Nostalgia Sunday – Arye Deri is back

December 26, 2010 - 6:21 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture, Profiles, Religion 

Arye Deri is making his long-awaited return to the political arena which makes this the perfect time for the following exercise. Say it together with me: “Prime Minister Arye Deri… Prime Minister Arye Deri”. Rolls nicely off the tongue, doesn’t it? I’m not saying I like this prognostication. I’m just saying, get used to it.

Of course, I’m not the first person to predict Deri’s future. That was done a long time ago when Deri first burst on the scene to take the reins of the Shas Party, becoming the youngest minister in the State’s history. Legend has it that party elders said, “That young man will either go to jail or become Prime Minister.”

Well, he’s done the jail part — convicted in 2000 of bribe-taking, served a jail sentence and lived under sanction from political activity — and now he’s back, still the darling of the secular population for his perceived ability to unite factions, and a divisive element among the religious for approximately the same reason.

And he’s about to do it again. There’s been some buzz about his running for mayor of Jerusalem where he recently made the local Time Out’s “50 Sexiest Jerusalemites” list, (though that may say more about Jerusalem than Deri).

In an interview with Maariv on Friday, Deri said that he was “working on establishing a new socio-economic party that would bridge between religious and secular, Right and Left, Ashkenazi and Sephardi and rich and poor.”

In previous go-rounds, he was able to capture a great many former Labor and Likud party voters, including voters from the Arab sector who appreciated the fairness he displayed as Minister of the Interior.

To mark the return of Deri, we’ve gone back to the archives of Yom HaShishi, a now-defunct weekly newspaper for the religious sector. Yom HaShishi made waves back in the 1990s for its bold use of photo-illustrated political cartoons on its covers — something that hadn’t been seen before. The artworks were executed by Jonathan Sierra of Icons, a studio that pioneered the use of Photoshop, photo-montage and multimedia in Israel.

Sierra notes that Yom HaShishi was very, very literal in its humor. So, if Deri’s was breaking bonds with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, then that was shown.

And if Deri and fellow Shas party leader Shlmo Benizri were “tailoring a suit for someone” (the phrase also means, “to frame someone”), then they were shown tailoring a suit!

(Benizri is, by the way, currently serving a jail sentence also for taking bribes).

In the early nineties, the protracted investigation into Deri’s financial affairs and consequent trial had a profound effect on Israeli society. “Hu zakai” (“he is innocent” or “free from guilt”) became a famous pro-Deri catchphrase, particularly among Shas voters who saw the whole matter as the Israeli establishment’s persecution of their party, the religious sector and Sephardic Jews in general.

The topsy-turvy atmosphere of the day is reflected in this Purim holiday cartoon from 1993. According to Jewish tradition, on Purim, everything is upside-down. Therefore, Deri was shown as a policeman while Police Commissioner Yaakov Terner was shown in religious garb. Twirling a noisemaker in the background: Moshe Shahal, then Minister of Police.

At the time, Deri’s popularity was such that people said the harder you hit him, the stronger Shas became. Imagine, then, what he can do now with a broad-based party.

Let’s face it, Arye Deri is the only politician on the Israeli scene with genuine charisma. So do your exercises and get ready for what’s coming next.

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Shas trying a bit of feminism

February 5, 2009 - 6:34 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics 

Livni and feminismThe Shas party has had the upper hand on Tzipi Livni ever since the Kadima leader’s aspirations to take over from Olmert as prime minister were dashed by Shas’s coalition holdout tactics.

As a result, Livini and Kadima were forced to keep Olmert at the country’s helm, and the general elections scheduled for next week became a necessity. With Kadima trailing in the polls, one can’t resist wondering if Livni has been secretly regretting her decision to not kowtow to Shas back in the fall.

One of the most popular of the second-tier parties, the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi Shas party doesn’t stand a chance to elect a prime minister, but it always finds a way to obtain big cabinet appointments and budgets for its programs as coalition bargaining chips.

But until now, Livni has had one clear advantage over all of the other parties: the feminist card. No other major contending party in this race has a woman at the top of its list, which, as we know, can be a major draw.

And Shas can always use some good PR for believing in the leadership potential for women – especially given that the party’s spiritual figurehead, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, makes a habit of saying politically incorrect things. Shas has been “trying a bit of feminism” (as our friend Ali G puts it) ever since it launched a “Strengthening Women” platform in December.

This week, the party upped the feminist ante by allowing Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s daughter-in-law (and flat-mate), Yehudit Yosef, to take on a more public role, Haaretz reports. Apparently, Yehudit Yosef has for years been a major playing behind the scenes with Shas, but this week, she began campaigning on behalf of the party, rallying supporters with an inspiring speech in Jerusalem on Monday:

“I know how concerned [Rabbi Ovadia Yosef] is about women’s issues, how he educated his children to take care of their womenfolk so that they would not lack for anything,” she said. “When he gives his class on Saturday night and comes to the issue of women, he gives them a lecture on how to treat a woman, what to do for her, how to behave, what to buy her, and so forth. It’s such a lovely thing.”

Will lip service like this woo away some potential Kadima voters? We’ll know next week.

Image courtesy tzipilivni2009 from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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Jerusalem Elections 2008: The Most Crucial in Years

October 31, 2008 - 11:56 AM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Israeliness, Politics 

BarkatPorush.png

Several weeks ago I gave an Israeli take on the upcoming U.S. elections. But there’s another vote in November that may prove to be just as momentous for this country. I’m talking about the Jerusalem mayoral elections.

Five years ago, the status quo was broken when the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community fielded a candidate for mayor for the first time…and won. Before that, haredi Jerusalemites were careful not to promote one of their own for fear that an Orthodox mayor would be forced to sanction “non-kosher” activities (such as the annual Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade). Accordingly, the last two Jerusalem mayors, Ehud Olmert and Teddy Kolleck, were both secular.

But in 2003, Uri Lupolianski ran and narrowly defeated millionaire businessman and philanthropist Nir Barkat. Lupolianski captivated both secular and religious voters with his background as the founder of the Yad Sarah organization which is dedicated to helping the elderly and disabled. He received numerous awards for his work there: the President’s Volunteer Prize; the Knesset Speaker’s Award; the Kaplan Prize for Efficiency; and in 2004, the Israel Prize.

Lupolianski wasn’t a bad mayor – he kept a decent balance between the different groups in the city and even allowed his dreaded Gay Parade to proceed (earning him considerable scorn from his constituency). More non-kosher bars and clubs opened during Lupolianski’s term than ever before.

The biggest criticism many residents had of Lupolianski  was that he was dull– he showed little vision other than canceling the Safdie plan to build 20,000 homes on prime forest land that was decried by local environmentalists.

But he’s not running this year. Lupolianski is a member of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party. In order for the entire haredi community to throw its support behind a single candidate, Degel hooked up 5 years ago with rival Agudat Yisrael, with the provision that when the next elections rolled around, an Aguda candidate would run.

The Aguda candidate is Member of Knesset Meir Porush. And that’s where the trouble starts.

Read more

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