Post by Moses on Jan 7, 2005 20:14:23 GMT -5
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
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Last update - 03:30 07/01/2005
www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=524116
....The fact that the Haredi public has been swept up in the type of nationalism that sanctifies land over every religious and moral principle has empowered the extreme right in recent years. Under this umbrella, the difference between Zionists and non-Zionists in the nationalist camp grew fuzzy, while the moderate religious Zionists, who are faithful to the tenets of Torah and labor, and the Haredim who advocate the pursuit of peace and modesty in the face of the world were marginalized in terms of their political influence.
The height of this pernicious alliance was seen in the 1996 elections, in the form of the slogan, "Netanyahu is good for the Jews." True, the slogan was coined by members of the Chabad movement, who continue to adhere to it, but large segments of the Haredi public in settlements across the Green Line, and also inside it, followed both the slogan and Netanyahu's rejectionist posture vis-a-vis peace. This political slant engendered a cultural code of tremendous influence, creating a harmful identity between religion and land. The decision of the rabbis who lead UTJ, and of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in particular, not to yield to the massive pressure exerted by the rabbis of Yesha (Judea, Samaria, Gaza) and their sympathizers within the Council of Torah Sages, therefore marks a refreshing change. Its gist is the return to the old values of the Haredim in an era that obliges them (as they well know and apparently have an interest in) to update those values in civic and public terms.
Even if the decision to join the government is provisional, the rabbis who brought it about were most concerned about the Haredi education system, the religious institutions, and the social and economic security of the Haredi communities in Israel. That security has a price tag, NIS 290 million of which has already been agreed upon, though that may be only the first payment. The price includes, among other points, the annulment of the reform in education, forgoing the core subjects of the general curriculum, and reconstructing the old structure of the collapsing religious services.
One can hardly scoff at this price. At the same time, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Limor Livnat and their colleagues in the Likud who used it (and other arguments, without balking at any means of persuasion) to sabotage the coalition agreement - and, effectively, to sabotage the prospect of advancing the disengagement plan - are to be condemned. ...
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