My wish list for a new political party in Israel

Tovah Herzl, former Israeli Ambassador to the Baltic States, makes the assumption that anyone replacing the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, are those who will emerge to form a new right-wing party.

She likely bases that on the fact that Israel’s left has been dead as a doornail for over three decades. Failing to meet the 3.25% threshold of votes required in order to remain a viable party, the once up and coming Meretz left-wing party has continued to lose the public’s interest as more and more votes have shifted to the right throughout the years. 

They say it is due to the “traditional” nature of most Israelis who, although not overtly religious, still observe holidays, Shabbat and the customs and traditions of the Jewish people. In short, they are not anti-God, hard-core seculars, whose ideologies have veered off into humanistic solutions which tend to embrace today’s anti-family or popular Marxist views.

What they do reject is a heavy-handed approach which employs coercion and mandated deference to religious practice. While they may choose to stay home on Shabbat, they’re also okay if others decide to travel to the beach, keep their mini-markets open or work in some other capacity. For them, freedom of choice is the most important asset they hope to preserve – something that the present government coalition has not been willing to advance.

In that regard, the names being floated to head a new right-wing party include: former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Former Mossad Director, Yossi Cohen and Knesset Members Avigdor Liberman and Gideon Sa'ar. The appeal for these individuals is their more moderate approach to governance and, in the case of Liberman, his consistent refusal to work alongside the ultra-Orthodox, who are unyielding and unwilling to compromise.

Herzl, in her article entitled, “A New Right?” says that “the public deserves to know what that fresh Right is offering” with regard to a whole host of issues that are front and center in our public debate. More than that, perhaps, a new right needs to offer a different alternative to Israelis – one which is attractive because it allows for freedom but, at the same time, one which will not compromise on our security or future expansion and development as a nation.

It is, therefore, with those goals in mind that I would like to offer a “wish list” of how those ideals could best be implemented and integrated into Israeli society, in a way which will have a positive effect for the entire population of nearly 10 million.

To begin with, Israel, is a diverse and multi-cultural tapestry of faiths, ideas, lifestyles and cultures. It is, by no means, a monolith or one-size-fits-all bloc. Consequently, those differences must be somehow taken into consideration when it comes to laws, governance and freedoms of its citizenry.

It’s important to note that most Israelis support the preservation of the country’s Jewish character, which is embodied in the words of the national anthem, “HaTikvah,” - expressing “the two-thousand-year-old hope of being a free people in our land.” However, this fulfilment of the dream is viewed as many things to many individuals. 

So here is the wish list:

1. While preserving and maintaining that Jewish character, freedom must be part and parcel of that experience. Not everyone will choose the same path. Some will be more observant and some less, but that must remain an individual choice, because anything else would be the coercive force which has been roundly rejected when several attempts to legislate observance were defeated.

2. When it comes to the land, and borders of Israel, there must be a consensus, based on mutual respect and cooperation with our neighbors, our allies and our own people who have the most to gain or lose by how much territory remains or is added. Recent history has shown us that subtracting territory for peace does not work at all. We may believe that our Biblical inheritance is far greater than the land mass we now hold, but we must ask if it’s prudent to arbitrarily seize it, and at what cost would that be.

3. Now that the issue of military service for the ultra-Orthodox has been made law, there must be the political will to enforce it, without exception, because ambiguity will only muddy the waters and return us to the “stuck” position which took 76 years to change. 

4. A new right must embrace all Jews of every stripe – even those who have assimilated through intermarriage or have rejected today’s expression of rabbinic Judaism and believe something else. Because certain external conditions and criteria cannot determine one’s birth ethnicity – a fact which isn’t altered by one’s religious choices. An open-door policy must be adopted, sending the message that the Law of Return will be honored, as opposed to the way it’s been flagrantly disregarded for so many years by biased clerks who took their orders from the ultra-religious leaders.

5. A new right must also have the courage and backbone to stand up against the steadily creeping social trends which threaten to enslave us to political correctness, where failure to be complicit with social constructs or certain ideologies is seen as bigotry or a phobia against others. Observances, such as Pride Month must not be obligatory for fear of repercussions, because, if so, how is that different from the Orthodox coercion which did its best to force everyone to comply to their brand? Nothing must ever become the third-rail of untouchable criticism, because everything is subject to inspection, accountability and debate – at least in a truly free society.

6. In the event that a new right-wing party succeeds in garnering the most mandates, in order to be tasked with putting together a government coalition, they should seek to choose, from among other smaller parties, those with reasonable voices, who are committed to compromise, the principles of freedom and uniting together for the good of all.

Israelis have a knack at spotting genuine, authentic and solid character. It doesn’t take them long to figure out who the power-hungry politicians are, since their obvious manipulative tactics are a dead giveaway.  We’ve had enough of favoritism, back-scratching, corrupt deal making and trying to turn a diverse population into an obedient, robotic machine which does what it’s told.

Perhaps, this wish list is a bit idealistic, but it’s the best of what politics could be if honest, forthright and incorruptible people were involved. And, by the way, if Israel is supposed to be a “light to the nations,” shouldn’t her leaders be the brightest source of that light?