""I am against criminal sanctions. I don't think that avrechim, that Jews who study Torah, should be in prison," the prime minister said at the press conference, which resembled a reading of lamentations on the night of Tisha B'Av.
And the Haredi media was excited. Here is sweet Bibi, with the black kippa, matzot and the four species, with the Bible circle and quotes from Isaiah from the UN podium.
So that's it, no.
The left may have forgotten what it means to be Jewish, but Bibi doesn't really remember either. The ultra-Orthodox politicians are currently working to erase from the archive their many attacks on Netanyahu, which included one central, very true claim. With all due respect to Yair and the dwarfs, the 33rd Prime Minister of Israel, during which the draft law was enacted, and yet more decrees and cuts were made, Benjamin Netanyahu answered the call.
Netanyahu lamented: "The government was forced on me." Forced in the sense of, "force him until he says I want it." When they destroyed the world of Torah, Bibi gave a hand, he revealed himself as touchable as only Bibi knows. And when they dared to touch, with only a preliminary reading, a law that would have been buried in his little book anyway, he jumped like a snakebite. If the last government was a government of hatred and exclusion, its head is Bibi.
And most importantly, let's not forget that the Tal Law was repealed in the 18th Knesset, and then the Prime Minister was the same Netanyahu, who, instead of enacting another law, stalled for time out of fear of the media and a torch being blown down his back, added Kadima to the government, and let none other than Yohanan Plesner lead the committee for enacting the new law.
In the summer of 1998, Maran Gra"a Yosef zt"l, in his traditional sermon on the evening of Shabbat, delivered one of the speeches that entered the Pantheon: "The Blind Goat." Maran brought the parable of the shepherd who is angry with his flock, and places a goat at its head, whose eyes are gouged out, and thus the entire flock falls into the abyss, and in parallel with the then Prime Minister, Netanyahu.
Maran, according to Aryeh Deri, was the only Shasnik who did not vote for Netanyahu in the 1996 and 1999 elections (then there was a direct election for prime minister). Why? There are many versions of this, but the point is clear: they go with Netanyahu because that's what's available, not because they really want him.
How was the Kadima campaign in 2009?! "Bibi, I don't believe him." Maran didn't believe him either.
But unlike Bibi, whose ultra-Orthodox media suddenly leans toward kindness (that someone would refresh the attacks on Chabad, just last Passover, due to his visit to a Chabad village), and Bennett from the House of Goyim, and Lieberman who vetoed the ultra-Orthodox, the media decided to give Lapid an election campaign, free of charge at the house's expense.
The headlines of the weeklies shouted: "Blessed are we fired," "A sigh of relief," etc., etc., and soon became headlines on secular websites, especially among Lapid supporters from the Noni Mozes group.
Over the weekend I met a colleague from one of these newspapers. "Tell me, do Bauman and Kobrinsky (the Yesh Atid campaigners) pay you?" I asked.
There is a fine line here, between attacking Lapid, proving that he is just a demagogue instigator, who is trying to use the Haredim to cover up his many failures with hair in his hair, and the cheers of joy, which will only make him jump again.
Let's save them for the day after the formation of Israel's 34th government, then (if it does indeed dry up in opposition), release a special and festive farewell album, decorated with balloons, curly ribbons, and even a special CD of joyful songs for Passover.
And please, the elections will be held less than two weeks after Purim, without the likes of Haman, Ahasuerus, Zeresh, and all his advisors.
And speaking of paying for campaigns, I hereby announce that until the righteous women whose rights we are disgusted with, and who are really fighting for the right to represent the people of Torah, do not pay me for PR either, I have no interest in giving them free advertising or treatment. I will suffice with a quote from a Haredi media woman: "I do not feel comfortable with these women who supposedly represent me.".
Oh, and also because I'm a man. (Although I work online, and I'm not represented in the haredi parties either, but never mind).
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