Charedim and Bibi ‘rightists’? Pull the other one!
On this week’s Unholy podcast (Keshet), co-host Yonit Levi ventures that “the charedim have moved to the right. “Well, if you listen to the rhetoric of their leaders, Gafni, Deri et al, they do indeed dutifully talk about the importance of the ‘full-right’ government. But here’s the big news — the old terms of ‘left’ and ‘right’ barely apply in Israel anymore. And as for the charedim, they are socially and economically ‘full left’. Or anarchist-capitalists. You decide.
By what definition of ‘right-wing’ does a political group demand massive hand-outs from the state? That’s pretty lefty, in the old Soviet way of thinking (as is a kleptocracy, which is really what they represent these days). On the other hand, the number of criminal convictions, indictments and investigations into fraud among the charedi politicians (including in local government) is fairly jaw-dropping — let’s not forget that the Shas party’s leader, Aryeh Deri, has been in prison for fraud once and would have gone in again except for a plea deal (which he immediately broke), and it doesn’t remotely stop with him. So, if one sees fraud as feeding of the capitalist infrastructure, that would make them right (in the Gordon Gecko sense). On still another hand, they barely recognize the State of Israel, many of them in fact do not, and for years United Torah Judaism would not accept a ministerial post because of the implication that they do recognize the state; they would take a Deputy Ministership and run the ministry from there. So, breaking down the state? I don’t know — Marxism? And as for religious fundamentalism, that’s generally thought of as right, but really it’s its own special thing.
What Yonit means, of course, is that the charedi parties today, breaking from their traditions of decades, staunchly support the governments of Benjamin Netanyahu. Who identifies strictly as a “rightist”. He isn’t, of course. By some of the same astounding measures we’ve just gawked at with the charedim. Netanyahu’s Government has ardently led the charge to give massive hand-outs to the charedim — what is that if not a welfare state (-within-a-state) on steroids? Left-wingery if every I saw it.
As for the definition of lefty that most Israelis really mean when they use it — a measure of how open they are to some kind of rapprochement with the Palestinians and indeed Israeli Arabs — well, who was it who first strained every sinew to bring the Arab-Israeli Ra’am party into Government? Which longest-serving Israeli Prime Minister voted for the Gaza Disengagement? And publicly recognized the possibility of a Palestinian State, under certain conditions (exactly the language of left-wing leaders)? And almost always included left-wing politicians in his various governments?
And the charedi view on such geopolitical goings-on? I’m not sure they have one. I’ve rarely heard them say anything on the subject. I suspect they get along pretty well with Ra’am who, as a similarly religious party (different religion, obv.), somewhat model their own political behavior on the old charedi ‘give me what I want for my constituents and I will support you’ dynamic.
No, Netanyahu is not truly right-wing, even today, and the charedim are certainly not right-wing, even today. Even today, as their mobs stop traffic and trains, and they ‘warn’ Israelis to stay away from Tel Aviv, all because they refuse to do their bit and serve in the army, as we’re under existential attack. Even today, as lefty-righty-only-about-himselfy Prime Minister Netanyahu encourages them.
