Televised debate reveals torn, divided Israel

At one of the high points of the Feb. 26 televised debate on Israeli Channel 2 among eight party leaders, a verbal altercation developed between Shas Party Chairman Aryeh Deri and his Yesh Atid counterpart Yair Lapid. It started out over the divisive issue of drafting Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, and very quickly spilled over into personal, sectorial and identity-related recriminations.

Lapid, who made the mandatory draft of eligible ultra-Orthodox men the flagship of his previous election campaign and subsequently pushed through legislation implementing it, turned to Deri and said: “The ultra-Orthodox have to enlist just like everyone else. It’s out of the question that my son will do basic training at the Shizafon [basic training] camp, whereas the son of someone who has a political party that arranged for him not to be drafted — will not serve in the military.”

Deri responded that a large number of Shas voters and Knesset members serve and have served in the military. Then, obviously agitated, he lashed out at Lapid: “You’ve been after me now for two years. About the fact that I was convicted of a crime. If my name was Aryeh Olmert [reference to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, recently convicted of corruption, a close friend of Lapid's late father] you wouldn’t be doing this. It’s only because my name is Aryeh Mahlouf Deri and I was born in Morocco. Where is all this incitement coming from? What’s with all this racism?”

Lapid did not take the bait and answered: “Yes, you’re a convicted felon. I think you should be rehabilitated, helped.”