Israeli Politics Final Paper

Israeli Politics; TAU

Spring 2019; Klauber

Monday, May 20, 2019

1

Unit 14: Politics & Religion in Israel

Number Notion Quote

1. Freedom of Religion "The state of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering

of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of

all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged

by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political

rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee

freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will

safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles

of the Charter of the United Nations"

2. Administration of

Religious Affairs

The individual communities are free to exercise their own face and administer

their own affairs.

Argument: One of the ironies is that in Israel Cristian and Muslim communities

are provided greater degrees of freedom and self-regulation than are some

Jewish communities. (Kohen, A., & Susser, B. (2000). Israel and the politics

of Jewish identity: The secular-religious impasse. Baltimore, Md.: Johns

Hopkins University Press.)

3. The Role of the

Ministry of Religious

Affairs

The Ministry's of Religious Services Functions:

 Appoints religious councils and covers budgets for religious facilities

and services;

 Grants financial assistance to yeshivas;

 Plans and finances the construction and renovation of synagogues and

ritual baths;

 Supervises Jewish holy places;

 Organizes Torah teaching activities and outreach;

 Organizes public religious celebrations;

 Cultivates religious ties with Diaspora Jewry;

 Certifies Kashrut in public and government institutions;

 Coordinates religious services of non-Jewish groups in Israel;

 Plans supplementary religious education for underprivileged youth;

 Provides Jewish ritual articles to new immigrants, schools and the

needy;

 Provides budgets for the Chief Rabbinate and rabbinical courts

Israeli Politics; TAU

Spring 2019; Klauber

Monday, May 20, 2019

2

Israeli Politics; TAU

Spring 2019; Klauber

Monday, May 20, 2019

3

Religious Zionism Ultra-Orthodox

History

Between 1947

and 1967

Between 1947 and 1967, the two groups had considerable overlap. They had virtually the same background with the

leadership having studied in the same European or British Mandate yeshivas. They had strong blood ties as well. They

shared the same goal to restore religious Judaism within a completely hostile secular environment. While they fought

each other on the details, they shared enough in principle to find a modus operandi.

1967

June 5-10:

The settlements have their origins in the Six-Day War pitting Israel against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel wins a decisive

victory, gaining control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from

Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. In the process it captures about a million Palestinians. Over the following

years, Jordan and Egypt drop their claims to the West Bank, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula while Israel annexes East

Jerusalem and the Golan. Israel agrees in a March 1979 peace treaty to return the Sinai to Egypt, and pulls out of

Gaza in 2005.

Philosophy and

the question of

Messiah "When

Will the

Mashiach

Come?"

Build and he will come!

Religious Zionists fueled with Land Messianism built

high schools and advanced yeshivas, especially those

with joint arrangement with the IDF for military

service; and parallel programs opened up for

women, with most there doing social service

instead. The Religious Zionists produced their own

rabbis and teachers, and their own theologies, and

no longer needed the Hareidi for personnel, books,

inspiration or validation.

Pray and he will come!

The numbers add up. An explosion in yeshiva-building—the

only industry they have—never stopped. Alienation from

general society and, for that matter, from the Religious Zionists,

was encouraged.

Eretz Israel The religious Zionism maintains that Eretz Israel was

promised to the Jews by God, and that no

government has the authority to waive this

inalienable right. In their view, inhabiting all of the

land of Israel is one of the most important mitzvot.

United Torah Judaism is an Ashkenazi, ultra-Orthodox party

that fights to make the Jewish State more theocratic, pushing its

laws to reflect religious laws and values. Encouraging settlement

building and discouraging territorial negotiations with the

Palestinians, the party espouses the view that the entire Land of

Israel is the divine right of the Jewish people. Angry that Likud

conferred authority over civil marriages upon Yisrael Beiteinu

and that it expressed a willingness to modify standards for official

conversions, United Torah Judaism previously refused to join

the coalition. However, Chief Rabbi of the movement, Yosef

Sholom Elyashiv, recently gave his MKs permission to join the

coalition with Netanyahu after agreeing to be more flexible on

marriage and indicating that he will negotiate on conversion

matters.

Party at Knesset Naftali Bennett

Party: The Jewish Home (12/120 at 2014)

Yaakov Litzman, Moshe Gafni

Party: United Torah Judaism (7/120 at 2014)

Army Service Should serve Should not serve

Subsidies for

super-large

families

Doesn't support Support

Sociological

characteristics

3-6 children 8-12 children

Dedication to family life, holidays and dietary laws,

prayer and halakhic process. That is a lot. But the

Religious Zionists also have in their basket

commitment to general society, secular education,

and work. These values make them closer to the

secularists than to the Hareidi.

Dedication to family life, holidays and dietary laws, prayer and

halakhic (Tora-directed) process. As they used to talk to

themselves, obscurantism increased on a par with poverty and

its ills. Secular education, as it was, ended in seventh grade. Boys

were raised to be physically unfit to serve in the army,

educationally unfit for higher education, and work became an

increasingly odd notion. Girls were raised to marry early, to be

submissive, to mother large families, and to find employment to

support all of them.

The evacuation

from Gaza in

2005

The evacuation from Gaza—foretold to be Divinely

impossible by the Religious Zionists’ religious prophets -

stopped the movement in its tracks. A small portion,

witness hilltop youth, decided to check out of general

society and even army service. Another portion

recognized that actually too much focus on Land and

settlers was a mistake, and directed their efforts elsewhere

to other religious and ethical concerns. The most political

group, including the conservative rabbinical leadership,

decided to hunker down and get the best allies they could.