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Jul 15, 2010
Moshe Gafni's response to Aryeh Deri
And here is Moshe Gafni's response to Aryeh Deri's call to dismantle the Haredi political parties, along with all sectoral parties, and go to a similar electoral system that the US has:
Deri's suggestion is delusional. A mixed party with both secular and haredi MKs could not survive. A secular MK, who is not exceptional and needs a boost inthe primaries, will open a paper one day and see an editorial about how the author received a call from a haredi rav that somethign he had written about is correct and necessary. That MK will immediately run and submit a bill to create a law for whatever that is as it will have broad support. Then, in the opposing party, another secular MK will propose another law that he thinks is even better. And they will compete about "what is good" for the Haredim. Who will explain anything to them [about what the haredim really need]? The gedolim who said, according to Deri's proposal, to vote for a secular party?
{NOTE: Gafni clearly doesnt understand how this works.. the idea would be exactly that - the competing parties would compete to create better legislation for minorities and interest groups. It would be in their best interests to come up with the best laws, so they could get support from those interest groups and minorities. That is a good thing, not a bad thing. The way it works now is th haredim propose something, and some need the haredim so they support it, and some hate the haredim so they oppose it. And it depends on numbers and the media. If the party is interested in getting support of haredim, they will always look to do things that benefit the haredim or other interest groups. But Gafni is missing the point thinking that this would be bad to have different parties competing to do good things for them.
Also, the parties would not be "secular". They would be general, mixed with secular religious and haredi MKs}
Gafni continues defending the Haredi parties and says:
If we dont stand gaurd day to day, the traditional community will fall prey to a group of people that control the justice system, the media and the academic institutions. This is a war. It is our obligation, the co-gaurantor of the Jewish people, to be concerned for them..
Ahhh.. so now Moshe Gafni is saying that the Haredi MKs are really fighting not for the haredim [alone], but for all the traditional people of Israel. Right. Sure. Thanks a lot.
Deri's suggestion is delusional. A mixed party with both secular and haredi MKs could not survive. A secular MK, who is not exceptional and needs a boost inthe primaries, will open a paper one day and see an editorial about how the author received a call from a haredi rav that somethign he had written about is correct and necessary. That MK will immediately run and submit a bill to create a law for whatever that is as it will have broad support. Then, in the opposing party, another secular MK will propose another law that he thinks is even better. And they will compete about "what is good" for the Haredim. Who will explain anything to them [about what the haredim really need]? The gedolim who said, according to Deri's proposal, to vote for a secular party?
{NOTE: Gafni clearly doesnt understand how this works.. the idea would be exactly that - the competing parties would compete to create better legislation for minorities and interest groups. It would be in their best interests to come up with the best laws, so they could get support from those interest groups and minorities. That is a good thing, not a bad thing. The way it works now is th haredim propose something, and some need the haredim so they support it, and some hate the haredim so they oppose it. And it depends on numbers and the media. If the party is interested in getting support of haredim, they will always look to do things that benefit the haredim or other interest groups. But Gafni is missing the point thinking that this would be bad to have different parties competing to do good things for them.
Also, the parties would not be "secular". They would be general, mixed with secular religious and haredi MKs}
Gafni continues defending the Haredi parties and says:
If we dont stand gaurd day to day, the traditional community will fall prey to a group of people that control the justice system, the media and the academic institutions. This is a war. It is our obligation, the co-gaurantor of the Jewish people, to be concerned for them..
Ahhh.. so now Moshe Gafni is saying that the Haredi MKs are really fighting not for the haredim [alone], but for all the traditional people of Israel. Right. Sure. Thanks a lot.
Labels:
Aryeh Deri,
haredim,
knesset,
Moshe Gafni
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He doesn't mean the traditional public. He means the public which he traditionally supports.
ReplyDeleteI think he meant the actual "traditional" public. That is why he mentioned "areivut"
ReplyDeleteMoshe Gafni is a political hack defending his own political position. Do you expect anything else from him? It would, in fact, have been shocking had he taken any other position.
ReplyDeleteActually disbanding sectoral parties cannot be the answer. They exist even in Western democracies. For example, Canada has a Bloc Quebecois party which has MP's exclusive from Quebec and a platform that deals only with that province. Being sectoral hasn't stopped them from getting a significant number of seats in federal elections.
ReplyDeleteThe answer for Israel is much simpler: change the percentage of the vote needed to earn a Knesset seat from 1-2% to 5%. That'll wipe out all but the largest sectoral parties and possibly even allow one of the bigger parties to have a majority.
I think Gafni understands how things work. I believe his issue is with the lack of trust from one side to the other; the lack of understanding of one side of the other; the belief (and I *do* think he believes it) that the Chareidi / frum parties are the ones who hold this country in check, keeping it Jewish and not secular (now, whether Gafni himself helps this or not is not the point, because this is one of the main points of the chareidi parties in general).
ReplyDeleteThere are other reasons, but its too hot to think.
This will never happen. Too many politicians are just there because they are there. And would not be interested in giving up their high pay checks for nothing