With God on Their Side

Writing in Foreign Policy, Professor Noah Efron of Bar Ilan University, a member of the Tel Aviv City Council, tells of his distress at the state of life in Israel today. "To be a secular Israeli in 2009 is a demoralizing and demoralized affair. We are tired: tired of the Palestinians, tired of the bombs, tired of UN and EU condemnations, tired of having so much of our daily wages taxed to buy guns and missiles, tired of the army reserves, tired of being hated, tired of waking up to reports of kids-Jewish kids, Palestinian kids-watching their parents die or dying in their parents' arms. We are tired of our lives and tired of ourselves."

But the main thing Efron is tired of is the increasing role the ultra-Orthodox (call them the ultras) play in Israeli life.

The picture Efron paints is downright depressing. Frankly, I cannot imagine what it is like living in a country where religious fanatics have so much political clout. Yes, we Americans have the Christian right that has successfully insinuated itself into America's bedrooms. But the Constitution (and specifically the First Amendment) puts limits on just how far they can go. In Israel, there is no First Amendment so the ultras are not just lurking around peoples' bedrooms but are in every room in the house.

In the last few weeks alone a violent battle (replete with death threats) has been raging over a new (and much needed) parking lot that is open for business on the Sabbath. Another battle is being waged Bin Jerusalem over whether special bus lines should be established for women so that male ultras can be spared close proximity to female passengers.

Then there is the case of the yeshiva student who ran over a young female parking attendant for demanding he pay his parking fee. She suffered brain damage but he was spared prison on the grounds that he is a brilliant Torah scholar whose scholarly undertakings would be damaged if he were jailed.

But this takes the cake. Prof. Efron writes about the latest horror show, which has been page-one news for a week. It was discovered that an ultra-Orthodox woman had starved her three-year-old son down to 15 pounds and was denying the child medical care. Social workers and the police were called in and, following an investigation, the boy was picked up and hospitalized at Hadassah Hospital. The mother was jailed, pending trial.

Efron writes:

"And then all hell breaks loose. A rabbi declares the event a blood libel, comparing the police to Cossacks. Immediately, young men in black robes and fur hats take to the streets, setting bus stops and dumpsters ablaze, pelting police with stones, and decrying the doctors of Hadassah as latter-day Josef Mengeles. Someone sets aflame the government welfare and social services building in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Me'ah Shearim; others enter the building, smashing computer screens as they go. In the first three days after the toddler is taken for treatment, dozens more are sent to the hospital with wounds from stones and broken glass, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of city property are burned or smashed."

For the vast majority of Israelis, who are secular and choose to live in the twenty-first century, these ultras are the worst thing about living in Israel. The good news is that they are still a minority in the country, albeit a growing one.

Nonetheless, most of Israel's most pressing problems today come not from outside its borders but from within.

Unfortunately, the problem posed by the ultras is not limited to the domestic scene.

They are the reason the United States and Israel spent this past week engaged in a battle over a hotel in East Jerusalem that Irving Moskowitz, a casino millionaire from Miami Beach, wants to turn into an ultra-Orthodox settlement in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood. President Barack Obama said "no" and asserted that the U.S. call for a settlement freeze applies to East Jerusalem just as it does to the West Bank.

But again the ultras (in this case, the ultra-religious plus the ultra-nationalists who value settlements over Israel itself) succeeded in forcing the government to fight for Moskowitz's right to build wherever he chooses.

So far, Netanyahu is doing their bidding and tensions with Washington are growing. The stakes are high. The United States is Israel's lifeline. Israel depends on U.S. aid (especially military aid) to maintain its edge over its enemies. In 1973, when Israel was on the verge of losing a war to the combined forces of Egypt and Syria, President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ordered the largest arms airlift in history to save the Jewish state. American support is nothing to trifle with and Netanyahu knows it.

But Netanyahu is up against a huge constituency that believes that Israel does not need the United States. After all, with God on its side, why would Israel need America let alone President Obama (whose race adds to his problems with Israel's ultras)?

In the end, however, I expect Netanyahu will come to terms with the President of the United States. Netanyahu may be a loose cannon but he is no dummy. He knows exactly what is contained in the foreign aid bill and he knows that neither rabbis nor settlers can provide what America routinely does.

But right-wing Israelis are not alone in attacking the president.

Some American right-wing Jews are now going after Obama because of his statement in his Cairo speech that Israel's legitimacy stems, in part, from the suffering Jews endured during the Holocaust. Obama said that "America's strong bond with Israel is unbreakable." It is based, in part, on the "recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied . . . an unprecedented Holocaust." The Holocaust proves, Obama has repeatedly said, why Jews must have a state of their own.

And right-wingers are fuming.

They are upset, or claim to be, because Obama cited the Holocaust but did not refer to the 4,000 year Jewish connection to Eretz Yisrael or the Bible.

It is rather amusing. Every foreign dignitary visiting Israel-including Barack Obama-is taken to the Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, as soon as he or she sets foot in Israel. It is always the first stop because it is the Israeli government's way of showing that the State of Israel is the living embodiment of the concept of "Never Again." These visitors are not taken to see the ancient Dead Sea scrolls or the Western Wall. No, Yad Vashem is the destination because, in Israeli eyes, it is the Holocaust that provides the prime justification for a Jewish state.

But now the right-wingers here are angry because Obama learned that lesson too well. Hypocrisy? No, they dislike Obama because of who he is and the Israeli-Palestinian peace he is trying to achieve. They will clutch at any straw to libel him. In this case, they are accusing Obama of being, get ready, a Holocaust acknowledger. It's laughable.

But it is also utterly predictable. For people hell-bent on preserving the deadly status quo, there are no limits. They will, quite simply, say anything. To his credit, this president is not listening to them. These people didn't support him in 2008 and they won't in 2012. Besides, the policies they Johnny-one-note about are invariably wrong-wrong for the United States and wrong for Israel.

The president should hang tough.