Ariel Sharon's new Kadima Party executed an acquisition that
could prove very dangerous to the chareidi public, when it
put forward Prof. Uriel Reichman as the party's candidate for
education minister in the next government. Reichman would
also be involved in plans by Sharon and Kadima to bring to
Israel a presidential government based on electoral
voting.
Reichman founded Shinui over 20 years ago, served as chairman
of the Shinui Council until two weeks ago and is considered
the party's most important figure after Lapid and Poraz. He
was elected council chairman with a tremendous majority,
which points to his popularity within Shinui and his devotion
to the party platform.
Reichman made Lapid who he is today. During the 1999
elections Shinui left Meretz to form an independent party
headed by Avraham Poraz. Shinui's other MK at the time, Amnon
Rubinstein, stayed with Meretz.
Poraz, who has a drab, uninspiring personality, realized he
needed a charismatic figure to prevent Shinui from turning
into a flash-in-the-pan party and it was Reichman who
proposed bringing in Tommi Lapid and positioning him at the
top of the Shinui list. Both Poraz and Lapid jumped at the
idea and the rest is history.
The scheme to bring in Lapid did not just pop into Reichman's
head. He searched and found a man to his liking, a man who
would place antipathy for chareidim at the top of the public
agenda, ranting against the chareidi "threat" and chareidi
"extortion." Apparently Reichman and Lapid shared an
identical world view.
For those who do not recall, Reichman also headed the Chuka
LeYisrael movement, which led a public outcry 13 years ago
against the election system and caused the Knesset to
legislate a law for the direct prime ministerial elections.
The primary objective of the law was to "stop" the chareidim,
i.e. to minimize the rising influence of chareidi parties and
their burgeoning political power. The campaign for a change
in the voting system was accompanied by an anti-religious
crusade filled with unbridled incitement against the chareidi
public, blaming the chareidim for every ailment that plagued
the State and Israeli society.
In the end the Direct Election Law did not help the efforts
by Reichman & Co. to undermine chareidi political power, and
after three election campaigns the Knesset was forced to
rescind the law.
This is Uriel Reichman in a nutshell. Anti-religious and bent
against the chareidi public with every bone in his body. Just
like Tommi Lapid and perhaps even more virulent, for Tommi
Lapid has a big mouth and sometimes a dog's bark is worse
than his bite.
As education minister he would invariably work to make
Israel's youth even more secular than they are today, trying
to distance them even further from Judaism and Jewish
tradition. Reichman in the Education Ministry would be at
least as bad as Yossi Sarid or Shulamit Aloni in the
Education Ministry.
Reichman also has a loyal partner close to Ariel Sharon:
Kadima's advisor Ayal Arad, who was also a proponent of
Reichman's Chuka LeYisrael campaign and the Direct Elections
Law, and shares Reichman and Shinui's views on religious
issues.
The boss of Kadima, Omri Sharon, also shares their view of
religious issues. If he were not his father's son he could
have been counted on to vote Shinui.
At this rate Kadima is on its way to becoming a second
Shinui.
Likud Left Out of the Celebrations
Various different political figures are streaming into the
Labor Party and Kadima, from a well-known radio personality
to prominent professors and ranking figures in the Civil
Service and at local authorities.
Only the Likud has been left cast off to the side, forlorn
and abandoned. One of the reasons nobody is joining the party
is that who will lead it remains unknown since the party
chairman will not be selected for several weeks.
But this is obviously just an excuse. The main reason is the
opinion polls, which predict the Likud Party could receive as
few as 10 mandates.
Meanwhile Labor and Kadima have been announcing their
ministerial candidates for the next elections—Reichman
as education minister under Sharon and Tamir as education
minister under Peretz, Olmert as finance minister under
Sharon and Braverman as finance minister under
Peretz—as if both parties know they will be slicing up
the pie after the elections by setting up a unity government,
leaving the Likud totally out of the picture. After all with
just 10 mandates, who needs them when there are no-worse
alternatives such as Shas (which the same poll has winning 11
mandates)?
