Religious Jews Fall Divided

By Shelomo Alfassa

Published in The Jewish Voice

(March 31, 2006) This week an election with the lowest voter turn out in Israeli history took place. Failure. Failure is the word that sums up the political tidal wave that once again drowned the Torah loving Jews in the political sphere. This is not a public foray against my people, the Torah loving Jews, it is solely meant to be a reminder that we must unite to be successful.

The cultural phenomena that has taken over much of the haredi world, that of leaving politics to the secular population, is hurting us. The Jews that desire to live their lives under the guiding light of the Torah have virtually handed the control of the purse strings and the secular laws to those who will continue to pass laws against them. At the same time, the non-haredim, let's call them the "plain vanilla" orthodox world, also remain divided.

Among the Torah loving parties, the Sephardi oriented SHAS party won 13 seats, the National Union-NRP won 9, the Ashkenazi group United Torah Judaism won 6. Combined, this is 28-the same number Kadima received. The Central Elections Committee announced that each Kenneset seat represented 24,000 votes. That means that somewhere near 675,000 voters cast ballots for Torah loving parties. This is simply not enough. If all the Torah loving parties would have united, they would have tied Kadima. In addition, if the rabbis (and it can only be the rabbis that make this happen), would have encouraged a massive vote by all of their communities and students, there is no doubt that the Torah parties would have crushed every poll with overwhelming votes. In addition, tens of thousands of "religious" votes were no doubt lost by voting for the multi-splintered Likud.

The members of Kadima are now in charge. They will control the parceling and distribution of land to an enemy that remains focused on killing us. Members of Kadima include the same people who cut the funding to the yeshivot, to the Jews on welfare, and to the community centers.

But this is not only about fiscal issues. On the same day that Bibi Netanyahu lamented that the Kadima election result was a "body blow" to Likud, the Hamas terrorist "cabinet" approved in a 71-36 vote that the "Koran is our constitution, dying for the sake of Allah is our biggest wish." Was this covered by the world media-no. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev summed up the Hamas view when he said, "The sad fact is that, when Hamas speaks about a 'just peace' they are unfortunately talking about a peace without Israel." Of course we know that to "cooperate" means either Hamas gets their way or the terrorist attacks begin again. This makes sense, as we are talking about a terrorist organization running a so-called government. An Israeli news agency reported that the newly appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah said shortly after his Hamas government was ratified, that it is one of "shahidim" (martyrs).

Jews that are united around the Torah need to unite amongst each other. They must make a protective fence so that their lives will be protected, thay their land will be protected, that their schools won't be closed, that funding to poor women and children won't be cut. No longer can the yeshiva world afford to sit still and remain outside the realm of politics. Like a colossal army, Torah loving Jews must unite and stand together or once again they will fall. This week's loss can be offset by starting to unite for the future. The fragmentation of the Torah loving world, over matters of pride and self-importance, must end. Burying our eyes in a book and saying "everything will be ok" is not enough. Torah loving Jews cannot expect non-Torah loving Jews to protect them, their interests and their future.

Kadima fully plans to give away much of Judea and Samaria to the Arabs. Gaza was the start, Hebron is next, as are other communities. This is not alarmist thinking, this is Kadima's platform. It is clear the secular left has an agenda that is not in line with that of the Torah community, so if we are going to strive to change this, we must work in unison. We can admit it-we lost. But we can no longer remain in this same mode.