By Marney Blom
Election day in Israel! Political preferences on the street were as diverse as the 34 parties vying for power. Who would Israelis vote for? Response varied widely.
“I guess I am going to vote for Labour headed by Shelly Yachimovich,” said Ori Katzir, former spokesperson for Ehud Barak. “As a principle I always vote for big parties. Voting for smaller parties is just undermining the stability of the political system.”
“I might do something radical and vote for the communists,” mused Navi Caspi, a resident of the east Jerusalem suburb of Gilo.
Last October when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called an early election he rode high on a wave of confidence. His re-election was all but guaranteed. Three months later the political landscape shifted.
The charismatic 49-year-old centrist political newcomer Yair Lapid and his newly created party Yesh Atid – meaning “There is a future” – took Israel by storm capturing the second largest block of voters.
Also the unexpected rise of the young modern orthodox 40-year-old self-made multi-millionaire Naftali Bennet, who had won the leadership of the right-wing Jewish Home party only two months prior to the elections surprised political leadership.
By the end of election night Bennett’s party had snatched up 12 seats or mandates – the fourth largest voting block. Volunteers and supporters cheered and danced, openly ecstatic at their party’s election victories.
“And one last word for the international press,” said Bennett at the close of his victory speech. “A Jewish Spring is sweeping Israel.”
Bennett’s party is set apart from Netanyahu’s Likud and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, is its strong Jewish Zionist priorities. Unlike Likud and Yesh Atid, Jewish Home is not a secular party. At the top of its list of mandates is a re-instatement of God, the Torah and Jewish law back into the heart and framework of the nation of Israel.
“We are caught between where we are today,” said Uri Ariel, a Jewish Home Party Knesset member contender, “and where we want to be according to Jewish law.”
Ariel opened his victory speech by acknowledging God through a traditional Passover prayer, “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe. Who gave us our life, and established us, sustains us in a time as this.”
But Bennett is most identified with, is his strong support of the settler movement and his vehement opposition to the carving up of Israel into two states attempt making peace with Palestinian Arabs. Bennett’s Jewish Home party contends that the land of Israel has been given to the Jews by God – even the land the international community calls “occupied territory” or the West Bank.
Bennett stands behind a bold “one state” solution to peace – unilateral annexation of Area C . It would mean removing 60 percent of Judea and Samaria from the Palestinian Authority and placing it back into Israel proper. According to Bennett, a Palestinian-Arab state within a Jewish state would be disastrous.
Not surprisingly, Naftali Bennett has evoked harsh criticism from the international community, but received growing popularity at home with religious Zionists – particularly young modern orthodox Israeli youth.
“If anyone supports giving away land that will be used as terror bases against Israel, Europe, the U.S.A. … and we become part of international terror, I can’t support that kind of person,” said 17-year-old Yaakov of Jerusalem. “Therefore I think we should vote for Bennett because he is against giving away that land. It’s that simple.”
Despite Naftali Bennett’s and Yair Lapid’s impressive election gains, Netanyahu is expected to be given the task of forming a new coalition government after winning 31 mandates – the most seats won by a single party. He will have a total of 42 days to cobble together a majority government through negotiations and backroom bargaining in traditional Israeli coalition-building style. If successful, Netanyahu will become prime minister of Israel’s 19th Knesset.
Bennett’s wins at the polls give him a good shot at becoming a partner in a newly formed coalition government. If in power, he could help curb the government from veering too far left into two-state political territory and away from traditional Jewish values based on the Torah.
With his victory speech concluded and the Israeli national anthem sung, Bennett may have exposed the underpinnings of his party’s mandates by leading the Jewish Home party in a popular Israeli wedding song which opens with the lines:
“I believe, with a complete belief in the coming of the Messiah, and even though he may tarry I will wait for him whenever he comes.”
Marney Blom, Acts News Network, Ramat Gan, Israel
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