“Dividing Society In Israel For The Sake Of A Few Seats”

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Special Note:

Due to the lack of internet bandwidth up here on Lebanese border, your humble servant will postpone a continued description of our trip to the north for the next two days.

Hilarious Quote of the Day

“Our mandate is between the Litani River and the Blue Line. Our mission is to ensure that there are no illegal weapons in southern Lebanon. We have no mandate to disarm Hezbollah. We strengthen the capabilities of the Lebanese Army in southern Lebanon and work with it in concert.” 

UNIFIL spokeswoman Andrea Tanti

To ensure that there are no illegal weapons in southern Lebanon?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

We are three days after a Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on IDF forces in Israel launched from southern Lebanon. 

We strengthen the capabilities of the Lebanese Army in southern Lebanon?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

In southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah are one and the same.

By the way, according to reports from Lebanon this morning, Hezbollah has rejected an Israeli request “to return to calm along the border.”

TODAY’S BLOG:

“Dividing Society In Israel For The Sake Of A Few Seats”

Yesterday, we heard a statement from one of the leading candidates in the upcoming election that completely underscored the need for OneIsrael:

“The system of government in the State of Israel has brought us to a situation where minority groups, sectoral parties, succeed in coercing the majority. They succeed because all the previous Prime Ministers have given in to extortion. They formed coalitions that worked for those groups, and not for the majority of the public. I pledge to you that immediately after the elections, we will establish a liberal unity government. A government based on the majority – without extremists and without blackmail.” 

Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White Party speaking at an election conference in Beersheva yesterday

If you do not live in Israel, you may not understand what Gantz was actually saying.  It was nothing more than a broad, thinly-veiled attack on the orthodox Jewish parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism. 

To Gantz, Shas and United Torah Judaism are “sects” composed of “extremists” that “blackmail” the government, not legitimate political parties that are merely representing the interests of their haredi constituents.

To Gantz, political parties representing a significant portion of the population should be excluded from his “new coalition” because they do not have the same values as the secular majority and because previous governments have tried to incorporate programs supportive of the orthodox population.

It is a blatant statement supporting division of Israeli society into secular and orthodox segments–not a statement which attempts to unify Israeli society. 

And it may be looked back on as a statement that rallied Shas and United Torah Judaism supporters to the polls. In an election in which 31% of the Israeli voting public is predicted not to vote, increased votes for Shas and United Torah Judaism might tilt the balance in favor of a “right-wing” government.

That is a big “might.” As I have previously written, momentum seems to be on the side of Gantz in terms of Blue and White coming out on top of Likud in the election. But Blue and White seems to be slightly cannibalizing other parties on the “left”. This may create a window of opportunity for Shas and UTJ.

UTJ members of the current government, Deputy Minister of Health MK Yaakov Litzman and Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni issued this statement in response to Gantz:

“The cat is out of the bag. After trying for a long time to hide his opinions and even doing everything to differentiate himself from his partner, Yair Lapid, today it turns out that there is no difference between them. Benny Gantz turned out to be a spineless man with no values. He has no problem dividing society in Israel for the sake of a few seats.” 

In sum, what we want to see here at OneIsrael is a government that includes the orthodox as well as the non-orthodox. A united Israel makes Israel stronger, not weaker.

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