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Time is up for the ongoing, dangerous Likud and ultra-Orthodox liason
In the last few days you heard some confusing things about the Ultra-Orthodox Jews (Heredi = "Terrified" in Hebrew) & Covid. Especially as some people (shaking the chicken) present recent actions - concerning Haredi & Covid - by NYC authorities as anti-semitism. Well, the authorities in Israel have found themselves forced to similar actions. I might add that, in Israel at least, the Haredi response to Covid regulation is just the last straw - these people have nothing but disdain for the larger Israeli society (at whose expense they live). To them the instructions from the Rebbe, and there are dozens of Rebbes because there are dozens of sects, supersede both the Law of the Land and the Laws of traditional Judaism. p.s. Haredi are anti-zionist (salvation from G*d, not human actions) So, here's some historical background [Jpost] ...It was May 1977, and Corfu was trying to dissuade Begin from heeding the ultra-Orthodox demand that El Al not fly on Shabbat. Begin, however, did not care for Corfu’s financial concerns. He thought strategically, and acted swiftly. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Now in its 44th year, the consequent pact became a fixture of Israeli politics. Now, as the pandemic leads the Jewish state to the brink of social abyss, Likud’s voters must realize this deal’s recklessness and decadence. BEGIN’S CALCULATION served momentary circumstances, but had deep roots. Faced with an option of a broader, but less conservative, coalition with the liberal Dash, Begin preferred a narrow but conservative coalition with ultra-Orthodoxy. Beyond this calculus was Begin’s affinity for tradition, and his sympathy to ultra-Orthodoxy’s Israeli traumas, which harked back to David Ben-Gurion’s hostility to its way of life. Begin’s alliance with ultra-Orthodoxy was therefore more than a stratagem. It was a political romance and a social roadmap. ...Likud’s concessions to ultra-Orthodoxy were wholesale. Military-service deferment rose from an annual 400 to more than 10,000. Ultra-Orthodox yeshivas became budgeted, child allowances for big families were multiplied, and married yeshiva students’ healthcare fees and property taxes were shaved. A yeshiva student came to cost the state more than a monthly NIS 4,000, according to Hiddush, a nonprofit promoting religious freedom. In return, Likud got parliamentary stability and political longevity. On the face of it, this alliance was a new version of the historic alliance between religious Zionism and the Labor Party. In fact, it was its perversion. Modern Orthodoxy and Labor were real partners, in both faith and sacrifice. They believed with equal conviction in the Jewish people’s duty to seize its political fate, and they jointly built the Jewish state and fought for its defense. That’s not what happened between Likud and ultra-Orthodoxy. It might have been, had Likud demanded from ultra-Orthodoxy’s rabbis ideological concessions, like teaching their children math, science and English, or sending their men to the army. This attitude never crossed the minds of Likud’s leaders, who moved on such fronts only in response to High Court rulings, and then, too, grudgingly and halfheartedly. It was an unholy alliance all along, a marriage of convenience between ultra-patriots and anti-patriots, a pact whose cynicism the coronavirus has now laid bare. THE NUMBERS are unambiguous. One in four ultra-Orthodox Israelis tested these days for the coronavirus is diagnosed positive, and one in three Israelis tested positive is ultra-Orthodox. The Sect leaders, on direct command from G*d, decided to go for Herd Immunity for their group* - before it spreads to the population at large, and the medical system is overwhelmed. The rest of the country are apostates anyway - to hell with them! Experts believe that some of the infections in the Haredi sector are actually reinfections. Which, according to latest information are more serious than the first. The Lord moves in mysterious ways. *Lockdown is the death of their sects because constant group reinforcement is the only way to keep the sect together. The first lockdown have resulted in some Yeshiva students droping out and joining the larger society. No, ultra-Orthodoxy’s response to the crisis has not been monolithic, and the crisis is not limited to ultra-Orthodoxy. Many parts of the ultra-Orthodox community have taken the Health Ministry’s instructions seriously, and some also at an effort, creating partitioned capsules in yeshiva halls and moving holiday prayers outdoors. And the rules’ disparagement was a joint venture in which many other Israelis starred, from wealthy businessmen who held lavish private parties, through Arab clans that held big weddings, to anti-Netanyahu protesters who held crowded demonstrations. Even so, ultra-Orthodoxy was different because some of its mass violations were inspired by some of its leaders. For instance, the huge Belz synagogue in Jerusalem held its holiday prayers in total disregard of the pandemic and its regulations, with thousands of mask-less worshipers crowded within its marble-plated walls. Similarly, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Yisrael Hager, held a post-Yom Kippur celebratory tisch where no one wore masks or kept distance. The same conduct reportedly happened in many hassidic shtiebels. These are not anecdotes. Rather, these are symptoms of a political disease, the sour grapes of an era in which Likud effectively told ultra-Orthodoxy that secular Israel is fine with the ultra-Orthodox way. And the ultra-Orthodox way means placing the tribe above the public, the ghetto above the country, and the rabbi above the state. Whatever the upcoming months’ medical developments, what we are witnessing socially is the result of a political decadence that fermented for more than 40 years. The formula whereby nationalists helped rabbis industrialize draft dodging, discourage work, obstruct family planning, prevent modern education, and shove thousands into shoebox apartments in secluded neighborhoods — could only stand for that long. When leaders show how to take more, give less, and contribute nothing; when they cultivate tribalism, creating separate parties and schools for Ashkenazim and non-Ashkenazim; when they effectively tell their followers daily that the government is not really their leader, only an object of their real leaders’ hoodwinking — a day arrives when the whole structure caves in on its dwellers and builders. Recent polls show than Religious Zionist party of Naftali Bennett is more popular than Likud (26 to 23 MKs). It’s been one long political farce, economic scam, and social tragedy, and — as the virus it has courted now makes plain — its time is up. Personal disclosure To me, if you are an Israeli Jew who dodges IDF service - you are not my fellow citizen, you're a piece of sh*t. If you believe that rote memorization of holy texts is scholarship, you're not scholar - you're toxic waste.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-10-08 |
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