the Jewish character of the state, would
now have four years to rebuild the coun-
try's Jewish character as they saw fit.
The fears of the secular majority
seemed boundless, and at times hyster-
ical. People said they were worried
whether still they would be able to bar-
becue in public on Shabbat. Women were
especially concerned. On television a man
told a crowd of exuberant United Torah
Judaism devotees, "Soon the Knesset will
become a Beit Knesset [synagogue]." A
woman viewer said, "When that happens,
that's the day rm leaving."
50
Religious Knesset members took pains
to assuage the secular public's fears, say-
ing they didn't plan to interfere with any-
body's private life. They accused the left
of inciting against them.
Meir Porush, leader of United Torah
Judaism, and Arye Deri, leader of Shas
(Haredi Sephardi), said they were
mainly concerned with keeping the Con-
servative and Reform out of Israeli reli-
gious life; preventing archeological digs
on the sites of ancient Jewish graves; get-
ting more funding for religious institu-
tions; and building more housing for
expanding Haredi families and commu-
nities.
But Rabbi Avraham Ravitz of Unit-
ed Torah Judaism declared: "We are not
going to bow down to the secular."
The National Religious Party almost
certainly would retake control of public
education. The Likud almost certainly
would retake control of— or privatize
he-state-owned television and radio sta-
tions, which the right despise as the left's
tool of indoctrination.
"Atomization" was another watchword
of the day. The new election system,
whereby voters cast one ballot for prime
minister and another ballot for a Knes-
set party, had strengthened the smaller
parties at the expense of the center-left
Labor and center-right Likud.
The religious parties held almost 20
percent of the Knesset's seats. Shas was
now the country's third-largest party.
Natan Sharansky's Yisrael B'aliyah was
an instant power. The Arab parties had
been strengthened. All the ethnic, reli-
gious interest groups that in the past had
been of minor significance, were now
powerful streams.
As the truth of Mr. Netanyahu's vic-
tory sunk in, Peres supporters began
to shrug, to sigh, to try to look on the
bright side. "We'll see what happens,"
they said. "Maybe it won't be as bad as
we think." 0
Winners And Losers
American Jewish groups contemplate
the impact of last week's Israeli elections.
JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
AP PHOTO/ADEL HANA
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ORTHODOX CONCERNS
s incoming Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Ne-
tanyahu begins turning
campaign promises
into hard, Middle
East-style reality,
Jewish officials in
this country are surveying a pro-Is-
rael landscape that was flattened by
the electoral cyclone that swept
through Israel last week.
Mr. Netanyahu's victory — and the
likelihood of new confrontations be-
tween Washington and Jerusalem
over changes in his government's ap-
proach to the Middle East peace
process — has produced a long list of
winners and losers in an American
Jewish community that is almost as
divided as Israeli voters on key issues
of peace and security.
At the top of the list of winners are
the mainstream pro-Israel groups
such as the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee and the Confer-
ence of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations.
Throughout the four-year Labor
reign, these powerhouses were criti-
cized for what some perceived as tepid
support for the land-for-peace policies
of the Rabin-Peres governments.