Smotrich, the Religious Zionist Party and the Religious Zionism Movement
What’s the world to make of those who now hold such an influential position in Israeli politics?
Religious Zionist party head MK Bezalel Smotrich arrives to the Israeli parliament, for the opening session of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on November 15, 2022.
As negotiations over the formation of the next Israeli government continue, one of the most talked about parties is the “Religious Zionist” faction led by Bezalel Smotrich. Given that this faction, and its two allied parties, Jewish Power and Noam, won a combined 14 seats in Knesset, Smotrich is demanding a senior cabinet position.
But who is Bezalel Smotrich? And what about the background of his party and the religious Zionist movement it represents? What’s the world to make of those who now hold such an influential position in Israeli politics?
First, the ideas that led to the establishment of the religious Zionist movement existed in Europe in the middle of the 19th century. The notion of a return to the Land of Israel and a religious national revival appeared in the writings of rabbis such as Eliyahu Gutmacher and Zvi Hirsch Kalisher. Religious Zionism is a current within the Zionist movement that emphasizes the Jewish aspect of Zionism. Religious Zionism supported the establishment of a Jewish state based on writings in the Holy Torah. The values that lead to religious Zionism are the nation (people) of Israel, the Torah, and the Land of Israel.
This worldview was contrary to the opinion of most ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who opposed organized immigration to the Land of Israel and claimed that instead one should be concerned with observing mitzvot. Religious Zionism believes that the establishment of the State of Israel is the beginning of redemption and a sign of the coming of the Messiah. The ultra-Orthodox view, on the other hand, is that the Messiah will come first, and only then will the redemption of the Jewish people occur (and in order for the Messiah to come, one must engage in observance of mitzvot).
To this day, the differences between religious Zionist and ultra-Orthodox worldviews exist. For instance in relation to the question of the Temple. Religious Zionism believes that the Temple must be actively built, while the ultra-Orthodox believe that the Temple will be built by the power of God.
When the religious Jews in the Zionist movement realized that Zionism advocates secular education, they were forced to form a separate party from the “secular” Zionist movement. The name of the first religious Jewish party was “HaMizrachi,” and it was founded by Rabbi Raines. The purpose of the party was to instill Jewish religious education and love for the Land of Israel. Despite the difference in the secular Zionist worldview, the party supported Theodor Herzl, and Herzl supported the party. In 1922, a group of religious Zionists who wanted to emphasize pioneers and working the land in addition to the usual Zionist values withdrew from the “HaMizrachi” party and founded the “Hapoel Mizrachi” party.
These parties remained active following the establishment of the State of Israel, and in 1955 merged into the National Religious Party, commonly referred to by its Hebrew acronym of “Mafdal.” In 1999, following the signing by the State of Israel of “Agreement Y” with the Palestinians, which stated that Israel would withdraw from territories in Judea and Samaria, Zvi Handel and Hanan Porat resigned from the Mafdal because giving up the territories of Eretz Yisrael went against their ideology and they did not agree to cooperate with such an act. After that, Handel and Porat founded the “National Union – Takuma” party, the party in which Bezalel Smotrich started his political career.
Bezalel Smotrich has been in Israeli politics for a total of 13 years. He first ran for Knesset in 2009, when he was still a soldier in mandatory service (his late enlistment in the army was due to military service for students of national religious yeshiva, called the “central arrangement”), but did not enter the Knesset. Before the elections in 2015, he was placed in the ninth slot on the list of the Jewish Home party, as a representative of the “National Union – Takuma” party. He narrowly made it into Knesset that year after another member of the Jewish Home party died unexpectedly and Smotrich moved up to the eighth slot.
In the 20th Knesset, after the 2015 elections, Smotrich was appointed Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and a member of the Finance Committee and the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee. Ahead of the April 2019 elections, Smotrich was elected chairman of the “National Union – Takuma” party. In that election, the party ran together with other right-wing parties, including Jewish Power, on a list called “Union of Right-Wing Parties”; Smotrich was number two on the list. But a stable government could not be formed, and another earlier election was called for September 2019.
Also in that election, the “National Union – Takuma” party ran on a joint list called “Yamina” with several other parties, this time including Jewish Home the New Right. But still a stable coalition could not be formed and Israel entered a trouble period of repeated election cycles.
As part of the transitional government, Smotrich was appointed Minister of Transportation and a member of the political-security cabinet. In the election for the 24th Knesset (the last one before the current 25th Knesset), Smotrich ran on a joint list together with the Jewish Power (“Otzma Yehudit”) and Noam parties. Prior to that election, the name of Smotrich’s party was changed from “The National Union – Takuma” to “Religious Zionism,” like the name of the movement. The list of religious Zionist parties won six seats but did not enter the government. In the last election held on November 1 of this year, Smotrich ran together with the same parties and, as noted above, together obtained 14 mandates.
Smotrich is obviously a religious man, wears a kippa and his views are conservative. He emphasizes the need for the State of Israel to have a Jewish character, which is why he opposes public transportation and the opening of businesses on Shabbat. He advocates the idea of a complete Land of Israel and was even arrested by the Shin Bet internal security agency in 2005 during a protest against the separation of the State of Israel from the Gaza Strip. He was detained for three weeks and spent another three weeks under house arrest, but no indictment was filed against him. In addition, Smotrich opposes the state’s recognition of homosexual couples as a family unit, and accordingly, as a protest against the Jerusalem Pride Parade in 2006, he was one of the organizers of a procession of 200 people with animals and dogs. The procession was called the “Courage and Humility Parade,” but in the media, it was called the “Animal Parade.” Despite his conservative views, as Minister of Transportation, Smotrich acted without personal ideology and came up with a plan to reduce traffic jams on the country’s roads.
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