Even though Ehud Barak won and he is the candidate of the
Left, his difficulties in putting together a government have
made it clear that the country as a whole -- and certainly
not the Jews -- did not vote for the Left. This is the
reality that the Left has never come to terms with: they are
in the minority in Israel.
Various tricks and changes have been tried by the Left --
raising the minimum for Knesset representation, the change in
the election system that has the prime minister elected
directly by all the voters -- in order to try to destroy or
minimize the influence of the religious parties, but it has
not worked for them. The reason is simple: the religious
people are a sizable proportion of the Israeli electorate
and, even more important, they are a genuine part of the true
national consensus.
It is easy to be fooled by all the trees that are the 16 (!)
different parties elected to the Knesset into thinking that
the people of Israel are hopelessly fragmented into different
groups that cannot get along together. But this is not true.
There is still a single forest that can be called the Jewish
consensus -- and the religious parties are emphatically part
of it.
If we speak of a national consensus, it does not necessarily
mean that all parts of that consensus agree on all things.
Southern Republicans in the United States, for example, do
not always see eye-to-eye with their northern counterparts.
Also, a Democrat from a particular state may not always vote
his party line, especially if it is on a matter that vitally
affects the interests of his home state. Yet if there are
broad matters of approach in common and certain fundamental,
shared values, then there exists a basis for forming a single
party -- or government. (UTJ of course cannot be a partner to
a government that is not based on Torah, but it does
participate.)
We are not prepared to fully characterize the consensus that
exists in the State of Israel today, particularly since its
limits are by no means clear. That is to say, it is very hard
to know just how far it extends, but nonetheless, some things
about its core are very clear, even if the Left will not
admit it: the religious are in and the extreme anti-religious
are out.
Ehud Barak did not win because of his anti-chareidi positions
but in spite of them. In fact, it is more accurate to say
that Netanyahu lost the election than that Barak won, and
even then Netanyahu got over 49% of the Jewish vote. Much of
the country may prefer to see the yeshiva students drafted
(and this mainly because of the incessant propaganda of the
Leftist-controlled mass media) but they can easily live with
them continuing to study Torah. It may be that a majority is
happy with them continuing in yeshivas, but it is hard to
know. It is, however, easy to see that the vast majority of
the country (and even the Members of Knesset) would not mind
leaving the yeshiva bochurim on the benches of the
yeshivas where they belong.
The same holds true for other key issues. The national
consensus supports or at least tolerates the religious
position.
On the contrary, it is the extreme anti-religious position
that is beyond the pale, and this is what has been giving
Barak a hard time. The uncompromisingly anti-religious
positions taken during the election campaign by Meretz and
that disgusting demagogic journalist-turned-politician are
what is causing the problems in forming a governing
coalition, and it is clear that Meretz will have to back down
if it wants to be in the government.
Those are the political realities, and no amount of electoral
reform can mask them.
