Making Peace in the Jewish Home

December 4, 2014

2 min read

As Israel seems to be shifting into election mode, the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Party is continuing the infighting that has plagued the national religious public for many years and that we had thought was behind us. Once again, there is talk of a possible split between Bayit Yehudi under the leadership of EconomyMinister Naftali Bennett and its ostensibly more right-wing and more religious Tekuma faction, headed by Housing Minister Uri Ariel.

Tekuma has been arguing that it’s a question of values, reportedly complaining, “Bennett is afraid to discuss the character and values of the party,” etc, alleging that, “he prefers to split the religious Zionist world and sell [out] its values and the settlers just to gather some more votes from Yesh Atid.” And now there are those influential figures who are actually calling for a split, with the suggested option of postponing possible unity until after the elections. Speaking on Galei Yisrael, Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, Dean of the Elon Moreh Yeshiva, is promoting that very possibility, saying, “Unity does not mean confusion,” and adding, “Unity of too many topics on one platform brings in the end to chaos. When one wants to paint a picture he doesn’t mix colors. Each color needs to have its own place.”

In the old system of one mandate parties, that may have been true, but in the new system in which 3.25% of the vote is needed to even get into the Knesset, such an argument is near-sighted. The national religious world has seen many break-off parties, sometimes over small differences in political strategy and often over minor disagreements about issues. In every case of a split, the cause has been weakened and the national religious public ends up having to stop traffic on the highways and risking arrest through civil disobedience to have our voices heard.

We are standing at a crossroads at which we can go back to the those sad days of two or three small right-wing parties or perhaps worse, a situation in which one or more won’t pass the Knesset threshold and tens of thousands of valuable votes or more will be wasted.

A large Bayit Yehudi, according to most polls, has the potential to be the second largest party, which would virtually assure a rightward shift in national priorities. If Tekuma really believes that its values and goals are appreciated by the national religious public, it should stop demanding guaranteed places on the candidates list and should run in the party primaries like everyone else. I have yet to hear a valid reason whyTekuma candidates shouldn’t have to compete and non-Tekumacandidates should. The candidates should voice their positions on the issues and tell us about their qualifications to be effective Knesset members.

Trust the national religious and traditional public to decide in the primary who its candidates will be, and that, too, will bring the voters in the general election. The people want unity and peace in the Jewish Home, but they also want to choose their own leadership. Let the people choose.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Arutz Sheva.

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