Tel-Chai Nation

It looks like, after a few weeks when United Torah Judaism and Shas tried pushing a law to restrict convenience store operations on Saturday, they may realize it backfired on them as opposition rose to their incredibly dumb, overly stringent positions. He gave an interview to Israel Hayom about it, which says:

United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni wants one thing right now – to tone down the rhetoric. Given the past few months and the public and media uproar over the supermarkets law, an amendment to the Local Authorities Law that gives the interior minister the power to shutter businesses that choose to remain open on weekends, Gafni understands that any media statement could potentially land him in hot water. He is adamant to set his party's aggressive policymaking aside, for now, in favor of some peace and quiet.

This pause aims to serve neither the ultra-Orthodox or secular sectors. The target audience is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who asked his haredi coalition partners to tone down the intense arguments about matters of religion and state, which in turn will preserve the coalition and keep Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid from gaining momentum in the polls.

Gafni seeks to change the classic haredi opposition to any discussion about the nature of the public sphere on Shabbat from "inconceivable" to "we must maintain dialogue between the haredim and the secular public."

This may sound as if he is willing to consider a compromise on Shabbat, which could lead to dangerous criticism from his constituents, so he clarifies: "I didn't say that there is a compromise, only that we have to maintain a dialogue. I'm all for dialogue, but no one should assume I support any compromise on the issue of Shabbat."

Gafni, it seems, has to balance a never-ending conflict. This was reflected several weeks ago, when Hadashot evening news aired a tape of him saying that the Interior Ministry plans to use non-Jewish inspectors to enforce the new supermarket law and that "not only did we [United Torah Judaism] maintain the status quo, we've made progress on the issue of observing Shabbat."

The comment, which reflected on the situation in the public sphere, sparked public and media uproar and thousands of secular Israelis took to the streets in protest.

I figure that the leftist/socialist side of Gafni really got the better of him, and now he's learned the hard way not everyone's taking kindly to his degrading lawmaking. The Q&A segment follows next with:

Q: Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said he has no intention of enforcing the supermarkets law.

"That's true. Deri said he can't enforce the law and neither can the government. It's up to local authorities."

Q: So why do we even need it?

"The supermarkets law stops the erosion of the status quo, which could lead to the fact that Shabbat won't be observed in Israel," he explained. "In reality, the law does not introduce any dramatic changes and what was is what will be. I said that we will increase the enforcement of work and rest hours. That's in the interest of everyone, so people won't be slaves."

Which is basically his way of saying he does not respect anybody's right to think for themselves. God will judge the public, not him. And for somebody talking about "slavery", look who's talking: a man who's a slave to a socialist ideology that's a distorted reflection of Judaism. I think Gafni should take his beliefs and stuff them.

The only reason I see for keeping some markets open on Shabbat is if a parent whose child needs food has to get some belatedly. That's a valid reason to maintain some open business. If Gafni doesn't understand stuff like that, he is a disgrace. But then, he's a been a socialist moralist for many years.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, Knesset, Moonbattery, political corruption