July 18, 1999

Mazel Tov, Barak But We Need to Pray

Mazel Tov! Israel’s new Prime Minister has formed a government. Should we celebrate or pray? I think the latter is needed. The Israeli electorate roundly rejected Bibi Netanyahu for Ehud Barak. An analysis of Netanyahu’s frustration and failure leads me to believe that Barak is falling into the same trap.

The new government is a coalition of seven political parties, each with their own agenda, and within these parties are power blocs and conflicts with differences in ideology and policy for which reconciliation may well be impossible, even within Barak’s own party. Labor’s unhappiness with Barak for having chosen David Levy of Gesher as Foreign Minister and for denying a cabinet position to its own Avraham Burg creates opposition within the party’s own ranks. If Barak fails to implement the left wing agenda, he will have problems with his own party and the leftist Meretz. If, on the other hand, he will, as an example, attempt to dismantle some settlements, the other coalition members will engage him in battle.

The presence of Shas along with the National Religious Party and the United Torah Judaism Party will make it impossible for the Barak government to in any way satisfy those American Jews whose principle issue in Israel is pluralism and the recognition of conversions performed by non-Orthodox Rabbis in Israel. Barak made promises which he now will not be able to keep. All of this puts the new Prime Minister in the very same boat his predecessor was in. But worse yet, Yossi Sarid, the Meretz leader, is now Minister of Education, a ministry held by the National Religious Party for fifteen years. True, Shaul Yahalom of the National Religious Party was designated Deputy Minister of Education with a specific responsibility for the schools of the religious. Sarid, a passionate ideologue, should nevertheless give Israel’s Orthodox cause for concern.

The Shas declared position on the peace process is not clear. Let’s try these scenarios: Barak, in negotiations with the Palestinians, determines to cede land in an area of a Sephardi religious settlement or Meretz will call for the draft yeshiva students in spite of coalition agreements, will the religious dismantle Barak’s government? Shas, with seventeen votes, the NRP with five, and the UTJ with five could call for a vote of no confidence. Without the combined religious twenty-seven votes, Barak’s government could only continue with the support of Arab deputies. The probability of Barak’s survival is doubtful. If Barak should fail to complete his term of office, there will be hue and cry for electoral revision, a two-party system. But, would that exclude the religious?

If the religious parties would form a united bloc, they would now become Israel’s largest political party. Consider the facts: One Israel or Labor has fewer seats than it ever had. Its present twenty-six represent a loss of eight from the previous government, and let’s not forget that four of the twenty-six are Geshers, whose philosophy and platform are by no means the same as Labors. One religious party might force a merger of One Israel and Meretz on the left. But thirty-six versus twenty-seven still gives the religious a competitive chance to be one of the two parties in a new system.

I guess by this time that you assume I am very pessimistic, but I am not. Somehow, I feel that our prayers will be answered and Israel’s politicians will lay down their axes and seriously consider the magnitude of the country’s problems caused by dissension and political divisiveness. My hope is that the new Knesset will give priority to Jewish survival and Israel’s security.

Divergent views and the right to advocate and articulate them are the tools of democracy, and this should not be a cause for fear. But Prime Minister Barak’s failure to mention Zionism in his first address to the Knesset is cause for much concern. Ariel Sharon shouted out during the speech to call attention that Zionism was not mentioned. Well, you might ask, "What’s so important about Zionism?" Did not Ben Gurion declare it dead at the time Israel was born? Yes, Ben Gurion dealt a death blow to Zionism when he asserted that there is no longer a need for Zionism now that we have a state, the attainment of its goal.

Ben Gurion was terribly wrong, and we are in great trouble if Barak shares this view. Let me explain why:

A. Zionists in all their diverse forms agree that Israel must be a Jewish state.

B. The Zionist philosophy insists upon Kibbutz Galiot, the ingathering of all exiled Jews.

Clinton’s recent assertion that Palestinians should be allowed to live wherever they want, we now know was not a "slip of the tongue," but a blow against Zionism. This view is the unspoken State Department policy and if, heaven forbid, implemented, the death of Israel. It might well be left to the varied religious members of the new government to stand in Barak’s way should he decide, due to a lack of Zionist commitment, to embrace this American policy. I frankly don’t believe he will. But Israel’s left has historically shown a vulnerability to American pressure and intimidation. The day may come when Israel’s Orthodox may have to save the Zionist state. Should it come to that, I know that Torah-committed Jews are probably the only real Zionists left.

Shabbat Shalom