A minister made kosher by High Court
Op-ed: UTJ rabbis needed an external source to help them get rid of their anachronism and let their MKs serve as ministers. And who volunteered? Yair Lapid.
As of Tuesday, the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party owes a lot to Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid. It owes even more to the High Court judges. Lapid filed the petition; the High Court, in a panel of five judges, offered its comments. The result: A revolution. The ban imposed on the ultra-Orthodox party's representatives to serve as ministers in the government will be cancelled. This prohibition lasted for 63 years before being erased – with God's help and with the High Court's words.
This is what is supposed to happen, according to authorized UTJ sources: In the first stage, Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman will wait for a formal decision about the petition, which will obligate the government to cancel the arrangement of a deputy minister with the status of a minister; in the next stage he will go to his rabbi, the Ger rebbe, and say to him, "There is no other choice, I have to be appointed minister"; in the third stage, the Ger rabbi will ask the Council of Torah Sages to approve the change; then, and only then, Litzman will become a full-fledged minister.
Litzman foresaw the future. During the coalition negotiations he asked the Ger rebbe if it wasn't time to lift the ban. No, the rebbe said, fight to keep the current arrangement. Litzman did as the rabbi told him. Fortunately for him, the High Court judges are subject to other orders.
Itche Meir Levin, a minister on behalf of Agudath Israel, was part of the Israeli government until September 1952, when the party decided to quit the government following the decision to enlist women. The haredi return to the coalition was through the Knesset. Influential positions like chairman of the Finance Committee and chairman of the coalition were given to the party's representatives Shlomo Lorincz and Avraham Schapira.
Then came the baseless arrangement which granted their representative – Meir Porush in the Housing Ministry and Yakov Litzman in the Health Ministry – the status and power of a minister, but the title of a deputy minister. It was convenient for the other parties, as it meant one chair less at the government table.
The haredim explained that the prohibition had ideological reasons: Because they don’t serve in the army, they don't want to take part in decisions which involve saving lives. That reason didn’t hold water: In the Knesset they often took part in such decisions.
The real reason was the rabbis' difficulty to decide on a change. They are naturally conservative, fanatic in their conservatism; their old age didn’t push for adventures either. They needed an external source to help them get rid of the anachronism. And who volunteered to do it? Yair Lapid.
The High Court is helping them with another issue: The coalition is now trying to pass what is known as "the small Norwegian law," which will make it possible to bring in new Knesset members as replacements for the ministers. The haredim demanded that the law would also apply to deputy ministers. According to the law, deputy ministers have to be Knesset members. The essence of their job is to represent their ministry at the Knesset. Whoever applies the Norwegian law to deputy ministers will be disregarding their job. Now, in case of a High Court sentence, if the Ger rebbe approves and Litzman becomes minister, the problem will solve itself.
The High Court panel, chaired by Supreme Court President Miriam Naor, also criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's excessive ministerial appetite. The premiership is not enough for him: He is insisting on his right to serve as foreign minister and communications minister too.
Netanyahu's decision to keep the Foreign Ministry is understandable. The position is a sort of deposit in case Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman changes his mind and joins the government. And besides, there is a precedent: Moshe Sharett served in both positions for a year.
Netanyahu's insistence to hold onto the Communications Ministry is harder to understand. The decision is filled with issues of conflict of interests, which are being examined by the attorney general these days. It smells bad, from every possible aspect.
Netanyahu should therefore give up the communications minister position immediately. Unlike Litzman, he doesn’t have to wait for the rabbi's approval. Or maybe he does: Each politician has his own rabbi.
