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PARTISAN REVIEW
LA:
I don't see that
RB-j:
I don't want to get into technicalities. I say only that the American
system cannot be transplanted as is. I don't say that it is impossible to have a
presidential system in Israel, but there should
be
proper checks and balances.
What seems to be catching the popular fantasy today is something which
does not take the questions of checks and balances into account. I am not
afraid of a new system - only of a populist solution which is not a solution.
To yOUT second point. Yes, something has to change. However, everybody
expects a new system to solve at least part of the problems. But it is not
easy to change a whole system. Suppose it's changed and doesn't work.
That
is when disappointment sets in, and disenchantment with democracy. We
already hear some voices about getting a strong person. That is where the
danger lies. A changed system may deal with some of the small parties, not
with all of them.
Daphne Merkin:
I just wanted to ask you two questions about the religious
issue which you sort of glossed over, why during the last decade the accom–
modation of the religious parties, of the religious point ofview, has been
so
much stronger. Is it only political expediency? To me it seems to reflect a
bigger kind ofshift in the country, not merely that the religious parties have
been sort of magically empowered in the last ten years. It's a complex
in–
terworking of things. Maybe I misunderstood that.
The other question I ask as someone lapsed from an orthodox
background. You kept referring to the religious establishment in rather
monolithic terms, as ultraconseTVative. Do you as a secular Jew, like many
Israeli secular Jews, conflate all the orthodox, right orthodox, left orthodox,
into the ultraconseTVative religious establishment, and
if
you don't, what has
happened to the so-called moderate end - those who obseTVe the Shabbat?
Not everyone sits in B'nai Brak. You described these neighborhoods
primarily in Jerusalem, you said there are neighborhoods now that are trying
to enact legislation, but those are very specific, ultra-rightist neighborhoods
within the larger orthodox Jewish community in Israel. What has happened
to the moderate influence, how come you haven't referred to it? Does it not
exist, is it invisible?
Do
secular Israelis refuse to recognize it?
RBJ:
I should start with the last point. In Israel the moderates did not de–
velop a strong religious organizational voice. In the last election there was a
small liberal, humanistic religious group. They did not get into the Knesset
because they did not have enough votes. There are more moderate and less
moderate groups. It is interesting that the most orthodox are the least
chauvinistic among the religious. Others who may
be
moderate as
to
religion,
like the Misrachi, are politically more right-wing. There also is enormous
pressure inside the religious community - among the religious establishments.
Often, the less extreme are on the defensive. They agree that the most
orthodox are the representatives of religion, so they become more
