Shari Roth, the political commentator for the Haredim 10 website, was a guest this evening (Thursday) on the "Rafi Reshef" program, hosted by Amalia Doak, on Channel 12.
A video from 2003 was shown. Netanyahu, the Minister of Finance, cuts child allowances - and the Haredim are furious.
Amalia Doak: Sherry, you probably remember this period.
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Shari Roth: Certainly, and I also remember another period, more recent, the year 2013. I remember how Haredi Knesset members walked out of the plenary in anger.
Amalia: Let's remember, Netanyahu then went with the 'Alliance of Brothers' Bennett and Lapid...
Sari: The newspaper articles at the time, especially the dailies - Yated Ne'eman, Hamodia, Hamveshar - 'mopped' him up. They truly turned him into an enemy of the Haredi nation. And he succeeded in that too. Somehow, after two years, he suddenly became a lover of the Haredi again, and in the last elections you saw Aryeh Deri taking pictures with him on billboards and hugging him as if he were Rabbi Ovadia.
So Netanyahu, he has this formula, how to finally appease them - gives them a place, gives them a name, and it's not always money, by the way.
Amalia: So what needs to happen in the situation we're in now, so that the public might forgive Netanyahu a little?
"Shari: Look, first of all we are all trapped in Corona. The public is nervous because of Corona, for real reasons, only when a mother sits with children who climb on her head at home - immediately who is to blame? Who will she blame? The Corona? There is no one there to talk to. So she speaks against Netanyahu. That's how it is, we are all like that.".
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The program interviewed a woman named Yehudit from Jerusalem, who talked about the tension she feels every time she goes out on the street with her children, in stores, at the supermarket.
Yehudit: You immediately notice that secular people put a 'mark of Cain' on you, and the media in general... They stay away from me, from my children, sometimes tell me: 'Put the mask over your nose, it's not enough.' Stay away from me, it's insulting, but I feel more sorry for the secular public that doesn't know enough. And I blame the media and the leadership more, for not giving the secular public enough knowledge to understand that the haredi public is different, that it is treated differently, and that we need to understand that and accept that.
Amalia: You say you blame the leadership. Who do you think represents you within the government, within the decision-making structure?
Yehudit: Look, the Haredi MKs are supposed to represent me. To tell you that I'm satisfied with the form of representation and what they're doing? Not enough.
Amalia: You know, but the Haredim are perhaps the best allies from the Prime Minister's perspective. Don't you feel that as an Haredi woman?
Yehudit: No, I think he's exploiting the secular public's hatred of the Haredi public, to the benefit of his failure in handling the coronavirus. At least his partial failure. So instead of coming and saying I failed here, I failed there, there's nothing that unites more than hatred and he's simply exploiting this power.
Amalia: And in your opinion, is this opinion of yours about Netanyahu something that has changed over time?
Yehudit: Yes, I'm a far-rightist, I voted for Haredi parties, and I really admired Bibi as a leader and I think he's starting to screw up. Like, I don't like to say this, he can come and explain to me differently, right now, in my view, in the view of my public, Bibi is screwing up.
Amalia: Because what is most disappointing in your opinion?
Yehudit: First, the fact that he comes with a statement and says to the entire Haredi community, even though your rabbis said to open Torah studies, I call on you to listen to me and not open them. I saw that, I said: What, is he a clown? You take a community, you take the most sacred thing to them, and you tell them, 'Don't listen'? 'Come to me'? Like, it won't happen, it won't happen.
Benjamin Netanyahu, we elected you as leader and we will not elect you next time if you do not learn to treat us as a public with our own needs. As far as I am concerned, I see it as a family. All citizens of the State of Israel are a family, and in a family there are many types of children, with us many, with you maybe two or three and each one has their own needs. And a good mother and father give each child their needs without fear that the other siblings will protest and when they need to discriminate, they discriminate.
There is nothing to be done. The Haredi public right now needs discrimination, and I call on all leaders to discriminate for the better, without fear of what the secular public will say.
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Amalia: Minister, to what extent does this represent the feeling in the Haredi sector of some kind of rift with the Prime Minister?
Sherry: If I understood correctly, her two main claims are that Netanyahu created a bonfire of hatred, and I assume she means that he is responsible in the media systems for the lineup and the items that come up, and that he set the media agenda so that the ultra-Orthodox would do something that didn't go well with him, so he is probably to blame for that...
Amalia: We noticed the cynicism in your words.
Sherry: Yes, because come on...
Amalia: I don't think anyone intends to create divisions in the country.
Sari: The situation created this. Even Netanyahu, who is a magician, is unable to stop this fire that has been created, for very objective reasons that we have also discussed in this studio more than once. There is a real problem here and we will not go into it again.
The second thing she said, 'What is this, he came to educate us, to tell us not to listen to your rabbis'? I said it in the studio here this week, he reached the red line, and fortunately he didn't step over it. Yes, he said something that the Haredi community considers a red line, a lot of people were angry with him for this statement, fortunately not all Haredim are exposed to the media, so not everyone heard what he said. There are Haredim whose communication is a billboard or a car with a loudspeaker that drives through the neighborhood.
Amalia: Is this something that there is no way back from?
Sari: I'll tell you what. Netanyahu, in his opinion, has done a lot for the Haredim, and he even gets a kick out of the secular public, which is angry with him. Did Yehudit talk about children? Some will tell you that he is overindulging the Haredi brat who came and opened schools under his nose and doesn't follow the rules.
So if the claims are from both sides, then apparently he somehow did something right in the middle. Even though that part about the Sabbath and that statement about 'don't listen to your rabbis' was very harsh and very serious.
There is no direct election in the State of Israel, so it really doesn't matter what Yehudit thinks, because in the end, Yehudit will put the ballot paper of either Gafni or Litzman or Deri on the ballot, and they will ultimately decide for her. So does it matter what she says?
