Israel mulls defense alliance with Saudis, UAE, Bahrain
Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have discussed expanding cooperation in facing common enemies, an Israeli official familiar with the matter said Monday.
The matter is being “informally discussed,” the source said, adding that the countries are US allies. All four believe a nuclear Iran would be a major threat and have been eyeing the Biden administration’s plan to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal with concern. published in Saudi Arabia, is owned by Prince Turki bin Salman Al Saud, a son of King Salman and brother of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and is seen as reflecting the Saudi government’s official views.
Lauder said his contacts in Arab states viewed Israel as the only reliable ally against Iran, and vice versa. They are
conversions every year, approximately 10% of all non-Orthodox conversions annually.
Trying to preemptively defray criticism, the High Court said in its ruling Monday night that it had no religious implications and only dealt with the secular-law questions of the right to obtain citizenship.
Further, the justices specifically noted the 15 years in which the Knesset had not acted to resolve the issue as a clear sign that further patience would not help and that, however grudgingly, the judicial branch had to step in to resolve the dispute.
The justices wrote that the non-Orthodox movements have well-established communities with a Jewish identity in Israel, maintain communal Jewish institutions, conduct conversions in an organized manner and are part of broader non-Orthodox denominations around the world.
The justices noted that the Knesset extended the Law of Return and Israeli citizenship to converts back in 1970, but it had failed since then to define exactly what conversion means and who can perform it.
As long as the legislature has not determined otherwise, those who convert in Reform and Conservative communities in Israel should be recognized as Jews for the purpose of the Law of Return, wrote the justices.
Taking a shot at the political class, the justices also said their ruling only applied as long as the Knesset did not pass a law explicitly denying the Jewishness of non-Orthodox converts, which the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties in the Knesset have now promised to do.
The High Court also noted the extremely lengthy period of time since the petition was first filed and the numerous requests by the state to delay a ruling while it seeks to find a legislative solution.
It said, therefore, that there was no reason to further delay a ruling.
The decision, coming three weeks before elections, has now sparked a huge conflagration between Israel’s political parties and the fallout will have ramifications for Israel’s relationship with Diaspora Jewry, in particular, the predominantly non-Orthodox US Jewish community.
The Likud issued a statement saying the decision “endangers the Law of Return” and by extension Israel’s foundation “as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Shas leader and Interior Minister Arye Deri called the decision “wrong,” saying it would cause “a severe rift among the Jewish people.” He vowed to “amend the law so that only conversion according to Halacha will be recognized in the State of Israel.”
The heads of United Torah Judaism. MK Moshe Gafni and Housing and Construction Minister Ya’acov Litzman, made similar promises.
“The decision of the High Court to recognize for the first time Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel is disastrous for the meaning of the term Jewish state,” they said in a statement.
“Throughout the generations the Jewish people knew how to recognize their religion and faith without forgeries or imitations. That is how it will continue into the future,” they added. They vowed to pass legislation to override the High Court decision, adding that they would not enter any coalition without promises to pass such a law.
Religious Zionist Party leader MK Bezalel Smotrich said the ruling was “outrageous” and that the High Court had exceeded its boundaries.
“No one authorized it [the court] to make decisions on questions of substantive values that touch the heart of the identity of the State of Israel,” he said.
Yamina leader MK Naftali Bennett did not respond directly, although a statement put out in the name of his party criticized the High Court for “interfering in government decisions and forgetting its role.”
Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party said it would “study the decision and its consequences,” adding that the ruling was a result of the “inability of the Netanyahu government to make decisions.” The current government had failed to even discuss recent proposals made by a Netanyahu appointee to resolve the issue, it said.
Chief Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau both denounced the ruling, with the former saying the decision “harms the wholeness of the Jewish people,” adding that “what the Reform and Conservatives call conversion is nothing but the forgery of Judaism, the meaning of which is the entry of thousands of non-Jews into the Jewish people.”
Lau said that “Reform converts and their like are not Jews and no High Court decision will change this fact,” and similarly to Yosef said Israel would be flooded with “non-Jewish immigrants.”. •