As Israel's Political Parties Fight for Role of Kingmaker, Religious

Selected articles concerning Israel, published weekly by Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim’s (Baltimore) Israel Action Committee Edited by Jerry Appelbaum ( [email protected] ) | Founding editor: Sheldon J. Berman Z”L Issue 8 8 1 Volume 2 1 , Number 1 2 Parshas Vayikra March 20 , 20 2 1 As Israel’s Political Parties Fight for Role of Kingmaker, Religious - Secular Divide Comes to the Fore By Haviv Rettig Gur timesofisrael.com March 15, 2021 Two very different parties have found in each other lawmakers and some Haredi party activists sharing p hotos the perfect enemies. of emaciated bodies being carried on wheelbarrows during Eight days to election day, the race between the pro - the Holocaust. and anti - Netanyahu camps is close. So close, in fact, that The video clip of that line went viral on Hebrew - neither side can hope to piece together an effective language social media. Few noticed the exchange that government. followed, in which Liberman went on to explain If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu manages to something important about his campaign strategy — he eke out a slim majority, it will likely b e so slim that he will needs to boost support by driving secular voters to the find himself forced to cater to the whims of the most polls. right - wing lawmakers on the ballot. Netanyahu’s Challenged again by Asayag that he cannot push both opponents, meanwhile, theoretically led by Yair Lapid of Netanyahu and the Haredi parties out of government Yesh Atid, may well be too divided and diverse to produce simultaneously and will end up “hugging [Shas leader a manageable coa lition. Aryeh] Deri l ike in the good old days” to push out the Each side is looking for any way out of the deadlock. premier, Liberman made clear that his fight was with the Netanyahu has launched an unprecedented campaign for Haredi parties — his most profitable foils if his goal is to support from Arab voters and at the same time is pushing send secular people to the ballot box — not Netanyahu. far - right Otzma Yehudit into the Knesset. Lapid, Gideon “Listen,” Liberman responded, “The govern ment is Sa’ar and other leaders of t he anti - Netanyahu camp are the Haredim, it’s not Bibi. Bibi is a hostage.” working on finding a viable formula for unifying their “His only fight is to survive politically and legally. He’s disparate parties. willing to give everything,” he added, listing Ra’am leader Many other factions are trying to take advantage of the Mansour Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal as standoff in the hope of playing kingmaker after election potential coalition partners of the Likud head. day. The Islamist party Ra’am, for example , has detached Challenged again, this time by Berkovic, that the polls from the Arab - majority Joint List to mount its own run, nevertheless suggest Liberman will need either Likud or promising to deal with anyone who wins the election, even the Haredi parties to form a coalition, Liberman finally the disliked Netanyahu, in order to deliver budgets and offered a clear statement of a path out of the deadlock. government attention to its marginalized Bedouin and “In cities wi th a clear secular majority, a million people Arab constituents. failed to show up at the ballot box” in previous rounds of Meanwhile, the Russian - speaking secularist Yisrael voting, he said. “If a third of that number shows up, that’s Beytenu party, led by Avigdor Liberman, and the 10 seats, that’s a decisive win.” Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism, have “So you’re calling on secular people to vote?” adopted a different strategy. In tandem, the two have Berkovic asked. focused their campaigns over the past two weeks on e ach “You must call for all the secular people to vote,” other, building their final campaign push ahead of election Liberman replied. day on the ominous warning that the other is an existential “We call on everyone to vote,” said Asayag. threat to their constituents. Two - way street Wheelbarrows and landfills Many condemned Liberman’s landfill comment, from On Friday, in an interview with the Channel 12 talk Likud and Yamina, on the right, to Labor and Meretz on show hosted by Eyal Ber kovic and Ofira Asayag, the left. But Un ited Torah Judaism went further, much Liberman was asked if he would consider serving in a further. coalition with the ultra - Orthodox parties if it meant It pivoted its entire campaign on a dime, turning ousting Netanyahu. Liberman and his wheelbarrow into campaign posters and Which was more important, Asayag asked, “Sending videos, newspaper ads, tweets and photo ops. It has since Bibi [Netanyahu] packing or Avigdor [not sitting] with th e spoken about little else. Just as Liberman fou nd a perfect Haredim?” nemesis in them, they found one in him. His answer: “The Haredim together with Bibi in one On Sunday, UTJ’s Knesset members gathered around wheelbarrow to the nearest landfill.” a wheelbarrow for photographs, taking the opportunity to The comment drew a torrent of criticism over the label Liberman mentally ill and anti - Semitic, and to weekend, with accusations of anti - Semitism from Haredi demand he be prosecuted for incitement. Foc us o n Israel March 20, 2021 Page 2 Libe rman “knows about garbage dumps,” party chief wrote on Twitter: “The coalition of Netanyahu, Smotrich, MK Moshe Gafni said at the photo op, “because he smells Deri, Gafni, and Abbas is a fundamentalist coalit ion that it all the time. He lives it.” wants to turn Israel into Iran and will put an end to the MK Israel Eichler added: “We’re not just talking about vision of Israel as a Zionist and liberal country. I suggest to simple bigotry of a crazed enemy, but about a concrete Gafni, Smotrich, and the rest of those partners, to reread threat and a life - threatening call to arms. Israel Police and Herzl’s book ‘The Jewish State,’ with an emphasis on the the state prosecution must investigate him on suspicion of chapter, ‘Theocracy.’” serious incitement against Haredi Jews.” It is the Haredi parties, he insists, who are inciting A Sunday campaign video addressed undecided voters, hatred, as when UTJ MK Yitzhak Pindrus insisted last asking, “Still debating who to vote for?” It played week that women soldiers, primarily Russian - speaking, Lib erman’s landfill clip and said: “Only a strong United who convert to Judaism in the IDF’s Orthodox Torah Judaism will leave this thing” — it wasn’t clear if conversion program remain “shiksas, ” a pejorative Yiddish “thing” meant the comment or the man — “in the term for non - Jewish women. television studios.” A United Torah Judaism newspaper ad featuring the Another video released the same day featured a face of Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, wheelbarrow alongside the wor ds, “Yvet [Liberman’s given published in Haredi newspapers on March 15, 2021. The Russian name], we found a wheelbarrow for the coming text reads: ‘Either he wheelbarrows us all to the gar bage term that can carry you from studio to studio” — dump, or we all run to vote [UTJ]. Beating the incitement suggesting that he will be spending the coming term not in at the ballot box!’ power, but in the opposition, with plenty of time for “’Shiksa’ soldiers, ‘Nazi’ cops and soldiers, ‘goyim’ television in terviews. Russians, ‘sucker’ secularists,” he wrote on Twitter on UTJ is preparing a formal incitement complaint Monday, referring to oft - heard slurs from Haredi activists against Liberman to the Central Elections Committee and over the years. “In these days of wild incitement by the has promised to propose a bill amending racism laws so he Haredim, there’s one party that tells the truth and doesn’t could be prosecuted for such comments in the future. try to ingratiate itself — this time we’re putting an end to Why has United Torah Judaism’s campaign become so the rule of Shas and United Torah Judaism.” consumed by Liberman’s comment, however indelicate or And as the Haredi parties tell it, it is Liberman who objectionable it may have been? seeks to destroy the ultra - Orthodox way of life. The answer is straightforward: UTJ is not threatened A startling ad placed by UTJ in Haredi newspapers on by Liberman. It hopes to be rescued by him. Monday showed Liberman’s face, a wheelbarrow and the The Haredi party has be en worried about its ballot - dire warning: “Either he wheelbarrows us all to the landfill, box prospects for some time because of intense frustration or we all run to vote [ UTJ].” felt by many of its voters over the party’s handling of the It urged: “Beat the incitement at the ballot box!” pandemic crisis. Many ultra - Orthodox believe their At core, Liberman and UTJ’s chief Moshe Gafni face community was unfairly singled out for criticism over the same problem. Their respective parties and broader fail ures to adhere to social distancing rules, and feel their political camps seem close to victory; nevertheless, they representatives were not there to defend them. have each remained maddeningly far from it for two long One campaign video last week tried to tackle the anger years. head - on, showing one MK after another explaining that Each is threatened from within their camp — they made mistakes, that “we accept the cr iticism,” and Liberman, from secularist challengers like Yesh Atid and “we’re not perfect.” others, UTJ, by the streaming of frustrated Haredi voters Now, eight days to the election, as if sent by the toward religious Zionism.

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