Not missing a beat, MK Moshe Gafne in his address to the prestigious CFO kenos opted to speak about the ‘exclusion of women’, a topic frequently used to accuse the chareidim in Israel of discriminating against the women in their community. For the secular Israeli community, the fact that there are no women in chareidi parties in Knesset or radio hosts on chareidi radio add to the fact women are discriminated against, as well as the requirement that they are seated in the rear of mehadrin buses.

Gafne pointed out that a woman with thirty years of political experience ran for the presidency in the United Stated against a businessman who is a newcomer to politics and the political arena. He points out Mrs. Clinton served as First Lady during her husband’s tenure as US President, as well as serving as Secretary of State. Despite all of this, she was defeated on Election Day.

Gafne feels that voters were not voting against Clinton as much as they were voting against the establishment and the “elite”.

For Gafne, the lesson of the US elections is that slogans are meaningless and “the chareidim are always blamed for discriminating against women”. He acknowledges that most voted for Trump “for various reasons and that many chareidim did vote for her despite the fact she is a woman.

Speaking to persons in his inner circle, Gafne was pleased with the election of Donald Trump, a move he believes will work against the Reform Movement. He admits he is uncertain of this but believes it to be true since most Reform Jews he believes are aligned with the democratic liberals as opposed to conservative republicans.

He added “Those who call themselves Reform rabbis always worked against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu due to his opposition over the Iran deal as well as against Trump for they understand under Trump, their position will be weakened significantly”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)