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February 28, 2003/Adar1 26 5763, Vol. 55, No. 27
Shinui may sacrifice its ideals
LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Since the start of Israel's election campaign last October, the flamboyant leader of the secular-rights Shinui Party had been promising a secular revolution in Israel.
This week Yosef "Tommy" Lapid seemed to have a golden opportunity to fulfill his promises when Shinui - which became Israel's third largest party after the Jan. 28 elections - agreed to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new Likud-led government.
But the initial signs for a radical shift in secular-religious relations were not auspicious: Shinui, which has 15 Knesset seats, backed off much of its agenda when it compromised with the National Religious Party on the guidelines of the prospective government.
Moreover, political analysts are questioning just how much a government based on Likud, Shinui, the NRP and the hawkish National Union bloc - but without the Labor Party - will be able to move toward peace with the Palestinians.
The National Union, which is staunchly opposed to the Palestinian state Sharon says he supports under certain conditions, tentatively agreed Feb. 25 to join the government. The inclusion of the seven-member bloc would give Sharon a 68-seat coalition and a bit of breathing room in the 120-member Knesset.
Before Shinui and the NRP signed initial coalition agreements with the Likud Feb. 24, they worked out a bilateral deal on secular-religious affairs that was mediated by the outgoing mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert.
First they agreed to annul the "Tal Law," which allows for blanket exemptions from military service for yeshiva students and enables fervently Orthodox men to join the Israeli work force without having to serve first in the army.
On the face of it, canceling the Tal Law seems like a major step forward in the campaign for equality between secular and fervently Orthodox Israelis. But the Shinui-NRP agreement gives no indication of what will replace the Tal Law.
It is therefore not at all clear that Shinui made any gains on one of its main election promises: equal army or national service for all.
Nor did Shinui achieve dramatic breakthroughs on two other key election promises: civil marriage and public transport on the Sabbath. The Shinui-NRP deal does provide a civil marriage option for an estimated 250,000 people barred from marrying by the Chief Rabbinate - for example, when one of the partners is not halachically Jewish or when a descendant of a priestly caste seeks to marry a divorcee.
But the key principle - offering a civil marriage option for all Israelis - is not part of the deal. Nor is there any advance on public transport on the Sabbath.
Perhaps most importantly, the Shinui-NRP deal leaves the Orthodox monopoly on Jewish religious affairs in Israel intact. There is no recognition of the Conservative or Reform streams nor any upgrading of their secondary status in Israel.
Indeed, except on civil marriage and Sabbath transport, Shinui agrees to back the status quo on religious affairs.
So binding is this commitment that even on civil marriage, Shinui's Knesset members are no longer free to back bills presented by individual members without the backing of their parties; the most they can do is abstain if such proposals come to a vote.
Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.
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