Pot, Meet Kettle

Speaking of Dr. Leon, an article of his recently came out in the latest Israel journal no. 15 (in Hebrew, sorry). In the article, Leon argues that two key social changes took place around the 1977 Likud electoral victory that enabled the ascendence of the Shas party. The first one was the increased confidence and power of the Mizrahi middle class and Rabinnic leadership, who now fought to stake out their own independent claim in the Charedi, Religious-Zionist and political world. These social forces combined to help the Likud win the election in 1981, and eventually make Shas a 10-mandate mainstay in Israel.

The second factor was the breaking up of the old religious-Zionist populace. Until 1977, Mafdal regularly garnered around 10-12 mandates. Many of those votes came from traditional and religious Mizrahi homes as well as from Ashkenazim. Unfortunately, the increasing focus on Eretz Yisra'el alone led to many parties splitting off the old Mafdal and siphoning its mandates (Metzad, Tehiyah, Tekumah etc).

This was not the only problem. An unspoken fact of many of the settlments is that they were construed as "community towns". A person wanting to enter such a community has to be able to afford building or buying a house, thus ensuring a high socioeconomic population. More importantly, anyone who wants to live in such a community must pass an "acceptance committee" which pretty much guarantees that only "like-minded" and often "like-skinned people" need apply.

Whether intentionally or not, this middle-to-upper-middle-class flight to the hills ensured that the largely Ashkenazi communities mostly cut themselves off from the poorer Mizrahim in the development towns and neighborhoods. This vacuum was filled in many places by Shas. So far, nothing more than further proof of the self-seperation of much of the religious community pundits have been debating for years.

It turns out, however, that this was not a religious phenomenon but an Ashkenazi phenomenon. Put bluntly, many, many "community towns" have been established throughout the country within the Green Line that follow the exact same principles. The difference? 75% of these towns are homogenically Askenazi, and center or left-wing politically. That's right - many of the same people who love the Palestinians and minorities oh-so much would never dream of letting one live next to them. NIMBY, I guess.

None of this absolves us for having left tens of thousands of our brehtren to fend for their own religiously, but it does make me much more cynical towards so-called liberals in our midst...