For many years, there has been a widening gap between Israelis and American Jews when it comes to Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. But today, the issue that threatens to divide Jews is not about geopolitics or the occupation of the West Bank. It’s about Judaism itself: Jewish fundamentalists are now the dominant factor in Israel’s ruling coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu. They planned a hostile takeover of the Jewish identity.
Several sets have been created with a focus on Jewish identity. Each side will be led almost exclusively by members of parties representing different branches of modern Jewish fundamentalism – parties opposed to any form of modernism – as well as elements of Zionist Orthodoxy are becoming increasingly radical and ultra-Orthodox.
These parties are imposing on Israel a definition of Judaism that refuses to recognize the validity of the non-Orthodox streams identified by the majority of American Jews. They even demanded a change to the most fundamental relationship between Israel and the Jewish diaspora: the Law of Repatriation, which grants Israeli citizenship to Jews and their descendants. They have promised to make people with at least one Jewish grandparent and those who are not recognized as Jewish by the Orthodox rabbinic establishment ineligible automatically become Israeli citizens.
Of course, in some ways these divisions are not new. The debate over who is a Jew has been a part of Israel’s discourse since the founding of the state. Rabbinate has long taken control of family law. (Civil marriage is not practiced in Israel.) But this is the first time one party has sought to assert itself completely over Israeli rule. It has the potential to alienate many non-Israeli Jews.
A religious schism among the Jewish people – fewer than 20 million worldwide – would mean they would lose the sense of common purpose that has sustained this persecuted people for millennia. Jews are told that every Jew has a responsibility to Jews everywhere, that we must act for our brothers in danger. But with these new laws redefining who belongs to whom, a sense of religion-wide harmony will cease to exist.
It has provoked angry reactions in Israel. The appointment in the new government that provoked the most backlash from the secular Israeli public was Avi Maoz, the only Knesset representative of Noam, a small religious party openly homophobic, as deputy minister in prime minister’s office.
Noam was founded in 2019 by the followers of Zvi Thau, a rabbi who believes in the existence of a progressive group whose sole purpose is to erode Israel’s Jewish character through promoting LGBTQ rights and gender equality. Mr. Netanyahu has pressured the bloc, led by the far-right Zionist and Zionist parties, to give Maoz and his party a place on their list of candidates to consolidate power. his force.
Under the agreement signed by Mr. Maoz’s Noam and Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud, Mr. Maoz is now to be in charge of of a new agency on Jewish national identity, with a budget of a quarter of a billion shekels (about $70 million) over the next two years, and will gain control of the Department of Education’s division of education programs. outside sex.
In an interview this month with Olam Katan (Small World), a far-right weekly, Mr explain why is he so interested in the department. “There are currently about 3,000 curricula written by progressive, radical left-wing NGOs funded by foreign institutions and the European Union,” he said. “Are they there to strengthen the Jewish state? Of course not. They want to make Israel a country like all other nations. Who will ensure that they write programs about Jewish identity instead of plans for one state for all its citizens? That is my job.”
Some of Israel’s largest and wealthiest cities, including Tel Aviv-Jaffa, announced they will not cooperate with the ministry under Mr. Maoz and, if necessary, will fund liberal education programs themselves.
In addition to Mr. Maoz’s appointment, Orit Strock, a member of the religious Zionist party living in a small Jewish settlement in the Palestinian-majority city of Hebron in the West Bank, tap to run The Board of Directors of Jewish Identity is new and out of date. It will be part of a new National Ministry of Evangelism, which will control Jewish settlement in the West Bank and fund Israel’s religious missionary communities. These were Zionist family groups that moved together to disadvantaged neighborhoods across the country, in some cases in towns with mixed Jewish and Arab populations, to strengthen the Jewish communities there.
Netanyahu also pledged in coalition agreements to create a Heritage Ministry, which would be led by the influential New Jewish Power party. The ministry will be in charge of issues such as archeology and the preservation of historical sites. In a country where historical narratives are hotly contested, fundamentalist control of those fields is sure to bring more ancient battles into the present. Archeology has been an area of conflict in Jerusalem, where settlement groups fund digging in the City of Davidnear the Temple Mount and the Aqsa Mosque complex, highlighting the city’s Jewish past before other religions.
However, another new set, Jerusalem and Tradition, was hand over towards the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party – another sign of Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox politicians who have previously sought to use their influence in the mainstream government. key to protecting the interests of their ethnic communities are now expanding their ambitions towards Israel wider society.
All these parties – Noam, Judaism, and unified Torah Judaism – refuse to accept that Judaism in its contemporary form contains some stream of beliefs, practices, and representations. This exclusionary approach sets these parties apart from more liberal Jewish groups and modern and secular Orthodox Israelis, as well as the vast majority of American Jews and other Jewish communities around the world. world. It puts them in conflict with liberal Jews in Israel and the United States, and brings global Jews closer to the brink of religious schism more than three centuries ago, since the The false messiah Sabbatai Zevi divided the Jews. communities in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
Mr. Netanyahu is secular and wants to keep the look of a liberal democrat, but half of his new coalition members are fundamentalists, and he needs their support to return to office. office and can make tentative changes to the legal system to help him avoid the consequences of his ongoing trial for fraud and bribery (he has denied that he will be benefit from any change in the law and has denied the charges against him). In statements and interviews in recent weeks, he has repeatedly asserted that he will be in charge of the new government, but his partners are keen to take advantage of this unique opportunity for change.
The leaving government, led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, includes both right-wing and moderate religious politicians, as well as moderates, leftists and the conservative Muslim Raam party player. Overall, it has refrained from changing the religious status quo. Over the past 18 months, when the Jewish orthodox parties along with Mr. Netanyahu have faced each other, the intensity of the intensity in the religious media and on religious social networks, against what they call Progress. , Reform Jews and hordes of Christians from Russia – a mess -up golem of the enemy, all aimed at eroding Israel’s Jewish character – has reached new heights . Jewish fundamentalists, who see their critics as traitorous leftists, are now in a position to control them through legal means.
Since the November 1 election, much of the media coverage in Israel and abroad has focused on the potential erosion of democracy in Israel, as well as the impact of the new government on the state of Israel. Palestinians, both Israeli citizens, and some five million Palestinians living under varying degrees of Israeli government in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is understandable, as far-right ministers will have control over aspects of life in the occupied territories. For example, the leader of the Jewish Forces, Itamar Ben-Gvir, an anti-Arab and former member of a banned Jewish terrorist organization, will be minister of national security in the new government, in charge of Israel’s domestic police and border police in Israel. West Bank.
But while these threats to any prospect of peaceful Israeli-Palestinian coexistence and the viability of Israeli democracy should remain the focus of attention, the grave threat to with the inclusive nature of Judaism and Jewish identity in Israel should also be of the utmost concern. Jews in Israel, America and other parts of the world.
Anshel Pfeffer is a writer at Haaretz and the author of “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
