Haredi MKs walk out during Netanyahu's speech in Cameron's presence
Photo: Knesset website
Haredim may settle score with Netanyahu
Analysis: It's no longer absolutely clear that in next elections ultra-Orthodox parties will tilt balance in favor of right-wing government.
The British prime minister
will likely never forget this session. And it's not that he hasn't seen such things
before. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is not exactly a pharmacy. But there, there is at least some sophistication, some finesse, some irony. Not just a "balagan," as David Cameron called it in a heavy British accent. Cameron's eyes said it all. And if anyone still requires an explanation for that look, he said: God, I've arrived at a madhouse.
The polarity between Right and Left, Arabs and Jews, haredim and seculars, religious Zionists and Lithuanian Orthodox was never more present, never clearer. Indeed, the coalition proved its strength and succeeded in passing three significant laws, but the damage these laws have caused Netanyahu and the Likud will only be estimated in the future.
In the Knesset's favor, if there even is such a thing, it should be noted that Cameron's visit took place on the most emotionally charged day in the winter session, if not in the entire term. The day in which the Equal Share of the Burden Law passed its second and third readings in the morning, and the Referendum Law passed its second and third readings in the evening.
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On Wednesday, there were talks in the Knesset about crazy coalitions. All of them, by the way, without the Likud. A coalition led by Herzog, a rotation in the prime minister's role, and all kinds of other options which the creative political mind is capable of inventing, especially on a week in which the Knesset discovers that there are other alternatives to the Netanyahu government.
It's possible, said a senior Likud official, that when the results of the next elections are published, people will write that the Buji (Herzog) government was established this week.
This remark was made with anger, with frustration, with an understanding that something bad happened this week to the historic alliance between the haredim and the Likud. We will pay heavy prices for dismantling this alliance, the senior official sighed. But this remark was more emotional than a rational thought.
In such an opportunistic, hypocritical and disloyal system like politics, promises are written on ice, loyalties are like wandering sands, alliances change like the seasons. And there is no one who knows that better than Aryeh Deri, who promised this week to work to bring down the Netanyahu government and said he could definitely see Herzog as his successor. The history of Israeli politics is studded with haredi promises to bring down governments, support party heads, unite, split, join and leave. There is not a single leader, from Peres and Sharon to Livni, who is unfamiliar with the sour taste of an unfulfilled promise.
But one cannot argue with the argument that there is a deep fracture in the haredi society's attitude towards the prime minister. It's not that Shas was not part of left-wing governments in the past. But the innovation is that if both the Right and the Left-Center have the option of establishing a government, and the haredim are the deciding factor – it's no longer absolutely clear that they'll tilt the balance in favor of the Right.
When the Lithuanians fight with someone, says a senior Shas officials, they are unstoppable. Destroy, kill and lose. There is no revenge like the revenge of a Lithuanian who feels betrayed. It's a bitter enemy. And it's hard to fix it, because it has already been done. Netanyahu promised them, made a commitment to them, that as long as he is prime minister, studying Torah in Israel will not be considered a criminal offense. And he failed to keep his promise.
