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| Middle East |
| Party leader's secular stance gains support in Israel |
| 2003-01-17 |
| Tommy Lapid, bare-knuckled commentator and crusader against state-subsidized Judaism, has emerged, grinning, as the biggest surprise of this most surprising campaign season — the man who would be kingmaker in Israel. Opinion polls consistently indicate that Lapid's minor party, dedicated to cutting the government benefits of religious Jews, is poised to become the third-largest faction in the next Parliament, which could make his a pivotal voice in determining the next governing coalition. From right, left and center, other Israeli politicians are suddenly gunning for Lapid in hopes of drawing his party's new support away. It is hard to have a conversation with Labor Party politicians without hearing Lapid compared with Archie Bunker, their calculated shorthand for an armchair reactionary. Interesting development. It'd be amusing to watch the Paleos go from bitching and moaning about a Jewish state to bitching and moaning about a secular state... Lapid, a 71-year-old Holocaust survivor, is enjoying that. "I take it as a compliment," he said Wednesday of the comparison to the most famous, if fictional, product of Queens. "I do look like him, and I am pugnacious." Bad thing for the sidecurls gang. It's hard to discredit a Holocaust surivor... The new support for Lapid's Shinui Party arises partly from voters' impatience with the major parties over the stalemate with the Palestinians, the dismal economy, scandal and a clinging malaise. But it also demonstrates that Israel's longstanding contest between secular and religious Jews is intensifying. He called the religious "a minority that has privileges and no responsibilities," citing exemptions from army service and tax breaks. I really do like this guy... so far. To strictly religious Israelis it is Lapid who is the intolerant one. To them it is Lapid's vision that endangers Israel. Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, a member of Parliament and leader of a strictly Orthodox party, called Lapid's movement "a big danger" and "a tragedy for the people of Israel." Because...? He said Lapid had created an outlet that legitimized a deep-seated desire of many Israelis. "A lot of the Israelis, they have in the deep of their minds, for probably many years, these feelings to run away from being a part of the chain of the Jewish people," Ravitz said. "You know, to be a Jew is not so easy." I'm sure it's not. But the uncomfortable fact is that we're fighting against a system in which the state is controlled, either directly or indirectly, by the religious establishment. In the rest of the West, the religious-based states are gone — state and religion are separated. The surge behind Lapid is not just a reflection of anti-religious sentiment. In a political system divided along ethnic as well as religious lines, his party appears to be drawing from Israel's elite of Ashkenazim, with roots in Eastern and Central Europe. Further, his party's name, Shinui, or Change, incorporates an inchoate revolt against the status quo. Opinion polls consistently suggest that in elections to be held on Jan. 28, Shinui could more than double — almost triple, some analysts have predicted — its present six seats in Parliament. This campaign has already produced its share of reversals, but at the moment Shinui looks likely to displace a religious party, Shas, as the third-biggest faction. That doesn't seem like a bad thing to me. Glancing at their website, they seem kind of liberal, but they want to end the exemption of the religious from the draft. I find conscientious objectors tiresome — not everybody has to drive a tank or be an infantryman. Every army needs somebody to type up the morning report, carry stretchers, or set up communications gear, to name just a few options. Attempts to turn Israel into a state based on Halacha (Jewish religious law) endanger our future. We seek to separate state and religion, while preserving the country's Zionist character.I'm not sure, but I think if I was an Israeli, I'd probably be voting for them. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Huh... What's a "moderate Palestinian"? |
| Posted by: Caton 2003-01-18 06:02:54 |
| #1 I really like this guy. Israel needs more of him, and less of Shas and their ilk. |
| Posted by: Tripartite 2003-01-17 23:06:47 |