After hearing a speech from one of Smotrich’s MKs
The other night I was invited to hear a presentation by MK Ohad Tal of Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party. The audience was comprised of English-speaking seniors who never seemed to have learned Hebrew. I was absolutely shocked by what the speaker fed to a gullible crowd of voters – men and women who are staunchly Zionist but somewhat disconnected from much of what is happening owing to their lack of Hebrew language skills and access to critical media and other information sources.
But Mr. Tal’s oration was an eye-opener for me as I had long wondered how exactly his party (especially his party) can rationalize their underwriting of the draft evasion law that is being cooked up by Boaz Bismuth at Bibi’s behest.
Following is the letter I sent the next day to the organizer of this event, a man I respect and who surely had the best of intentions when arranging this gathering.
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Dear ––-,
I – and I am hardly alone – was vastly more disappointed by last night’s presentation than I imagined I would be.
No one really expects to acquire great enlightenment from a Smotrich flunky. But we also don’t expect the sort of stale cheerleader smoke that one might have been subjected to at a Flastbush Hadassah luncheon in 1967.
The litany of miracles was pathetic. Indeed, the ONLY miracle is that Israel survived October 7th, and certainly no thanks to a governing coalition comprised primarily of men who have little or no skin in the game (past, present or future) in the defense of our country.
Bibi’s government was asleep on October 7th and, refuses to accept responsibility for the murder of some 1200 innocent Israelis, and thwarts any effort to mount an impartial investigation into how it happened.
Of course, anyone with half a brain knows the blame lies squarely at the feet of Bibi and the all bought-and-paid-for sycophants and cynics who comprise his cabinet.
But the absurd Had Gadya of miracles was hardly the most disturbing aspect of last night’s dog and pony show.
The speaker had the audacity to regurgitate the overcooked talking points concocted by Bibi’s little gang of Qatari-funded spinmeisters regarding the Haredi draft-dodging cancer which they so self-servingly aid and abet. And to airbrush this horror show by preaching Jewish “identity” is disgusting. Because no sector of our society is more willfully disenfranchised from Jewish national identity than a sector that feels zero connection or responsibility to (let alone for) the ‘klal’.
To argue that haredim really want to serve in the IDF but only need the right conditions is a baldfaced lie.
Just a few months ago the leading sage of the haredi community – Dov Lando – who is known to be VERY precise in his language – stated in so many words that he would prefer an Arab regime.
Right before Pesach, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh – historically the least reprehensible haredi yeshiva – stated that בכל דוד ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותנו , “in every generation they rise up to destroy us “, refers in our time to the State of Israel. And these two characters are hardly the worst of the lot that steers, guides and controls the embezzling hoards who are sucking the lifeblood of our defenders and the money of our taxpayers; for indeed ‘taxpayer’ and ‘defender’ are synonymous.
The errant nonsense that the IDF does not want haredim to serve and that it is putting women into combat in order to thwart haredi enlistment is propagandist pornography. We wouldn’t need women in our tanks if we had enough male soldiers to man them.
The argument that haredim are itching to serve but cannot because conditions are not suitable is an obscenity. For one thing, anyone who knows even a smidgen of Jewish law understands that a whole slew of rituals and observances, let alone humrot/stringencies, are abrogated when it comes to military necessity. No army can, or should, pamper and pander to the partisan preferences of self-serving fanatics. Why? Because there is no end. Give them segregated bases today and tomorrow they will demand individual platoon mikvehs and camouflage colored combat shtreimels.
As for the fiction of haredim and the Netzach Yehuda battalion; everyone knows that the vast majority of soldiers in Netzach Yehuda have never been haredim. They are HARDAL (Haredi Dati LeUmi) the most strictly observant of the religious Zionists. HARDAL are loathed by haredim because they are living proof that one can be very stringent, very learned AND very committed to our nation’s defense. The only haredi-linked members of Netzach Yehuda are a handful of haredi-raised rejects using it as a way station on their exit from their communities. But Bibi and Smotrich and the rest of that gang of cabinet liars have used Netzach Yehuda as window-dressing, claiming it is a haredi-IDF success story.
The good news is that Smotrich’s party will most likely not make the threshold in the next election, if only because no self-respecting religious Zionist would even think of giving it their vote again. Of all the parties in Bibidom, none has more greatly betrayed its electorate. At least the Goldknopf gang makes no secret of their cynical and self-serving agenda. No one among the general populace harbors any illusions about who they are and what they want.
As for King Bibi and his personal Marie Antoinette, let us hope they will be gone for good. They behave exactly like Banana Republic despots. They ship one military-age son – at taxpayer cost of 1.2 million shekels per year – to Miami Beach where he leads the life of a playboy while his peers are dying in Gaza and Lebanon. They dispatch another army-age son to England where, under a fresh surname, he is buying property with money from … from … from … from … Anybody? Anybody?
Banana republic dictators do this because they are hedging their bets against a time when they can no longer fleece their country, and want to be ready to flee in style. So they plant their boys in Miami or London and keep Wing of Zion gassed up and ready at moment’s notice.
We deserve better. Much, much better. And hope and pray that come October – the voters will deliver massive change.
Warmest regards,
JJ Gross