Q&A: Ben-Gvir
Ben-Gvir
Question
Dear Rabbi, hello,
A. In light of what Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said about Ben-Gvir, that it is forbidden to go up to the Temple Mount, would the Rabbi agree to write an article on the matter?
B. What does the Rabbi vote for in government elections, and why?
Thank you
Answer
A. I already wrote in the past what I think about Yitzhak Yosef. As for an article about going up to the Temple Mount, I have written that in my opinion this is driven mainly by nationalist reasons, and therefore I do not share it (although it is legitimate and one must allow it). On the halakhic question, I will think about it. It requires clarifying the topic, which I have not yet done.
B. Which elections? First let us see that there are elections and who the candidates are. I will only repeat that in principle I do not see any point in voting, since recent times have only proven my old thesis that they are all the same. Support for or criticism of this or that move depends on one’s position. They all do exactly the same thing, and when they are in the opposition they criticize the things that they themselves do and vote against what they themselves believe in. I see no reason to vote in elections in such a situation.
Of course, if Bibi runs, then it is very important and very proper to vote for someone else in order to prevent his election. But that is a specific consideration that has nothing to do with policy (which he does not have), but with the man himself and his corrupt destructiveness.
Discussion on Answer
I admit there is frustration, but the Rabbi also admits that every party has its own issue and only it wants to promote it so people will vote for it, and therefore it will wreck another party even if it is the same issue. Gimmel is Torah and nothing besides that, Smotrich mainly Judea and Samaria and also Torah, Likud stupidity, Lieberman staying in the Knesset, etc. So I am asking:
after all that, what did the Rabbi vote for in the past, and why?
I voted for several parties (Kulanu, Yamina, Jewish Home, maybe Likud—I no longer remember), and in quite a few cases I did not vote at all.
In mathematical formulation, the situation is as follows: the election platforms of the various parties have no meaning whatsoever. In the end they all do X when they are elected and condemn X when they are in the opposition. In their platform they only insert sentiments that will help them electorally, and this has no practical significance. Therefore, whether you like X or are against it, that is what will happen. So what is the point of voting?! In practice, whoever is elected will do X.
If we denote the practical result of your choice by a function f, where the independent variable Z represents what you chose, the function looks like this: f(Z) = X, independent of Z. So why does it matter what Z is (who you vote for)?
Add to this the fact that even if you voted for party A, nothing prevents its Knesset members from defecting to the opposing party B in order to advance X (instead of doing X together with the party under whose banner they were elected). For example, Orbach wants to defect to Likud/Smotrich in order to advance the Judea and Samaria law, but Likud/Smotrich voted against it, while precisely Yamina, which he is leaving, wanted to advance it. And another example: Bibi and Likud, who supposedly want a right-wing government, have been torpedoing it with their own rear ends for years. They accuse Yamina of surrendering to the Muslim Brotherhood (empty demagoguery, of course), when they themselves invented it. Yamina, Sa’ar, and Bennett together with Meretz and Labor are advancing a policy completely identical to that of Likud and the Haredim (except for a few attempts to improve the situation of the Haredim, and even that unsuccessfully, because of the Haredim’s own opposition).
This is really the Medrano circus in Wonderland, and kill me if I understand why this interests anyone and why anyone would go vote.