'Fool me once, shame on you...'
Rav Aryeh Leib Shteinman, Shlita (May he live good and long days), the acknowledged leader of the Lithuanian Haredim in Israel, has ordered the Degel HaTorah (Lithuanian) component of the United Torah Judaism party not to agree to any deals with Prime Minister Netanyahu, effectively
killing for now any rapprochement between Netanyahu and the Haredi parties. But Netanyahu actually has to be pretty happy about this.... Note the bold language below.
Netanyahu hoped that UTJ and Shas would promise to recommend to
President Reuven Rivlin that he form a coalition after the election.
The prime minister was rejected Saturday night by Shas leader Arye Deri and MK Ya’acov Litzman of UTJ’s Agudat Israel party.
Shteinman,
100, put the final nail in the coffin of Netanyahu’s plan in a meeting
with Degel Hatorah MKs Moshe Gafni, Uri Maklev and Ya’acov Asher
Sunday.
“We will not sign any document with Netanyahu now,” Gafni
told Army Radio. “We will meet with Netanyahu after the election,
hopefully when we have more strength and [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid
has been weakened.”
Litzman said in an interview with Ynet that
“If they want us in the coalition, they will have to turn the clock
back on anti-haredi [ultra-Orthodox] legislation.”
Degel
Hatorah, Agudat Israel and Shas have been coordinating their strategy
regarding political maneuvers. They all decided against joining any
alternative governments that could be formed by Labor leader Isaac
Herzog or Lapid without an election.
“We will not form a
government with Yair Lapid or form a coalition with him,” Gafni said.
“We will support the prime minister if he initiates elections. We won’t
let anyone else form a different coalition.”
Looks like we're going to have another election soon....
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haredim, Israeli elections, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Yaakov Litzman
Are we going to new elections?
Channel 2 reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu may ask to
dissolve the Knesset this week and go to new elections - just a year and a half after the last elections.
According to the report, Netanyahu is considering three options, but
it is believed that his preferred route would be to dissolve the
Knesset.
The first option is for Netanyahu to wait until March 31 without the
state budget for 2015 passing its second and third reading in the
Knesset, which by law requires an election at the end of June.
The second option is to approach President Reuven Rivlin and ask him
to dissolve the Knesset. In such a case, 21 days will given for an
alternative government to be formed before elections are called,
possibly paving the way for Finance Minister Yair Lapid or Opposition
leader Yitzhak Herzog forming an alternate government with the hareidim.
The third option is a bill to dissolve the Knesset. According to Channel 2,
Netanyahu's associates are attempting to find out whether the other
parties in the Knesset would support the dissolution of the Knesset if
it is brought to a vote next week. Either way, Netanyahu is expected to
decide on the issue within days, the report said.
Netanyahu and the parties in his coalition have been at odds over
several issues, the latest being the controversial Jewish State Law,
which passed a Cabinet vote this week but which Lapid and Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni are opposed to and have threatened to vote against
when it comes to a vote in the Knesset.
I don't see Lapid forming an alternative government with the Haredim, and although Herzog could, his party's Knesset delegation is too small to pull it off. Arutz Sheva goes on to report that Netanyahu offered the Haredi parties a deal on Wednesday, but that the Haredi parties are denying it.
But the Haredi website Kikar Shabbat reported this morning that in fact Netanyahu has offered a deal to the Haredim and is awaiting a response from
R. Aaron Yehuda Leib Steinman (link in Hebrew). The deal on offer would have the Haredim agree to recommend that Netanyahu form the next government after the elections in exchange for being assured that they will be part of that government.
In Maariv's Friday edition, columnist Ben Caspit reported that Rav Steinman may veto the idea - recalling that Netanyahu made promises to the Haredim that he did not keep after the last election, and not wanting Haredi 'demands' to become the key issue in the election.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haredim, Israeli elections, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid
Deja vu all over again?
It's been 15 years since Jerusalem's largest demonstration ever - the official reports said 250,000 but organizers at the time claimed 600,000 attended (yes, I was there). It was a demonstration against what the Haredi community saw as the
tyranny of Israel's Supreme Court. What the demonstration was about should sound familiar to you.
Do the Haredim have a legal leg to stand on in their arguments against
the Barak Court? For the sake of illustration, let us examine one of the
cases which supporters of the court have repeatedly touted as an
example of its "restraint": The ruling on yeshiva deferments. In
December 1998, the court nixed a five-decades-old arrangement whereby
the defense minister was empowered to decide how many deferrals of army
service to grant to yeshiva students.
The court gave the Knesset a
one-year grace period in which to draft a law setting explicit policy
for such deferrals, but said that in the absence of such a law, all such
deferrals would have to be discontinued. The argument advanced by
defenders of the court was that the Haredim could not really be upset
over this issue, since the court had merely transferred the decision to
the Knesset-which is what the Haredim say they want.(47)
Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The court explicitly ruled
that the current system of draft deferrals was illegal. It permitted
this arrangement to remain in force for another year to give the Knesset
time to propose an alternative, but did not leave the Knesset the
option of restoring the authority to the defense minister, which was the
system that the Haredim, and the Knesset majority, had long preferred.
In ruling that the deferral policy was patently unreasonable, the
Supreme Court also created a public furor against the Haredi community,
and thus applied pressure on the Knesset to draft a far more restrictive
policy on the use of deferrals.
What further enraged the Haredim-a fact carefully ignored by those who
cited this ruling as an example of judicial "restraint"-was that it was
based on no law whatsoever, but only on the justices' opinions. Indeed,
the law in effect for Israel's first five decades granted the defense
minister the right to issue draft deferrals, and placed no limitations
on their usage. Relying on this law, the court itself had three times
previously rejected petitions on this issue. In 1970 and 1981, the court
found the entire issue non-justiciable-that is, inappropriate for court
decision-on the grounds that the reasonability of wholesale yeshiva
deferments was a political rather than a legal question. In 1986, the
court suddenly decided the issue was justiciable-though the applicable
law had not changed in the interim-but that the defense minister's
policy was reasonable. In the subsequent twelve years, the law still did
not change. Yet in their December 1998 ruling, the justices decided
that another important change had occurred: A numerical one. In
1986, there were 17,017 yeshiva deferments, or 5.4 percent of that
year's eligible draftees. By 1998, there were 28,772 deferments, or 8
percent of eligible draftees. That quantitative change, Barak wrote,
created a qualitative change that made it unreasonable to let the
defense minister decide on his own.(48)
It is hard to imagine a flimsier legal argument than one which says that
5.4 percent and 8 percent are qualitatively different. But even if one
accepts the court's reasoning, the point is that this ruling, like many
others the court has made on other issues, was essentially a value
judgment by the justices rather than a decision based on law-and it is this to
which the Haredim object. Opponents of judicial activism consider it
dangerous to democracy precisely because they believe that value
judgments of this sort should be made by a nation's elected
representatives rather than by an unelected court. In pretending that
the court had merely deferred to the Knesset on the issue of draft
deferrals, those who dismissed the Haredi claim against judicial
activism were deliberately ducking this argument.(49)
By denying that the Haredim had a legitimate grievance, the Supreme
Court's apologists were not merely engaging in a harmless form of
fantasy. They were effectively saying that no point of view other than
their own could, or would, be taken seriously. Such a stance leaves few
options for a minority that views its rights and prerogatives as being
stripped away by a process it has little hope of influencing.
Furthermore, it deprives the country as a whole of serious debate on an
issue of fundamental importance to all Israelis: The role and powers
that should be assigned to the various institutions of government.
In such an environment, where substantive arguments are suppressed or
dismissed, it is also difficult for any sector of society to persuade
others that it is genuinely aggrieved. This difficulty came across most
strongly in a post-mortem on the Haredi demonstration by columnist Amnon
Dankner. "There was clearly no vital, pressing and painful issue for
the Haredi public here," he wrote, "since if there had been, surely such
a large Haredi public would have been drawn into violence."(50)
Having refused to take the arguments by the Haredim seriously, Dankner
in effect tells them that the only way to prove they have real
grievances is by turning to violence. The implication that any group
wishing to have its interests taken seriously must resort to force is
the logical conclusion of a refusal to recognize opposing views when
they are communicated peacefully. As most Israelis do not want to live
in such a society, it is incumbent upon them to make sure that dissent
is permitted, respected and encouraged.
The reaction to the Haredi demonstration shows that the taboo on
criticizing the Supreme Court can no longer be tolerated as an evil
necessary for preserving the rule of law. It is an evil that not only
undermines the rule of law, but also a host of other democratic freedoms
and attitudes. The Supreme Court, which has done so much to advance
freedom of expression in Israel, must be allowed to be the object of
such freedom as well.
And yes, that's the origin of the current situation....
Next Tuesday, we will see a 1999 redux. Rabbi Ahron Leib Shteinman has given his approval for a massive demonstration to take place in Jerusalem. It's a demonstration against
the drafting of yeshiva students.
The
event will take place on Tuesday, 2 Adar 2 5774 to act publically
against what HaGaon HaRav Aaron Yehuda Leib Shteinman Shlita called “an
awful Chilul Hashem”, in his comments after hearing the Shaked Committee approved criminal sanctions.
Rav Shteinman’s immediate response was the atzeres is now required to
act in the face of the horrific Chilul Hashem and he seems uninterested
in the other factors, such as how the event will play out in the media.
On Sunday morning 23 Adar I it was reported that MK Moshe Gafne was working to persuade the Gadol Hador against the atzeres for this very reason, for Gafne is fearful the anti-chareidi media will portray it most unfavorably.
Back to 1999?
Labels: IDF, peaceful demonstrations, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Supreme Court
Shaked Committee caves in to Lapid
I suppose this was inevitable. A report indicates that the Shaked Committee, which is dealing with the new law to draft Haredim, has agreed to impose criminal sanctions on Haredim who don't go to the army. But only after six months....
According to the new compromise, the sanctions against draft-dodgers
will be criminal, not economic - but only for a six-month period after
the Equal Burden of Service bill becomes law.
If the hareidi community does not meet the draft quota during a
shorter transition period after the law is enacted, the six-month
waiting period will take effect; the waiting period will, in turn, give
lawmakers time to gauge the effectiveness of the law and whether or not
there are other ways to solve the draft problem.
According to the framework reached within the Quartet of the Shaked
Committee - which consists of Chairman Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), MK
Ofir Shelah (Yesh Atid), MK Elazar Stern (HaTnua), and MK Amar Bar-Lev
(Labor) - the compromise is meant to bridge the gap between Yesh Atid,
which has been demanding criminal sanctions, and Jewish Home, which has been pushing for economic sanctions.
The compromise, as drafted by Bar-Lev,
sees both needs being met. On the one hand, the hareidi community has
been given a shorter interim period to respond to the draft notice; on
the other hand, the waiting period allows for the implementation of
economic sanctions to return to the committee agenda.
According to a "senior source," several members of the committee are
still pushing for economic sanctions to be enacted, as a preliminary
measure before the criminal sanctions take effect; however, the
likelihood of the proposal being accepted is minimal.
And for those of you who think that the Haredim will run to join the IDF once this bill is passed... that seems unlikely.
Tuesday's announcement surfaces amid concerns that the prospect of
criminal sanctions have already alienated the hareidi community even
more from the idea of a draft, after the Shas party quit the Shaked Committee over the move. Hareidi
leaders have expressed strong opposition to criminal sanctions for
yeshiva students, and some pro-enlistment leaders have warned that
strong sanctions could create a backlash that would mean fewer hareidi men in the army, not more.
For what it's worth, there is a split with the Haredi community over how to respond to this issue. All of those who have been arrested for being AWOL have been followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, who have been told not to appear at IDF headquarters at all in response to induction notices. Meanwhile the followers of Rabbi Aryeh Leib Steinman have been told to appear but not to sign at the final stage.
Last week's
demonstration was organized by the followers of Rabbi Auerbach through their daily newspaper, HaPeles. Last night, someone showed me a letter signed by Rabbi Steinman and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, condemning HaPeles, and urging that it not be read. Where the split will lead if criminal sanctions come into effect is still up in the air. But there is apparently some division among the rabbis about how provocative the Haredim should be, and for now, at least, the authorities are only responding to those they deem most provocative.
Labels: Ayelet Shaked, draft, Haredim, IDF, Jewish Home party, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid party
Prominent rabbis: No need for gas masks
Two prominent Haredi rabbis told their followers on Thursday that there is no need for gas masks. Rav Chaim Kanievsky urged followers to fear only the day of judgment on Rosh HaShanna (which is next week), and Rav Aaron Yehuda Leib Steinman urged followers to
strengthen themselves in Torah study (link in Hebrew). I have translated part of the article below.
In the last 24 hours, Rav Steinman was asked how to act, and whether this time was different from previous times when Israelis tried to obtain gas masks (at which times Rav Steinman also said they were unnecessary). Rav Steinman calmed those who asked, and said that in this period, we must strengthen ourselves with Torah study and fear of Heaven, and to seek merits for the oncoming day of judgment (Rosh HaShanna).
The Torah protects the people of Israel, Rav Steinman said. There is no need for masks.
A group of married students at the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem sent a question to Rav Chaim Kanievsky asking how they must prepare for the expected war, and whether they should go to the distribution points to obtain masks.
In response to their question, Rav Kanievsky laughed and said that masks are for Purim (the holiday on which people get dressed up in costume). Rav Kanievsky urged his questioners to continue to be absorbed in their Torah study without any suspicion or fear regarding what may follow.
Last night, additional people came to Rav Kanievsky's Bnei Brak home to ask if there is anything to fear. He said that we must only fear Rosh HaShanna and to worry about our merits in God's judgment.
Labels: gas masks, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky
If you're so worried about Israelis being able to learn Torah, why not come to Israel and learn Torah?
From what I could tell from this heavily biased piece from JTA and the Jerusalem Post, Sunday's demonstration in New York against
drafting Haredim was largely the doing of the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidim.
Sunday’s gathering was promoted with banners in strongholds of the Satmar hasidic community. According to a Forward report
last week, the protest was deemed so important it brought about a rare
rapprochement between the group’s two warring factions, which split
after the 2006 death of the Satmar rebbe, Moshe Teitelbaum. Organizers
said they expected 20,000 people. One guy with a placard told me there
were 100,000 there, which was certainly not the case. But they came by
the busload. Hours after the event began, groups of hasidic men in
Brooklyn were still streaming toward Manhattan.
A report in one of the freebie Haredi handouts we get on our doorstep said this morning that there were 100,000 people there. However many people were there, it's less than could have been: The Litvaks (non-Hasidim) stayed away because Rav Aryeh Yehuda Leib Steinman and Rav Chaim Kanievsky - both in Israel - said not to go. Their word was backed up by Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and Rav Malkiel Kotler in the US. Better they should learn Torah and pray for the decree to be reversed.
But this is kind of rich:
The immediate issue which brought thousands to Foley Square Sunday is
the attempt to conscript haredi Orthodox Israelis into the army. A
parliamentary committee advanced a bill last month that would do just
that. But the banner under which the protestors gathered in Foley Square
on Sunday surprised me a little, as it’s one that has been largely the
domain of religious liberals: freedom of religion.
As one sign
carrier told me today, his religion requires him to sit and study Torah.
Any attempt to draft those like him into the military would be a
violation of his religious rights.
I don't think that anyone is trying to draft Satmar Hasidim in New York. Moreover, most of the Satmar Hasidim that I know in New York work for a living. Does the sign carrier sit and learn Torah all day long? I don't know. But if the sign carrier wants to come to Israel and sit and learn Torah all day long, we would be happy to have him.
In the meantime, I don't see the decree being reversed. On the other hand, I don't see it really being enforced either.
In the meantime, I have to go learn some Torah....
Labels: Haredim, IDF, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky
Women for the Wall
I received this by email (Hat Tip: Leah P). I realize it's probably too late for many of my readers, but next month....
Dear Fellow Jewish Woman,
I am requesting your help in an urgent project for Klal Yisrael.
You may have heard of a group calling themselves the "Women of the Wall," led by someone representing the American Reform movement. Their members go down to the Kotel HaMa'aravi on Rosh Chodesh wearing Tallis and Tefillin, read loudly from a Sefer Torah, and otherwise "go through the motions" of men's davening in order to make their feminist point. Through their confrontations with others at the Kotel and with police, and the group's enlistment of media'" the Women of the Wall have fostered strife and created a tremendous Chilul HaShem, especially in the United States, where they have successfully cast their political theater as a "women's rights" issue. Most recently, their leader, Anat Hoffman, called for the mechiza to removed daily from the Kotel at 9 AM and that the Kotel be redsignated from a religious site to a National Monument. Clearly, the sanctity of the Kotel is at risk.
HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman, HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, the Gerrer Rebbe and the Belzer Rebbe have all said that the groups efforts must be opposed. R' Chaim and Rav Berkovitch in particular have already given his blessing to our approach specifically.
You are exemplars of what a true Bas Yisrael is supposed to be- a very different image from that of the women seeking to change the character of the Kotel. Sivan is the month when we got the Torah and were mekabel ol malchus shamayim as a nation- K'ish Echad Bilev Echad- all in unity.
This Rosh Chodesh, Rosh Chodesh Sivan, we are assembling a large group of frum women to go to the Kotel and daven together, limaan am Yisrael, limaan Kdushas am Yisrael, Limaan the Torah, and Limaan Achdus Am Yisrael. We will simply be at the Kotel, being mispallel and reciting Tehillim - before the "Women of the Wall" show up with their media circus at 7:00 AM. The Women of the Wall have no more than 100 members in all, and we know that many, many more women who go to the Kotel strongly object to what they are doing.
Those who join us to daven to Hashem will NOT be requested or encouraged to interrupt their davening, confront the other women, or address the media. On the contrary, that would all be counterproductive. Simply by being present and standing apart, we will be sending the silent but powerful message that the attack the Women of the Wall have launched is not at all about "women's rights" but rather about trying to change traditional Jewish practice.
We urge you to please come join us on Erev Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh Sivan, May 10, at 6:30 AM. Please let us know if count upon you to encourage their participation.
If you want any further information about our group, our intentions, and the wide Rabbinic support that we already have "behind the scenes," don't hesitate to contact me directly. 050-710-1791 or 02-997-2261
Buses will be provided if needed.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ronit Peskin
Director, Women FOR the Wall
Ronit@WomenForTheWall.org
Kol HaKavod.
Labels: Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, Western Wall, Women of the Wall
Haredi MK's blast Bennett's plan for yeshivas
Several Haredi MK's have blasted Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett's plan to limit the number of yeshiva student
exemptions from the draft to 1,800 annually.
MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Yaakov Litzman stated “He is violating the
traditional and legal status of the bnei yeshivos who have declared
Torah study as their profession”. Litzman added that despite efforts to
set quotas and limit the number of talmidim who may continue learning,
“The Torah world of the yeshivos will continue flourishing
quantitatively and qualitatively and there is no power that will succeed
to harm those who are committed to a life of Torah.”
MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Meir Porush added “Anyone with a hand or a role
in the new arrangement that intends to harm bnei yeshivos and the
current arrangement, the arrangement that existed to date will be
remembered for eternal disgrace.”
“The eternal Jewish People have stood firm throughout history in the
face of many trials and tribulations. There is no doubt that we will
succeed in the face of these gezeiros as well,” he concluded.
Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev called Bennett’s plan “utter nonsense”,
confident it will not be implemented as Bennett plans. Ze’ev feels it is
impossible to limit of number of lomdei Torah to 1,800 annually,
questioning how such a regulation will be enforced. “There is no way the
Torah world and roshei yeshiva will agree to permit implementation of
the program. The idea of a quota system is undemocratic and reminiscent
of regimes of the past. There is a historical relevance to these
decisions.”
Indeed, the problems with this system are entirely foreseeable. Which yeshivas will have the right to designate how many of their students? What criteria will be used? Based on past experience in this country, it is likely that many of the slots will go to students in non-Haredi yeshivas, that the slots will be handed out based on
protectzia (connections), and possibly that the Haredi yeshivas will all be told by someone on the level of R. Aaron Leib Steinman or R. Chaimn Kanievsky not to participate.
But what's worst of all is that this system is not the answer to the country's problems except for those who seek to destroy the yeshivas. Reader
Aryeh Z, whose sent me the link to this article, had some very pertinent comments about it, which I am reproducing below.
Twenty-five or is it already thirty years after the IDF professionals requested that the draft be ended and that it be made into a professional army, we still have the draft. Let it be clear, there is no military need for a draft. The draft exists as a means of political and social control. It wastes Billions of Shekels and tens of thousands of people every year.
There is constant bantering about how the Hareidi community needs to change due to changing circumstances. Nothing is said about the need for the Secular elites changing due to changing circumstances. And that is the real problem. Israel’s elites have yet to abandon their dream of creating a Communist utopia in Israel. A utopia populated with a docile and obedient proletariat that will work their fields and factories. For the most part, they do not have any theological or philosophical problems with Torah. It is just that it gets in the way of their plans. That is why they are willing to throw a bone or two to the Torah community in the hope it will help keep them docile.
So let us focus on the real issues. It is not the draft, it is not the Hareidim, it is not the economy, it is tyranny. It is on the desire of the few thousand “aristocrats” desperate to maintain their privileges and high standard of living. This is not all that different from what is happening in Syria, Egypt, Iran and North Korea. We are fortunate that, so far, our “aristocrats” have not resorted to mass murder to retain power.
Indeed.
Labels: Haredim, IDF, Meir Porush, Naftali Bennett, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, Yaakov Litzman
