In its efforts to thwart the enactment of the Conversion Law, the Religious Zionist Party, led by leader Bezalel Smutrich, has formed a fundamentalist alliance with the Islamic Movement in Israel, represented by Ra'am in the Knesset. To wing Zionism on the left and establish an alliance of interests with a religious movement whose religious vision is a Muslim state led by the Imam.
And all this - in the name of a struggle against a straw man in the form of the erosion of the Jewish identity that the conversion law will bring, according to them (which is unfounded at best).
Even after many years in the public arena, I admit that yesterday I rubbed my eyes in astonishment.
In order to prevent the support of RAAM representatives in the conversion law, which was supposed to go up for a first reading, MK Smutrich sent a letter that the "delusional" description compliments him.
Of the lies in the letter, it is especially noteworthy the argument that if the conversion in Israel is a little easier, a mass conversion of Muslims is expected, which some rabbis see as a vision of the generations and a way to resolve the Jewish-Arab conflict.
Apart from the deep contempt for Muslims and their faith, it is clear that there are no such rabbis and this is a gross and baseless lie.
But the more worrying part of the letter is Smutrich's proposal to establish a permanent extremist alliance with the Islamic Movement.
In this alliance he proposes the following formula: You, the Muslims, will not interfere in matters that harm my extremist conception of the Jewish religion and identity, and I, for my part, will not interfere in the "affairs of Islam."
The letter also includes a threat: If Muslims vote in favor of laws pertaining to the Jewish religion, "we will have legitimacy ... to harm the status of Muslim clerics."
This offer is scary.
RAAM is the political manifesto of the Islamic movement in Israel. Along with the positive political pragmatism that led it to join the Knesset and its leader to recognize the Jewish state, she did not give up her religious vision for a moment. Advocates the establishment of a Muslim state on the basis of Sharia law, Muslim law.Even if at present its members (members of the southern faction) are not actively promoting this vision, it still stands before their eyes.
And perhaps this alliance, in the end, is not that surprising.
Religious Zionism, led by Smutrich, seeks to establish a state of halakhah here.
The Islamic movement dreams of the same goal, only with a different halakhah.
In proposing an alliance between them, Smutrich proposes the following deal: In the first stage, the fundamentalist movements will cooperate to defeat the sane and moderate, and then establish the kingdom of God in Israel.
Each in his own way and according to his own halakhah.
The law of conversion, Smutrich's motive for establishing an alliance of extremists with the Islamic movement, is in my eyes a good law (due diligence - I am among its drafters).
But even if they do not agree with the law and want to argue with it, it is clear that it will not lead to the conversion of hundreds of thousands of Muslims.
To use it to form this extremist alliance that bypasses Zionism on the left, and to hope that RAAM will not respond to it, is one too dangerous step.
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