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I am mystified by what elements of the Chareidi community in Israel, both leadership and amcho, hope to accomplish with their tactics over the last months.
I’m not posting about the merits of the argument or of the justification (or not) of the “share the burden” movement. These have been done to death here, and I don’t want or expect to change anyone’s mind.
I am posting about what is a practical approach when you have lost a political fight, and what is just a waste of energy and a gratuitous venture in mud slinging without any practical outcome.
I am a Conservative. I live in the Province of Ontario, Canada. We have had three consecutive governments of a Liberal provincial premier who has wasted money, lashed out at the Jewish community and others who want school funding equal to what Catholics get, and literally threw away hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to safeguard several Liberal seats. He finally resigned a couple of months ago. He had to because of the persistent work of his opponents, making his last government a minority instead of the 2 term majority he had, and the hard slogging of convincing people in Ontario not to vote for his party. It isn’t over.
Federally, The Conservative party in Canada finally won a minority government in 2006, and 2008, and a majority in 2011 after a decade of hard work, especially with communities like ours, and policies that safeguarded the economy for everyone.
In short, these changes occurred because a lot of people put in a lot of time and energy into convincing enough voters to change how they vote. If you look at the US, the Republicans lost an opportunity because they were too busy yelling at each other and staking out even more radical positions to realize that they had lost the vote of the common man.
If the current political reality isn’t satisfactory, it serves no purpose to yell and scream like a petulant child. Do the hard work of convincing other Jews of the rightness of your position, so that they will vote for you. If you won’t try, you are lucky to have but don’t deserve the privilege of living in a democracy. If you try but fail, then you have to reevaluate your position to one that you can convince others to support, or live somewhere where you don’t need to be beholden to the despicable tyranny of democracy.
It seems to me that some in Israel have learned this lesson, and they reaped the fruits of that work in the last election. Others have not learned, and now they need to do some serious introspection.
The chareidim won more seats than previous elections, this round. So they certainly have not lost.
How so? Lapid’s Yesh Atid is the anti-Torah/anti-Chareidi party. He won 19 seats. That is less than one sixth of the electorate voting against the Chareidim.
To bentch, re your second comment: Yesh Atid and its current ally, Bayit Yehuda, won as many seats — 31– as Likud Beteinu. Your notion that only a sixth of the voters were anti-Chareidi is mistaken, if not fanciful. The initial post raises reasonable questions about what the Chareidim need to do to advance their political interests, and his/her recommendation to take a hard look at the facts is good. The US counterpart of the Canadian Conservative party – i.e., the Republicans – would be wise to follow his advice. (Fortunately for America, that won’t happen.)
“What to do when you lose a political battle”…
Have a cup of coffee and start a new one.
nfgo: Bayit Yehudi voters were not voting an anti-Chareidi sentiment.
yichus: You missed my point that the anti-Chareidi vote was a very small sub-portion of the electorate. The Chareidim increased their vote and their seats. The Chareidim did not lose the vote.
Yichusdik, +++10 on your opening post!
Petulant children indeed!
I couldn’t agree more.
They were rejected by voters in a Democratic country.
Thay can either work on regaining the public’s trust, or get used to sitting in the opposition. I find it a little weird hearing them complain bitterly about the hand not extended to them in friendship. -The hand they bit while maligning its owner during the election campaign.
Nobody expected Bayit Yehudi to ally with Lapid. It was not part of the campaign and I am sure there were many people who voted for BY thinking they would work together with the chareidim.
On the other hand…Being together with Tzippi Livni? No problem!
The seeds of this political loss to the Chareidim party, lamentably goes all the way back to the influence of a certain Rabbi in the Brooklyn area, whose boycott has led to the tragic results we currently are witnessing.
The Finance Ministry will implement massive cuts to the 2013 and 2014 budgets, totalling NIS 30 billion ($8.1 billion) over the next two years. The plan seeks to cut NIS 10 billion ($2.7 billion) from the government’s budget in 2013 and another NIS 20 billion ($5.4 billion) in 2014, as well as raising NIS 4 billion shekels ($1.1 billion) from the public sector through raised taxes and other measures.
One of the major changes will be an initial 1 percent hike in the value added tax (VAT), bringing it up to 18%. The VAT exemption on fruits and vegetables will also be annulled. There will be a NIS 3 billion ($813 million) cut in subsidies for children and public sector salaries will be cut by NIS 4 billion ($1.1 billion). Retirement age for women will be raised to 67, from the current age of 62.
The Finance Ministry’s plan is in its final stages and will likely be presented later in the week to the new finance minister, Yair Lapid.
The plan will cut NIS 5 billion ($1.4 billion) from the defense budget in 2014 and half of that amount in the 2013 budget. The cuts will also affect local authorities, including NIS 350-700 million ($94.9-190 million) in cuts from municipalities and a 5-8% rise in property taxes beyond inflation.
There is also a planned 25% cut on tax breaks for advanced study savings funds and planned elimination of tax breaks for shift workers and high-tech workers, as well as the elimination of the VAT exemption in Eilat. These measures are projected to bring in NIS 700 million ($190 million) annually.
In the real estate field, the Finance Ministry has suggested cutting the capital gains tax exemption for second apartment ownership and increasing the purchasing tax on luxury apartments and investment acquisitions. In addition, higher taxes will be imposed on foreign investors involved in real estate transactions and those purchasing residential apartments, a construction delay tax will be levied on contractors and a fine for companies and real estate entrepreneurs who build on land not freed by the Israel Lands Administration for construction.
At the same time, the Finance Ministry proposes eliminating all housing benefits for haredim (ultra-Orthodox), shifting affordable housing to veteran soldiers and young couples with both spouses working. The plan also includes the construction of 55,000 apartments over the next two years; 15% of the new apartments will be designated as affordable housing, and the construction of student housing in ten city centers will be moved forward as well. The construction plans also include apartments for rent, as well as purchase.
Israel Hayom
Dr. Haim Shine
hatred of haredim
Murky waves of disdain have passed among our brethren since the founding of the state. It’s an abysmal kind of hatred that stems from the old elite’s fear of losing hegemony. This is the elite that founded the state and then claimed its main assets for itself; the elite that called Holocaust survivors “soap” (because of the largely unfounded rumor that the Nazis had made soap from the fat of Jewish bodies); the elite that pushed Jewish immigrants of Middle Eastern descent into the outermost peripheries and called them the “Second Israel” (the Ashkenazim being the “First Israel”); the elite that ridiculed immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The apex of elitist hatred now is directed at the haredi and settler communities, and is expressed in slogans no propagandist would even dare use.
It’s unclear, though, how Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett and MKs Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan and Orit Struck got so mixed up about which side they should be on. It’s too bad that their GPS malfunctioned at the moment of truth.
The dati leumi will be burned by Lapid, don’t worry. They are just serving as useful idiots for now.
Politics is about winning and/or losing mix the the two you lose.
Yiddishkeit is about the the observance of mitzvot. Then you win no matter what. The agendas we put forth are conditional. Judaism has no place for the this concept, it is about unconditional acceptance of the Ribono Shel Olam and the observance of the mitzvos.
bentch: You may be correct that Bayit Yehudi voters were not casting anti-Chareidi votes, but their party has plainly taken an anti-Chareidi position, i.e., that it will not join a coalition that includes Chareidi parties. That position, of course, can change as negotiations to form a governing coalition proceed, but the Chareidim must face the fact that they lack support in the new Knesset.
“Lapid’s Yesh Atid is the anti-Torah/anti-Chareidi party. “
Two orthodox rabbis got elected to the Knesset on the YA list. A non-orthodox MK from YA turned her maiden Knesset speech into a talmud shiur. Lapid himself wants to put talmud instruction into the government run secular schools.
Meanwhile, the charedi parties accused HaBayit HaYehudi of being a party of gentiles, dissing all the great rabbis who have supported that party and its predecessors. This is motzi shem ra, and people call Yesh Atid anti-Torah? The charedi parties have also threatening to expel Jews from their homes without any peace agreement; even Meretz won’t go that far. Much of the HaBayit HaYehudi vote came from the communities that would be uprooted.
No wonder the charedi parties are losing influence.
I am mystified by what elements of the Chareidi community in Israel, both leadership and amcho, hope to accomplish with their tactics over the last months.
As am I. If it weren’t that the Gedolim are obviously involved, I would say it is due to a lack in Emunah that Hashem runs the world. Just as easily as Lapid can remove Kesef, Hashem can give it back. You think the money is determined by Lapid? If Hashem wanted (and we were worthy), Bloomberg would see the light, become a Ba’al Teshuva and donate his fortune to Mir Yeshiva!! Since when are we somech on the Medina for funds? Do we daven to the Medina to provide them?! Of course not! We say in Bentching “V’Lo Lidai Matnas Basar V’Dam”.
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