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April 17, 1992 - Image 12

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1992-04-17

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

UP FRONT

Levy

Continued from preceding page

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12 FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 1992

Zip

Naturally his rivals were
shocked by such accusations.
They charged Mr. Levy with
cynically stirring up
internecine hatred for polit-
ical gain and pointed to
"their" Sephardim — Moshe
Katzav, Ovadiah Eli,
Yehoshua Matza and the
like —as proof that they are
wholly without prejudice.
After all, they argued, it was
the Likud's leaders who had
opened Israel's political door
to Oriental Jews in the first
place. How could they
possibly be suspected of eth-
nic bias?
There is a delicious irony
in these protestations of in-
nocence. For a generation,
the Likud has very effec-
tively picked at the scab of
ethnic disaffection by bran-
ding Labor, not unfairly, as
the party of Ashkenazi
elitism. The Likud, on the
other hand, presented itself
as the party of equal oppor-
tunity, with David Levy ser-
ving as Exhibit A.
Where else could a lowly
building worker rise to such
prominence? In what other
party could a Moroccan poli-
tician beconie a member of
the inner circle?
The thing is, the Likud es-
tablishment never believed
its own propaganda. Mr.
Levy, for all his honorary
titles and government posi-
tions, remained, in the
minds of his Likud rivals, an
outsider, a redneck from the
development town of Beit
She'an with a spotty edu-
cation, a thick Moroccan ac-
cent, an outlandish hairdo
and a herd of unwashed sup-
porters.
The idea was to use Mr.
Levy and his voters by giv-
ing them just enough power
to keep them happy while
passing the baton to the next
generation of respectable
Ashkenazim (Moshe Arens)
and then on to the sons of the
founders Benny Begin, Dan
Meridor, Bibi Netanyahu,
Ronni Milo and the others.
Mr. Levy, however, decid-
ed not to go along with the
program. He correctly
calculated that, having been
packaged as a genuine polit-
ical leader, he has become
irreplaceable. Party bosses,
Ashkenazi voters (and even
assimilated middle-class
Sephardim) might regard
Oriental candidates from
development towns as inter-
changeable; but to the hard-
core, mostly North African
blue-collar masses, Mr. Levy
alone had become the real
thing.
Such an evaluation rested
not just on Mr. Levy's rags-
to-royalty biography, but on
the fact that only he, among

Oriental politicos, had an
independent power-base.
This is what his rivals tried
to take away from him at the
last Likud convention, and
this is why he struck back by
threatening to quit the
cabinet.
Viewed in this way, his
emotional confrontation
with Mr. Shamir and the
others was a sensible ploy.
Editorial writers might see
it as an example of his im-
maturity, but in the eyes of
his constituency, many of
whom continue to regard
themselves as second-class
citizens, it served to authen-
ticate him as a real leader,
able to represent their inter-
ests.
This is what makes Levy
indispensable to the Likud;
without him, the party's ap-
peal to its working-class
base is endangered. Some
Likudniks claim that this
proposition has never been
tested, and that Mr. Levy's
defection would actually cost
little, but Yitzhak Shamir
didn't want to find out the
hard way, which is why he
caved in to the foreign min-
ister's demands.
Two weeks ago, David
Levy was being buried by po-
litical pundits. Today, he is a
double winner. Not only is
he assured of continuing as
foreign minister in any
future Likud government (or
unity coalition), but he has
demonstrated once again
that he is the only Sephardi
politician with real clout. ❑

"1 LOCAL NEWS fr"

Morgenthau BBW
Installs Officers

Henry
Morgenthau
Chapter B'nai B'rith Women
installed the following of-
ficers for the '92-'93 year:
President, Madelyn Liss;
vice presidents, Lucy Block,
Mary Bieman, Rose Kaluzny,
Shirley Jaffee; treasurer,
Evelyn Gorosh; secretaries,
Edith Katz, Charlotte
Shebowich, Betty Barsky,
Bernice Ziskind, Jacqueline
Posner. Immediate past presi-
dent is Barbara Goldsmith.

Genealogical Group
Hosts Workshop

The Jewish Genealogical
Society of Michigan will hold
a 1 p.m. May 3 beginners
workshop in Room 333 at the
Maple-Drake Jewish Com-
munity Center. There is a
charge.
For reservations, please
phone Alan Bush, 355-1886.

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