who is right , who is left

Defining exactly what is right wing and what is left wing, what is conservative and what is liberal, can be difficult and confusing. Especially in Israel, but not just. I can be liberal regarding economics, but conservative regarding security, while being somewhere else along the spectrum regarding social issues and governmental issues. Any combination of stances on issues can work. Just because I am conservative on one matter, does not mean I cannot be liberal on other matters. I always get confused when hearing claims of this person is right wing, or that one is left wing, when each person has varied positions on different issues, and he or she might be left wing, but could hold right wing stances on other issues. This is especially true of the frum community who is mostly conservative on security in Israel and on Land of Israel issues, but believes in more socialistic ideas regarding the economy with more handouts to be given to the weaker socio-economic sectors and affirmative action and other issues in that realm.

That is why some people are surprised to learn about a Haredi woman putting up her candidacy for a slot in the Meretz primaries, but I am not. Besides for the fact that it has happened before, with Tzvia Greenfield from Har Nof serving as MK on the Meretz list back in 2008 for a short period of time. Now we have a Haredi female lawyer, Ofra Kaplan, running to represent Meretz in the Knesset. It seems Kaplan grew up in South Africa and England and studied law in Cambridge.

INN interviewed Kaplan, trying to understand how a Haredi woman could join, and try to be a representative of, Meretz, and how that can possibly mesh with Torah values.

I believe it is not difficult at all, and I identify with many of her answers, though I never felt the urge to vote Meretz. 

Some interesting points from the interview:

 * care and concern for the weaker sectors, justice and similar values come from the mussar of the prophets. She says the values of Shulamit Aloni were taken from the Jewish bookshelf and were created by God.

 - personally, I think the Shulamit Aloni comment is strange, though the principal she states is correct and interesting. 

 * most Meretz people are not anti-religious, but against religious coercion.

 - I agree

 * how does working towards a Palestinian State on land such as Hebron, Shchem, Bet lechem, etc  jibe with the Torah dictates of inheriting and settling the land - the idea of conquering the land is more appropriate for the days of Joshua or for the future days of Mashiach, not today, and today Rachel would not want roadblocks on the way to her grave, and the desire to go to her grave does not justify hatred and fighting

 - strange response, but I understand not wanting to fight about it.

 * she stresses the Torah position against racism and discriminations very strongly. When asked what about the Palestinians wanting to create a State that Jews wont be allowed in, she says we have to fight racism on our side, they are responsible for it on their side.

 - this is like burying your head in the sand, when the other side's racism and hatred is against us.

 * if a Palestinian state would be established and they would shoot rockets at us, the relationship would be of two countries at war and our response can be in that vein. As of now, they dont have a country, so we cannot really go to war against them even if necessary.

 - this is an interesting perspective. Let them have a State so we can treat them as a hostile country if they act towards us with hostility.

All I know is that Michael is on our right and Gabriel is on our left. Other than that, I dont know how to categorize most people using right and left as the barometer.

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------