Eretz Yisrael Time

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Saturday, February 11, 2006
I would describe the NU’s acquisition of the Mafdal as follows:

You’re hungry, you have a cold, and you’re eying a sandwich which looks like it might fill you up. You eat it, and despite your cold, it doesn’t taste quite right, but you’re not quite sure what. A few hours later you realize what you ate was old, rotten, spoiled and should have been thrown in the trash a long time ago.

Let’s look at the anatomy of this deal.

We have a party that evolved itself into dead-end insignificance by not properly representing the will of the public it was supposed to represent (unlike Meimad which never really had a large enough following to even be able to justify its continued independent existence).

Let’s look at Orlev’s last major epiphany - he would give up settlements to protect his State-Religious schools.

This man is an imbecile.

He would destroy hundred of schools and yeshivot (and Jewish communities) to protect his little dominion of State-Religious schools!

Torah education and Jewish communities are obviously far less important to him.

In all the years that Orlev and the Mafdal have meddled in the Ministry of Whatever, besides running (and ruining?) his State-Religious schools, what has he done for the rest of the Jewish population of this State?

Doesn’t every Jewish student in this country deserve to receive a quality education about Torah and Judaism (I’m not talking proselytizing, I’m talking removing ignorance, hate and having a decent background as to why you are even in this country), or are they simply to be written off?

Based on Mafdal’s success rate I’d say their seat in the government is the only thing really important to them.

So now, the NU saved Mafdal from a well-deserved, timely demise - but at what price?

Orlev gets the first Minister’s seat offered to the NU union (if any is offered at all). Wonderful! Four more years wasted on a seat warmer.

Orlev will look to get out of the union as soon as he deems possible, taking at least 4 undeserved seats with him.

Aryeh Eldad is pushed down to the ninth position – most unfair to this excellent legislator.

Over Shabbat many people told me they won’t vote for the NU now, because they absolutely don’t want Mafdal.

Pass the Di-gel.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your comments are well-taken, and I too have to admit to a bit of indigestion from the merger with the Mafdal. But perhaps you're taking things a bit out of proportion. It's not as if Orlev *supported* the Hitnatkut -- he was always opposed to it, as well as to the evacuation in Amona. Yes, it would have been proper for him to have left the government much earlier than he did. But nobody serious is under any sort of illusion that this would have stopped the Hitnatkut, or even slowed down Sharon's bulldozer. We should consider the painful fact that the right wing in Israel has been almost completely decimated under the Sharon/Olmert regime. Maybe the last last few surviving remnants of Jewish nationalism ought to unite for their own good, even if not all the people involved would have been our top choices...

Anonymous said...

do not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

JoeSettler said...

Please read this post (and the interview) again: http://joesettler.blogspot.com/2005/12/not-relevant-party.html

Orlev has stated straight out he would sacrifice settlements for his state-religious schools (truly an idiotic remark).

Orlev accepts that parts of Israel will be sacrificed for "peace".

Orlev would even be willing to sit in a government that sacrifices parts of Eretz Yisrael (under various "conditions").

Sorry, but these are Orlev's own words which you can read for yourself in his interview.

The NRP hasn't done anything effective or productive for promoting knowledge of Torah and Judaism in Israel except in their State-Religious schools.

This isn't about stopping the hitnatkut. This is about shared values (or not, in this case).

Orlev finally left the Sharon government only when he realized that his political future would completely end if he didn't.

JoeSettler said...

I'd like to see Hazit join with the NU now. That would at least balance out the NRP's lack of values, principles, and ideology (besides keeping a seat warm).

ps I didn't mean to sound angry in the last response.

Anonymous said...

Marzel tried to get NU to join with him, he even offered to be put at the end of the list, but they weren't interested

JoeSettler said...

They should at least do vote sharing so the votes won't get lost (going either way).

Anonymous said...

Those are some fantastic points really. I don't know what to think anymore now.

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

I got a stomach ache just reading your post.

Blech.

westbankmama said...

We are in the awful position of deciding whether to hold our nose and vote Likud/Bibi, hold our nose and vote Ichud/Olmert, or possibly throwing our vote into the garbage can by voting Marzel.

JoeSettler said...

wbm: Any configuration with Olmert such as Ichud/Olmert is a bad idea.
I'm sure you meant Orlev, but ultimately you couldn't find a meaningful difference between them anyway.

I'm not sure if Marzel is going to be a wasted vote. I keep hearing from a lot of people that now they plan to vote for him.

Anonymous said...

Joe settler,all votes are wasted because they are all inherently a tiny percentage of the whole. Just vote for whoever will do the best job, not who you think will win.

rockofgalilee said...

"We should consider the painful fact that the right wing in Israel has been almost completely decimated under the Sharon/Olmert regime."

Welcome to democracy. This is a classic case of the majority trampling on the rights of the minority. Sharon played both sides against the middle and spat at the national religious who have no majority.

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