How Israel’s healing process starts – the Elul Declaration

Author’s Note: in these times of anger and division, this blogpost tries to imagine Israel’s first step towards a unified future. It is not enough that we merely demand unity. We must provide an alternative vision and practical solutions.

Press Release, the Shas Party, 6th Elul 5784 / 9th September 2024, 11.00 – The Elul Declaration:

BS”D

“We, the Shas Party, make this Elul Declaration as a clarion call for national unity and inclusion, to bring return and renewal where there is discord and despair.

In making this landmark declaration, let’s be clear where we stand.

Israel has a big problem with elitism. Israel’s elites have done very well for themselves but many in Israel are struggling. They have limited opportunities, work long hours, face soaring living costs and unpayable bills. They see their way of life disparaged and dismissed. It may be hard to understand from the perspective of the elites, but there are many Israelis with bitter memories of how they or their parents were treated when they first came to the country and still today feel second-class in their citizenship as a result.

Our mission as Shas is to represent, proudly and unashamedly, this section of Israeli society – a large section of Israeli society – which remains under-represented and under-resourced, its voices not well heard by Israel’s established ruling class in their embedded positions within the civil service, the judiciary, defense, the unions, hi-tech, industry, finance, science, academia, and more.

Not only do we, Shas, seek greater representation and a voice, but we also wish to see our values – traditional Jewish values of Torah, scholarship, family and community – more widely reflected in the country’s ethos so that we can feel this is our country, our home, and no longer be treated as second-class in any domain.

This is who we are and what we want – our agenda. It is a sincere agenda, a noble agenda, and in many countries – including the Western countries to which our elites aspire – it would be considered an agenda of inclusion, dare we say, a left-leaning agenda.

The current government coalition was formed with an electoral mandate. We as Shas entered this government, in good faith, to realise our agenda, as described. It is a coalition representing those that fall outside Israel’s traditional elites, a coalition that we hoped would bring about some rebalancing of Israeli society to improve the opportunities and strengthen the voice of those we represent while building greater acceptance of the values for which we stand.

Another core Jewish value is unity – achdut – and ahavat Yisrael. Our historical experiences, many of them bitter, have taught us that unity, concern for klal Yisrael, must in fact have primacy among our values. When we are divided, when we hate each other, that is when we all lose: left and right, religious and secular, ashkenazi and mizrachi, and – in the context of contemporary Israel – we can add Jew and non-Jew.

It is in this context we can say the coalition has made mistakes. We cannot deny our portion of responsibility. As we pursued, in good faith, the interests of those we represent – the under-represented, the under-resourced and the under-heard – we went too far, too fast, without adequate communication, consultation or consensus-building. We failed to take time building wider societal understanding of our perspective, and its sincerity, and so we alienated some among our brothers and sisters as a result.

Not only did this approach fail to move forward our agenda of inclusion in the ways we hoped, it has in many deeply tragic ways been counter-productive. We cannot close our eyes to the sharp disagreements which we must resolve. These are issues that deeply affect millions of lives, and the collective soul of the Jewish people. The pursuit of zero-sum approaches – an approach where just as one side wins another side loses – has brought all sides out onto the streets with violent action, violent rhetoric, lashon hara. We cannot close our eyes to the deep distrust that now pervades our society. The capacity for government to achieve any goal, any agenda, is compromised when there is such distrust. We cannot close our eyes to the horrors of October 7^th and its aftermath. We cannot close our eyes to the plight of our dear beloved sisters and brothers held captive in Gaza. We cannot close our eyes to the existential threat that Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian axis pose to Israel, to the Jewish people.

The month of Elul is a month of selichot and teshuva – prayer, reflection, repentance, return, renewal. We ask forgiveness of klal Yisrael for where we went wrong. We commit ourselves to do better in the future. 

And so we wish to join with all our brothers and sisters to find another way, a more unified way. We have the seats in the Knesset that give us the power to shape the future of the country for the better, and that is our hope, if Hashem wills it.

We have confidence that, through dialogue, listening and working together, klal Yisrael will sympathise with our agenda of inclusion, and that we can pursue it not as a zero sum effort but rather as a positive sum effort – where we all win together. That is our chance, our only hope, as Israel, as the Jewish people, if Hashem wills it.

Now is not the time for new elections. We believe elections at this time will only exacerbate national division at a time of war.

Rather, we state our readiness to form a new coalition –  a coalition of national unity and inclusion – with parties that will work with us to fulfil our mission in a way that we all win together: to solve our problems, to close our divisions, to heal our wounds. 

To be clear, in standing up for unity, we do not negate in anyway who we are as Shas, what we stand for, our agenda for inclusion. Rather, recent experience has shown that working together is the best way to fulfil our agenda.

Therefore, we will be ready to work with parties that wish to join with us in a Coalition of National Unity and Inclusion, agreeing to the following principles:

Firstly, we put national unity before ideology.

Secondly, we moderate our language, and work to moderate the language of our supporters.

Thirdly, we find ways to promote national dialogue and listening, starting by setting an example ourselves in the Knesset, and then cascading out to every place and to every level of Israeli society.

Fourthly, we commit to promote inclusion in all its forms, and to do so without compromising the integrity and competence of Israel’s governance, political and economic.

Fifthly, we put all issues before us on the table, including the most sensitive – the war and the captives, judicial reform, the charedi draft, economic opportunity and the cost of living crisis, Jewish-Arab relations, the Israel-Palestinian future – and begin the process of working together, collaboratively, participatorily and consultatively, to identify win-win solutions, creative outcomes, that heal our wounds and let us walk forward together in peace and strength.

Sixthly, we refresh our national political leadership. The older generation of leaders must now step back and allow a younger generation to emerge. And we will find a structure through which the older generation will continue to share their experience and provide guidance, in line with our values.

Seventhly, we start work towards longer-term constitutional reform that provides for inclusion and representation while enhancing the stability, integrity and competence of government, and commanding respect, loyalty and admiration within Israel and beyond our borders.

Eighthly, we commit time, effort and resources to improve government communications at home and abroad. We will bring the best minds and leverage new technologies to rebuild transparency and trust.

With these pillars in place, it is our prayer that as a nation we shall together fulfil the teshuvah that is demanded of us by Hashem Himself: “Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)