The situation is a bit different this time around. Shas is polling between 7 and 9 seats, and rather than shrug off the lower support, the party´s elders are running scared. They have purged the party of long-standing members who support former leader Aryeh Deri, and brought in newer faces, in an attempt to show a more united front to voters. But the real indication that Shas leaders have lost their way is the slogans they are using. Rather than highlight the party´s considerable legislative and grass-roots success, rather than highlight the accomplishments the party has made in the past four years, their main slogan is that by voting for them, you will be supporting Prime Minister Sharon. This is a blatant attempt to stem the flow of Shas voters back to the Likud.
United Torah Judaism remains constant in its support, as usual. Their constituency is solid and pays little attention to political maneuvers or stunts. And the National Religious Party, with its new, powerful, and charismatic leader, seems to be failing to attract new voters.
On the other hand, Shinui, the party that runs on a basically anti-religious platform, is showing indications that it will at least double its representation in the Knesset, if not more. They stand to be the big winner in this election. That is not good news. If the polls prove correct, it will mean that roughly one in five Israelis will vote for a party whose entire existence is based on hateful divisiveness within Israeli society. That is not even taking into account the 12% of voters who say they will support Meretz - another socially divisive party. In 1999, Meretz and Shinui together won 16 seats, representing about 20% of the vote. This year, Shinui could win almost that number on its own, with Meretz providing another half that.
How is it that a country that all polls agree craves a national unity government, a country that for much of the 1990s was beset by social rifts that led to the assassination of a Prime Minister and that agreed to allow terrorists bent on Israel´s total annihilation to set up a quasi-government in our midst, can now permit the growth of these two parties? Their entire existence guarantees a further widening of the social and political rifts in our society. Given that Shinui represents a total rejection of Jewish tradition, history, culture and values, and given that Meretz represents a total rejection of Jewish identity, power, and self-determination, it is likely that their power has less to do with voters supporting their ideologies than with the rejection of the ideologies of their opponents.
55 years ago, the establishment of the State of Israel was supposed to herald a rebirth of Judaism. The first decades of Israel´s existence were devoted to ensuring the security of the Jewish nation against a world that still despised us. It was our answer to the Holocaust and the millennia of persecution that preceded it. The dawn of the new millennium saw an Israel that could begin to look inward and redefine the Jew from within. No longer were Jews forced to live a Diaspora existence, with our identity defined only by those around us, for better or for worse. Jews now had a secure place to call home and could define themselves as they saw fit in terms of religion, progress, democracy and humanity.
In the last ten years, a multitude of issues have surfaced that need urgent attention if this redefinition is to be successful. Jewish continuity has been a buzzword since the early ‘90s or even earlier. Intermarriage rates outside of Israel are astronomical, with no sign of correction. Jewish identification with Israel has been called into question abroad. The number of people returning to the Jewish faith has leveled off, while the number of people removing their kippot is growing - even in Israel. Jewish education is in need of overhaul in many networks, and a modernization of attitudes in many communities is necessary. The religious parties in Israel, which should have been taking the lead in addressing these issues competently, have until now failed in this mandate. Rather than offering creative solutions to these problems, which their followers around the world can use, petty politics, narrow sectoral viewpoints, or sheer incompetence have been allowed to rule. If any proof is necessary, one need only look at the trends listed above - which show no signs of abating - and at the ascendancy of the militantly anti-religious Shinui party in the Knesset. It is time that the religious parties of Israel and their adherent organizations throughout the Jewish world take note of the disturbing trends. It is time that a serious effort is made to stem the growth of Shinui and Meretz.
It is time that religious Judaism offer something to the hundreds of thousands of Jews - religious or not - who are seeking real answers to their dilemmas of identity. Effi Eitam is a charismatic thinker, a man with harsh questions, who considered the answers carefully before choosing to become religious. But he has been handcuffed by his own party, with his power carefully limited. He is not being given the chance to offer new and better answers to the questions of identity being posed by the Jewish masses. United Torah Judaism is not offering anything new, and is making no attempts to increase their support among the electorate, even as Shas is falling apart. And Shas is allowing itself to implode over political infighting, while the social and educational programs they have spent the last 20 years carefully developing are allowed to rot from a lack of attention. Instead, one or two anti-religious firebrands are allowed to offer slogans and half-truths, which are getting the attention of the voters. Diaspora Jewry suffers, and Israeli Jewry suffers.
In the past six months, Shinui´s leader Tommy Lapid announced that he was against American Jewish immigration to Israel because it would "haredi-ize" the country. This, despite the fact that the vast majority of American immigrants contribute to society as a matter of course. But rather than capitalize on this blatant disregard for the entire purpose of Israel, Shas Health Minister Nissim Dahan this weekend urged secular Jews not to immigrate to Israel, and told religious Jews not to come if they felt they could not live here according to their beliefs.
The biggest threat to religion in Israel is Lapid and his party. But, rather than providing a real alternative to them, the religious parties in Israel are allowing him to gain votes largely at their expense. This virtually guarantees the prophetic outcome of Dahan´s words. Since Shas is allowing Shinui to win, the religious will feel less comfortable here, and people are liable to heed his words and not come. And that would be disastrous for us all.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
