Tzipi Hotobeli, who turned 30 last month, is a religious woman who surprised many by finishing in the top 16 in the Likud primaries - just weeks after she made an abrupt decision to enter politics.
Land of Israel, Jewish Education, Public Relations
A skilled orator who has been a regular for three years on a weekly political television program, Hotobeli says she plans to be active in three areas in the Knesset: Keeping the Land of Israel for the Jewish People, education and Jewish identity, and public relations for Israel.
Veteran TV and print journalist Dan Margalit is credited with giving her a national name. “I met her by fluke a few years ago,” Margalit said on Tuesday, “when we needed someone on very short notice [for a short TV item], and someone happened to mention that she knew this girl Tzipi who could do it... She made such a positive impression that I immediately offered her a spot on the new political debate show that we were starting on Channel Ten.”
Hotobeli herself thanks Margalit, “and I told him yesterday that it’s his fault that I made it to the Knesset. He even told me, when we first met, that I might make it to the Knesset one day.”
Margalit has written that her talented and straight talk angered many in Kadima and Labor, and that he was often pressured to remove her from the show. "I said that if they ever succeeded in getting her off the show, I would resign along with her," Margalit wrote.
Voice of Israel radio talk-show host Yaron Dekel, interviewing both her and Margalit, asked her, “Did it bother you that you were chosen to represent the right-wing slot on that show?”
Four Against One
Hotobeli responded, “That’s a bit of a strange question. The question should really be why there were four left-wing and extreme left-wing veteran journalists on one side, and only one young woman representing the nationalist, Land of Israel camp. After all, everyone knows that within the public, the voting patterns have shown that the nationalist camp is much stronger than that… I was very proud to represent these views; as Dan said, I was neither extreme right-wing nor lukewarm right-wing.”
“I spent three years criticizing politicians on that show,” she added, “and coming to realize the extent of the corruption in the system, as well as the opportunism of Kadima, which spent all its time promoting not ideology, but its own political survival.”
Instead of Complaining
Asked when she decided to join politics, Tzipi said, “You might be surprised, but it happened about a month ago, when Mr. Netanyahu proposed that I run in the Likud primaries and that he would support me. I believe that instead of just complaining about the sorry state of Israeli politics, those of us who have the ability and the opportunity to try to actually do something to change it must do so.”
“I am happy that I got in to the Likud by the front door,” she said. “I spent these last three weeks meeting the voters wherever I could… I spent in total only about 60 or 70,000 shekels – the same amount that some politicians spend for Election Day alone – and I was fortunate to have the help of many volunteers... Yes, I was totally surprised that I did so well [finishing 16th in the primaries]; as a religious woman, I attribute it first and foremost to G-d’s help.”
In Begin’s Camp
As the polls continue to show that the Likud will receive at least 35 seats in the coming national election, two months from now, it is a given that barring unforeseen developments, Hotobeli will soon be a Member of Knesset. Asked about her goals for her Knesset term, she said, “For one thing, my goal in the Knesset is to stop the next Disengagement. In terms of security and the Land of Israel, I am in Benny Begin’s camp, very much in the nationalist sector. I am proud of our new Knesset list’s hawkish stance; we present a clear alternative to Kadima…”
“The Disengagement [from Gush Katif and northern Shomron] was a very non-democratic act,” she feels, “and when you read [then-IDF Chief of Staff] Moshe Yaalon’s book, you see how much corruption was involved… Binyamin Netanyahu has enough integrity not to take a similar path.”
“My second goal is education. [Outgoing Education Minister] Yuli Tamir tried to universalize the system, taking it far from tradition and Judaism; I want to work to change that. And third is hasbarah (public relations), making Israel’s case in the media, both internationally and at home.”
Israeli PR from Within the Knesset
On this last point, Hotobeli recently told Arutz-7 TV, “I want to continue the hasbarah work that I have been doing within the Knesset. It is not enough for a Knesset Member to be a man of action or a good parliamentarian; he must also be someone who can fight the PR war and someone who can persuade. Although many people have woken up and realized how wrong the Oslo process is, we need people who can present our case very effectively, given the fact that the Israeli elite in media and academia are still in favor of dividing our Land.”
Hotobeli said that she had been approached to run for a spot on the new Jewish Home party, but decided against it: “I believe in a national party, not a sectarian one. A religious party is concerned for its own schools and the like - essentially working for the personal good of its members. But we are not in the Diaspora; we are in the State of Israel, and we should strive to have an influence on our entire society and what it looks like. To do this, we need to work within large parties. I think religious people must view themselves as belonging in influential positions. I hope that I will be able to help lead towards upgrading our Jewish identity.”
Hotobeli, who has B.A. and M.A. degrees from Bar Ilan University, will have to take time off from her doctoral studies in law at Tel Aviv University to be a Knesset Member. She has been a Bnei Akiva emissary in Paris, and did her post-high school national service work as a Jewish Agency representative in Atlanta, Georgia.