Religious Zionism does not want to ride in the train car of the state leadership, it wants to be the locomotive.
It's not new.
This week the Minister of Finance took a significant step in that direction.
Many leftists are wary of supporting the government's new economic plan, and don't even know why.
I'm here to help, because it may be in the subconscious: perhaps the reason lies in the first paragraph of Smotrich's financial opening speech, which was devoted to an entirely sociological identity card: "I am a father of seven children who lives in the ancients."
True, he also said he had a mortgage, but this is the edge of the inverted sword: for half the country it is an invitation to a sense of shared fate, because mortgages are paid in both Netivot and Herzliya, and for the other half it is a sensational revelation or a suspicion of lying - a mortgage?
About the villas that the state distributed for free to the settlers?
can not be.
Religious Zionism.
Want to be the locomotive, photo: Yossi Zeliger
Settlers in the treasury
Smotrich will be a professional finance minister, this is a statement close to the consensus.
At the same time, this is an elected official who does not forget the ideological mission in the name of which he stands to inform the nation about an economic plan.
In the name of the ideological mission he lives in ancient times, in the name of the ideological mission he has seven children, in the name of the mission he normalizes the presence of religious Zionism in the Ministry of Finance.
There was already a settler in the Ministry of Finance - Avigdor Lieberman.
There was already a religious Zionist in the Ministry of Finance - Yaakov Naaman.
But it's not the same.
When Naftali Bennett held a press conference with Netanyahu at the beginning of the corona crisis - it was evident that he could not wait until he reached the top of the pyramid, that he wanted to show that religious Zionists are the most brotherly, and that the alliance he is aiming for is a refreshing high-tech alliance that proves that there is no difference between religious and secular, right and left.
Smotrich clarifies: I am Doss, and it is no longer his personality.
Most of the country suffers from the cost of living.
The alliance aimed at by Bennett has failed, and the traditional alliance aimed at by Smotrich - an alliance that longs for relief in property taxes and electricity prices - is in demand from end to end.
Even when it comes in advance.
It's not for nothing that financial reporters preferred to ask in real time more about fratricidal war (Netanyahu) and less about exciting economic benefits announced a minute earlier (Smotrich).
Newspaper headlines bombarded when there was talk of a sharp increase in electricity prices, but we cheered less when the new minister and the hated head dwarfed the increase in electricity prices and the freezes in the increase in property taxes.
It would have been easier if the finance minister had wasted time on appointing a CEO and ombudsman.
Smotrich and Netanyahu.
The journalists are not cheering, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Eyes wide open
The red tie of the Minister of Finance corresponded with his eyes, which indicated the state of his sleeping hours.
Ten days have passed since he was appointed Minister of Finance, and it is clear that the poet Lapid's words were fulfilled in them: "We came to work."
In the age of social networks, political capital is reaped from tiktoks, tweets and talk of fratricidal war, but it is difficult to take lightly the impression left by a minister who succeeds in ten days in bringing to the public practical steps in the toughest sector of everyone's life.
It is requested to compare the first ten days in the position of the Minister of Finance to the first ten days in the position of the head of the opposition.
Every smart manager knows that if you have arrived at a new workplace, and you want to raise it from its ruins or establish a new order in it that suits your particular agenda - you need to be present.
Getting to know everyone, drawing up policies, talking to the employees and the owners - everything starts with a personal example.
It is disproportionate to send arrows around you, if part of the time you are simply not around and your people behave like "key children" whose parents are on remote control.
Smotrich.
A red tie corresponded with the eyes, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
At the beginning of the week, Yair Lapid published an insulting post ("A weekend with my wife, for God's sake") following the criticism leveled at him during his trip to Paris.
Painful and clear words: "I worked late... my wife did not join me on any official trip... my life is dedicated to democracy... white hairs were added to me", and more.
Lapid is right, because we are indeed a critical company that opens an eye to everyone who travels for the weekend.
Lapid is wrong, because that's not what bothered the leftists who criticized his trip (and the rightists it bothered them - relax).
Head of opposition to Netanyahu is an extremely challenging position.
It is impossible to succeed in it when you are not 100 percent recruited to it.
To be recruited is not to warn on Sunday that if Ben Gavir ascends the Temple Mount people will die, then on Wednesday to pack a suitcase, then on Sunday to land back, and on Monday to declare a fratricidal war.
Opposition leader Shimhariv Oz, who writes after the overlap with Bibi that in 2024 he will return to the prime minister's office, does not blame his wife and daughter for wanting to travel abroad.
Lapid in Israel, photo: Moshe Mizrahi
What is Israeli and dangerous in your eyes?
An opposition leader is not just a human being.
Leah is an amazing woman, who loves the country and is devoted to her husband, the leader.
A leader does not jump to a long weekend in Paris and lose the first demonstration of the opposition, if he really believes that Netanyahu is dangerous.
If he is not dangerous - fine.
But if when a flight attendant asks you "What is Israeli and dangerous in your eyes" you answer "Netanyahu, because he has three indictments", and yet you are the flight attendant - the leftist camp has a problem.
And it's not because he's narrow-minded, it's because yours are petitions.
Lapid, you were supposed to upload to your app a picture from the basement with Marev and my son, planning the recapture of power.
Instead - a random Israeli documented you in duty free.
Israelis are calculating, so I have a math exercise: Lapid's approaching post on Facebook + the well-known question "Where is the money?", is worth less an electorate than Smotrich's droopy eyes heralds a war on the cost of living.
Lapid at a faction meeting (archive).
A leader does not jump to a weekend in Paris, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
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