Zehut: When Rebranding Goes Awry

In the coming weeks before the elections, I hope to offer some insights into the various people and parties on the “right” or perhaps what could be better called the so-called right. I say so-called because there is little of what can be described as “right-wing” these days within Likud, and the other parties are also disasters.

Pollsters be damned. Despite the boastful predictions of Zehutniks and the imagined expertise of several polls, I was certain before the last election that Moshe Feiglin and his Zehut party wouldn’t get in. (I even made a bet with my buddy and won a shawarma because of it, a.) Yet even as I predicted the outcome, I noted that even were they to get into the Knesset, Zehut had already lost. I saw a party pandering to the voters for power. A party who long ago lost any semblance of ideology. A Zehut party that was an inferior version (ideologically) than their previous incarnation as Manhigut Yehudit. Smoke and mirrors. Fighting for silly issues or even worse taking anti-Torah positions. I saw an unsettling ability within Zehut to morph into something with shocking ease. Several issues which particularly disturbed me included the following statements from the last election cycle:

•  Feiglin’s Gantz-Neutral Claim: As part of his recent branding of being all things to all people, prior to the last election, Feiglin claimed that he wouldn’t rule out a coalition with Gantz. At the time I noted that even if he was bluffing, that was an outrageous statement. Now I’m certainly no Likud fan or fan of Bibi. Far from it. I’m to the right of Otzma. But Gantz? Of all the toxins available, Feiglin stated that he wouldn’t rule out swallowing one of the most toxic.

• Feiglin’s Infamous Red Line: It spoke volumes when Feiglin declared before the last election that of all the issues Cannabis was his red line. Cannabis? Funny that we don’t hear so much about Cannabis these days as we near the upcoming elections. Nor do we see his infamous anti-Brit Mila candidate who was so obnoxiously prominent last time around. Whcih brings me to the next point.

• The Notorious #18: Pandered to anti-Torah types in the guise of libertarianism. Zehut rationalized and paraded their anti-Brith milah activist, the infamous Gadi Wilcherski at #18. Zehut supported their opposition to national laws against pigs and chametz. These are the kinds of issues that should scare away any Torah minded Jew.

• Inclusion of Loony Toons- While several people in Zehut’s hierarchy have spoken in support of vaccines, it’s no secret that the party’s leadership includes several militant anti-vaxxers. In other words, irresponsible people who reject real medicine and endanger people’s lives with foolish pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Those least equipped to lead anything or anyone. This is significant when one considers that a stewardess recently died from measles.

• Doron Keidar and Friends: Cozied up to evangelicals at the infamous “Cry for Zion” conference last winter with notorious missionary Doron Kedar. continued failure to call out “Hayovel Ministry” and similar organizations of relational evangelists who use agricultural volunteerism and social bridge-building to gain a foothold in Israel.

• Zehut’s hypocritical “Do as I say not as I do” policy: An ever-changing set of rules which apply to others but not him. Who recalls when Feiglin and friends attacked everyone who questioned their tactic of rehabilitating a Likud that never was? How they denigrated other small parties for being counterproductive and then left Likud and started a small party of their own? Remember their rhetoric about joining forces with others last time? Compare that with the desperate and pathetic attempts of recent weeks to join the same forces they refused to align with last time. Desperation reveals the ugliest side of politics.

• Avoiding the Demographic threat: Zehut has no comprehensive plan for dealing with Arab demographics. The lunacy of the left is precisely because they also have fears about the problem. Their solutions are insane, but they don't minimize the problem. Zehut is similar to most fraudulent rightists who choose to ignore the problem because it is much easier to avoid the issue and defer the problem to a future generation. Zehut claims there is no such threat. The reader would be wise to remember that one doesn’t need a majority to destroy a country. Particularly when a fifth column is aided by a system which rewards patience, and an equally dangerous left whose suicidal policies remain the de-facto platform (if only theoretically) of the supposed “right-wing” Likud.

• Cannabis fixation and pseudoscience: Despite Feiglin’s assertion, cannabis is not a cure for anything. Certainly not lethal diseases. Had Feiglin wanted his cannabis platform taken seriously he would not have aligned himself with a clown such as Gadi Wilcherski who also advocates against brit milah. Again, it is curious that one doesn’t hear so much about cannabis these days. How could a red line issue disappear before the elections?

• Abortions and LGBTQ Issues: Refusal to address in a concrete public manner the horrifying issue of rampant abortions in Israel or the states embracing of anti-Torah LGBTQ issues. If one doesn’t fight for the moral structure of society as defined by the Torah, they have little to say to people who value Torah.

• The idolization of Libertarian Values: Judaism isn’t libertarianism. Free Will relates to the choices within man which Hashem gave us, it doesn’t celebrate unbridled choice as something ideal, on the contrary. We are guided by Halacha. Zehut uses the motif of free will to ignore provocative issues while making a golden calf of a system of western libertarianism which has nothing in common with a Torah framework.

Nor is it clever to defend an anti-Torah candidate by claiming “we are doing Kiruv” (Jewish outreach). Politics isn’t kiruv. And such a man has no place in a party purporting to represent Jewish values. Not unless he repents publicly. And the false assertions of Zehutniks that he changed his views are meaningless unless he publicly declares and advocates for the very system he tried to destroy.

I am not impressed with Zehut. It is tiresome and irritating to see their endless efforts to obtain power no matter the cost. Bad ideas don’t deserve to be recycled. Zehut is not the answer. And whatever good ideas might remain within, they are unfortunately clouded and shrouded with un-Jewish ideas. As I wrote on a Zehut Facebook page a while back, explaining why I wouldn’t vote for them:

Many reasons. One critical issue is an unwillingness to make a clear unequivocal statement relating to specific missionary groups and missionary related issues in Israel. Would love to hear Moshe Feiglin’s position on Hayovel Ministry, a “relational” evangelical group with a home base in Har Bracha, and with a powerful presence in Eretz Yisrael courtesy of many Jews. I am not impressed by personal messages from Zehutniks speaking on his behalf in generalities. Another issue would be the interfaith tanach sessions in Knesset with known missionaries and religious Jews.

To be clear, neither Feiglin nor any Zehut people participated in the Tanaka session (to my knowledge). I am only speaking of the silence from their leadership. And I know from several disgruntled people within the party, that these issues are well known. 

What we are seeing is weak leadership and compromised ideology. And far from advocating for the kinds of policies which might rehabilitate a spiritually diseased country, Zehut advocates for positions that are harmful to Judaism. Libertarianism isn't a Jewish value. Don't confuse the notion of Jewish free will with corrupt western constructs. Only a fool would do so. Or someone whose intellect has been compromised from toking up too much to the point that they think that cannabis is a red line issue.