BOLD MOVES
“Israel is a home for all Jews, but we respect those who choose to live in the Diaspora,” Shaked says.
The New Right wants a “wider” range of conversion options than those that exist today, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said at an English-language event in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
However, Shaked said that the process would still be in line with Orthodox Judaism.
“We want to encourage more and more people to convert to Judaism, and the best way to do that is through the army,” she said, praising the efforts of religious-Zionist Rabbi Haim Druckman on this front.
Former Jerusalem Post columnist and New Right candidate Caroline Glick, who joined Shaked onstage, said that seeking a freer conversion process was one of the reasons Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennett broke off from Bayit Yehudi.
“Jewish identity in Israel is very important to us,” Shaked said. “As education minister, Bennett reinforced this, even though he faced extreme criticism from the Left and the media. As a mother of two children, I definitely want them to learn about Jewish tradition and we plan to continue this in our new party.”
The party’s policies on religion and state will be based on the Gavison-Medan Convenant, written in 2004 by law professor Ruth Gavison and Rabbi Yaacov Medan, meant to set guidelines for coexistence between religious and secular Jews in Israel.
Shaked did not directly address questions about the involvement of the Conservative and Reform Movements in Israel, except to say that their conversions conducted abroad should continue to be recognized by the government, but of those conducted in Israel, only Orthodox conversions would be recognized.
She said that the party supports the compromise to expand the egalitarian section of the Western Wall in cooperation with the non-Orthodox leadership.
When asked if she thinks that all Jews should live in Israel, Shaked said: “I am happy with every Jew who makes aliyah, but I don’t want to be patronizing to Jews around the world. American Jewry is definitely crucial to the existence of Israel. They are doing a lot of important things.”
“This is the home of the Jewish people, but if Jews want to live abroad, I respect it,” Shaked added.
Shaked also encouraged voters to choose the New Right, because she posited that the Likud is going to win the April 9 election.
“What the public learned [from past elections] is the bloc is what really matters, not the big party,” Shaked said. “We want to keep a right-wing government.”
As such, she argued, the New Right needs to be the second-biggest party in the coalition, as opposed to Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience Party.
Shaked expressed concern about US President Donald Trump’s intent to release the details of his peace plan in the coming months.
“We think [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu will want to include Gantz or [Yesh Atid chairman Yair] Lapid to promote the plan,” she stated.
As for Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit’s likely plans to hold a pre-indictment hearing for Netanyahu before the election, Shaked said “I appreciate and respect [Mandelblit] and respect his judgment and don’t want to interfere in his decision. I sleep well at night when I know that he’s the one making the decision.”
At the same time, Shaked defended Netanyahu’s criticism of Mandelblit, saying that “freedom of speech is for all people, including leaders. Our prime minister has freedom of speech and can criticize the system.”
The event in Tel Aviv was cosponsored by the Tel Aviv International Salon, Times of Israel and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
@ Bear Klein: Yes, good idea, Bear. We obviously can’t reach agreement on this particular issue, so there is no point in continuing to discuss it. Best wishes, Adam.
@ adamdalgliesh:
You are wrong and will not admit it! That is okay believe what you like if it makes you happy. Even when I quote exactly what happen with an excellent source you have your own spin. That is fine stick with it. I for my part will stop the back and forth on this subject.
Bear, you are refusing to face the fact that he did his best to kill it. He has sort of half backed off now following a firestorm of public anger And he had no plausible motive for this act but hostility to the “settlements.” You are refusing to face reality.
@ adamdalgliesh:
First you have appear to have ignored that you accused Mandebilt of killing the Medical School in Ariel when, he ruled in a manner that actually allows for its establishment. The school appears to be on a path to establishment.
@ Bear Klein: This is not a final decision. Merely a statement from Mandelblit that the Judea-Samaria Council on Higher Education has the right to reverse his decision. As Yogi said, “It ain’t over until its over.” Mandelblit could still meddle again by “disqualifying” some members of this larger council in order to prevent them from approving the school.
Perhaps he will let it go. THe outcry against his cancellation of the project was so loud that he may have decided to back down on this particular act of illegal meddling. That doesn’t change the fact that his meddling was illegal, and that the only plausible explanation for it is political. Ariel is located a mile or two outside the “green line.” The left has opposed any expansion or growth in the settlements, because they want to have the settlements evacuated and handed over to the PLO. THe Supreme Court and the AG have repeatedly intervened to destroy Jewish houses in the “occupied territories. They have upheld all Arab land claims, although none of them have been documented with title deeds, and they have refused to recognize any Jewish land claims, no matter how well documented. These are well-documented facts that the AG and the Supreme Cout justices have never denied . The attempt to quash the Ariel medical obviously fits into this pattern. Even if Mandelblit has decided that it is prudent for him to draw in his horns in this particularly outrageous case of meddling, because of the public outrage,it doesn’t change the fact that he attempted to illegally quash the project.
@ Bear Klein: Where did you get your information about a “final” decision about the medical school, Bear? The last thing I saw about it in the Israeli press definitely said that the AG had nixed the school. Please give me a link to this “final” story. Having followed Israeli politics for many years, I know that no decision is “final” until the AG and the Supremes sign off on it. They always have the last word.
You say that Mandelblit is not corrupt. That depends how you define corruption. I am not saying that he takes bribes. What I do say is that he makes decisions on the basis of his political opinions and not the law. Sometimes he breaks the law when it interferes with his getting his way about a political decision. And he often imposes his will in situations where he has no legal authority to do so. This, to my mind, is a more serious form of corruption than taking bribes. He isn’t in it for the money. But he is ruthless in depriving elected officials, the ministers and Knesset, of their lawful authority. This is from my perspective the worst form of political corruption.
@ adamdalgliesh: Actually you are wrong about Mandebilt. He has done the opposite of what you accused him of.
West Bank education council votes to open medical school at Ariel
@ adamdalgliesh:
This position is not structured correctly that is the problem in part. He is not corrupt and would not try to convict an innocent man.
There needs to be a government legal office that works on behalf of the government, it is not structured that way that is the issue.
The situation is more nuanced than what you are describing. The structure of the Israeli system is way too ad-hoc. Again this a situation that calls for clear separation of powers described in a constitution.
People take power or interpret things in a vacuum.
By the way Medical School in Ariel is approved and the decision is final. You should read up on it more as you have some faulty info.
Bear, you and Shaked are both wrong about Mandelblit. Caroline Glick (I don’t have the links right now) has documented numrous cases of illegal meddling by Mandelblit with cabinet decisions, his unwillingness to represent the government in cases before the Supreme court if his “conscience” told him not to do so. He has insisted on keeping one of his very slimy deputies (a deputy attorney general) attending cabinet meetings and briefing the Knesset about his positions on proposed laws, although law is very explicit that deputy attorneys general cannot attend cabinet meetings or Knesset sessions without the consent of the Minister of Justice . And the minister of Justice (Shaked) refused her consent in writing. The reaon Shaked opposed this deputy AG from attending cabinet meetings and Knesset hearings was that she had argued against the adoption of certain laws, and threatened to veto them, on political and diplomatic, not legal, grounds (foreign governments might not like them).
An even more blatant meddling in a decision where he has no legal authority to intervene occurred when he cancelled a decision by the University of Ariel to start a medical school on their campus, even though Israel’s National Board of Education had already approved the project, 90 students had already been admitted for the fall class, and ground had been broken for the medical school building.
The way the deputy AG did this was to demand that the National Board of Education conduct a revote a year later, and declare that two members of the board were inelible to vote because they had supposed “conflicts of interest.” The “shrunken” board, reduced in number from 7 to 5, then cancelled the project by a 3-2 vote. This meddling in the decision of a supposedly independent board, chosen by Israel’s university faculties, had no legal basis whatsoever. The hopes of the 90 would-be medical students were crushed, and Israel was deprived of many badly needed future doctors.
The reason Mandelblit cancelled the medical school is because Ariel University is outside the “green line” in Samaria (although only 2-3 miles from the green line) in an area he and all the leftists want to give to the “State of Palestine.” Israel’s need for doctors did not cocern him.
Notice ethe way Mandelblit uses his deputies to implement his most controversial and illegal orders, thereby cleverly distancing himself from them. But this is fake, because he hires his deputies, is free to fire them, and can give them any orders he chooses. A clever scoundrel.
Shaked of course knows perfectly well that the man is a lawless tyrant, but she, like all the politicians, is afraid of him. He can, and does, investigate indict politicians at will on trumped-up charges. She also believes that it is best to “work within the system” to obtain the consent of the AG and the Supremes to appoint some conservative judges. They have grudgingly agreed to this request, and she has reciprocated by saying nice things about Mandelblit because he did not veto her efforts. Still, a big mistake on her part.
@ adamdalgliesh:
Mandebilt is very respected and I have seen nothing to the contrary. He does not act as a politician but as his job is defined. He is provided the allegations and evidence and determines if this sufficient to bring to trial. From what has been leaked it seems like Bibi has some real problems.
Israel has a weird system were the legal advisor to the government is also the one decides whether to indict a government official. That actually should be changed.
I agree with Shaked’s support for easier conversions. The chief rabbinates efforts to invalidate and refuse to recognize most conversions, including most Orthodox conversions, is a disaster for Israel, driving away many people who have a sincere desire to be Jews, and putting bitterness into the hearts of those denied Jewish status. I disagree strongly with her praise of Mandelblit and her “comfort” with whatever decisions he makes. THat’s a horrific mistake.