By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — In view of the high birthrate and the closeness of its communities, we shouldn’t be surprised that the Orthodox sector did better in the Israeli elections than before. I hope that the following “report” isn’t true, but it reflects Jewish humor that makes you laugh with one eye and cry with the other: A man sitting shivah for his father called his rabbi to ask if it’s OK for him to leave his home for a short while to go to vote. The rabbi gave his permission and added: “Your father voted an hour ago.”
–Prime Minister Netanyahu’s campaign was extremely effective. His various pronouncements, actions and foreign trips were evidence of a skilled politician. It brought to mind a reflection by Israel’s first president Chaim Weitzman. Speaking about Nahum Goldman, the Zionist leader, he was reported to have said about him, “The man is capable, very capable. Capable of anything.”
–I came to think of it when I read that workers for Netanyahu’s Likud party had placed cameras outside voting stations in Arab towns and villages which may have persuaded potential Arab voters to stay away. In the last election, Netanyahu warned that the Arabs would come out “in droves” to vote against him. They didn’t then and they didn’t now.
–The low vote among the Arabs doesn’t serve them well. Had all of them voted for the Arab parties that serve their interests, they’d now have some two dozen Members of Knesset, almost three times as many they actually got. By all accounts, some Arabs have this time voted for “Jewish” parties. The left-wing Meretz may have been one of the beneficiaries.
–Though the next Netanyahu government will perhaps be even more right-wing that its predecessors, at least the party led by Naftali Bennett, the former education minister, and Ayelet Shaked, the former justice minister, didn’t get in, though they may appeal (and win?). The prime minister is probably overjoyed if they lose: they were a thorn in his flesh in the previous government.
–He’ll have plenty of thorns in the next one, too. Some of the new parties may make us come to regard Bennett and Shaked as liberals. Though several hotheads have been kept out by the electorate, too many have got in.
–Not all of that is necessarily bad for Netanyahu. Speculations have it that his political supporters will try to pass a law, based on one in France, that gives the prime minister immunity from prosecution. They may want to keep him out of prison, despite possible indictments, not necessarily because they love him, but because they fear that another election may not return them to power.
–On one level, the elections were yet another illustration of Israel’s vibrant democracy. But on another, there’re reasons for concern as some of those elected seem to believe more in their own power than in democracy. And the Blue and White coalition which will become the Opposition may not be very different from the government. The traditional alternative to Israeli right-wing politics – Labour – has been brutally defeated and its sidekick on the left, Meretz, has remained on the margin.
–In one of the post-election broadcasts I heard a respected journalist say something to the effect that pessimists are usually right but invariably very sorry about being right. Please read the above in that context.
*
Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Canada. Now a resident of Israel, he may be contacted via dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com
The real winner in the election was Israel for having another free and fair election.