Evelyn Gordon
Analysis from Israel

A tactical setback or a strategic defeat?

Published July 29, 2013
Last week’s Chief Rabbinate elections could be either, depending on what religious Zionists do next.
The sweeping haredi victory in last week’s Chief Rabbinate elections is being

portrayed as a devastating defeat for the religious Zionist community in

general, and for Naftali Bennett in particular as head of the Bayit Yehudi

party, which represents this community. In one sense, that’s true: In the races

for both Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis, the winning candidate received

only a plurality of the electoral panel’s votes – 68 out of 147. Thus had the

religious Zionist community been able to unite behind a single Ashkenazi

candidate instead of splitting its votes between two, that candidate might have

won. Similarly, had it chosen a Sephardi candidate with broad appeal rather than

one who repelled moderate electors because of his history of anti-Arab remarks,

such a candidate might have won the votes that went instead to the moderate haredi rabbi who placed third. And since the chief rabbis serve 10-year terms,

religious Zionists have squandered a once-in-a-decade

opportunity.Nevertheless, Bennett still holds cards that enable him to

make this loss a tactical setback rather than a strategic defeat. The question

is whether he’s willing to play them – and whether he can mobilize the requisite

support from his own party and his coalition partners.

Originally Published in: Jerusalem Post
Original Link: http://www.jpost.com/Experts/A-tactical-setback-or-a-strategic-defeat-321385
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