Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is facing the reality that his political future rests in the hands of several different groups of religious political parties and their followers. It is crunch time for Netanyahu to make his deals or be prepared to take the stand in the court room when his corruption trial is scheduled to proceed ahead in December.
His immediate challenge is from his coalition partners, Itamar ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionists) whose parties hold six critical seats within Bibi’s 4 seat majority in the Knesset. Their demands appear to be ironclad. Meanwhile, the Charedi (ultra-Orthodox) parties have their own specific agenda. When Parliament reconvenes in October, they are insisting on making permanent military deferment of men who are studying in Yeshivot.
The Israeli Supreme Court convenes on Tuesday to consider the Knesset’s vote to change the country’s Basic Law and eliminate the power of the High Court to rule on whether actions taken by the Government must pass a test of “reasonableness”. If the Court rules against the decision of the Netanyahu controlled Knesset, it will present the Prime Minister with a critical test for his extreme right wing-coalition. If Bibi defies the Court, he will create an existential crisis for the future of Israeli democracy. If, however, Netanyahu makes any concessions to the Court’s decision, he could lose support within his current governing coalition, specifically from the right-wing religious parties.
Already looming for Netanyahu is his meeting with President Joe Biden currently scheduled in New York on September 21 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting. At present, the Israeli Prime Minister’s desired meeting in the oval office is--at best--on hold, largely contingent on the status of the judicial reform legislation, which Biden believes is a mistake. President Biden also will continue to push Netanyahu to bring his religious extremists in line to accept the fact that the U.S.-Israel- Saudi recognition package must include acceptance by the Israeli Government of legitimate Palestinian demands.
Meanwhile as Israel prepares for the New Year to begin next Friday, there is another major protest evolving in which the coalition is being tested, also by the religious Zionists. Demands are being made that the case against a religious West Bank settler, Amiram Ben Uliel, who had been convicted in 2015 of firebombing a Palestinian family in Duma, be retried. It is alleged that he was tried and convicted on coerced evidence. In addition, the religious extremists are insisting that his prison conditions as well as his sentence were unduly harsh.
The startling part of these events within the religious Zionist community is the weak response generally by the leaders and rabbis of this community. There are only a few rabbis who have explicitly criticized the blatantly anti-democratic positions adopted by religious Zionist politicians. This is true with respect to the matter of judicial reform as well as in the case of Ben Uliel. Religious Zionist rabbis appear averse to call out the fundamental disrespect for the basic institutions of government and its functioning being exhibited by the religious Zionist supporters. These rabbis are unwilling to criticize the actions of their own community and/or the Government.
Similarly, one is witnessing in the United States as well as largely throughout the Diaspora, a passivity by rabbis to criticize the actions of the Israeli Government. As these rabbis prepare to engage their congregants on the High Holidays, it would be reasonable for religious Zionist communities to expect their clergy to address these critical ethical and religious issues. At this point, it appears that a truly challenging response to the actions of religious Zionists in Israel is unlikely to be forthcoming from many Orthodox pulpits.
While the more progressive rabbinic leaders in the Diaspora will undoubtedly address many of these issues over the holidays, modern Orthodox rabbis—who are the co-religionists of the Israeli religious Zionists—will likely follow the Israeli Government. Many Orthodox rabbis continue to espouse a mantra which has long lost its saliency. They will suggest that it is not for Jews abroad to engage into Israel’s domestic controversies.
Israel can no longer demand of Jews worldwide to recognize as acceptable radical, extremist, anti-democratic behavior by the Government of Israel. Israeli leaders must recognize that world-wide Jewry goes to the well on behalf of the State of Israel in Washington, at the U.N., in Geneva, and the Hague. It may well have reached a point where many in the Diaspora find the actions of this Government to no longer be justifiable. It is necessary for religious leaders to confront the fact that not all political actions and behavior are acceptable. While the Reform and Conservative rabbis and communal leaders push back against the persistent and growing anti-democratic activities of the Netanyahu Government, Orthodox Jews ought to demand their rabbis and leaders meet the challenge as well.
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