But are we to blame?

Hello,
Attached is an article by Ben Caspit from Maariv – in which he blames the general public for the actions and dependent lives of the Haredi public.
Does the Rabbi really think it’s our fault?
Ben Caspit responds to Gafni about the “We are not guilty! You are guilty!” speech.
Gafni is right about one thing: Their unbelievable audacity is entirely our fault.

17 seconds was enough for the eternal chairman of the Finance Committee to complain without any shame. We didn’t crowd the neighborhoods and get by on a loaf of bread, but we pampered them for years and got used to their culture of poverty.

You have to watch this video over and over again and it’s still hard to believe. Even the most talented screenwriter of “Eretz Nehederet” wouldn’t dare to include such text in his meager writings.

MK Moshe Gafni, the eternal chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, the man with his hand on the national cash tap, from the Knesset podium: “We are not to blame! You, who made us live in such crowded conditions, are to blame!! Some people still dare to come and attack us when things are not true. A crow has blossomed. Thank you very much.”

It took him a total of 17 seconds to say these abominable words, in a loud voice and without a shred of shame. 17 seconds, which contain the entire tragedy in a nutshell. The Haredim, says Gafni, are not to blame. They are not to blame for the high infection rate, they are not to blame for the insane number of deaths, they are not to blame for the wholesale opening of a significant part of their education system, they are not to blame for their huge morbidity rate, they are not to blame for the violence, they are not to blame for the wholesale whining about the regulations. They are not to blame for anything and nothing. There was nothing because there is nothing. It is all us.

We stand and watch them huddle in their tiny apartments, stacking child upon child, families with 8 or 12 children in a two-and-a-half-room apartment in a damp basement in Bnei Brak, and we don’t lift a finger. We see the horror and look the other way. It is our helplessness that brought these unfortunates to where they have ended up. Insolent people like us. Instead of building them neighborhoods of spacious detached villas (12-14 rooms in a 21st-floor apartment, so that every child can study properly), we continue to crowd them in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Betar and Modi’in Illit and under every fresh tree. And then we dare to come to them with complaints!!

He is right about one thing, Gafni. His and his friends’ unbelievable audacity is our fault. Only our fault. We grew this thing in our backyard and now, when the wild plants cover the entire neighborhood, we are amazed. It should be emphasized: I am not talking about the Haredim. I am talking about their leadership. The Haredim in Israel have been approaching Israeli society at an accelerated pace in the past decade. They are involved, they are interested, they are much more Zionist than they are willing to admit. Their tragedy (and ours) is the leadership. We will come back to this later.

The best illustration of the absurdity that is being broken here on a daily basis was this week, when the bill to increase fines for quarantine violators passed its first reading in the Knesset. Immediately afterwards, Gafni was filmed “accidentally” having a shouting match with a senior representative from the Prime Minister’s Office, threatening her with blunt words, demanding that the fines be immediately canceled and blurting out, as if by chance, that “we are starting to get tired of this partnership.”

And behold, it’s a miracle: Two minutes later, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the hostage of the Haredim until his innocence is proven, relents, and tries to reach a “compromise offer.” That the fines will not be significantly increased, or that only a senior officer will be able to impose them, that it will be impossible to issue an administrative closure order against an educational institution that operates during the lockdown.

This is how it has worked here for generations. This is how the mutation was created, in which an entire country became hostage to a rapidly growing minority that is losing its checks and balances all the way to the public purse. I hope and pray that Benny Gantz will deviate from his custom and not move a millimeter from his position yesterday: no extension of the lockdown, no government meeting and nothing – until the bill to increase fines passes without any compromise. Whoever wants to extend the lockdown will first learn to enforce it on everyone. Secular, Arab, Haredi.

The Haredim are our brothers. Flesh of our flesh. Their tragedy is our tragedy. They live the country, they know how to appreciate the country, they are involved in its life. Their silent majority knows that the current arrangement cannot last forever. The more they grow and their share of the population grows, the more it will become clear to them that the fragile balance on which this country rests needs adjustment. They will have to participate more in the labor market, study core subjects, and also increase their rate of enlistment in the IDF. They know this truth, the Haredim. Their problem is the leadership, which continues to cling with all its might to the 18th century.

They have their leadership, we have ours. Our leadership completely nullifies itself in their eyes for reasons that every Israeli knows: Netanyahu owes the 16 fingers of the Haredim in the Knesset to continue his journey of escaping the threat of justice. In return for this, he pays from our pockets. In return for this, he enslaves governance, law, order, the fight against the pandemic. It is commonly thought that the Haredim are Netanyahu’s judges and do as he commands. In reality, it is the opposite.

Dear MK Gafni. No, we are not to blame. I hope you don’t believe your own nonsense. We did not order you to start families of 12 children. Here, families bring children into the world only when it is clear that there is someone to raise them with. We did not crowd you into your neighborhoods. We did not impose a life of ignorance and poverty on you. We did not demand that you not provide your children with a modern education. We did not leave you in kollels and yeshivot until a late age. We did not teach you to hang your love on the “Siaeta Deshmia” as a permanent solution to the growing distress in your districts.

We, Mr. Gafni, do not have a “heavenly society.” We have our work, our education, our responsibility, our sweat. The problem is that the aforementioned society often becomes a code name for the state treasury. And here too, we are to blame. Your dependence on us is growing, through our fault. We have pampered you all these years, we have accepted the culture of poverty, we have cultivated the absurd idea of ​​a “society of learners” that is growing at an enormous rate, devoid of any economic foundation and dependent on the state treasury and various other slush funds. In the end, you are right, Gafni. The overall responsibility is ours, and we are the ones who have to pay the price. The truth is, we quite deserve it.