The "National Union" Party's "Jewish Israel" Platform

Tuesday night I walked down to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem to take part in the National Union Party's christening of their "Jewish Israel" platform. The platform lays out the party's stance on several of the issues facing Israel and the Jewish People today.

One of the issues discussed was the observance of the Sabbath in the public domain. This is one of the major points of contention in Israel. For the observant Jew, the Sabbath is the Holy of Holies, and he is ready to sacrifice much in order to observe it. For others, the Sabbath is less important, and what interests them is having public transportation and open stores to shop at on their day off from work.

The National Union is proposing that the Israeli work week be changed to be in synch with most of the world. Instead of working from Sunday to Thursday, Israel will work from Monday to Friday (finishing work on Friday early enough to prepare for the Sabbath). The idea is that Sunday will be the day off where Israelis can go to the beach, shop, etc. and the Sabbath will be more strictly kept in the public sphere.

This is a very major idea, a game changer. I think that it is worth a try.

Predictably, the press ignored this item and concentrated on Rabbi Yehoshua's remarks on the LGBT issue:

“I have invested many hours in helping those who have difficulty in this area [of homosexuality],” he said. “But there is an illness that is spreading and taking over. We’re becoming a country that looks more and more like LGBT-stan.”

It was a great speech. Here's a pic:

The National Union's Knesset List

In spite of the war, Israel continues to prepare for the upcoming elections. The National Union, or should I say what is left of it (the Tekuma faction), selected its candidates:

After previously voting to place MK Uri Ariel at the head of the National Union party, members of the Tekuma Central Committee chose the party’s list for the upcoming Knesset elections on Sunday evening.

Ariel is followed in the number two and three spots by Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, former director-general of the rabbinical court system and Zevulun Calfa, former chairman of the Gush Katif Residents' Council. Orit Strook, chairwoman of the Yesha Human Rights organization, was placed in the fourth spot, and Rabbi Hillel Horowitz, one of the leaders of the Hevron Jewish community, was placed in the fifth spot. Rounding out the top six is Nachi Eyal, Director-General of the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel.

MK Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, who stood at the helm of the party in the 18th Knesset, was not placed on the list. Three weeks ago Katz asked the central committee to place him in the seventh spot on the list.

Ariel told Arutz Sheva before the vote, "This evening, we will choose our representatives for the next Knesset and with this list, we will sit with Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett and seal the final unification."

This list is almost as revolutionary as that of the Jewish Home: they are running without "Ketzaleh", and they have placed a woman, Orit Strook, high up on the list. This list also has oriental Jews, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan and Zevulun Calfa, high up on the list, something that was lacking in the Jewish Home list. (Personally, I do not think that "eidah" of a particular candidate matters, but not everybody thinks like I do.)

What is left now is to somehow bring back MKs Michael Ben-Ari and Arye Eldad, and to merge with the Jewish Home list.

A New Kind of "Jewish Home"

I saw a long line of people outside of "Beit Ross" on Najara Street last night. I recognized a lot of the faces: local members of the National Religious public. They were waiting patiently to cast their vote for the leader of the "Jewish Home" party.

Now, the day after, the votes are in:

The new chairman of the Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, made a victory speech shortly after midnight on Tuesday night. With all the ballots counted, Bennett defeated his rival, MK Zevulun Orlev, with a majority of 67%.

Now that is a landslide!

The pundits are noting that this is a changing of the guard. The younger generation of religious zionists, full of energy and internet savvy, have taken over the steering wheel. However, more important than the change of personnel is the change of vision. Bennett wants to change the "Jewish Home" from a sectorial party that worries about issues that affect the national religious public to a party with a much broader appeal and scope. Part of that vision is bringing Ayelet Shaked, his secular female cofounder of "My Israel" into the Jewish Home party.

Not everybody is happy with this turn of events. I mentioned in a previous post the problem of voting for a secluar candidate. On the other hand, the "Chardali" people did not seem to have much of a problem joining forces with the secular Arye Eldad in the previous elections in the framework of the "National Union".

It will be interesting to see the list that will be chosen next week's primaries. Even more interesting will be the joint list of the "Jewish Home" and the "National Union".

In the meantime I saw this opinion piece by Meir Indor. It is definitely food for thought. Update: A very interesting interview of Ayelet Shaked. It's hard not to like the lady.

Kfar Chabad Voted For the National Union

According to this site these are the election results in Kfar Chabad:

National Union 1400
Shas 200
Likud 170
UTJ 111
Yisrael Beiteinu 20
Others 19
Invalid 10

The Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l always instructed his followers to vote for the most ultra-Orthodox party. So now we know who they are! The National Union!

Israeli Police Surrender To Arab Threats of Violence

From (IsraelNN.com)

Ichud Leumi MK Aryeh Eldad is reportedly en route to Umm El-Fahm in order to replace Baruch Marzel as the party's election booth monitor there.

In response to the police decision to block Marzel from entering the city and carrying out his duty, MK Eldad said: "The Israel Police, apparently at [Attorney General Menachem] Mazuz's instructions, surrendered this morning to the Arab terror of Israel's enemies from within. The State of Israel has announced openly that it surrenders to violence, blackmail and treachery from the Arab sector."

The Commander of the Police's Amakim Region, Brig-Gen.Zohar Dvir, met Land of Israel activist Baruch Marzel at Barka'I Junction on Highway 65 and handed him an official letter announcing he could not enter Umm El Fahm. Police said the decision was "based upon intelligence reports of a serious danger to the public safety and in order to make it possible to hold elections properly and without disorder."

This is the same police that bends over backwards (no pun intended) to let homosexuals parade in Jerusalem.

I've Voted

This was pretty cool. Right after Shacharit, at about 7:10 AM, I passed by the polling station and surprise, it was already open. About five minutes later I was already done voting.

Who did I vote for? I voted for the list that best represents me and what I believe in, the National Union. I cannot agree with Jameel's and ZB's eloquent essays on why they are voting for the Likud. But you have to appreciate the amount of thought that they devoted to the matter.

Katzaleh's Commander: Vote For the National Union

Mystery Election Poster Redux

Last week I posted about a mysterious anti-Leitzman poster. This morning I saw two followup posters on the way to work.

The first one more or less clarifies what I thought about last week. The creators of the poster are still bitter about Meir Porush's defeat in the Jerusalem mayoral race and Leitzman's role in that defeat.


The poster claims that Leitzman gave the Holy City of Jerusalem over to the secularists and claims that there will be "less funds, less synagogues, and less yiddishkeit".

The glue was still fresh when I saw this second group of posters. However the anonymous hands that put these posters up were long gone. The poster says that "we all are suffering". The symbolism here is straightforward: the shtreimel represents the Hasidic community and the Fedora the "Lithuanians", both of whom are handcuffed by Leitzman's "agressiveness" and "domineeringness".


What still puzzles me about these posters is the bottom line: "Because of Leitzman there is 'another way' and he who understands will understand."

What is 'another way'? Is it to vote for Shas, or for the National Union? Believe it or not, last night I met a guy wearing a shtreimel who said that he is going to vote for the National Union.

I still don't understand exactly what the poster creator is hinting to.

Vote Orange Because We Were Right!

By The Way

Did you see that Comrade Tovya is back from a three year blogging hiatus?

And by the way, check out ZB's "The real reasons Israel can't play the violin"? Definitely worth the read.

By the way, check out Jameel's reaction to Lisa Goldman's article that I blogged about yesterday:

I'm not quite sure who qualifies as a Hebrew Language "prominent" political blogger, but her posted results are similar to those of the equally detached Tel Aviv University poll last week that gave the radical left Meretz party, 27 seats. (Meretz doesn't even have 27 people on their Knesset list).

During the IDF cast lead operation, there were tiny, insulated groups from Tel Aviv that demonstrated against IDF "war crimes" in Gaza, demonstrated against the "war", continued to go to Yaalin to throw rocks against IDF troops as part of the weekly radical leftist and anarchist violent protests against the security fence -- and in general, demonstrated their complete and utter disconnection from reality and empathy for Israel's southern residents, who have been under rocket threat for years.

These people demonstrated in the luxury of a rocket-free Tel-Aviv. They had no gumption to demonstrate in Ashkelon or Sderot -- either for fear of getting hit by rockets, or for fear of getting politically lynched by furious residents.

Leftists can declare they own the media as much as they want, which is probably why they got so incensed this past summer that the "First International Jewish Blogger Convention" did not include anarchists, anti-Zionists or Muslims.

By the way, Lisa has a followup to her previous article. It seems that some in the Israeli Left are sobering up, which is great news:

After years of voting for Meretz and for parties even further left on the spectrum, I have sobered up. There is not, and there never will be, peace between us and the Palestinians. I prefer to be the one holding the gun and not the one looking into the gaping jaws. In the social-economic field, too, we have absolutely no chance of being a social-democratic state.

With this insight, I prefer a party with an economic orientation that takes care of my needs. Because that way, on election day I will be able to take a double dose of anti-nausea medication and vote Likud for the first time in my life.

By the way do you know Why Diaspora Jews Love the Exile?

And by the way, Batya posted this video:

Great Article About National Union Leader Katzeleh

This was originally published in last week's issue of BeSheva. I'm glad that they translated it for the English speaking public. A snippet:

Patsi will never forget what Ketzaleh said to him during those blood drenched moments of fire and smoke. He recalls: “We had no medic and few medical supplies, but we did our best to help the wounded, and especially Ketzaleh, who was literally cut in two except for a part of his pelvis which somehow held his body together. It was obvious that without a helicopter to evacuate him, his chances of survival were nil, so I requested the command post to send one. ‘Negative’, was the answer I received from the assistant division commander, Yaakov Even, later promoted to General. ‘The air force refuses to send one because you are too close to the battlefront,' they said. For me, this was a moment that was just too much to bear.”

Ichud Leumi (The National Union)

For what it is worth, these guys are going to get my vote. Check out their web site to see where they stand on the different issues facing the nation.