He didn't blame the government for the Beit Shemesh decision. He blamed them for ignoring the court's decision that prisoners should not be released. He takes a semi-direct path to get there from the Beit Shemesh issue.
He does, however, bring up an interesting point, which Dov Lipman (judging from his reaction on the video) does not seem to take seriously. This is not the first time that there has been proven fraud in an election. But it is the first time that an election results have been disqualified because of it. And it "just happens" to be a Chareidi who won the election. This is not something to dismiss with a wave of the hands (and, apparently, playing with your colleagues - 2:50 in the video).
However, this IS the first time that election fraud was practiced on such a wide scale, and even semi-publicly.
People focus on the extremists who sold their Teudot Zehut to be used by others, but that is NOT the main issue here.
The main issue is the organized network of people trying to add votes illegally to the totals for Moshe Abutbul and for the Chareidi parties.
Eli Cohen ballots "mysteriously" disappeared from many polling places, and at least one Chareidi-party polling place official was caught absconding with such ballots in order that people should not be ABLE to vote for Eli Cohen.
There were irregularities of various types in about two thirds of the polling places in Bet Shemesh! For example, people arrived to vote late in the day, only to be told that their Teudat Zehut number was listed as having voted already, and other types of fraud were also practiced in these elections!
We have been in an "Anan Sahadei" situation (i.e., a situation where it is widely known what is going on), where it was sort of an "open joke" about how certain Chareidi askanim had used fraudulent means to increase the vote totals for Moshe Abutbul and for the Chareidi parties!
This type of situation is clearly referred to by the Ohr HaChaim when he explains the verse in the Torah: ויקרא פרק יט, פסוק טו: לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ עָוֶל בַּמִּשְׁפָּט "You shall do no unrighteousness in judgement" (JPS Translation) to mean that you should NOT give a court decision which is unrighteous even if you can find a technical argument to justify giving an unrighteous decision in your judgement (like accepting the opposing lawyers' claim that new elections should not be declared unless it is absolutely proven that at least 957 votes for Abutbul should be invalidated, even though there was a network of askanim working to illegally increase the votes of Abutbul's side which logically could easily have gotten hundreds of votes for Abutbul and the Chareidi parties).
The lawyers' claims against new elections were presented in a way to ensure that you could justify NEVER having new elections, no matter how bad the fraud is; because how can one ever prove which ones of the votes already cast were actully cast by fraudulent means. Anyone caught, after the fact (once his ballot is anonymously mixed in with the others) voting fraudulently can always claim that he did not vote for Abutbul and the Chareidi parties.
[Continued in next comment - Catriel Lev of RBS-Alef]
So I am not impressed with people claiming self-righteously (as many Chareidi spokesmen and Knesset members did) that the court decision has no basis and was just given because a Chareidi candidate won the elections.
Everyone should actually open up their eyes to what went on in practice on election day (and for quite a while before and after that) where the vast majority of the people fomenting hatred toward Jews who are different than themselves were Chareidi spokemen and the Chareidi party campaign, including advertisements using even holocaust imagery to sow hatred against Eli Cohen and his supporters. Rabbis were even telling their congregants that it was "Pikuach Nefesh" to ensure that Moshe Abutbul was reelected, and certain askanim performed actions to fufill that "Halachic decision" - since if it is really "Pikuach Nefesh", then one can certainly lie and cheat a bit to save lives! The court decision was not based upon hatred fomented against the Chareidi population it was based upon the actions of a network of Chareidi askanim who acted without regard for the basic Torah requirements to behave honestly and like a mentsch.
The Chareidi population as a whole is not guilty of such criminal activity, but the askanim who are guilty of that behavior encouraged such an atmosphere of fraudulent voting practices that it is hard to feel confident that the election results truly expressed the will of the citizens of Bet Shemesh, which is what they are supposed to express.
I certainly assume that most Chareidim are opposed to such anti-Torah behavior as cheating in the elections, but the cheating which occurred undermines the validity of the election results no matter who won; and it was performed in order to increase the vote totals for Abutbul and the Chareidi parties!
So, I hope that we can have new elections which are seriously supervised to ensure that the tactics used in the original elections cannot be effective; and then whoever wins has at least won in an election that we can be confident expresses the will of the people of Bet Shemesh
He didn't blame the government for the Beit Shemesh decision. He blamed them for ignoring the court's decision that prisoners should not be released. He takes a semi-direct path to get there from the Beit Shemesh issue.
ReplyDeleteHe does, however, bring up an interesting point, which Dov Lipman (judging from his reaction on the video) does not seem to take seriously. This is not the first time that there has been proven fraud in an election. But it is the first time that an election results have been disqualified because of it. And it "just happens" to be a Chareidi who won the election. This is not something to dismiss with a wave of the hands (and, apparently, playing with your colleagues - 2:50 in the video).
However, this IS the first time that election fraud was practiced on such a wide scale, and even semi-publicly.
ReplyDeletePeople focus on the extremists who sold their Teudot Zehut to be used by others, but that is NOT the main issue here.
The main issue is the organized network of people trying to add votes illegally to the totals for Moshe Abutbul and for the Chareidi parties.
Eli Cohen ballots "mysteriously" disappeared from many polling places, and at least one Chareidi-party polling place official was caught absconding with such ballots in order that people should not be ABLE to vote for Eli Cohen.
There were irregularities of various types in about two thirds of the polling places in Bet Shemesh! For example, people arrived to vote late in the day, only to be told that their Teudat Zehut number was listed as having voted already, and other types of fraud were also practiced in these elections!
We have been in an "Anan Sahadei" situation (i.e., a situation where it is widely known what is going on), where it was sort of an "open joke" about how certain Chareidi askanim had used fraudulent means to increase the vote totals for Moshe Abutbul and for the Chareidi parties!
This type of situation is clearly referred to by the Ohr HaChaim when he explains the verse in the Torah:
ויקרא פרק יט, פסוק טו:
לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ עָוֶל בַּמִּשְׁפָּט
"You shall do no unrighteousness in judgement" (JPS Translation)
to mean that you should NOT give a court decision which is unrighteous even if you can find a technical argument to justify giving an unrighteous decision in your judgement (like accepting the opposing lawyers' claim that new elections should not be declared unless it is absolutely proven that at least 957 votes for Abutbul should be invalidated, even though there was a network of askanim working to illegally increase the votes of Abutbul's side which logically could easily have gotten hundreds of votes for Abutbul and the Chareidi parties).
The lawyers' claims against new elections were presented in a way to ensure that you could justify NEVER having new elections, no matter how bad the fraud is; because how can one ever prove which ones of the votes already cast were actully cast by fraudulent means. Anyone caught, after the fact (once his ballot is anonymously mixed in with the others) voting fraudulently can always claim that he did not vote for Abutbul and the Chareidi parties.
[Continued in next comment - Catriel Lev of RBS-Alef]
So I am not impressed with people claiming self-righteously (as many Chareidi spokesmen and Knesset members did) that the court decision has no basis and was just given because a Chareidi candidate won the elections.
DeleteEveryone should actually open up their eyes to what went on in practice on election day (and for quite a while before and after that) where the vast majority of the people fomenting hatred toward Jews who are different than themselves were Chareidi spokemen and the Chareidi party campaign, including advertisements using even holocaust imagery to sow hatred against Eli Cohen and his supporters. Rabbis were even telling their congregants that it was "Pikuach Nefesh" to ensure that Moshe Abutbul was reelected, and certain askanim performed actions to fufill that "Halachic decision" - since if it is really "Pikuach Nefesh", then one can certainly lie and cheat a bit to save lives! The court decision was not based upon hatred fomented against the Chareidi population it was based upon the actions of a network of Chareidi askanim who acted without regard for the basic Torah requirements to behave honestly and like a mentsch.
The Chareidi population as a whole is not guilty of such criminal activity, but the askanim who are guilty of that behavior encouraged such an atmosphere of fraudulent voting practices that it is hard to feel confident that the election results truly expressed the will of the citizens of Bet Shemesh, which is what they are supposed to express.
I certainly assume that most Chareidim are opposed to such anti-Torah behavior as cheating in the elections, but the cheating which occurred undermines the validity of the election results no matter who won; and it was performed in order to increase the vote totals for Abutbul and the Chareidi parties!
So, I hope that we can have new elections which are seriously supervised to ensure that the tactics used in the original elections cannot be effective; and then whoever wins has at least won in an election that we can be confident expresses the will of the people of Bet Shemesh
Catriel Lev of RBS-Alef