January
25, 2013
Erev
Tu BiShvat, 5773
Dear
Friends,
Shalom, shalom! I am writing to you from the beautiful city
of Jerusalem. It occurred to me that it might be of interest to share a few
reflections on “what’s happening” in Israel these days. I would like to focus
on two topics that have been at the top of the news during the past few weeks.
The
first is the weather. Israel is now in the
middle of its rainy season, which extends from Sukkot to Pesach. (That’s right: the weather really does follow
the Jewish calendar.) Although it doesn’t rain every day at this time of the
year, during the week we arrived there was a fierce storm with lots of wind and
rain. It culminated in an unusual and
beautiful snowfall that covered many of the hills in the interior of the
country. Even the Negev town of Dimona
got snow! About a foot of snow blanketed
Jerusalem, and it was delightful.
(Yes, that is a palm tree
covered with snow, and yes, that’s me standing alongside it.)
As Shimon Peres, who was
interviewed on TV, diplomatically put it:
“Yesh Yerusahalayim shel zahav,
v’yesh Yerushalayim shel sheleg. Ha-ir
ha-zot tamid nehederet.” “There is a Jerusalem of gold, and a Jerusalem of snow. This city is always beautiful.”
(By the way, I’m living
around the corner from “Beit Ha-Nasi,” the president’s official home. Whenever I walk by, I wonder whether I’m
going to bump into Mr. Peres as he is coming or going. So far, it hasn’t
happened.)
As a result of the recent storms,
the level of the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) has shot up several meters, and
it is expected to rise another half meter by the end of January. This is a source of great relief. Let me tell
you why.
One day a few years ago, as a
result of the Sea’s declining level, an island appeared in the middle of the
Kinneret opposite Kibbutz Ma’agan, causing much chagrin.
This past week, with the
robust rainfall, that island fortunately disappeared. People are hopeful that this winter will
continue to be a good one for the region’s water supply – always a vital
concern.
As significant as the level
of the Kinneret is, that isn’t at the top of the news any longer. Instead, it’s electoral politics.
What
an extraordinary week this has been! To
be an American in Israel at this time has been a particular treat, even if one
is not a political junkie.
First,
there were the two days of the U.S. presidential inauguration. I was
struck, in a way that I might not have been in the States, by how odd—and yet,
at the same time, how perfectly reasonable—it was for the inaugural festivities
to have been postponed to Monday. After all, notwithstanding the strong
tradition of separation of church and state in America, supported by the
Constitution, America is a religious country. And the vast number of U.S.
citizens are Christian. And Sunday is
Sunday!
To
me this seemed very familiar: After all,
when the first day of Rosh HaShanah falls on Shabbat, we refrain from blowing
the shofar until the second day.
Similarly, when the first day of Sukkot falls on Shabbat, we refrain
from shaking the lulav and etrog until the next day. Both practices we do out of reverence for
Shabbat. In a sense, you could say that this past Monday
was like the second day of a two-day American Yom Tov!
And
so, it made sense to me that, although, as the law requires, the President took
the oath of office on Sunday, he had to do it all over again on Monday. Which
reminds me: I believe that Barack Obama is the only U.S. President aside
from Franklin D. Roosevelt who has taken the oath of office four times! (Twice in 2009, and twice this week.)
I
found it moving to watch the inauguration from my apartment in Jerusalem. The emphasis on diversity, on inclusion, on
the notion of E pluribus unum (“Out
of many, one”) was striking. For the
event, coincidentally, to be taking place on Martin Luther King Day gave a
powerful sub-text to the entire day.
While
all this was going on, final preparations were being made here for the national
Israeli elections due to take place the next day. Israel is a very different country from
America, but one thing that the two countries have in common is a commitment to
the power of the ballot box.
Campaign
laws are very different in Israel:
rather than being bombarded with campaign ads for several months prior
to an election every time you turn on the TV as in the States, all campaign ads
run one after the other during one hour every night for about two weeks prior
to the election. Hence, you can more
easily avoid them if you wish. There are
also other constraints that don’t exist in the States. For example, it is a violation of the law for
incumbents to make use of their office during the week before election to
attempt to win votes. I’ll give you an
amazing example. Two days before the
election, Prime Minister Netanyahu called a press conference to announce the
appointment of a popular politician who had recently “retired from politics” to
head the Housing Authority. This
particular politician is well known and highly regarded here in Israel for restructuring
the telecommunications industry and dramatically bringing down the cost of cell
phone service. Appointing him was an
effort to demonstrate support for doing the same with the housing sector, of
tremendous concern for young families.
However,
it is not permitted to make such an appointment just days before the election,
so Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubenstein, charged with enforcing the
election campaign laws, contacted the television networks and ordered them not
to cover the news conference. Can you
imagine that? (By the way, Justice Rubenstein visited our community about a
decade ago, and spoke at the home of David Eisenberg and Fran Caplan.)
It’s
truly extraordinary to think that men and women of such different political
perspectives—Hareidim (Ultra-Orthodox Jews), socialists, Arab nationalists, Tel
Aviv technocrats, Sephardi traditionalists, American immigrants—all came
together to choose those who will represent them in the Knesset (Parliament)
and, indirectly, those who will form the next government. (Of course, not
everyone appreciates the blessings of sovereignty and considers citizenship in
the State of Israel to be a virtue. Just
before the election, the Satmar Rebbe, who lives in New York, visited Israel,
and offered $100 to anyone who agreed not to vote in the national election. Can
you imagine that? And several nationalist Arab leaders routinely urge their
followers to boycott Israeli elections.)
Citizenship
comes with tremendous privileges in Israel.
One is struck by the dramatic difference between the political freedom
enjoyed by Israelis and the relative lack of opportunity and influence of those
living outside of Israel. This includes,
of course, residents of the West Bank and Gaza.
Though some of them may have the right to vote in Palestinian elections,
those elections are hardly what we would consider free. The contrast in
political engagement, empowerment and enthusiasm is striking.
Unfortunately,
from the start, the political system here has not reinforced unity. (There’s plenty of “pluribus,” but not much “unum.”)
Instead, the system has reinforced “identity politics.” Because no party has ever held a majority of
seats in the Knesset, even large parties have always had to form coalitions in
order to form a government. And that has
meant that relatively small parties can and do command enormous influence, far
in excess of their relative share of the electorate. In the Maariv
newspaper the other day, one reporter decried this state of affairs, which he
termed Israel’s “miut-o-kratia”, or
“minority rule.”
The
results of the election seem to indicate that Prime Minister Netanyahu will
again be invited to form a coalition government.
The
question remains whether it will be a right/religious coalition or a
center/right coalition.
Either
way, my hope is that the transition to the new Knesset will be as peaceful as
the inaugural festivities in Washington the other day. Ken
Yehi Ratzon!
Let
me close by offering you a winter’s greeting that I’ve only heard expressed in
Israel, a land where water is so precious.
It appeared at the bottom of a flyer I saw on a bulletin board in a
local hospital:
B’virkat khoref bari v’gashum!
With
blessings for a healthy and rainy winter!
Shalom u’vrachah,
Rabbi Carl M. Perkins
P.S. If you want to see an illustration of
Israel’s religious and ethnic diversity, consider the following: During
one 24-hour period last week, four sets of twins were born in the western
Galilee hospital in Nahariya. And they
came from four different religious/ethnic backgrounds: Jewish, Christian,
Moslem and Druze. You can see a picture of the proud parents and their babies
here: http://www.yourjewishnews.com/Pages/25186.aspx .
