Some Liberty For Israel?

Our Vision

The Israel Freedom Movement is a non-partisan movement that is striving to increase the freedom of the citizens of Israel in the spirit of classical liberalism. Individual freedom, in our view, is the basic condition for the social and economic advancement of Israel. Only a free and tolerant society, in which the individual rights of every person are respected and every citizen has the right to chart his way at will as long as he is not harming someone else’s right to do similarly, can be prosperous and strong.

Basic Principles:

Property Rights — The quality of life of the citizens of Israel from all walks of life is closely related to their economic liberty. The social prosperity of the State of Israel depends most of all on respect for the sovereignty of the citizen on his body, his property and fruits of his labor, and his right to keep them and do with them as he wills as long as he does not violate the right of others to behave similarly.

Personal Freedom — A modern, liberal and vibrant society depends on freedom of expression and of the press, freedom of movement, freedom of thought and belief, freedom of association and freedom from arbitrary government decisions as long as did not affect body or property of another. The role of government is to guard the freedom of its citizens, so that they can live their lives freely, without fear of violence and coercion, from the government or from other citizens.

Economy:

  • Opening the market to competition — Freeing the economy is the best way to fight market concentration, unemployment and the high cost of living. The source of monopolies and cartels in Israel, for the most part, can be found in government legislation which violates freedom of occupation and competition. In Israel there exists a massive regulatory wall which consists of tens of thousands of pages, which prevents entrepreneurs, local and foreign, to compete with the large players in the market, beginning with the “Book Law” and culminating in the financial services oversight law. The Israeli manufacturing sector suffers particularly from legislation that restricts competition, in part by appointment of management councils and setting of production quotas (e.g. the law for planning the dairy market which contributes to high dairy product prices). Removing regulation will bring about the breaking up of monopolies and cartels such as the cement monopoly, the electricity monopoly, the ports monopoly, the lottery, the bank cartel, the insurance companies cartel, the milk, olives, honey and plants councils, and the like. Eliminating bureaucracy, production quotas and entry barriers, including unnecessary licensing and concession requirements will bring substantial growth in the purchasing power in Israel.
  • Free up the lands of the Israel Land Authority and simplify the construction procedures — Separation between housing and state is required — remove the politicians from the construction field. The high cost of living in Israel is the result of extensive government involvement in the real estate market. Uniquely to Israel, more than 90% of the country is held by a government body – the Israel Land Authority. There is no similar economic area in the scope of the prohibitions, restrictions, supervision, government planning and bureaucracy as the construction and real-estate industry. This situation prevents the growth of the housing supply in accordance to demand and prevents providing housing in the location and character preferred by the consumers. All the lands of the Israel Land Authority should be publicly auctioned, high density and mixed-use development should be enabled, and the process of obtaining a permit should be simplified in order to allow affordable housing for every citizen via the market mechanism.
  • Canceling Subsidies and Transfers — The basis for mutual commitment and effective assistance to those who really need it, and not those who hold political influence, is voluntary cooperation among free citizens. Transfer payments and subsidies capture many in the poverty cycle on the one hand and increase the tax burden and raise the cost of living for the general population on the other hand. Government grants are usually given to inefficient and unprofitable factories or large corporations that operate lobbyists and are financed by additional taxation imposed on the general public. The problem of poverty will not be solved by the distribution of welfare and the growth of the business sector will not be facilitated by the distribution of funds.
  • Properly privatizing government companies — The private sector, which is entrepreneurial and productive, serves as the engine that is pulling the economy and the quality of life in Israel depends on it. The Israeli economy bears the burden of an inflated public sector, which draws nearly half of the GDP of the State of Israel. The Israel Electric Company bears debt of tens of billions of dollars. The ports and Israel Railways provide cumbersome service and are infected with nepotism and corruption. The only way to solve these problems fundamentally is to privatize these companies. Correct privatization is not done by the transferal of controlling interests to those close to the government but by the IPO of the Companies’ shares to the public.
  • Freeing the economy from the stranglehold of the Histadrut and the powerful workers’ unions — Fair association laws, which do not give disproportionate power to the unions, are instrumental to the functioning of the economy as a whole and the public sector in particular. The phenomenon of waves of strikes that paralyze the economy every few years affects economic stability, turns the citizens of Israel into hostages and leads to the remuneration of employees not according to their contribution but rather according to their ability to cause damage. Striking is the right of every person by virtue of his ownership of his body and freedom of association, but it is inconceivable that striking workers, despite the severe damage they impose on Israeli citizens, will receive immunity from claims alleging breach of employment contract as part of the strike. Cancellation of the immunity system will cause the unions to internalize the costs of the strike and properly consider its use. Reducing the power of the strong unions will allow a more reliable and efficient functioning of the public sector and increase the number of jobs in the economy.
  • Lowering the Tax Burden — Lower taxes allow to initiate, work and create freely and thus increase the welfare of all walks of life. However, the high level of taxes in Israel harms civilians, encourages emigration, fosters an underground economy, causes prices to rise and deters foreign capital from flowing to the country. The Israeli tax system is very complicated and includes a variety of tax credits and exemptions for various pressure groups which distort the economy. A reduction in taxes will enable economic growth and increase the citizens’ ability to take care of themselves and each other. Alongside tax cuts, we must simplify the tax code and eliminate all types of tax exemptions in order to reduce the resources required to collect the taxes and the incentive to evade tax, thus allowing a uniform low tax level. Particularly in the finance sector, the terms of taxation of all forms of savings should be equalized, so that there will not be an initial advantage for provident funds or savings plans of specific financial institutions as compared to managing one’s savings personally or through independent bodies.
  • Making Israel a Free Trade Zone — Freedom of trade is the basis of a strong economy in the modern era. Restricting trade benefits only special interest groups and harms all citizens. The protectionism the exists nowadays for “crony” industries should be stopped and Israel should be turned into a free trade zone, meaning abolition of all tariffs, import quotas, prohibitions on imports, and unique regulatory requirements of the Israeli Standards Institute for each product — even if it already has a permit from the regulatory entities in the US in or the EU.
  • Freeing the Labor Market — A flexible labor market which respects the freedom of contract increases the productivity and wages of all workers. Labor laws which make it difficult for employers to hire and fire workers or restrict the employee and the employer’s ability to reach an agreement as they see fit harm the profitability of engaging workers in the first place and therefore adversely affect the most vulnerable workers. The institution of tenure in the public service has made many workers into “nails without a head “, i.e. you can not fire them or even transfer them to a different role. This severely damages the quality of governmental service — tenure should be abolished and workers should be employed as needed. The Israeli labor market should be based on contracts rather than on regulations and prohibitions. A flexible labor market will help the weaker sectors of the population integrate into the labor force.
  • Establishing a Responsible Fiscal and Monetary Policy — A balanced budget, stable currency and free exchange rates are cornerstones of healthy economic growth. Money printing and budget deficits are the not path to long-term growth and lead to an irresponsible increase in the national debt, erosion of the public’s savings and distortion of the economy. A reform should be promoted that will reduce the ability of the Bank of Israel to generate inflation and speculate in foreign exchange on the back of the public, and that will reduce the economy’s dependency on decisions made by a limited committee. In addition, a constitutional mechanism should be instituted that forbids the destructive policies of chronic deficit, by forcing the government to automatically decrease expenses and a steadily reduce the debt burden until it is gone.
  • Limiting the Government Agencies — A limited and transparent government is a precondition for good governance, so the number of ministers should be limited through a Basic Law. Consequently, the powers of the various government ministries should be limited, unnecessary offices eliminated, the remaining offices unified, and the possibility of appointing ministers without portfolio canceled. This an important step towards a more efficient and transparent management of the government, a significant reduction in the cost of the governmental apparatus, and an improvement in maintaining the separation of powers (currently, more than a quarter of the Knesset members serve as ministers or deputy ministers in the government, which violates the separation of powers between the executive and legislative powers). Any significant deviation from a simple government structure which includes the six major ministries: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the State Department is a manifestation of the administration’s atrophy, a waste of public funds and unnecessary bureaucratic complexity.

Society:

  • Allowing freedom of choice in Education
  • Privatizing religion from the state to the individual and the community
  • Ending the “War on Drugs”
  • Progressing responsibly towards a professional army
  • Saying “no” to the Biometric Database
  • Legalizing Prostitution
  • Separating the gambling industry from the criminal world
  • Freeing the media and freedom of speech

From The Israeli Freedom Movement, here.

Yes To Jewish Autonomy, No To Statehood

Quick catch-up: I’ve been arguing that a Jewish state can serve as a catalyst for Jewish renewal, but that all of the dominant ideologies in Israel miss this point. We have seen that secular nationalists thought that the state could replace the Jewish community with a civil community and that religious anti-nationalist imagined that a Jewish state would have no effect – or negative effect – on Judaism. Now let’s consider the case of religious nationalists.

Religious nationalists had to contend above all with a proposition regarding which secular nationalists and religious anti-nationalists were in full agreement: that religion and nationalism were incompatible. In particular, as we have seen, the founding of a viable modern state would necessarily entail fundamental changes in the traditional Jewish ethos. Jews would need to assume more positive attitudes towards political authority and towards military culture and the scope of halakhah would need to expand to incorporate (at least some) national affairs.

Early religious nationalists, such as Rav Yaakov Reines took a pragmatic approach to the opportunities and dangers: they considered the trade-offs and decided that, given the Jews’ precarious political situation, the package was worthwhile. For most religious Jews who embraced the nationalist movement, however, the millennial significance of a return to Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael was too momentous an event to frame in terms of pragmatic trade-offs. To them, it seemed more appropriate to reinterpret the challenges presented by secular nationalism as essential components of a Grand Plan.

Thus, the new definition of national power was embraced. The necessary tools of state-building – agriculture, military, industrial – were not simply necessary burdens but sacred endeavors worthy of the kind of veneration earlier reserved for matters of the spirit. Army uniforms were the new priestly garments. Furthermore, political subversiveness was replaced by its polar opposite, mamlachtiut: the doctrine that whatever apparent flaws the products of this redemptive process – the state and its institutions – might suffer from, they and their proximate agents should be regarded as endowed with a divine imprimatur. Finally, the state was designated as the appropriate authority for deciding and regulating religious matters. The state would appoint rabbanim, enforce religious legislation and fund religious services. Voluntary religious community organizations would be upgraded to state institutions. Secular officials, by virtue of being agents of the state and hence the bearers of profound religious longings of which they might be unaware, could be trusted to manage religious affairs.

In this view, the anticipated Jewish state would not replace religion, as secular nationalists anticipated, but rather would upgrade and subsume it. This optimistic view envisioned a mythical state different than the one anticipated by the bulk of Israel’s founders and, indeed, different than the one that actually exists. The actual state of Israel is a civil democracy in which political rights are grounded in citizenship, which is influenced by, but not determined by, ethnicity or religious commitment and in which laws are influenced by, but not determined by, Jewish tradition. To imagine that it could have been otherwise, that it is otherwise or that it will be otherwise in the foreseeable future is to live in a fantasy world.

The inability or unwillingness to acknowledge the yawning gap between the mythical state envisioned by religious nationalists – the one that is yesod kisei hashem ba-olam – and the actual civil state – many of the institutions of which are structurally anti-religious – prevents religious nationalists from comprehending political events and, hence, from reacting to them in a rational manner. In the mythical state, the millennial narrative unfolds slowly but inevitably, guided along by the government and its representatives. As God’s chosen agents on earth, the Labor party commanded both the loyalty and the fawning admiration of religious nationalists from before the founding of the state until God elected the Likud in 1977. The courts, the army, the rabbanut and other state agencies were all playing their roles in the entirely deterministic unfolding of redemption and as such they too commanded the loyalty of religious nationalists. To criticize them was to rebel against God’s representatives on earth.

Among the silly policies this mindset encourages are two that we considered earlier. The first is nanny state socialism. In the religious nationalist view, Jewish Government is good, so Big Jewish Government is even better. If the state was meant to assume all the roles of pre-state communities, then, in particular, it ought to gather under its benevolent wing all communal righteousness. Never mind that welfare and assorted social benefits mostly serve as a mechanism for massive subsidization of Arabs by Jews, encourage the dissolution of families and discourage actual charity. Actual consequences in the actual state are of less importance to religious nationalists than that the state, as a symbol, be seen to be righteous.

Similarly, in this view, one of the state’s main purposes is to subsidize, and hence regulate, religion. In the actual state, as opposed to the mythic one, state subsidization of religion results in market distortions that produce unmotivated state-appointed rabbanim. And regulation invites state agencies, especially courts, that are indifferent – if not hostile – to religion, to weigh in on religious matters. Religious nationalists often seem completely blind to the damage such intervention causes. In fact, when the rabbanut ruled against the views of many religious nationalists regarding conversions and shemittah, religious nationalists themselves turned to the secular courts to force the rabbanut to recant.

The divergence of religious nationalists’ mythical state and the actual state of Israel has become so great that the myth is becoming unsustainable. The Labor party and the Supreme Court long ago adopted the agenda of the unaffiliateds, the rabbanut has been infiltrated by anti-nationalists and even the army played a leading role in the “disengagement”. In short, the main actors in this drama seem to have lost the script. What is one to do? The die-hard mamlachtimquibble among themselves about which inconvenient events are mere plot twists, which are produced by rogue actors and who are the rogue actors. It is a sad spectacle.

But quietly, young religious nationalists are rejecting the worst ideological excesses of religious nationalism.

From Ben Chorin, here.

How The IDF Lies To Us

Don’t Believe Their Lies

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed

Rav Eliezer Melamed

Question: Rabbi, what is your reaction to the violent incidents which took place Monday night in the Shomron against the Brigadier Commander, Deputy Brigadier Commander, and soldiers?

Answer: I don’t know exactly what happened, but one thing I am sure: Whatever the media reports is extremely exaggerated. The media and the I.D.F.’s dubious reputation have been acquired over many years. Till this day, there hasn’t been one story which I was familiar with that was reported correctly. And I’m not talking about a slight inaccuracy due to human error, or even bias owing to a reporter’s leftwing viewpoint making it difficult for him to identify events accurately. Rather, we’re speaking about scandalous and intentional bias.

The I.D.F. spokesmen operate in this method because this is the nature of an army. The army uses all the means in its possession to defeat the enemy – including manipulation, fraud, diversion, etc. Woe unto us if the army did not prepare itself in such a way against the enemy, and woe unto us that in recent years the government and the Minister of Defense use the army and its methods against the settlers – the loyal representatives of the Jewish nation throughout history.

The erroneous reporting in the media stems from an obvious concerted attempt to malign the settlers by all possible means, in order to destroy the settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Now as well, the motivation to defame the settlers and to spread division amongst their ranks by inciting a wave of condemnations within the camp is clear – to open the way for the destruction of the outposts. And behold, the scheme has succeeded. According to reports, the Prime Minister, from the Likud Party no less, has assembled the security forces, directing them to deal with an ‘iron fist’ against so-called “Jewish terror” – in other words, to plan a wild destruction of houses in the outposts.

This position of mine is based on long, personal experience. Many of you remember the defamation spoken against me when the Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, decided to remove Yeshiva Har Bracha from the Hesder program. But now, let me recount one example out of many others.

The “Broken Leg” of Guy Hazut, Battalion Commander of the Paratroopers

On the eve of the last day of Pesach 2006 while staying at Kfar HaRo’eh, I heard the news on the radio that a serious confrontation had occurred between settlers in Har Bracha and soldiers, and that settlers had closed the settlement’s gate on the commander’s leg, and broke his leg. I was hurt and angry. How could people from our community dare do such a thing! I was realized that the media does not like us, but never in my mind did I imagine they would make-up a story that didn’t actually happen. Familiar with the heavy iron gate of the community, I thought that a group of people had confronted the battalion commander, and as he tried to enter the settlement, they forcefully closed the gate on his foot.

The true story was quite different. The gate in question is a small, flimsy, three foot-high goats’ pen fence, located on a hilltop two kilometers from the community. The Battalion Commander was chasing after a boy, who he suspected of previously throwing stones at an Arab vehicle, some four kilometers away from the community. During the chase, the Battalion Commander ran into a small post of the gate, hitting his foot. The supposedly injured Battalion Commander managed to wander around the area for another half an hour, cursing the settlers, and ordering his troops to close the two roads leading to the settlement, which at the time numbered a hundred and fifty families. And all this on the eve of the holiday! What’s more, a number of residents with health problems returning from medical check-ups were not allowed to go home for quite a long time. Along with all this, in three different incidents, Battalion Commander Hazut’s soldiers threatened settlers with their cocked weapons.

It should be noted (as the Jews in exile would point out when they attempted to persuade the authorities to treat them leniently) that amongst the community and Yeshiva, there were more over two hundred and fifty soldiers serving in both regular and reserve duty at the time. They and their families were threatened by the soldiers with cocked weapons.

Guy Hazut’s Media Expertise

When it comes to the media, Guy Hazut is quite proficient. Every event that he participated in reached the media in ‘real time’, according to his perspective, of course. After concluding his altercation with the residents, he went to the hospital to have his leg examined, while, simultaneously spreading lies to the media that the settlers had broke his leg. At the hospital, the Battalion Commander’s leg was found to be fine, and he was released immediately. Residents from the community contacted various reporters to deny the story, but the media continued to broadcast the lie, as if the settlers had beaten and injured the commander.

The bad name that Guy Hazut gave the settlement and the residents was difficult to cleanse. There was no point in arguing — no one would listen. All that can be said is – do not believe the media and the army spokesmen. No matter how much you think they’re lying, you’ll still be wrong – they lie even more.

Lies in Hebron

I give this example because, thus far, Guy Hazut has not yet apologized. Incidentally, he is presently the Hebron Brigade commander, and in the area under his command, one of his soldiers accidentally killed Rabbi Dan Marzbach ztz”l. But as is customary in the army and with Guy Hazut, on that very morning, a smoke screen of lies, falsification, and defamation against Rabbi Marzbach were spread in the media, as if he was guilty of his own killing.

Two months earlier, also in Hebron, I.D.F. spokesmen brazenly lied about the murder of Asher Palmer and his infant son Jonathan, saying they died in a car accident in which the father was guilty, having allegedly fallen asleep at the wheel. Only after a hard struggle by family, friends and public figures was the truth proven that they were killed due to Arab stone throwing – while this truth had already been known from the start. Even the I.D.F. was aware of it – the fact is that towards that very Shabbat, the army canceled the vacations of the soldiers in Judea and Samaria for fear of settler response.
“Injured” Policemen

While we’re on the subject, in every demonstration in which civilians are injured, immediately, one of the police commanders orders some of the policemen to lie on stretchers and claim they are injured, to be photographed for television, and sent to the hospital. Later on, you hear on the news: “In the demonstration, thirteen policemen were injured, as well as seven protesters.” Doctors have told me that most of the cops who come to hospitals after the demonstrations were pretenders; nothing actually happened to them, they apparently have to carry out orders to act like they’re injured and be hospitalized.

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed is the Dean of Yeshiva Har Bracha and a prolific author on Jewish Law. Rabbi Melamed is one of the most active leaders amongst the religious-Zionist public. This article was translated from his popular weekly column “Revivim” which appears in the “Basheva” newspaper. According to official media surveys, his column is the most widely read editorial amongst the religious and ultra-Orthodox public in Israel.

Rabbi Melamed’s articles also appear at: http://revivimen.yhb.org.il/

From Honenu, here.

Some Techeiles Supporters – How Many Do You Know?

TECHEILES SUPPORT

Note: This page is NOT at all a comprehensive list of Rabbonim who wear and/or support Techeiles. There are many Rabbonim, Roshei Yeshivos, Rebbes, Dayanim and Talmidei Chachamim (some that you probably know or have heard of…) that wear and/or support Murex Techeiles. Some have specifically requested not to be publicized (yet).

 

    • הרב ישראל בעלסקי שליט”א

    • הרב שריה דבליצקי שליט”א

    • הרב זלמן נחמיה גולדברג שליט״א

    • הרב שמואל נדל שליט״א

    • הרב עמרם אופמן שליט”א

    • הרב משה מרדכי קארפ שליט”א

    • הרב גרשון מלצר שליט”א

  • דעת הרב הגאון ר׳ שלמה זלמן אויערבאך זצ״ל

Letters of Support

 

הסכמת הרב בעלסקי

הרב ישראל בעלסקי שליט”א

Harav Yisroel Belsky Shlita is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Torah Vodaas and is a world-renowned Posek, as well as the Rabbinical decisor for the OU. He has given his warm Haskama to publications, education and the advancement of קיום מצות תכלת.

הרב שריה דבליצקי שליט”א

Harav Saraya Diblitzky Shlita is a well known Mekubal and Posek, and a close talmid of the Chazon Ish. He has authored numerous seforim on Halacha, Kaballa, Tefilla etc. He resides in Bnei Brak.

הסכמת הרב זלמן נחמיה

הרב זלמן נחמיה גולדברג שליט״א

Harav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg Shlita is a son-in-law of the late Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach Zatzal, and is a leading Posek in Eretz Yisrael. He heads the Beis Din Hayashar Vehatov in Yerushalayim as well as the Yeshiva Sadigura. He is consulted by many prominent Rabbonim worldwide on matters of Gittin and Choshen Mishpat.

הרב שמואל נדל שליט״א

Harav Shmuel Nadel is a well known Dayan in Bnei Brak. His letter is particularly poignant and worthwhile reading.

 

ר' עמרם אופמן

הרב עמרם אופמן שליט”א

Harav Amram Offman Shlita is a מו”ץ for the בד”ץ עדה החרדית of Yerushalayim. He has been encouraging the advancement of מצות תכלת for many years.

 

rav karp

הרב משה מרדכי קארפ שליט”א

Harav M.M. Karp Shlita is one of the leading Rabbonim and Poskim in Kiryat Sefer. He has published several Seforim including הלכות שבת בשבת וחג בחג, משמרת מועד ועוד that have gained much acclaim in the world of Torah and Halacha.

 

מצות תכלת בזמנינו

הרב גרשון מלצר שליט”א

Harav Gershon Meltzer Shlita is a well known posek and מגיד שיעור in ישיבת מיר ירושלים.

 

הרב שלמה זלמן אויערבאך

הרב הגאון ר׳ שלמה זלמן אויערבאך זצ״ל

Although Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach Zatzal (1910-1995) cannot be listed as a supporter of Murex Techeiles, this page would be incomplete without citing what he did say on the subject, and perhaps more importantly – what he did NOT say. (Some have quoted Rav Shlomo Zalman as being anti-Murex.) From the letter below two things are clear:

  1. He did not look into the subject in any significant way – “אין לי ידע חשוב בענין זה”. (Similar to what Rav Elyashiv said.)
  2. He was definitely not against the concept that Techeiles could be found prior to the coming of Moshiach. (Otherwise he would not need to say that he has not researched the subject (to Dr. Ziderman) or that he is too elderly to start a new campaign (to Rav Burstein).

The first item below is the letter he wrote to Dr. R’ Yisrael Ziderman, one of the first to research the method to produce Murex Techeiles. The second item is a transcript of the conversation between Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rav Menachem Burstein:

From Techeiles, here.