Shinui Chairman Tommy Lapid, along with his fellow party
members, can be expected to seek every available opportunity
to rile and lash out against the chareidi public in general
and the Torah world in particular, for otherwise Shinui would
be wiped off the political map. In order to survive and try
to repeat its achievements of the previous election, Shinui
will obviously run an anti-religious campaign lasting until
the next elections. But during this period we can also expect
to see a major confrontation between Shinui and Labor.
In the last elections Shinui won nearly 400,000 votes,
granting the party 15 mandates. At the same time Labor
faltered badly, retaining only 19 Knesset seats. Similarly
Meretz, which has since turned into Yachad, dropped from 10
mandates to 6. Clearly many left-wing votes went to Shinui.
According to many estimates, over half of Shinui's mandates
came from hard-core left-wing voters captivated by the anti-
religious campaign the party ran and the promises it failed
to deliver.
If the Labor Party wants to make a comeback in the next
elections it will undoubtedly have to declare war against
Shinui, and if it does not manage to recover at least 4-5
mandates from Shinui it has little chance of coming out of
the next elections any better than it emerged from the
previous elections.
The fact that Labor replaced Shinui in the coalition is also
likely to add fuel to the flames of discord between the two
parties. Labor was furious with Shinui following the previous
elections when the latter took left-wing votes and then
joined a right-wing government alongside HaIchud HaLeumi, led
by Avigdor Liberman, and the NRP, led by Effi Eitam—two
of Israel's extreme right leaders. Now it is Shinui's turn to
seethe against Labor: instead of demanding the setup of a
secular unity government or early elections Labor entered the
coalition with Shinui's sworn enemy—the chareidi
parties.
Recently we got a glance of what lies in store when Tomy
Lapid and Shimon Peres engaged in a heated exchange of
accusations and insults. The entire exchange was over the
need to change the Basic Law: Government in order to allow
Shimon Peres to be appointed as a second deputy to the Prime
Minister after Ehud Olmert. The Basic Law is well-known as a
fortification for Shinui, even in its diminutive state. Had
Shinui been in the coalition now it would have lent all 30
hands of its 15 MKs to change the law.
In one of his typically demagogic speeches, Tomy Lapid struck
out against Peres mockingly: "MK Peres sold the secular
public for the important title of Deputy [Prime Minister]. To
him the title and the post are unimportant, only peace is
important . . . but peace does not equate with the title of
Deputy. So what does Labor do? It goes to Shas to buy support
for [the bill to change the Basic Law]. It is not enough that
you sold the secular public in exchange for UTJ. For Shimon
Peres to be a replacement it was necessary to enlist Shas. So
tell us, Mr. Peres, what did you promise Shas? What did you
pay Shas? How is it that Shas is suddenly backing you? Is
this to atone for not being elected President?" (In Peres'
bid for president he counted on Shas votes and was
disappointed.)
Lapid would not relent. "You put the State of Israel on its
feet for the sake of bizarre, ridiculous and superfluous
prestige, with tidings of peace on your tongue. There is no
new Middle East without [the post of] deputy. No peace
without deputy. No talks with the Palestinians without
deputy. Shimon Peres, you should be ashamed of what you have
done for the State of Israel in recent days, and for buying
the Shas vote in your state of distress in exchange for
deputy. Is this an advance before you join the government or
is this a [regular] payment? And if this is a [regular]
payment to the yeshivas, please inform the Knesset what you
paid for every vote. Peres, how much did you pay to be deputy
number two, for after all deputy number one is Ehud Olmert?
What a dirty deal. What a lowly deal. What a capitulation to
personal pride by going with UTJ and Shas against the
constituency that elected you. A shame and a disgrace for
Labor and for Shimon Peres. Your enthusiasm for jobs knows no
bounds," said Lapid and ended with a heavy hint as to
Shinui's future intentions: "But we'll settle accounts with
you, and I don't always speak as moderately as I'm speaking
now."
A speech dripping with venom and destruction, and filled with
enough envy and hatred to make a man lose his head. A small
man, certainly in the realm of politics. A greenhorn who took
his party out of the government over a trifling NIS 290
million ($65 million), against the will of many others in his
party who were afraid to breathe a word against their
despotic party leader. Now they are green with envy and full
of frustration over his failed maneuver as Labor stands ready
to enter the coalition and provide Sharon a stable
government, perhaps even for another two years, and to toss
Shinui into the boring desert of opposition.
But Peres, no less skilled an orator, has an even sharper
tongue than Tommy Lapid. He did not remain silent upon
hearing these remarks and paid him back double for all of his
hypocrisy and unbounded hatred for religion and the religious
and for the whole time he sat in the government without
meeting any of his many campaign promises.
"I greatly enjoyed Mr. Lapid's shift from secularism to
vociferousness," chuckled Peres mockingly. "After all you
could have made it possible to set up a government composed
of the Likud, Labor and Shinui, but instead went to the NRP
for secularist reasons alone, because you have no ambition.
And not only that, but you voted in favor of NIS 200 million
shekels, based on the NRP's demand, for settlements. You
walked away from the matter of the [non-marital] duality law.
So what makes you secular? What was your contribution? What
are you raising your voice about? You agreed it was
unnecessary to evacuate Netzarim. You agreed the
disengagement could wait. What are your claims? What chutzpah
you have. What are you talking about?"
Later Peres attacked Lapid on the issue of his secularism and
his "contribution" to promoting secularism: "What is a
secularist? What makes you secular? Maybe you don't like the
religious. That is not secularism. One who does not like the
religious is anti-religious. He's not secular. What have you
contributed with your secularism? What do you have to lean
on? On" no to peace, no to secularism. No to logic, no to
integrity? What are you raising your voice for? I am against
religious parties, but I am also against parties that hate
the religious. Neither one nor the other. Don't raise your
voice. We are quiet, restrained, polite—that doesn't
mean you can shout.
"What is your contribution? What do you want? What is secular
— to remain in the Territories? What is secular —
to sit with Avigdor Lieberman? What is secular — to sit
with the NRP? So behave yourself nicely. Speak in a lower
tone. Look at your record and ask yourself — what have
you contributed? What have you done through secularization
and hatred for the religious? What have you contributed
towards the peace process? And what did you leave over, over
NIS 290 million? What did you leave over? I simply advise Mr.
Lapid to step into the Knesset cafeteria, look for a mirror,
take a good look at yourself and your record, then go up to
the podium and write an article that has nothing to do with
the matter."
