Orange Chabad Rabbis Support Hazit
By Aliza Karp
It has recently been publicized that the Chabad Rabbinical Court in Eretz Yisorel has made a statement for its own communities, and for the general public, to vote for parties which have the best chance of actually getting elected, as opposed to voting for small, upstart parties that have a higher risk of not getting the minimum number of votes. The admitted implication of this position is that they are urging people not to vote for Hazit, the party of Baruch Marzel.
I looked at the names of the Rabbis on the Chabad Court who came out ostensibly against Hazit. I did a search on Arutz Sheva for each of the names and the results came out as expected. None of these Rabbis were vocal during the fight against the Disengagement. They played it safe, not getting political. Many find it shocking that they have now decided to speak up.
In response to the statement by the Chabad Court—and at the same time being careful not to contradict the wording—thirty-five Chabad rabbis have now signed a proclamation that they are confident that Hazit will have enough votes to sit in the Knesset. “For sure Hazit will be in the Knesset,” confirms Rabbi Sholom Dovber Wolpe, one of the chief Chabad activists against the Disengagement. “Marzel is the only one who is running who says what the Rebbe says. We cannot vote for anyone else.”
On March 7, Rabbi David Druckman of Kiryat Motzkin, another Chabad Chosid who was a leader in the anti-Disengagement campaign, sent a letter to the religious parties: Shas, United Torah Judaism, Hazit, and National Union-National Religious Party, in accordance with the Rebbe’s instructions to vote for a religious party. The letter asked them to sign a proclamation which read: “We the undersigned declare that we will not join—under any circumstances, nor for any material or spiritual promises—a government whose guidelines include partial or full agreement to the Road Map or to any other plan that includes giving away Jewish communities or any territory of the Land of Israel to foreigners, or to autonomy for Arabs in the Land of Israel—and all this even in exchange for peace agreements.”
The only party to sign the proclamation was Hazit. The one who comes closest to committing to not joining a “land-for-peace” government is Rabbi Benny Elon, but even he admits he is speaking personally and not for his party. Add to that, his party is running together with the NRP who have shown they will sit on such a government. The last time they did it, they claimed they could change more from inside the government than from the outside. History vouches for how effective they were in stopping the Disengagement from inside the government… whereas the tenets of Democracy call for a strong opposition, i.e. outside the government, to keep a Democracy healthy.
Twenty eight years ago, on Shushan Purim of 1977, the Chabad Rebbe let it be known that he disapproved of any partnership with a government that goes against the Torah—essentially, against G-d. The Rebbe elaborated, for a religious person to be part of such a government is a self-abasement and a path to destroying the Jewish nation in the name of religion.
There is no religious party that was in the current Knesset which did not sit with Sharon at different stages of the Disengagement. That leaves no choice for the Chabad voter. They are confident their votes will not be wasted on a party which is borderline. Their votes will support Hazit [ כ ].
