major Middle Eastern countries and the Pal-Arabs are really interested in a two-states-for-two-peoples solution and a peaceful coexistence. This, unfortunately, has nothing to do with reality, so this party is unequipped to deal with the most important issues of the day.
Israelis have come to distrust the big parties and feel impotent to bring about a change, whatever that change may be (which differs from individual to individual), so many Israelis vote for smaller parties, preferably new ones. First time I voted it was for Labor, but ever since I’ve voted for small parties, which today I consider a mistake.
It’s true that many people don’t know what Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party stand for, but that’s not for lack of clarity on their part. I think people should go and read the websites of the various parties rather than just rely on what they know about them and what they say in the media and in campaign ads, but I guess a lot of people don’t do that.
Israelis like centrist parties, which I guess is true for most Western countries (though centrism is relative to the particular country’s politics — in countries where social-democracy has gone well into the socialist side the center would be more to the left than in countries that are more liberal and free-market oriented).
Other than that their main appeal is that they advocate what’s dubbed in Israel an equality in carrying the burden, which practically means drafting the haredim to the military and lowering various funds they get as a result of almost always participating in government coalitions, which is what happens when people vote for small parties and weaken the big ones. Then the big parties have to create difficult coalitions with many small parties, and the haredic parties are relatively easy to get a deal with in return for various funds for their education system and welfare for their large families. But instead of changing it by voting for the big parties, people vote for small parties that promise to change it, such as Lapid’s Yesh Atid (literally, “There’s A Future”) and his late father’s Shinui (“Change”).
Yesh Atid, like Shinui before it, declares its core commitment is to the middle class (rather than to the poor or lower classes like the socialists). They talk also about the poor and weak, but their main emphasis is on the middle class which carries most of the burden both economically and functionally (in prodcutive contribution, defense and so on). Of course, the middle class is the majority, so this message has a broad appeal.
Economically I’d say they’re more liberal than the socialists and more socialist than the liberals (I realize this is confusing to Americans because in the US the socialists call themselves liberals, but in Israel and many other countries liberal means, among other things, free market oriented). They advocate a housing reform, which is important to many Israelis.
In the Arab-Israeli arena they support a two-states-for-two-peoples solution most like everyone else, including Netanyahu. However they completely reject anti-Israelism both at home and abroad and denounce the horrific international propaganda campaign against Israel.
Another point of appeal is that the party members don’t come from the political establishment. Most of them have no political experience, and the few who do come from municipal and not national politics. That fosters more trust because nobody likes politicians.
In addition the party members are quite diverse both in terms of gender and origin, and in terms of background and political views. Almost half of the 20 or 25 members are women. Two of the members, including number 2 after Lapid, are rabbies, one of them even defines himself as haredic, which is quite extrordinary considering what the party advocates. Of course, the haredic one is not seen as such by the haredic community, but rather as extremely controversial (to put it politely), though he has support among modern-haredics (currently a small minority in the haredic community). The party also includes a former head of Shabac and businessman Yaakov Perry, Ethiopian-Jewish and Druze members, lawyers, social wokers and former mayors.
Finally, Yair Lapid is considered an attractive man and a popular TV personality, though such factors are far less influential in Israel due to all of our very serious problems.
I love the subhead of this article, ” the vast centralism of the Israel voter.” I’ll translate that for you astute members of the commenters peanut gallery. Any moderate voter in Israel, a nation surrounded by nations waiting to lop off it’s national head, represents the Jewish perspective on life in Germany and Poland re 1938.
Hopelessly pacifist. Unbelievably naive. It’s 2013, and they’ll totally out of touch with reality. They said “never again”. I say, “once again.”
Heads in the sand. Did Obama really get the Jewish vote in Florida in the last election? Yes he did.
Today’s Israel citizen. Rationalizations aplenty; they’re setting themselves up to be led like lambs to the slaughter.
History does repeat itself when the citizenry, the Jewish citizenry in this case, opts out for a little game of Russian Roulette, hoping for the goodwill of mid east nations like Iran to be nice guys. To refrain from gobbling up Israel up like a well carved American Thanksgiving turkey. Obama sends four F-16 to Egypt to a man sworn to kill the Jewish state. The dye is cast.
A citizenry like in Israel; that naive; is destined to have a date with the bird of paradise who will undoubtedly ask the question, “leave the N man’s tenuous hold on power hanging by a threat? Idiot Israeli voter…what were you thinking”? Netanyahu is Israel’s only hope to stay alive. And the brainless voters cut him off at the knees.
As a life long Obama supporter, I can’t believe how easy the citizens of both Israel and the United States of America are making it for their march into economic, political and social slavery. Politely, you’re even disarming your own military like people anxious to commit national suicide, like a child who can’t wait to arrive at the amusement park asking dad, “are we there yet.”
Well, your collective father is Obama. And thanks to your vote, we’re just about there. Even a potential bump in the road, American voters’ representative have smoothed out. I’m speaking of the U.S. military.
Obama and his supporters thought we’d eventually have to find some way around the American military. A difficult task even for an Obama executive order. Framing the best American Generals; making them resign in disgrace was just part of the plan.
But, like the N man’s power was short circuited by a small minded Jewish voter, the American Congress put a figurative time bomb in place, a fail safe law if you will, to neuter the American military.
Thank you, Congress.
You have made the job of transforming your nation into a fascist state ObamaStyle easy. You want Obama to be the law by executive order? You got it in spades.
Blacks will soon seize your big houses, more and more of your green money and most any white women, Obama lover, they want.
After all, we have your white women to thank for voting us in. We thank them for swallowing the “war on women” mantra hook line and sinker. And one point we were afraid they’d spit it out. But white women do swallow.
The black lips she’s always dreamed about she will have. Our pro basketball and football players tell us your white woman’s lips not only talk a good game, but give pleasure where pleasure is due. Years of slavery and oppression are coming to a end. It’s about time, and it took ObamaCharisma to get us to the top of the heap. Kings of the mountain.
Obama’s on a roll. He’s the bowling ball and the American Republicans are the pins.
Strike after strike and free enterprise, the constitution, American values and ideals, and the right to bear arms are about to come tumbling down. Soon by executive action all weapons must be handed over to the federal government. Hunting season is over. But the job isn’t finished.
Obama is about to collapse the Catholic religion; to show that rank and file Catholics couldn’t really care less when a few of their leaders for show get thrown in jail for trying to defy the anointed one insurance requirement for Catholics to support abortion.
In case you didn’t notice, with the great, charismatic President Obama wrapping up a second term election born of white woman voter worship and a little slight of hand vote rigging, America’s righteous road to a new fascist form of totalitarianism, paved with reparations, is well under way.
4 trillion will soon become ten trillion in wealth transferred from the greedy pockets of whites to the needy hands of African Americans. The great tax money transfer. Finally, whites work for blacks. Even Phil Michelson is realizing it. And then apologized for his statements when Obama’s people told Phil to shut up.
And after executive order 21 which gives Herr Obama a third term, American will soon as unrecognizable as a Republican blasted in the face with a 12 gauge shotgun. Oh, you say gun control would take away the leftists guns, too?
Wrong again. The only guns that by ObamaLaw will be turned in are those formally owned by well meaning Americans.
The second amendment takes away. The second amendment gives back. Obama is designing it to work against the white man, but to be the black man’s best friend.
On the theory that if you live in a high crime area, you need guns to defend yourselves.
I’m sorry if you didn’t realize that ObamaGunControl executive action has some small print, but you’ll just have to learn to live with it while you wring your hands for the imbecilic whites who voted their own slavery in. No guns. No power. No one ever argued that Republicans in the house and senate were smart. Someday you whites will realize that the devil is in the details.
Fact is, the Republican party, stunned by the loss; flabbergasted that Romney couldn’t pull the trigger during the 3rd debate to expose Obama for the Benghazi blunder, is as impotent as an 80 year old man looking for the Viagra he dropped on the floor, invisible because he can’t find his flashlight in the dark.
It will be fun watching the Republican Party grope around in the dark for the next couple of decades. One day they’ll wake up, head for church and realize they’re now worshipping at the alter of Obama.
So the blacks are taking over America because white women like sucking black dicks, which is why Likud got 31 Knesset seats in the Israeli election. Figures.
So what exactly would it take to get a comment ‘held for moderation’?
Absolutely brilliant! Who said this newly crowned King will leave after two terms? Oh, the constitution? I’m sure King Obama will do away with that, too.
And let’s not forget that the only white people that blacks are allowed to openly hate are the Jewish people. Will King Obama and his blacks, Islamists and the terribly self-loathing white and Jewish progressive bigots, be able to slaughter America?
Are you serious? It’s hard to tell.
So you believe blacks as a group decided to take over America, enslave whites, seize their houses and the white women, and are able to do so because white women vote for them since they like sucking their lies and their dicks? Please, we have enough real problems without loony racist conspiracy theories. Whatever of value (if anything) “Chelease” had to say was lost when he started spouting this nonsensical vitriol.
And BTW, Jews are not exactly white people, but whatever. Our racial makeup seems to be just a matter of convenience, rather than of fact, to our haters. When the fad is hating non-whites then we’re a Semitic race. When the fad is hating whites, we’re native Europeans, pure blooded Aryans. But it always surprises me to hear that from a Jew.
Race is always “a matter of convenience,” since there is no principle that could decide which of two different racial classification schemes is more correct. The way that Jew-haters have used race to justify themselves over the years is a perfect illustration of this.
Incidentally, I’m not sure it has ever really been fashionable to hate “non-whites.” During the height of political racialism in Europe (roughly 1870-1945) the hate was always directed at other Europeans, usually in the same country, sometimes in what we would call the same ethnic group (e.g. the supposedly “Germanic” French vs. the “Celtic” French). And Hitler had no problem with Arabs, Turks, or Asians.
Pnina, I take Chelease B’s post as a warning to us Jews. It got our attention, didn’t it?
To non-anti-Semites outside Israel who have a good knowledge of our history and the Jewish State of Israel, they cannot understand why we’re trying to make peace with our tormentors……and for the minority of Jews inside Israel who do have clarity and a solution for this problem, those Jews are considered ‘extreme,’ ‘racist’ and ‘dangerous rightwingers,’ even by the esteemed Barry Rubin.
Thus, that’s the reason I interpret her post as a warning even though her post is quite controversial about blacks, she’s write on about our Jewish people. What are we, Pnima, a state of jews or the Jewish State?
Any hope for a Likud, yesh Atid and bayit Ha yehudi coalition? Exclude the extortionists (shas) and the appeasers (Labour,meretz, Livini). Stay strong in the face of the Arab Winter/Obama with regard to the palestinians and finally introduce some legislation to pull the Haredi into the workforce and Army thus heading off the economic decline forseen with high Hardei birthrates coupled with nonparticipation in the nations life.
I’d say a Likud – Yesh Atid – Baiyt Yehudi – Kadima – Hatnuah (Livni’s party) is not only possible, but likely. But this coalition will support negotiations with the Pal-Arabs. I mean, Netanyahu himself relenlessly called for negotiations. Only Habayit Hayehudi opposes a Pal-Arab state west of the Jordan river. However, the Arabs are not likely to negotiate, much less so agree to a compromise peace. Why should they when the world would just give them what they want over our dead bodies without them having to compromise on anything, make peace or accept a Jewish state in any borders? 20 years experience have shown that it absolutely doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, and it also doesn’t matter what the Arabs do or not. The world has already decided that if sacrificing Israel is necessary to appease the Muslims then they are more than willing to see us all dead. So what do you care who’s in the Israeli gov’t? Whoever it is we’ll end up in a war. The Arabs make the calls and they have made their decision and have never changed their minds.
Well, at least the world is being consistent. These days, it seems every country is sacrificing itself to appease the muslims – either by throwing their hands up in surrender (Europe), or by denial (U.S.).
Denial seems to be the order of the day everywhere.
How did we get here? I’ve been reading and reading all sorts of opinions and analyses, and yet I still don’t understand the world’s willing (or resigned?) submission to dhimmitude. At some point – despite all the leftist indoctrination of our universities, and all the Political Correctness polluting our capacity for independent thought – at some point, you’d think our sheer survival instinct would kick in. Why hasn’t it?
For the life of me, I cannot understand how the West continues to chip away at its freedom in the name of, err, “tolerance”? “multiculturalism”? or – what exactly? Israel, which has been under a death-threat since day one, and which some people I know are still reluctant to visit due to “danger”, is beginning to look like the safest place on Earth.
“The appeal of Lapid and Livni is precisely that nobody really knows what they stand for but it is certainly nothing to either extreme.”
This is a very significant sentence of Barry’s because it explains the most significant problem facing Israel: how do we make peace with those who want to destroy our entire nation and destroy every Jewish person?
Answer: we do NOT make peace with such ‘partners’ and when will we get a leader that is willing and able to state the obvious regardless what the US thinks? And regardless if Jews in Israel and outside Israel think that’s an ‘extreme’ position-to confidently state the obvious?
I think, Shoshana, that the leader we may be waiting for is Naftali Bennett and his party, HaBayit HaYehudi. If this party comes up to its great promise and the threatening Islamic environment causes continued and sufficient fears amongst the Jewish and our allied citizens of Israel, then this might occur. We, in the Yishuveem (“settlements” as internationally identified) are extremely aware of the mounting dangers as well as the essential part we play in defence of our nation and, as a result, are either for Likud or very pro-Bennett or much in sympathy with Eldad and the Strong Israel party. Until now, we had no leader with the essential vision of what our purpose was here in Israel. We are certainly fed up with the old Ben Gurion notion of a “nation like all other nations” meaning a democracy based wholly on a western model. Bennett and his view of religious Zionism, the Jewish people as a warrior society as in ancient days and the perspective that all Jewish people, in its diversity, are one and should be recognized as such may even draw us together. Reviewing Bennett’s record as a member of a very special commando unit while in the IDF, a start-up genius who made a fortune in business and does not require making (corrupt) money in politics plus his previous experience in politics as an aide to Mr. Netanyahu all point to him becoming the outstanding leader whom we all need. What do you think?
Bennet is not likely to get the support of the majority of Israelis. Those on the left who get enough slaps to wake up mostly move to Likud and not to the more right-wing parties. And most Jews in Israel want a Western style liberal democracy. Even many of Bennet’s voters voted for him because of his hawkish positions and not his religiosity. Israel has been through many wars without changing its form of government, and the next war will not change that. Fear doesn’t make us turn to god, it makes us fight back. Relying on god never got us anything except pogroms, expulsions and the gas chambers. Relying on ourselves got us a pretty sucessful state and the ability to defend ourselves. Besides, it’s not quite clear to me what kind of other government do you want here or what do you think Bennet wants to achieve. If it’s any type of theocracy forget about it. All the secularists who voted for Bennet never voted for a theocracy and will never support it. He never talked to the secularists about a theocracy. The secularists here are not a helpless unarmed minority like in Egypt or Iran, so don’t even dream of pulling a stunt like that on us.
Although I will not dispute you in your identification of the perspective of the Israeli public as you appear to be far more knowledgeable, in that respect, than I, I would correct one of your ascertions Pnina: You fail to recognize that religious Zionism also invokes our ancient texts and Torah to provide a guidepost and, sometimes, a response, to how we should act now. This factor, I submit, is one of the strengths of HaBayit HaYehudi.
A religious text can only serve as an inspiration, not as law. You can suggest a course of action based on the wisdom in ancient texts, but not make it mandatory. In the end it will be adopted or rejected based on its wisdom, not based on it being a religious edict.
As for the Israeli society, the majority of Israeli Jews define themselves as either secular (40-50%) or traditionalists (most of the rest). Those who define themselves as religious are a minority, and even among them not everyone will support a theocracy. 20-25% of Israelis are not Jewish. So you can draw your own conclusion regarding the level of support the idea of a Jewish theocracy can gain in the Israeli society.
We can all live together in peace providing the state is secular, meaning that it doesn’t impose religion on its citizens. Even if the majority were religious, there’s still no need to impose it on everyone else. If you’ll try to impose your religious views on everyone else you will get a fight and you’ll make people hate religion.
Not to overinterpret here, Pnina, but a “traditionalist” is one who will use history, or religion as the case may be, as a guide to action. Many Jews in Israel take on this perspective and it’s not a bad one considering that our Torah is to us as the classics (Latin and Greek literature and learning)are to the Western nations and Taoism and Confucianism is to China. I’ll let it go at that.
Traditionalists are people who follow certain Jewish traditions out of loyalty to our heritage. They pick and choose according to convenience. They are notorious for it, it’s a source for jokes. To think they are committed to the scriptures is comical. A traditionalist will go to the synagogue on Shabbath morning and then hop in the car and drive to the football stadium to see a game. I know Meretz voters who live a completely secular life except they usually avoid pork and fast on Yom Kippur and they call themsleves traditionalists. Singer Ninet Tayeb defined herself as traditionalist and mentioned god a lot, yet she doesn’t avoid cleavages and tight cloths and lived “in sin” with her boyfriend without marriage. Dancer Or Kahlon always carries a Tehilim book in his pocket and prays, yet it doesn’t prevent him from being active gay. And they think god loves them too. Most traditionalists (not all) do believe in god, but they often have a very fuzzy idea of god as a loving, undemanding and endlessly forgiving father, quite distant from the biblical character. Do you really think most of these people would like to live like our ancestors lived 3,000 years ago? Even you don’t. And the haredim don’t. Everyone who claim they do are lying.
Secular and traditionalist Jews can be attracted to the modreate type of Hassidut Breslav becuase it leaves them a lot of space. It doesn’t have a living rabbi who tells them what to do, and it doesn’t tell them they are bad Jews because they’re not following all the commandments — according to Breslav lite all Jews are good and the more commandments you follow the closer you are to god. That’s something people can live with. They draw inspiration and meaning from it. But the minute you try to force things on people you will have a fight on your hands.
Confucian Asians aren’t really Confucian anymore, otherwise South Korea would not be a democracy, it’d still be a monarchy dominated by an aristocracy of scholars, where slavery is institutionalized and women are considered the shadows of men. Contemporary Westerners don’t live like their spiritual ancestors did in Greece and the Roman empire. Of course people draw inspiration from the parts of their heritage they consider good and wise, but they don’t turn their heritage as a whole into their constitution and their guide to action.
But you’re entitled to your fantasies. Everyone in this mad world has their favorite hallucination, so why shouldn’t you? The leftists believe we can reach peace in our time with genocidal jihadists, that the MB, salafist and AQ rise to power is an Arab Spring that will lead to an explosion of democracy, tolerance and progress, and that multicultural socialistic Europe is a model paradise everyone should follow. So you can believe Israel will become a theocracy. Whatever. Everything goes these days.
From the little I know about Bennett, I like him! And the Original Testament, our Torah, provides strength, not weakness. I think we ought to put our Muslim terrorists on reservations with casinos and dancing girls. Nothing racist about that, right? I think Bennett would be wise to instead of calling Muslim areas “Area C” and so forth, he should simply refer to them as reservations…..that’s what I think.
UPDATE
After counting most of the remaining votes it seems Habayit Hayehudi will get another seat, though it’s not certain yet. If so this means Netanyahu could get a certain 61 seats coalition with the right wing and religious parties, which improves his position in negotiating with the other parties.
In other news, Yair Lapid announced he will not join the Labor attempt to block Netanyahu from forming a gov’t. That means Yesh Atid is pretty likely to join a Likud coalition if it excludes the haredim or otherwise offers solutions to the haredi related issues. Well, that was a predictable move on Lapid’s part.