Conspiracy Theories, Israel Style
A Crisis for Religious Zionists
The Moon Landing Hoax and Big Pharma are so American. Here in Israel we have our own crazy conspiracy theory. It’s the Leftist Kaplanist Conspiracy.
The term “Kaplanist” refers to the most extreme of the anti-judicial reform protestors on Kaplan Street. And the claim is that all kinds of things that potentially harm the government are driven and even funded by such people. These conspirators, it is claimed, are “Leftists” that want to give the country away to the Arabs.
The Leftist Kaplanist Conspiracy is considerably more extreme than the Deep State Conspiracy in the US. The primary person spreading this theory in Israel is the person who actually ran the government for most of the last twenty years and was himself responsible for many of the political appointments that are now claimed to be part of the conspiracy against him! The former attorney general, the former defense minister, the former head of the Shin Bet, and the former police chief have all been accused of being part of the Leftist Kaplanist Conspiracy against the government, despite the fact that they were all either selected or continued their role under the approval of Bibi himself.
The current greatest threat to Bibi is the IDF manpower crisis, the charedi draft evasion, and the proposed so-called “Draft Law” that seeks to authorize this evasion and transfer billions of shekels that will enable the charedi freeloading lifestyle to continue in exchange for political support. Such an appalling situation is obviously deeply problematic for a government which is supposed to be Zionist and interested in strengthening the country and supporting the IDF. Accordingly, the conspiracy theorists are now working overtime to claim that no such crisis exists, and that it’s all manufactured and even funded by Leftist Kaplanists.
One example is the claim that the extreme Charedi anti-draft rhetoric and protest rallies are attributable to Kaplanists, who made it all happen. According to this narrative, the charedi community really deep down would want to enlist in their countless thousands, and would have agreed to do so if the Leftist Kaplanists had not secretly manipulated them! I don’t think that I need to waste time explaining just how absurd this is.
The latest target for these conspiracy theorists is the new organization “Shutfut leSherut,” a group of women advocating for charedim to share the burden of military service, and calling out the so-called “Draft Law” for the scam that the charedi leadership itself has admitted it to be. According to the conspiracy theorists, who never want to talk about the “Draft Law” being a farce, the arguments brought by Shutfut LeSherut can be dismissed without even having to address them. Because the women of Shutfut LeSherut are actually a bunch of Leftist Kaplanists!
The absurdity of this claim is revealed when you look at who the members of Shutfut leSherut actually are. It’s thousands of women from the religious Zionist community, many of whom live in Judea and Samaria! They are the mothers, wives, sisters, and grandmothers of IDF soldiers. And they have a single very reasonable demand: that their sons, husbands, brothers and grandsons not have to sacrifice additional years of their lives, along with their careers and health and families and sometimes their very lives, while charedim are paid to be exempt from relieving this burden. That’s it.
Sadly, merely for advocating this very reasonable, very Zionist position, the women of Shutfut LeSherut have been relentless vilified as “Leftists.” Today, at a conference for school principals in which one of the founders of Shutfut LeSherut had been due to speak, she was disinvited due to her “objectionable views.” Just so everyone’s clear: This was a religious Zionist conference, from which a religious Zionist speaker was disinvited due to her advocacy for normative religious Zionism. It’s simply shocking.
Meanwhile, there’s a conspiracy in Israel which is an actual fact rather than a theory. And you don’t need to make highly implausible claims about secret political agendas. Nor do you have to give up your value system.
It’s the people pushing the Leftist Kaplanist Conspiracy theory who themselves are very clearly part of a rather poorly-concealed conspiracy to appease the charedi political parties. They are openly utterly devoted to keeping Bibi protected from anything that could threaten his hold on power. Which means that they will insist that charedim will enlist in the tens of thousands if we legislate an exemption for them and give them billions of shekels. And if anyone points out that all the evidence shows very clearly otherwise, no matter what their religious or political background, they are to be set beyond the pale as traitors, enemies, terrorists, and the very worst insult of all (under Bibi’s premiership): Leftists.
And if you want an insidious secret agenda, then here’s one that’s an actual fact: the largest purveyors and brainwashers of these conspiracy theories, Channel 14 and Olam Katan, are owned by semi-charedi tycoons who are working with extreme charedi factions within the religious Zionist community that actually want the charedim to be exempt! They pretend to be representative of mainstream Zionism, but they are actually nothing of the sort. And they are hiring useful rabble-rousers who are happy to prostitute their Zionism for money to claim that anyone opposing the government’s plan to exempt charedim from the draft is a “Leftist” enemy. It’s like Tuqatar Qatarlson claiming to be “America First” and trashing Ben Shapiro as not caring about America.
The claim is even more absurd than claiming that the moon landing is a hoax. But its effects are tragic; both in terms of religious Zionists losing their values, and in the consequences for the country if the Draft Exemption Law goes through.
We have to assume that politicians, right or left, will always pursue their own individual interest, which in Israel means doing what their party's leadership demands. But the voting public ultimately has a say. The effort has to be a concerted effort to convince all voters -- right or left -- to vote only for lists/parties -- right or left -- that refuse coalition with the chareidi power brokers. Let all Zionist parties, whether of the center, right, or left, face the dilemma of losing power if they DO stand with the chareidim; at the present they see only the prospect of losing power if they DO NOT. That is the calculus which needs changing, Critically, it is the Likud supporter who must be convinced. Hard to do that while attacking Bibi, who retains a hold on so many Likud voters. How to pull this off? hanistarot lashem elokeinu. Anyway, keep at it, Rav Slifkin!
Thank you for putting your finger on this very real conspiracy (and I write this as someone who does not believe in UFOs and is certain that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK…). What irks me to no end are the Religious Zionists among my community, though truthfully it is more accurate to identify them as members of the Haredi Leumi (Hardali) community who support the continued Haredi exemption from IDF service. In addition to the groups named in your blog, the following institutions come to mind: Torat Lehima (a nonprofit Religious Zionist organization advocating for the IDF to be governed by “true Jewish values as opposed to the progressive elements running the IDF that prevent it from achieving its objectives with a decisive military victory; see the manifesto it recently published entitled “Haredi Draft Responsa” asserting that the Haredi Draft Bill controversy is actually a ploy of the Left Wing Kaplanists to undermine the religious IDF soldier by integrating female soldiers into combat units with religious soldiers and eradicate all “Jewish” values from the IDF in favor of Progressive, anti-Torah values. Here’s a link to the [Hebrew] manifesto: https://publuu.com/flip-book/1029801/2277883), the “Kav” Bnei David / Eli network of Yeshivot led by R. Eli Sadan, and the Hesder Yeshiva of Sderot led by its US born Rosh Yeshiva, R. David Fendel.
If someone can explain why all of these prominent members of the Religious Zionist movement support the continued exemption, en masse, of Haredim from IDF service, I will be very appreciative.