Netanyahu Wasn't "Bowing To" Agudat Yisra'el

He willingly kiboshed the agreement regarding the Kotel in violation of the Declaration of Establishment, and he has made clearly known where his loyalties lie. For the "Times Of Israel" and others to state that he caved to the Haredim is wrong and not holding Netanyahu accountable for turning Ben Gurion's mistake into Netanyahu's malice.

Netanyahu continues to show that he sides with Agudat Yisra'el—and their allies such as Shas and United Torah Judaism—and needs to be held accountable for deliberately trying to destroy the Zionist State in favor of a Haredi one. 

I Wasn't Orchestrating Anything....And I've No Interest In a "Palestinian" State

As I said, I'm a non-leftist no-shame type when I speak about Netanyahu*. Now that Netanyahu admitted that he wanted a two-state solution, who's the Anti-Israel, Anti-American liberal now?

On Monday, Netanyahu, in the face of a seemingly deadlocked race, vowed there would be no Palestinian nation if he were re-elected, a seeming reversal from a 2009 speech he gave in which he backed the idea of a two-state solution. But Netanyahu's Likud Party ultimately triumphed, and on Thursday, Netanyahu seemed to dial back his remarks on the plan, which is a centerpiece of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Remember that he tried to give 86% of the West Bank away? He unequivocally, by the way, "vowed [that] there would be" "no Palestinian state". So, 86% of the West Bank and no Palestinian State? More like "לא למדינת יהודית ללא משיח" ("No Jewish State Without the Messiah"). It's no secret: the same Agudat Yisra'el that affected ben-Gurion to be the Jewish von Hindenburg** are intent on, along with their "natural partner", destroying the current State of Israel***:

**One of the defining moments of the relationship of religion and state in Israel took place on the eve of the declaration of independence. David Ben-Gurion sent a letter dated June 19, 1947, to the political leaders of the religious parties (Mizrachi and Agudat Yisrael) making certain assurances concerning life in the future state.[19] Ben-Gurion promised that:

• The future government will do all it can to make sure that the religious demands be answered concerning personal status issues, such as marriage, divorce, and conversions. The result of this promise was that the Chief Rabbinate has authority over personal status issues and religious law governs marriage and divorce. This agreement continued the policy established during the Turkish and British era.

• All government-operated kitchens (army, police, hospitals, etc.) will have kosher food.

• The Sabbath will be the official day of rest for Jews.

• There will be autonomy in education and the state will not intervene in religious education but will demand and regulate a minimum curriculum in secular subjects such as science, grammar and history.

The status quo agreement was accepted with the understanding that the assurances given by Ben-Gurion could be altered with the adoption of a constitution, but that constitution never came into being, as described in another chapter in this anthology.[20] With no constitution, the “church”-state divide remained vague and the different political powers, secular and religious, constantly attempted to change the equilibrium.

***The ultra-Orthodox have not accepted the Zionist definition of the Jews as a nation in search of a homeland, and have remained faithful to the ancient definition of Jews as a religious community waiting for a messiah. In May 1912, some 200 Orthodox leaders from Germany and Eastern Europe met in Kattowitz (Katowice) to start Orthodoxy’s first organized response to Zionism, Agudat Israel, which still exists today as an anti-Zionist movement in Israel and as a lobby elsewhere. The ideologue of the movement was Nathan Birnbaum, a brilliant intellectual who collaborated with Theodor Herzl in the early days of political Zionism. He coined the term “Zionism,” and then became convinced that the secular definition of the Jews as a nation was inadequate, that secularization would lead to the disappearance of the Jewish people. Orthodoxy had to take a firm stand against Zionism, in the form of a political organization. Agudat Israel was Diaspora-oriented, and its center between the two World Wars was in Poland, where about one third of the Polish Jews were its supporters. It had elected representatives in the Polish parliament in the 1930s, and its delegates have appeared before international bodies, including the League of Nations and the United Nations.Historically, Agudat Israel has been opposed to the idea of a Jewish state, but the Holocaust deprived the movement of most of its constituency in Eastern Europe, leaving them more of a minority, less anti-Zionist and ready to accept the reality of Zionist success.
Since 1948, the party has been pragmatically involved in state institutions. It supports governing coalitions and is rewarded with ample budgets for its Orthodox schooling system. Agudat Israel accepts the state of Israel de facto, but judges it to be without the religious significance assigned to it by religious Zionists.

* As I said:

"Stand With Israel, Not Netanyahu"

Even I, a staunch Zionist who was already mad enough at Netanyahu and his Haredi Judaism which he attempts to disguise as Yahadut Chilonit, took a few steps back and thought:

If Netanyahu was largely passive while Arab citizens were being assaulted, he led the demonization campaign against the 47,000 African refugees and asylum seekers who entered Israel without permits. Despite reducing the number of refugees entering Israel to practically zero, thanks to the Sinai fence, he continues to lock up thousands of these desperate people – who, like our own Jewish ancestors, sought to escape persecution and poverty. Netanyahu’s policies flout Jewish values, and have been overturned multiple times by the High Court as immoral and unjustified. But they play well to his xenophobic base. 

Good points and reminders. In fact, I wager that some of the Sudanese and other refugees may even be Falasha and Lemba Jews who are making aliyah in what many would call an illegal way—and if any "illegal" olim are among the Sudanese refugees, the Government of Israel has no right to deny those olim ("eleh Kushim!") their taglit. Also, think about this: what if some illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, etc. are Anusim who'd make aliyah if Netanyahu and his yadidim let them? After all, they're not considered Yehudim al pi HaHoq Shivut. They otherwise have to be under the auspices of nasty people such as Dr. Michael Freund. (Just like Netanyahu, Dr. Freund can fool people. That's even part of why I save most of my e-mails in my backup folders—that is, so I do not ever lose the proof of when I run into mitchazim like Dr. Freund. That's why I still have the link to the 2012 conversation.).

 Likud-led fear and hatemongering hardly stops with our non-Jewish minorities. Progressives, civil rights activists, leftists, the judiciary and anyone who criticizes the occupation have all been accused of being enemies of the state. So much for Jewish solidarity or democratic discourse. 

Indeed. I've experienced this myself. I even have a Facebook friend who called Senator Diane Feinstein (with whom I myelf hardly ever agree) a "witch" for standing against Netanyahu, and I've seen others harp on the fact that Senator Feinstein comes from a Jewish Catholic family (which I did not know until they harped on her for it. As I learned, the Feinsteins and the Rosenburgs were and are Russian Byzantine Catholics.).

From a family of Roman Catholic Anusim and b'nei Anusim, I know that feeling ("You're not Jewish!"; "Your family betrayed their people!"; "They're meshumadim!"; "They're bogadim!"; "Oh; no wonder your Hebrew's not good: your family didn't tell you that they're Jewish!")

Perhaps, by the way, maybe the Anusi and "meshumad" minds are among the ones which are quickest to pick up on trouble. Our ancestors knew when trouble was coming and/or already came, and at least two of us (Senator Feinstein and me, though I suspect that there are more who) knew that Netanyahu and the Haredim were trouble (By the way, I'll have some kavod for Taylor Swift if she goes to Israel and dedicates her famous song to Netanyahu.).

Anyway:

This week’s Netanyahu drumbeat claims that the Iranian threat trumps all traditional diplomatic considerations. But those who, like me, believe that Iran is an existential threat to Israel, and fear that the agreement currently being negotiated will be too forgiving and trusting of Iran need to acknowledge that Netanyahu has blown it. 

His anti-Obama tirades, his support for West Bank settlements over all other considerations, his efforts to undermine the Palestinian Authority, his expropriation of 988 acres of Palestinian land at the end of the Gaza War not only wasted the new diplomatic opportunities he promised toward the war’s end, but alienated and antagonized the very European leaders who, along with U.S. President Barack Obama, are the partners necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear program. 

Excellent reminder and point as well. For being such a Zionist, Netanyahu isn't taking the higher road. He also is not trusting יהוה. For example, bulldozing the houses of innocent Bedouins does not help—and deliberately failing to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty is a chillul יהוה.

Bulldozing the houses of terrorists and their accomplices is fine. Destroying terrorists and their accomplices is fine. Stereotyping all Arabs as terrorists and bulldozing their houses is not fine.

As for (and back to the point about) taking the higher road, to stoop down to the level of an enemy or even lower is a chillul יהוה (cf. Tehillim 25:21-22 and Mishlei 26:4). The applicable mitzvot, after all, say to love your neighbor as yourself (not be like him or her in doing evil), treat the stranger well (not do as he or she has done to you), and let יהוה avenge you. Netanyahu is doing the exact opposite when he has the IDF go beyond proactive counterproliferation, preemption, and deterrence.

By the way, counterproliferation, preemption, and deterrence are obviously mitzvot and acts of kiddush יהוה.

Netanyahu plays the statesman abroad, but back home he is known for his paranoia, his self-aggrandizement, and his lashing out against the courts, the universities and the media. Netanyahu aspires to be Israel’s Churchill, but in nurturing a nation divided against itself he has become our Nixon. 

I and others who follow news from and about 'Eretz Yisra'el keep trying to say that, though nobody believes us. Hopefully, Director Futterman (despite that he's looking at the situation from a leftist perspective) can affect you to get that through your head.