changing the Shabbos status quo

According to Behadrei, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, longtime Likudnik leader, is working on a proposal to take the decision of public Shabbos observance out of the government's hands and put the decision making process on these issues into the hands of local municipal governments.

According to Edelstein, the issue of public Shabbos observance has caused many coalition crises and has taken down governments and there is no solution in sight. Edelstein says the status quo is no good and wants it canceled - revoked. The Israeli public is dynamic and this issue cannot just be frozen at any point in time with everyone needing to adhere to what was considered a viable solution at that point. A status quo is never a solution to social problems, according to Edelstein.

So, Edelstein would take the deciding about Shabbos out of the hands of the Knesset and put it into the hands of municipal government, with each city and town deciding for itself how the public sphere should look on Shabbos. As Edelstein puts it, there is no logical reason that Shabbos Kiryat Arba, Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Bialik should all look the same. And Just like the restaurants are closed on Jabotinsky St in Petach Tikva on Shabbos they need to be closed on Jabotinsky St in Tel Aviv on Shabbos?

The interesting thing is that just recently under a Likud government the government strengthened its hold on controlling Shabbos observance and took the little bit of control in municipal hands away and gave the overall final decision making to the hands of the Minister of Interior. If Edelstein's proposal goes through, it would be reversing a very recent Likud-led policy. Politicians are allowed to change their mind, but the amount of Likud changing of the mind from one recent government to the next is staggering.

I am sure the Haredi parties will not be happy about this and will fight against such a proposal. If it goes through it will be a big change for Israeli society and we will surely see cities and towns expanding their chilul shabbos. Even if that is a bad thing (from a religious perspective), to some extent people have a right to decide for themselves how they want to live their lives.

What I continue to not understand is why the Haredi parties have tied their fate so closely and tightly with that of the Likud. They continue to repeat they will only sit with Netanyahu and the likud and not the Left. They continue to explain the Likud is more traditional and open to and accepting of Jewish tradition. Yet Shabbos continues to be trampled under Likud governments more than ever before and continues to increase in levels. Now with the Likud proposing this, that will just bring about even more public Shabbos desecration. Either the Haredi parties will have to, at some point, come to terms with the fact that the public no longer wants to be told how to observe Shabbos and will have to stop making it an issue, or they have no reason to prefer the Likud over any other party. Well before the Likud began ruling the country some 40 years ago, the haredi and religious parties knew very well how to work with the Left. The status quo even came out of a left-wing government to start with. There is no real reason, from a Shabbos perspective, to prefer the Likud over any other leadership party and they are doing themselves a disservice in tying themselves so tightly to the Likud.

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