web analytics
May 18, 2013 /9 Sivan, 5773
At a Glance ▼
InDepth
Sponsored Post
jumping Following a Passion for Sports to Israel

In Israel, a new five month scholarship program being offered to young aspiring athletes – one of them could be you.



An Interview with Ayelet Shaked, Secular Candidate for HaBayit HaYehudi

tell a friend
Ayelet Shaked

Ayelet Shaked

For many months we continued debating this subject until Naftali decided that he wanted to devote his life to the people of Israel and that the best way to do this is through the public sector. So he went to work with the Yesha Council and I returned to the private sector.

It was at this time, on the side of our new jobs, that we jointly created together the MyIsrael national movement.

YM: What exactly is the MyIsrael movement?

AS: It’s a national movement of about 100,000 people that are mainly right-wing and share the same values and ideas. There are so many people that want to be involved and give of themselves for various causes yet they don’t want to stop their lives. So MyIsrael is a way, via the internet and Facebook, to activate these people for certain issues. In many ways we’re like a large lobby group. For instance we’ve pressured Knesset members to pass certain laws, we fought a campaign against Galei Tzahal (Israel Army Radio) and their predominately left-leaning agenda in order to have more balance in their programs and we stopped some boycotts of Israel. Believe me, when 20,000 emails are sent to someone overseas who wants to boycott Israel he’s going to think twice.

YM: In addition to you and Naftali, who are the other members of your group that are trying to get in to the Jewish Home Party?

AS: First of all there is Rabbi Ronsky, the former chief rabbi of the IDF. He actually hasn’t made up his mind if he wants to be a candidate but he’s very involved with us. He shares the same views as us and believes it’s very important that religious and non-religious work together. Naftali introduced him to me a few months ago and he’s actually the one who pushed me into this. We’ve become very close and the three of us, Naftali, Rabbi Ronsky and myself, speak every day.

In addition there is Moti Yogev, the former Secretary General of Bnei Akiva, and Dr Yehuda David, the Israeli physician who fought for the truth in the Mohammed al-Dura story.

Of course there is also current MK Uri Orbach who was very instrumental in convincing Naftali to get involved and run for the chairman of the party.

YM: Regarding Rabbi Ronsky, is he a sort of spiritual advisor providing guidance to you and Naftali?

AS: He’s much more than just spiritual. He’s working very hard, going to chugei bayit (parlor meetings), giving interviews and basically doing everything that I do. Personally I really admire him.

YM: What does he have to say about all the controversy regarding your candidacy? Has he spoken to you about it?

AS: Sure, he’s spoken to me many times about the issue and he encouraged me to run in the primaries. He’s so against the splitting up into separate sectors.

YM: What would happen if you receive a top spot in the primaries but Naftali loses in his bid to become the chairman of the party? Do you think the party has a chance of making a real impact without Naftali as the leader?

AS: No, I don’t think so. Without Naftali we’ll probably just get a few mandates. Although personally I’ll still run it would be very sad if Naftali is not with us.

YM: On a technical note, what happens to the two candidates (out of a total of three – Naftali Bennett, Zevulun Orlev, Daniel Hershkowitz) who lose in the election for the party chairman? Are they guaranteed a spot in the party or are they out of for good?

AS: They’re not guaranteed a spot but they can run in the list since the election for the head of the party is one week before the election for the rest of the list. Therefore if someone wins by a big margin and there is no need for a second round, then the two that lose can run in the list with everyone else. By the way, Orlev and Hershkowitz said that if they lose the election for the head of the party they’re not going to run in the list.

YM: I recently read that an internal committee of the Jewish Home Party decided to lower the amount of candidates that voters can choose in the primaries from five to three. In comparison to the Likud primaries of 2008 where members were allowed to choose 12 candidates for a general list as well as a few more for regional spots and new immigrants, these numbers are ridiculously low. They’re also lower than the 2008 Labor primaries where members chose between 5-8 candidates for a national list.

tell a friend

About the Author: Yoel Meltzer is a freelance writer living in Jerusalem. He can be contacted via http://yoelmeltzer.com.


You might also be interested in:


no comments

You must log in to post a comment.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Current Top Story
Syrian President Bashar Assad
Assad: I Won’t Quit, the People Say Who Stays and Goes, Not the US
Latest Indepth Stories
William Dodd, the United States ambassador to Germany, in 1934.
InDepth → Columns → America's Rabbi / Shmuley Boteach

The growing revelations that the Obama State Department watered down public statements on the attack in order to cleanse them of any mention of al Qaeda and terrorism is a travesty.

Secretary of State John Kerry shaking hands with Egyptian President Morsi. The Obama administration cannot even get itself to even use the word “Islamism,” let alone take a stand against the pervasive antisemitism created by Islamists at home and abroad.
InDepth → Op-Eds

We must confront Islamist groups with what Prime Minister David Cameron referred to as “muscular liberalism.”

Egyptian-born cleric Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi
InDepth → Columns → Khaled Abu Toameh

Al-Qaradawi’s visit and statements also serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Arab conflict is centered, more than ever, around religion.

Louis Rene Beres
InDepth → Columns → Louis Rene Beres

Everyone who reads newspapers should know at least one thing. Threats to annihilate Israel have always been unremarkable. Almost never, it seems, have Israel’s existential enemies sought any reason for concealment.

InDepth → Interviews and Profiles

Mark Treyger, a candidate for city council in New York City’s 47th council district, met recently with the editorial board of The Jewish Press at the newspaper’s Boro Park office.

InDepth → Columns → Moshe Feiglin

Israel’s government did not want to liberate Jerusalem. Or to be more specific, the Labor and National Religious Party ministers did not want to liberate Jerusalem. “Who needs that whole Vatican?” Defense Minister Moshe Dayan explained at the time.

InDepth → Columns → Fundamentally Freund/Michael Freund

Last Friday, the Western Wall underwent an unwelcome transformation from sacred site to media circus as the group known as the Women of the Wall sought to hold a decidedly non-traditional prayer service.

InDepth → Editorial

Two recent revelations have raised serious questions about the kind of government President Obama is running.

InDepth → Op-Eds

Readers of my monthly Baseball Insider column may have noticed its absence last week (the column appears in the second issue of every month). The reason for that is I have something more serious and personal to share with you, something that didn’t seem appropriate for a baseball column.

InDepth → Op-Eds

Herbert Romerstein died last week after a long illness. With Herb’s passing, we lose not only a good guy but a vast reservoir of knowledge that is not replaceable.

InDepth → Op-Eds

Freedom House recently released its annual report on press freedom throughout the world at an event sponsored by the Newseum in Washington. But along with the usual and appropriate condemnations of dictatorships and totalitarian states, the group decided to slam the one democracy in the Middle East as well as one of the few states in the region where press freedom actually exists: Israel.

InDepth → Front Page

What is the relationship between Pesach and Shavuos?
Rabbi Naftali Jaeger, rosh yeshiva of Sh’or Yoshuv, relates in the name of the Ishbitzer Rebbe a striking metaphor:

InDepth → Op-Eds

Now is the time for Ankara to take some corrective domestic and foreign policy measures consistent with what the country has and continues to aspire for but fails to realize.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

Even Muslim Brotherhood think-tanks have said that the Shia, and especially Iran, are more dangerous threats than is Israel.

More Articles from Yoel Meltzer
Photo: Naftali Bennett
InDepth → Op-Eds

In less than three months time the Jewish Home Party, formerly known as the National Religious Party (NRP), will be holding its first ever internal primaries.

Ayelet Shaked
InDepth → Interviews and Profiles

The co-founder and former chairman of the MyIsrael (Yisrael Sheli) national movement, the recipient of the 2012 Abramowitz Israeli Prize for Media Criticism and a close associate of Naftali Bennett – the two worked together in the office of Benjamin Netanyahu prior to the 2009 elections – Shaked is raising some eyebrows due to the fact that she, unlike Bennett, is a secular candidate for HaBayit Hayehudi -a traditionally religious party.

InDepth → Interviews and Profiles

On his attempt to hijack an airplane in 1970 to bring attention to the struggle of Soviet Jewry: “Sometimes it happens in your life that you simply feel it’s the right thing to do.”

InDepth → Interviews and Profiles

“We need to work on instilling a good strong Jewish-Zionist identity in all of the children in Israel and not only in the religious ones. In other words we need to stop looking inward and start focusing on all of Am Yisrael.”

Judaism

Rabbi Zuriel: “With the ingathering of the exiles, we need a Sanhedrin to implement various changes since Judaism is a developing matter; it’s supposed to be dynamic. He showed me in one of his works twenty items that the Tosafot changed. Today however, he added, we’re like the Karaites, we don’t want to change.

InDepth → Analysis

For anyone who is sick of the lies and hypocrisy – be it in Israel or the world – and really wants to work for change, it’s not enough to simply stand on the street corner and shout the truth. How something is said or how someone looks while performing an act frequently has more impact than anything else in the eyes and ears of the viewer.

InDepth → Op-Eds

Most Israelis understand that the funding of Israeli organizations by foreign governments is a way to enable these governments to advance their agenda of delegitimizing Israel.

    Latest Poll

    Which is the most beautiful location in Jerusalem?









    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/interviews-and-profiles/an-interview-with-ayelet-shaked-secular-candidate-for-habayit-hayehudi/2012/08/15/

Scan this QR code to visit this page online:

No related posts.

Close