Netanyahu’s choice
Diaspora Jewry needs to say, “Enough!” (“Israel’s gov’t crashes into the Wall,” Editorial, June 29).
Negative economic penalties against North Carolina in response to an onerous bathroom legislation forced the legislature to reverse this policy.
Let Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu see the folly of choosing political expediency over morality can also have an economic cost: (in) tourism, purchase of Israeli Bonds, Birthright, etc.
DR. JAY KRAMPF
Kensington
Diaspora Jews should promote political change in Israel
Your editorial of June 29 (“Israel’s gov’t crashes into the Wall”) brings to mind Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity.
The representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements, Women of the Wall, JFNA and the other Diaspora-affiliated organizations listed in the editorial — and your editorial writer — are not insane, so why do they continue to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
Every time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has to choose between appeasing Diaspora Jewry and preserving his coalition by kowtowing to the demands of the haredi parties on issues that they deem to be critical, he chooses the latter.
This kabuki dance between Diaspora Jewry and Netanyahu will continue so long as the haredi parties are needed to form his governments.
Thus, the only real solution to the Diaspora-haredi impasse requires the election of political parties that can form Israeli governments without the participation of the haredi parties. This is doable if the Israeli electorate can be convinced that the domestic economic and social issues, including the monopoly enjoyed by the Chief Rabbinate, are as important to the future of the country as the security issues over which current Israeli national elections are contested.
So, rather than continue these fights, the representatives of the Diaspora-based organizations should seriously work on electing Israeli political parties that share their values and will help achieve the results that they seek. And this change in focus should be supported by your editorial writers.
It would be nice if the representatives of the Diaspora-based organizations would focus on achieving substantive results for their membership rather than continuing the kabuki dances that contribute to a continuation of the current political predominance of the haredi parties in Israel’s political life.
JACQUES GORLIN
Jerusalem, Israel
After living in the Greater Washington area for 45 years and serving in leadership roles in the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and Berman Hebrew Academy, the author and his wife, Sue, made aliyah in 2011.
