How long will the disgrace continue?

Israel Independence Day according to Haredi media

Two front page pictures, that of the front page of Yaded Ne’eman and of Yediot Aharonot, on Israel’s Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers, which is also the eve of Yom Ha’atzmaut, tell the whole story. A government that prides itself as being Zionistic, relies on ultra-Orthodox politicians that are cynical and anti-Zionistic, aiming to extort State funds, enforce religious coercion and undermine Zionism.

Uri Regev 21/04/2021 01:10

Tags: Yated Neeman ·  Yom HaAtzmaut

Yom HaAtzmaut, source: Wikipedia

While the majority of Israeli and Diaspora Jews mourn the loss of the tens of thousands of young people who gave their lives for the defense of the land and the People of Israel, followed by a celebration of Israel's independence… Yated Ne’eman, the newspaper of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism political party, led by MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni (who is entrusted with control over the State’s funds as Chairman of the powerful Knesset Finance Committee) does not even hint at the pain of Memorial Day, nor at the joy of Independence Day. Rather, it devotes its expression of joy to the success of the ultra-Orthodox politicians’ demands that yeshiva and kollel budgets not be reduced at a time when many critical social services are being cut.

Unlike the previous week, when the newspaper completely ignored Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day, this time there was a reference to Israel Independence Day in the editorial, titled: "This is not the ‘Independence’ we prayed for”. Their position is clear: "We have not the slightest hint of joy on 'Independence Day' ... From a Jewish point of view, the joy of this day is inappropriate ... In the text of the "Declaration of Independence" read by David Ben-Gurion – there was not a single word of thanksgiving to God. The whole essence and wording of this document ... is a crude re-writing of history, not done innocently but rather out of an undisguised desire to destroy the 'old world' to the core ... "

The context for the anti-Zionist conception of the ultra-Orthodox political parties is often told in their official publications. For example, we could read the explanation of one of their leading writers in Yated Ne’eman, Rabbi Shaul Lerner, a few days earlier: He sharply criticized the initiative of an ultra-Orthodox student who wrote to the Ministry of Education, requesting the inclusion of ultra-Orthodox individuals in the Yom Ha’atzmaut Torch Lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl. Lerner writes: "The establishment of the State of Israel was accompanied by declarations of heresy and .. rebellion against the kingdom of heaven … as such, it is the complete opposite of all that Jews of all generations have hoped for in their return to Zion - the revelation of the kingdom of heaven ... Requests [to include the ultra-Orthodox in that national ceremony] do not represent the views and positions of the ultra-Orthodox public who adhere to the Torah. As has been expressed … by the great rabbis of every generation - we are to keep away from any dialogue with the general culture of the heads of state."

Omitting any reference to mourning for those who have fallen in the defense of Israel or celebratory reference to Independence Day, what Gafni and his party’s newspaper choose to publish on their front page is, instead, a shrieking assault on MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the first Reform rabbi to serve as a Knesset member...

In the same vein, the Yated Ne’eman editorial chose to call Theodor Herzl, after disgracefully misrepresenting how his Zionist thinking unfolded, "The Hallucinator of the State” [Hozeh Ha’Medina] instead of the tribute usually associated with his name: "The Prophet of the State" ]Chozeh Ha’Medina]. At the conclusion of the editorial, they mock and disparage the ceremonial closing uttered by all those who light the 12 torches at the event: "For the glory of the State of Israel."

Omitting any reference to mourning for those who have fallen in the defense of Israel or celebratory reference to Independence Day, what Gafni and his party’s newspaper choose to publish on their front page is, instead, a shrieking assault on MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the first Reform rabbi to serve as a Knesset member, attributing criminal conduct to him for helping the "Women of the Wall" exercise their right to pray as equals in the Western Wall plaza. In another editorial, the day before, under the heading "Lessons of Holocaust Day", the newspaper states that "Whoever facilitates and helps the entry [into Israel – UR] of murky streams and cults [that is - the streams of liberal Judaism that represent the Jewish choice of most of world Jewry - UR] ... perpetrates a spiritual holocaust which is as dangerous to the Jewish People as the physical holocaust."

Subscribing to an anti-Zionist and anti-pluralistic worldview, it is only natural that the supplements for children attached to the ultra-Orthodox papers, both Ashkenazi and Sepharadi [We checked Yated Ne’eman, Haderech (Shas party’s paper) and the weeklies Ba’Kehilah and Mishpochah] do not include any mention of Remembrance Day and Independence Day. Not a word about the those who sacrificed their lives in Israel’s wars nor the celebration of Israel’s independence, which made it possible for these parties to establish their institutions and fund them from the State coffers.

How long will the disgrace continue? How long will the public put up with the cynicism of politicians? How long will elected officials refuse to internalize the public’s desire for a broad civic unity government, which will not surrender to the ultra-Orthodox parties’ blackmail and erosion of the basic values guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence: Freedom of religion and conscience, equal civil and political rights without distinction of religion, race and gender?