News and Events

Left, Benny Gantz, center, Benjamin Netanyahu, right, Yair Lapid (Hadas Parush, Noam Revkin Fenton, Hadas Parush/ Flash90)

What better way to discuss Israeli politics than to invite three Israelis to meet and have a discussion? This happened last night when ARZA Australia and PJV (Progressive Judaism Victoria) jointly hosted a Zoom panel with guests Anna Kislanski, CEO of the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) visiting Australia, Sefi Shalam our Victorian Netzer Shaliach and we are told a Political Geek and Orit Elkayam Cohen here in Australia representing the Jewish Agency.

Click here to view discussion video

For over an hour these three gave their opinions on what is happening during this crazy time in Israel with yet another election, the fifth in less than 4 years and only a year after an unusual Coalition of parties came together with Naftali Bennett as Prime Minister. After the collapse of the Coalition Yair Lapid under the Coalition agreement took over the Prime Ministership. He has the task of both governing Israel until November and trying to run an election campaign at the same time.

A couple of weeks into his Prime Ministership he is having to steer Israel through yet another conflict with Gaza named Breaking Dawn. This time the focus is on Islamic Jihad, not Hamas.

What became obvious during the panel discussion is that Israeli politics is all about “Identity Politics”. Most of the discussion centred on the main rivals in this election, Lapid, Netanyahu and Gantz. There was very little focus on party policies or philosophy. It seems all about which person can do the deals to win the most seats in the Knesset. That is 50% plus 1, out of the 120 seats. It was even agreed that even the Haredi would go with which ever party will give them the monetary benefits they seek through government subsidies.

Some other parties are only interested in stopping Netanyahu becoming PM, and not so much unwilling to combine with Likud. However, there seemed to be agreement amongst our panellists that we would not see a coalition like the one that formed last year. It seems that the true battle will be between Gantz and Netanyahu.

In the meantime, Lapid and Gantz, two political rivals striving to be PM appear, to everyone’s surprise, to be working collaboratively in managing the GAZA conflict in the middle of an election campaign. Even the Opposition led by Netanyahu admits that things are going well for Yair Lapid.

However, our panellists did not give him much hope of being able to form Government. One interesting outlier mentioned was the Arab party, worth 6 seats. From my perspective, if this party manages to survive and get people out to vote they may be in an interesting bargaining position.

But like everything in Israeli politics, no one really knows, and everyone has a different opinion. Our thanks to each of our panellists Anna, Sefi and Orit for an interesting evening.

Helen Shardey OAM
ARZA Australia President
UPJ Vice President

PJV and ARZA invite you to hear Anna Kislanski (CEO of the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism), Sefi Shalam (Progressive Community Shaliach) and Orit Elkayam Cohen (Jewish Agency Representative Australia and New Zealand) discuss the latest developments in the upcoming Israel election.

7:30pm Sunday 7 August
Online via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83728133947

Helen Shardey OAM
ARZA Australia President
UPJ Vice President

Immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport, in March. Credit: Hadas Parush

While Israel has treaded carefully in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow seems determined to punish the one country offering a place of safety to Ukrainian and Russian Jews, those lining up to make Aliyah.

Russian authorities have taken legal steps to shut down the Moscow operation of the Jewish Agency, responsible for this Aliyah. This has caused the Israeli government to rail against such action with the Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Nachman Shai saying “Russian Jews will not be held hostage by the war in Ukraine. The attempt to punish the Jewish Agency for Israel’s stance on the war is deplorable and offensive”.

Israeli government authorities are working hard to cooperate with their Russian counterparts as they have for many decades and will not be acceding to the difficult demands being made.

The Jewish Agency is the unofficial arm of the Israeli government responsible for dealing with the immigration process, which has seen roughly 12,000 Russian citizens migrating to Israel since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in February.

This big upsurge of migration from Russia, the country starting the war with Ukraine has been surprising. The rationale seems to be, according to commentators, that the Russian regime is looking more totalitarian. So, the history of Jewish persecution in Russia could be a driving force toward Aliyah to Israel.

On another note, following the disgraceful and violent behaviour of young ultra-Orthodox Jews at the Kotel, we now see a report of Haredi young men in Jerusalem fighting to block the construction of a light rail. The altercation seems not only to seek the closing of a street on Shabbat, but the closure every day of the week to the passage of the light rail train.

The strange thing about the argument seems to be that the surrounding Haredi community welcomes the train as something that will improve their lives. According to reports, those who are vehemently opposing it are said to be the extremist Edah Haredit who are convinced the light rail is part of a bigger plot to change the character of the orthodox area. The protests have involved demonstrations, countless acts of sabotage of equipment and infrastructure such as fencing and bulldozers and the harassment of workers and security. This has all led to several arrests, particularly of Yeshiva boys.

One wonders what these young men are being taught in relation to civil and respectful behaviour and acceptance of the rights of others in Israeli society.

Helen Shardey OAM
ARZA Australia President
UPJ Vice President