The storm of assimilation: Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said this morning (Thursday) that he opposes marriages between Jews and non-Jews, following the wedding of Arab television presenter Lucy Harish to Jewish actor Tzachi Halevi.
""I am a Jew. I observe tradition and Torah and commandments. The Jewish people are the most important thing I have. It is their private matter. But with all the pain, as a Jew, I am against these things, because we must preserve the Jewish people," Deri said in an interview with Galei Tzahal.
According to Deri, "This is why we are all working to preserve the Jewish people. The pain of assimilation throughout the world that is consuming the Jewish people. In New York State after the Holocaust, there were 6 million Jews, and we should have reached 30 there by now, but today there are fewer.".
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Deri added: "I would tell Lucy that I have no doubt that she did not come to harm the State of Israel. They are a couple who love and get married, but that is not right. You will have children, they will have a problem within the State of Israel because of their status. We must not encourage such things, we must preserve the Jewish people. If her soul yearned for Judaism, then there is a process of conversion.".
The person who brought the issue to the agenda was MK Oren Hazan - after writing on his Twitter account: "I do not accuse Lucy Aharish of seducing a Jewish soul with the aim of harming our state and preventing more Jewish descendants from continuing the Jewish lineage - on the contrary, she is welcome to convert. I do accuse Tzachi, the convert to Islam, of taking Fauda one step too far - brother, get out of the movie.".
He concluded his remarks with the words: "Lucy, it's not personal, but know this: Tzachi, my brother, and with Israel, my people, enough with assimilation!".
Hazan's tweet sparked a heated discussion online, with many netizens attacking him and others expressing support.
Shelly Yachimovich and Stav Shapir sharply attacked Hazan's words and congratulated the couple. Left-wing journalists also joined the attack against him.
MK Bezalel Smotrich also expressed his displeasure with the wedding - and attacked Yachimovich and Shafir: "It is likely that if the parents or grandparents of Shelly Yachimovich and Stav Shafir had assimilated, they would not be living here in the Jewish state. It's very simple. What is amazing is that the congratulators are the ones who want to establish a Palestinian state here in order to maintain the Jewish majority and then assimilate and lose it again.".
