The most frightening and depressing thing that happened in Jerusalem recently isn’t the pogroms against the Palestinians. These of course are endlessly frightening and de
Haviv Rettig Gur is The Times of Israel s senior analyst.
A combination image showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) casting his vote in the Knesset election in Jerusalem on March 23, 2021 (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL) and Ra am party leader Mansour Abbas at the party headquarters in Tamra on election night, March 23, 2021. (Flash90)
On March 26, 1990, in the midst of the political crisis known as “the dirty trick,” the preeminent Israeli Haredi sage of the time, Rabbi Elazar Shach, delivered a speech that would help shape the course of Israeli politics to this day.
Those were fraught days. Shimon Peres was trying to cobble together a narrow government without the Likud bloc led by Yitzhak Shamir. Everything depended on the Haredi party Shas. If it went with Peres, Labor would have its government. If it stuck with Likud, Shamir would continue to lead the country.