Cleaning out the Jewish Home

Based on the major Hebrew-language newspapers’ lead articles this weekend, it’s easy to tell that the right-wing Jewish Home party has been going through quite a rough patch lately. The front pages of the three most popular Israeli dailies all cover in great detail and comment extensively on the police decision to probe lawmaker Nissan Slomiansky over sexual harassment allegations, and, on the other hand, the impending evacuation of the illegal outpost of Amona in the central West Bank, following residents’ rejection of a government deal that would have allowed them to move to land in a nearby location.

“What happened in the room of the MK,” reads Yedioth Aharonoth‘s headline, alongside an unflattering cartoon depiction of Slomiansky. After weeks of rumors, Slomiansky was named Thursday as the Jewish Home member accused of sexual harassment in a Facebook post alleging multiple complaints against him. In his initial response, Slomiansky denied “ever assaulting women,” and said his “well-known loving nature may have been misinterpreted.” Later, Slomiansky issued an apology, saying he would personally ask for forgiveness if he knew who his accusers are.

Yedioth contributor Sima Kadmon lashes out at Slomiansky’s comments, and rhetorically questions whether the lawmaker showed his “well-known loving nature” to any men that may have frequented his office, or whether the advent of this personality trait was reserved solely for women. “In other words, [what Slomiansky’s is claiming is that] all of this is just in the mind of those who were [allegedly] harassed,” Kadmon sarcastically quips. “[According to Slomiansky], if he cozied his body up to someone who arrived at his room in the Knesset, attempted to kiss her forcefully on her mouth and she interpreted this act as harassment — that is her problem.”

Israel Hayom‘s Matti Tuchfeld notes that this is not the first time a Jewish Home lawmaker has faced allegations of sexual harassment, and recalls how on November 2015, then-MK Yinon Magal resigned from the Knesset over sexual assault claims. But unlike Magal, Tuchfeld writes, Slomiansky shows no signs of intending to resign despite calls by an increasing number of MKs — including within Jewish Home itself — for the lawmaker to step down from the Knesset while the sexual harassment claims against him are investigated.

“What was easy for Magal is not so easy for Slomiansky,” says Tuchfeld. “But [now] the level of sensitivity over such allegations has gone up in the Jewish Home, and it is probably for the best that this is so.”

In light of the changes in the religious-Zionist party’s attitude toward sexual harassment, Tuchfeld adds, Slomiansky’s resignation seems all but inevitable, whether he actually committed the acts of harassment or not. “At the end of the day, thinking about this in a level-headed manner will lead to an understanding that fighting for one’s innocence can only really take place from outside [the Knesset],” the Israel Hayom writer concludes.

Haaretz ties the Slomiansky affair in with the Jewish Home’s conduct surrounding the upcoming eviction of the residents of the illegal Amona outpost, with columnist Yossi Verter asserting that party leader Naftali Bennett will “regret the softness he displayed” in dealing with both issues.

“On Wednesday, Bennett went to bed after a stinging humiliation by his dear comrades in Amona,” Verter writes, referring to the Jewish Home party’s tireless efforts to resolve the outpost Gordian knot and the residents’ rejection of the plan to give them land on the same hillside as the current outpost. “And on Thursday morning he woke up to the report about Slomiansky.”

Verter stresses that Bennett is now faced with two serious problems that may lead many voters to call into question his ability to continue to lead the Jewish Home party in an effective manner. “The evacuation of the illegal outpost will most likely be violent and hard to digest for the religious-Zionist public,” Verter writes. “The required evacuation of MK Slomiansky from his seat in the party will not be easy either.”

Yedioth takes a break from the usual bad and sad news to report a genuinely heartwarming story about the late owner of the King Solomon hotels in Jerusalem and Tiberias, American businessman Jilber Louson, whose will dictates that a large portion of his inheritance be split among the workers of the two establishments. According to Yedioth, every employee who had worked for more than five years at one of the hotels, including cleaners, bellboys and others, received a bonus of at least several thousand dollars from Louson’s fortune, with the amount rising based on seniority. Two of the most senior employees in the Jerusalem hotel received $30,000 each, Yedioth reports.

What a way to check out of a hotel.