Isaac Herzog Quotes
Unfortunately, the diplomatic destruction Netanyahu is causing will lead Israel to lose its Jewish majority and become a binational state. This unfortunate fact is something no law can hide.
Herzog, Isaac. "Knesset Plenary Debate on Nation-State Bill." The Jerusalem Post, 26 Nov. 2014.
Since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1949, there has been compulsory military service for all except the ultra-orthodox. Initially, this was only a small handful of religious scholars, but the number had swelled to almost 70,000 man of draft age who were very vocal and active about how the nation should be run and its foreign policy but never had to risk their own lives of that of their children in fighting Israel’s wars. Finally, majority sentiment became overwhelming and the exemption was removed. The Degel HaTorah party was an ultra-orthodox Jewish minor religious party whose view of a Jewish State was very similar to the ultra-orthodox Muslims who believed that holy books of their religion are the only valid laws and must supersede everything else like man-made Constitutions or laws. For them there was NO separation between church and state. For Gafni, therefore, if a court ruling or law conflicted with the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament – The Law of Moses-- it contravened the notion of a Jewish State. The vast majority of Israeli Jews believed that the civil law must trump anyone’s particular interpretation of the Law of Moses as interpreted by the ultra-orthodox or anyone else. See {636124} for another instance where Gafni complained that Israel was no longer a Jewish State.
Dayan was a strong advocate for co-existence with the Arabs and an understanding of their frustrations and disappointments without bowing to the extremists who wanted to destroy Israel.
The murder to which he was referring was the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He had been very active in trying to negotiate a peace treaty with the Palestinians. A minority of right wing, religious fundamentalists were opposed to any peace treaty that would give the Palestinians control over the land that the fundamentalists believed was given to the Jews by God. Israel’s political system was so fractionated with minority parties having so much influence that Rabin was the only leader on the horizon who was influential and powerful enough to transcend the party politics, Since his assassination the peace process has been stalled, and the murder paid off.
At the time there were two demographic changes taking place. In the developed countries there was a very large increase in the percentage of the population over the age of 65. In the less developed nations the proportions of young people was burgeoning.
During the 1920s there was a dispute between Romania and Russia regarding land area claimed by both. Few modern people know that Communist Russia, less than a decade after the Russian Revolution, had proposed the creation of a Jewish State. The State would be part of the Soviet Union and under Communist control. While there were some communist Russian Jews who were enthusiastic supporters of such a Jewish State, the Jews of the area were more concerned by the kind of autonomy the Jewish state would have. Western Jews were split. Most were Zionists and wanted an independent Jewish nation, not a Jewish subdivision of the Soviet Union. Pro Communist Jews tended to like the idea but many of them preferred a communist nation in Palestine. Anti-Communist Jews did not want Russia to dominate any more land and saw a Jewish state under communist domination as contrary to the highly traditional Jewish individualistic and independent culture. Soon Lord Balfour was to make his famous declaration about Palestine as a Jewish homeland, and most Jews and many others lost all interest in the earlier Russian idea.
Isaac 'Bougie' Herzog is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset between 2003 and 2018 and held several ministerial posts, including Minister of Welfare and Social Services (2007–11). Formerly the chairman of the Labor Party, he served as the opposition leader from 2013 until 2018. In June 2018 he was elected Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and his term began on August 2018.
