Prominent rabbonim shlita in the dati leumi community are pressuring party leader Minister Naftali Bennett to support the deal approved by Shas last week. This refers to the deal brokered by Rabbi Chaim Druckman Shlita.
Last week, Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef Shlita announced he would support a deal with Bayit Yehudi by which Shas supports a bill to permit Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar to seek a second term. In return, Bayit Yehudi is expected to support a bill that would permit Rabbi Yaakov Ariel Shlita to run, requiring legislation permitting a candidate over 70-years-old, which is the current age limit for candidates in the race for chief rabbi.
Rav Ovadia has however stipulated that his willingness to back the deal is contingent on Bayit Yehudi not backing the Stern Bill, which adds 50 persons to the voting body that selects the chief rabbis. That bill seeks to bring women into the voting body, which would dilute Shas’ control.
Dati leumi rabbonim are opposed to the Stern Bill while Bennett favors it. Bennett also favors the candidacy of Rabbi David Stav over Rabbi Ariel, but he is now under mounting pressure from rabbonim. Among the rabbonim whom have come out publically, calling on Bennett to back the deal are Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Rabbi Eitan Eiseman, Rabbi Yitzchak Levy, Rabbi Neria Gutel, Rabbi Yehuda Amichai, Rabbi David Fendel, Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzsky, Rabbi Avichai Ronsky, Rabbi Tzefanya Drori, Rabbi Eliyasha Vishlitzky, Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira and Rabbi Elyakim Levanon.
Bennett has yet to come out and announce the party will back the deal as Bayit Yehudi faction members in Knesset remain divided on the candidacy of Rav Ariel and Rav Stav.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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The real fight is over conscription (and the plan to imprison draft resistors, and to close yeshivos that don’t support conscription), banning hareidi schools, or prohibiting gender-specific services. Already many of the hareidi leaders are discussing political moves that would turn Israel inside out (e.g. a leading Shas member discussing endorsing the Arab League peace plan – reported by Arutz Shevah). In spite of non-support from any of the hareidi parties who sit in the kenesset, the Eidah Hareidis turned out 40000 people (according to anti-hareidi news sources who had no reason to exaggerate) – that’s the equivalent of a TWO MILLION man march in the USA. With the existence of the Torah world in Eretz Yisrael hanging in the balance, fighting over patronage is trivial.
Let’s get a few things straight:
1. Harav Ovadia has made no announcement. The announcement was Deri’s. HaBayit HaYehudi had previously said that they would only accept a promise made by harav Ovadia ‘in his own voice’ as they had absolutely no faith in Deri. No one from HaBayit HaYehudi has yet heard a word from harav Ovadia’s mouth.
2. Deri has claimed that harav Ovadia’s support is expressed in a handwritten line added to a copy of a letter addressed by harav Ariel and harav Amar to harav Druckman. HaBayit HaYehudi asked to see the copy with the handwritten line but were told they would only see it after the Stern bill was defeated.
3. The content of the handwritten line, as reported by some of the charedi press, is vague and lukewarm and falls far short of a promise to support harav Ariel.
4. All told, the whole thing seems to be no more than another underhanded Deri trick.
5. Almost all of the major figures in the D”L camp would like to see harav Ariel as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi – including Bennett and harav Stav. But no one in HaBayit HaYehudi believes that it is likely to happen. Both because of their complete lack of faith in Deri and because their coalition partners are adamantly opposed to it.
6. If harav Ovadia were to come out and publicly give his full and unequivocal support to the deal, HaBayit Hayehudi would go to the political trenches and try to round up enough support from their coalition partners to get the Ariel-Amar deal done. But they have no intention of being Deri’s patsies.