By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM–The major divide in past elections in Israel is said to have been between being Jewish and being Zionist. The Right claimed Judaism and left the Zionist rhetoric to the Left.
That’s why in previous campaigns, the Labor Party had to persuade voters that it was also on the side of Judaism, perhaps even on the side of God. At election time, its male leaders – i.e., the overwhelming majority – donned kippot that sat uncomfortably and unconvincingly on their heads and paid courtesy calls to celebrated Orthodox gurus, not so much to learn Torah as to be photographed with them.
It was taken for granted that the Left was Zionist, but it had to prove that it was also Jewish. It’s different this time. The Right, not least the ostensibly religious Right, also claims to have the franchise on Zionism. It accuses its opponents on the Left of being somewhere between anti-Zionists and post-Zionists.
That’s probably why the Herzog-Livni alliance calls itself –defensively – the Zionist Camp (in English, the Zionist Union).The bitter irony shouldn’t escape us: the grandson of a chief rabbi of Israel and son of one of its distinguished generals and respected state presidents, and who himself served as a major in Israeli intelligence, has to defend his credentials as a Zionist!
Likud even went to court to show that the Herzog’s Union is being financed by alien forces hostile to both Judaism and Zionism. The judges found no evidence and dismissed the case making Likud pay costs.
It’s as the most ardent exponent of Zionism that the leader of Likud and prime minister of Israel is travelling to Washington on Sunday. Needless to say, the American and Israeli Jews who think the visit is a bad idea are anti- or post-Zionists. This suggests, of course, that Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan and their allies in the region, who’re said to be in favour of Netanyahu addressing the US Congress – in the hope that it’ll harm Iran – are really Zionists.
Naftali Bennett – the leader of Habayit Hayehudi that seems to have identified the ambitions of the Jewish settlers on the West Bank as the only true manifestation of authentic Zionism – is travelling with Netanyahu. Herzog has prudently refused to jump on the bandwagon. He’s staying in Zion, but in the eyes of the Right he’s no Zionist.
Many Diaspora Jews I know who stay away from Zion want Israel to be both religious and Zionist on their behalf. Therefore, they – unlike Herzog – do jump on every bandwagon that glorifies the Right and condemns its opponents. Some have even turned against the New Israel Fund ignoring that the Fund practices the liberal values in Israel they say they espouse in the Diaspora.
Like Elie Wiesel, whom the Jewish world has come to regard as the iconic Super-Jew, they probably also endorse the visit. The fact that it may irk Obama adds to their satisfaction. (As they know that it’s bad form to be racist, they don’t say that Obama is black and therefore hostile, but they like to accuse him of being Muslim.)
Unfortunately, too many Israelis seem to agree. Had the Netanyahu advisers found that his visit will harm his chances of re-election, they might have helped him to make up an excuse to stay at home. But obviously their data suggest otherwise, alas.
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Rabbi Marmur, spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, now resides in Jerusalem. Your signed comment may be posted in the space provided below or sent to dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com