It was almost exactly a year ago that Israel and the world witnessed the birth of a hybrid government the likes of which had never been seen before.
Eight disparate political parties joined together to form Israel's 36th government since its creation as an independent state in 1948. They were Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Yamina, the Labor Party, Yisrael Beiteinu, New Hope, Meretz, and the United Arab List, with the latter being a non-Jewish anti-Zionist Arab party with ideological links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Meretz is a post-Zionist party that is more serious about gay rights than old fashioned Zionism. Yamina is ostensibly a modern Orthodox party but it saw no shame in joining with the anti- and non-Zionists.
Be that as it may, all these parties were united by one main goal, to oust sitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leader of the right wing Likud party.
A year ago, after the formation of this ill-conceived government, I wrote an article published on Arutz Sheva "To Dream The Impossible Dream - Israel's Coalition" predicting that a house divided against itself will not stay up for very long. Sure enough, over the last few weeks the pace of the dissolution of this government has heated up with its final demise expected any day now.
And how could it last with the United Arab list party demanding exorbitant ransoms and blackmail to give the hybrid coalition its votes in the Knesset to keep the government intact? But that game is over now as the well runs dry and people are tired of doling out mega baksheesh to the extortionists who are enemies of the Jewish state.
Israel needs to do a lot of soul searching and find a way out of having the Arab parties holding the balance of power in the Knesset. The United Arab List has four seats and the Arab Joint List has six seats, making a total of ten seats in the current Knesset. The Arabs have a strong political voice in Israel and as we have just witnessed this past year. over the fate of Israel's Jews. Arabs should be able to have autonomy over their own lives in the towns they live in but they should not be given veto power over the affairs of the Jews in the one and only Jewish homeland.
Similarly with Avigdor Liberman's "Yisrael Beyteinu" party, supported by hundreds of thousands of non-Jews from the former Soviet Union whose main pasttime is taking pot shots at the devoutly religious haredi and chardal Jewish population that only seeks to strengthen its own levels of Jewish observance and devotion to Torah study. It would take a very long list to enumerate the number of times Liberman has attacked the haredim of Israel, its political and rabbinic leaders and now the Talmud itself. He is obsessed with the religious and baits them incessantly as if he has no other problems in the world.
Liberman also attacks the Orthodox Chief Rabbis of Israel for standing in the way of granting quickie conversions to his non-Jewish Russian constituency who have no desire to become religiously observant.- actually, surveys have shown that 80% do not even want that quickie conversion Such people should not be given veto power over the Jewish state of Israel which they just want to turn into another useless "Birobidzhan".
You can't predict what every wearer of a Kippa (Yarmulka or skull cap) will do. Certainly not in the case of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who promised before the last elections not to form a partnership with the leftist parties but did a quick about face when he saw an opportunity to put himself at the head of just such a left-wing coalition. Now the time of reckoning has come, as some of his truer right-wing supporters are jumping off his sinking ship because they have had it with all the craziness in this government.
Matan Kahana of Bennett's own Yamina party is another stain on the history of this government, with his constant attempts to reform the status quo of Orthodox Judaism in the Jewish state. In particular his shoddy treatment of the current Chief Rabbis and the institutions of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel were displays of anti-traditional Judaism incivility aka Chutzpa not seen on such a scale since the dawn of the Reform Movement.
What can one say about the former allies of Netanyahu who deserted him and jumped ship some to form their own parties for personal reasons?. What exactly has Gideon Saar achieved with his "New Hope" party? What great achievements did Benny Gantz accomplish with his "Blue and White" party? What did Labor and Meretz do except try to promote gays and try to destroy male and female gender identity in Israel? And as for Yesh Atid, no one seems to know exactly what they stand for as a political party in Israel.
It is time to get on with buildinng a functional, Jewish and Zionist government. We live with the hope of a better tomorrow and are waiting to hear better news from Israel.
Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin is president and founder of the Jewish Professionals Institute. An alumnus of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and Teachers College, Columbia University, he has dedicated his life to Jewish outreach and education, served for 7 years as full-time director of Sinai Heritage Centers in Manhattan and 3 as an AJOP trustee, .among many oher endeavors. [email protected]