Q&A: The Government
The Government
Question
Hello and have a good week. My name is Yehonatan Gavish. I don’t know whether the Rabbi remembers me; I took part in the Rabbi’s classes in the past, and we corresponded and met before.
I agree with most of what the Rabbi wrote regarding the government. As someone who tries to be religious and Torah-oriented, I see the moral bankruptcy of the religious public—most of whom, sadly, line up behind people who, in terms of values, are in my opinion completely unfit, like Trump and Bibi—as nothing less than a catastrophe.
The Rabbi wrote:
- I also don’t agree with the claims that the entire reform is meant to affect Bibi’s trial. In my view that’s nonsense. My assessment is that nothing will happen in his trial even if the reform passes in full force. To this day I haven’t heard a convincing scenario for how it could even affect it, aside from unconvincing conspiratorial fantasies. It’s clear to me that Bibi is not really pushing the reform and doesn’t really want it. In my opinion it will only harm him personally. So dragging anti-Bibi sentiment into the fight against this reform is just demagoguery.
Does the Rabbi not agree with the fact that one of the things at the very top of Bibi’s priorities is controlling the committee for appointing judges, which could affect the composition of the judges who will hear his appeal, and that for this he would be willing to pass any reform whatsoever?
In addition, as someone who in principle strongly identifies with the Rabbi’s approach in general and on the subject of the government in particular—aside from the issue of a sin committed for a higher purpose—and as someone who feels relatively alone with this worldview in the religious-Haredi sphere, I’d be interested to hear your impression of the reactions of the religious public to what you are writing. Are more people beginning to understand the danger of this government?
Thank you very much, and have a good week.
Answer
Hello. I certainly remember.
That seems completely far-fetched to me. First, it would take many years before he managed to replace a significant number of Supreme Court judges. He would also have to control the panel that would hear his case. And finally, they would also have to obey him (conservative judges rule against conservatism quite a bit). There is almost no chance that he could influence this, and to make this whole move for that purpose would be a truly deranged conspiracy.
If anything, I would suspect that he wants to create a mess so that he can then moderate the reform and earn public appreciation as the responsible adult. Alternatively, that they would offer him a pardon as part of a deal over the reform—but I also think that has no chance, if only because it is plainly evident that Bibi no longer has control over the matter. He himself would like to moderate the reform, and apparently he can’t.
In short, completely delusional.
Discussion on Answer
No worries. Everything is fine. There are always captive-minded people, and I assume they too will calm down with time. I understood long ago that the commenters on the site are not a representative sample of the readers. There are lots of silent people who read and don’t comment, and among the commenters it’s usually those who disagree and are angry.
By the way, I prefer comments on the site and not by email.
All the best,
I thought—and still think—that he went for the reform as a pressure lever to push Lapid and Gantz to join his government, and that way he could neutralize the messianic lunatics Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. In practice it didn’t work, and with the current polling there’s no chance either of them will connect with him.
I agree with the Rabbi that the idea that changing the committee would affect his trial is far-fetched, but for example the plan to turn the Attorney General into a political appointment directly affects Netanyahu’s cases, since he could withdraw the indictments. Still, I also think the reason for the reform is not Bibi but his partners, and it could be that he would have preferred this never came into the world—but you can’t ignore the result of such a move.
I saw some of the reactions to what the Rabbi wrote, and I was pretty shocked by the people who used to love reading you and now can’t stand it anymore. So, for whatever it’s worth, I’ll say that I always loved and enjoyed reading the Rabbi, and now more than ever!