Video of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s consultation with his most trusted aides immediately after President Barack Obama’s Sunday shows that kippah-wearers comprise half of the inner circle.
Netanyahu was in Washington Sunday but did not attend the speech. Channel 2television quoted a source in his bureau as saying that no meaning should be read into this fact, and that Netanyahu’s schedule had originally called for him to be in New York during the speech.
Netanyahu’s bureau released soundless video of his consultation, immediately after Obama’s speech, with top aides including former Ambassador to the U.S. Dore Gold, NSC Chief Yaakov Amidror and Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser.
Netanyahu seems tired and wears a look of somewhat grim determination. Little information can be gleaned from the short video but it is hard not to notice that five of the ten heads in the confab have knit kippahs on them, signaling that Jews who -- at least outwardly -- identify with the religious Zionist camp currently wield unprecedented influence in the circle surrounding Israel’s leading official.
While Netanyahu is a secular Jew, it is interesting that as Israel comes under increasing global pressure to concede territory to terrorists, he surrounds himself with Jews who, at least as far as appearances go, are religious.
The State of Israel was founded by a secular socialist leadership. In 1977, the non-socialist but secular party Likud took the reins. In recent decades, the Muslim Middle East, which also had its share of secular and socialist leaders, has become more openly influenced by religion. A similar trend of teshuvah (return to Judaism) is said to be taking place in Israel.
