YWN-ISRAEL reported that Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett announced his decision regarding the party’s 11th slot, the slot given to the party leader to decide unilaterally. He tapped retired soccer star Eli Ochana. The dati leumi Kippa website questioned readers if they approve of the surprising appointment.
Do you approve of Bennett’s decision to appoint Eli Ochana?
82%:
No, with all due respect, the Bayit Yehudi party is ideological and does not function by a man whose entire being is soccer.
17%:
Yes, he is a suitable person that will unite additional kehillos to religious Zionism.
And Bennett made yet another appointment, selecting Dr. Anat Roth, who competed in the primary election but she failed to obtain a realistic slot. Bennett decided to push Yehudit Shilat to an unrealistic slot and place Dr. Roth in the third set of five on the list, which means she is likely to get into Knesset.
Kippa reports “Bennett is afraid of Shilat because of her chareidi dati leumi views”.
Roth broke from the Labor party and announced her candidacy on the Bayit Leumi list two weeks ahead of the primaries. Roth, a former Peace Now activist worked as an advisor to former Laborites Ehud Barak and Amram Mitzne. Today she claims to realize the entire Oslo process was an error.
According to Kippa, Bennett is the one who approached Roth, asking her to compete in the party’s primaries.
In line with Bayit Yehudi regulations, after the party leader announces his appointments to the reserved slots, the party leaders must check how many women are on the list and their positions, and if there is indeed one women in each grouping of five candidates there would not be a reason to lock a woman into a slot, referring to placing Shilat in the 14th position.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Ochana already pulled out, so it’s a non issue. As long as Bayit Yehudi maintains its stated purpose, expanding its base is a good thing.
The religious community doesn’t have the numbers by itself to move Israel in the right direction. There are plenty of Traditional and even Secular Jews who want a more Jewish nature to the State.
The insular nature of the Chareidi parties and the demands they make on society will never bring Israel closer to Torah. Expanding the base is needed.
Do People Approve? No they don’t. So much so that Mr. Ochana resigned, just days after receiving the nomination. But the disapproval was voiced in highly inappropriate fashions, such as YWN exhibited in this article, which have caused Mr. Ochana and his family real halbanat panim. Many people need to ask the Ochana family for mechillah for the manner in which they chose to voice their disapproval.
And while the public at large has not reacted in the same fashion to the nomination of Dr. Roth, YWN’s cold blooded character assassination of Dr. Roth (who is a baalat teshuvah both politically and in the standard sense) in the above article is no less shameful.