Love of the Land: Manhigut Yehudit's Ideas Going Mainstream

Manhigut Yehudit's Ideas Going Mainstream

Manhigut Yehudit
11 February '10

Only two weeks ago we pointed out how - slowly but surely - ideas that Manhigut Yehudit has been introducing into public discourse are eventually integrated as societal norms and become legislative proposals. We had mentioned the proposed law to give honorably discharged soldiers free land, submitted by MK Gilah Gamliel and the change in the government's handling of the illegal immigrant issue and its decision to close Israel's border with Egypt.

This week, another Manhigut Yehudit idea went mainstream, with PM Netanyahu's endorsement of the Yisrael Beiteinu proposal to allow Israeli expatriates to vote.

For Netanyahu and Lieberman, the proposed law is motivated by narrow political interests: Most Israelis are loyal to their identity and Land and naturally lean toward the right. Granting voting rights to hundreds of thousands of Israeli expatriates neutralizes the power of the Arab Knesset bloc and strengthens the right. But even though he may be governed by narrow interests, the fact that the PM has endorsed this law is a step in the right direction.

Manhigut Yehudit has repeatedly called for the granting of voting rights to every Jew as a matter of principle. The practical way to begin is to grant voting rights to those people who are already Israeli citizens. We do not propose this for opportunistic reasons but because we believe that the State of Israel is the state of the entire Jewish nation.

For more on voting rights for expatriates and world Jewry, see Moshe Feiglin's article, Israeli Voting Rights for Expatriates and Diaspora Jews.

Related article: The Great Absentee-Ballot Debate

Love of the Land: Manhigut Yehudit's Ideas Going Mainstream