Featured Post
Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!
(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...
Sep 3, 2008
MK Ravitz (UTJ) on women in the Knesset
NRG has an interesting weekly feature in their section on Judaism that I [almost] always enjoy. They call it "Shlifot im ..." (quick responses with...) each time selecting a different politician, rabbi, celebrity to speak with.
They ask all sorts of questions and the interviewee responds with short and quick responses. This week the Shlifot feature interview MK Avraham Ravitz, the elder member of the Degel HaTorah faction of UTJ.
The whole interview is interesting, and enlightening, as they almost always are.
Ravitz said one thing during the interview I would like to comment on. When asked about women in the Knesset his response was, "They come with an agenda, and they get trapped by that agenda. Therefore that impedes upon their ability to think independently for themselves."
I find that statement ironic considering the party he represents. He, and his party members, too, comes to the Knesset with an agenda. His agenda, too, limits his freedom of thought. As well, that freedom is not afforded him, as all decisions and policies are set by other people (the Rabbinic heads of Degel), and while he presents them with his thoughts and version of the facts, at the end of the day, his actions are decided upon by other people and by agendas that need to be followed.
So it is ironic for Ravitz to criticize women who are in the Knesset that they come with agendas that they cannot break free from. Not all women come with these agendas, at least no more than any other Member of Knesset, and the politicians representing the Haredi parties come with their own agendas that they have always failed to break free from.
They ask all sorts of questions and the interviewee responds with short and quick responses. This week the Shlifot feature interview MK Avraham Ravitz, the elder member of the Degel HaTorah faction of UTJ.
The whole interview is interesting, and enlightening, as they almost always are.
Ravitz said one thing during the interview I would like to comment on. When asked about women in the Knesset his response was, "They come with an agenda, and they get trapped by that agenda. Therefore that impedes upon their ability to think independently for themselves."
I find that statement ironic considering the party he represents. He, and his party members, too, comes to the Knesset with an agenda. His agenda, too, limits his freedom of thought. As well, that freedom is not afforded him, as all decisions and policies are set by other people (the Rabbinic heads of Degel), and while he presents them with his thoughts and version of the facts, at the end of the day, his actions are decided upon by other people and by agendas that need to be followed.
So it is ironic for Ravitz to criticize women who are in the Knesset that they come with agendas that they cannot break free from. Not all women come with these agendas, at least no more than any other Member of Knesset, and the politicians representing the Haredi parties come with their own agendas that they have always failed to break free from.
Labels:
Avraham Ravitz,
knesset,
MKs,
UTJ,
women
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts
There's an even more ironic point - every MK comes with an agenda, and thier job is basically to not see past it. Unfortunately, it's the way the system is set up.
ReplyDeletewelcome back from vacation yoni...
ReplyDeleteyes, every MK comes with an agenda, but I tried to limit the discussion to the person making the comment.
Also, I thought of this afterwords, but it seems strange to say women come with an agenda. There are female MKs from every party in knesset except for the Haredi parties. Do all women, crossing the political spectrum, each representing opinions and societies very different in nature from other female MKs, all come with the same agenda? if so, why not just create a "Womens party" or something like that?
I mean does Limor Livnat come with the same agenda as Zahava Gal On? Does Yuli Tamir come with the same agenda as Ruhama Avraham? etc.
Aguda and Degel have an agenda?
ReplyDeleteThat's like saying Daas Torah is influenced by external worldviews.
You're SUCH a kofer.
jameel - I've been called worse! Seriously though, they openly state they have an agenda. Their agenda is to protect the yeshivas and avreichim.
ReplyDeleteTheir agenda is to protect the yeshivas and avreichim.
ReplyDeleteMore specifically, their self-admitted agenda is to keep bochrim in yeshiva instead of earning a living. To keep avreichim from starving, aguda then makes their #1 priority, obtaining more money for them.
As a result, they sacrifice everything else which would benefit their constituency and Am Yisrael, including anything connected to giving away Eretz Yisrael to our enemies.
true, but do they get more blame for that, when the Mafdal also sat in Sharon's government, allowing the disengagement to pass (better to work from the inside than from the opposition)?
ReplyDeleteAnd just for fairness, Meier Porush (an MK from UTJ) is the only person from any of the religious parties who resigned from the government because of the disengagement plan of Sharon. He refused to have anything to do with it and refused to sit in government and allow it to pass, even if his vote was negligible (the excuse others used - that their vote was not important because the governemnt had enough support anyway, so there was nothing to gain by leaving the government)
Rafi: I have plenty of criticism of the Mafdal as well :-)
ReplyDeleteBasically, you just proved yoni r's point that every MK comes with an agenda, and it usually boils down to financing one particular agenda point (or worse, simply keeping their jobs in the Knesset) at the expense of many others -- despite what their constituency might really want.
And yes, Meier Porush has a backbone. (side point: If it weren't for him - I wouldn't be serving in the IDF today!)
on your side point - is that to his credit or to his blame? :-)
ReplyDeletehe helped you get into the army?
To his credit :)
ReplyDeleteHe helped me and 50 others volunteer for the IDF....its a long story...but it was very very cool :-)
Maybe I should have gone to him when the army sent me home!
ReplyDeletesounds interesting.
Maybe you should make it into a post!
JAMEEL
ReplyDelete"I have plenty of criticism of the Mafdal as well"
i'd like to read about that
"If it weren't for him - I wouldn't be serving in the IDF today"
i'd like to read about that too
RAFI:
"Maybe I should have gone to him when the army sent me home!"
i'd like to read about that too
I think I have written about it before, but I have no idea when. It will probably be quicker to write about it then to search for something that might or might not exist, so maybe I will write about it...
ReplyDelete