No heretic dared to humiliate and disgrace the Torah like Moshe Gafni | Shlomo Shamir

In the parliamentary history of Israel, there is no memory of a party that is such a symbol and representation of failure as United Torah Judaism. Its ministers and Knesset members from this Haredi party are devoid of any significant achievement.

The dubious parliamentary record was expressed especially in the field they claim to represent: the promotion of religious and Jewish values intended to influence the character of the State of Israel. More severely, no enemy of Israel, no heretic or angry secular person dared to trample, humiliate, and disgrace the values of United Torah Judaism in the way that its own representatives have done and are doing.

He who symbolizes this failure is Moshe Gafni, a Knesset member and veteran representative of United Torah Judaism, who has served in the Knesset for over twenty years. Gafni is a living and kicking example of intrigue.

The "achievement" of United Torah Judaism is its central and significant role in Benjamin Netanyahu's survival as prime minister. There is no sympathy, support, or groveling before Benjamin Netanyahu in the center of the Likud party that can compete with the devotion with which the ministers and Knesset members of United Torah Judaism express and maintain their support for him.

In the language of the sources, they turned Netanyahu into their "other gods." Gafni, Eichler, Porush, and their colleagues paid a heavy price for their obsessive, long-standing loyalty. In the government and coalition under his leadership, they suffered their great, stinging, and unforgettable failure: they did not manage to achieve the new draft law.

It is true that Gafni, as someone who served for years as chairman of the Finance Committee, obtained generous budgets for yeshivas and Haredi educational institutions. But one must remember that the large and old yeshivas in Israel were established before the founding of the state, grew, and flourished without government budgets. More than that, they did so while strictly ensuring that the government did not intervene in their existence.

According to reports, Gafni met with rabbis to discuss the continued support of United Torah Judaism after the elections. He discussed the possibility that the party would abandon its traditional support for the right, and especially for the Likud, and would prefer to support a party that does not belong to the right, such as Gadi Eizenkot's party.

It does not occur to Gafni that following a historic failure like the helplessness and disgrace of giving up on a new draft law, the time has come for him to retire from politics. He does not think for a second that the time has come to give a new Haredi candidate the opportunity to lead the Degel HaTorah faction.

Moshe Gafni and his colleagues, the veterans Eichler and Porush, believe that they were born as Knesset members and will remain in their seats until they die. It does not occur to them to refresh and update the leadership of United Torah Judaism with new figures—talented avrechim who are active as functionaries in the large Hasidic courts: Gur, Belz, and Vizhnitz.

Even in the Lithuanian Haredi sector, there are excellent candidates, worthy and capable of leading United Torah Judaism in a Jewish-Torah manner, the existence of which Gafni, Eichler, and Porush have forgotten.

In the results of the Knesset elections, there is hidden potential for a revolutionary change in the Haredi parliamentary representation. A change that is capable of undermining and weakening the hatred and incitement that have recently characterized the relations between secular and Haredi people in Israel. It is a pity that this potential will be lost if Gafni, Eichler, Porush, and their colleagues in the current leadership manage to remain in their seats. It is not a pity. It is a disaster.