Ahead of elections, Bennett and Lapid pledge to strengthen Israel-diaspora ties

JTA – Israel-diaspora relations will be made a top priority for former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid if their B’Yachad party joins the next Israeli government, according to a working plan shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). 

Under the plan, the party seeks to elevate the importance of diaspora Jewry by transferring responsibility for relations from the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The plan also envisions the election by diaspora Jewry of a non-voting observer to the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament. 

The party will also work to ensure that all streams of Judaism are treated with respect in Israel, particularly at the sacred Western Wall, a particular issue of contention between Israel’s Orthodox rabbinical establishment and non-Orthodox movements in the diaspora. 

The plan is being promoted as Israelis are preparing to vote for a new prime minister and Parliament on 27 October. B’Yachad is one of the factions in the opposition, or “change” bloc, that is hoping to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud-led bloc. B’Yachad has been highly disparaging of Netanyahu’s record on relations with Jewish communities abroad. 

“Israel’s relationship with world Jewry isn’t merely of critical strategic importance; they are our family. It’s a moral imperative,” Lapid told JTA on Tuesday. 

“The challenges of the last few years have shown that we share a fate as a people and a responsibility for our people’s future,” he said. 

Lapid said the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs needed to be shuttered “not because Israel doesn’t value world Jewry – but because we do”. 

“The relationship with diaspora Jewry is too important to be thrown around as an appointment for a politician who needs a job,” he said, referring to how the ministry is often used as a bargaining chip in coalition agreements. 

“These ties need to be handled professionally, at the highest level, through the Foreign Ministry,” Lapid added. 

On the Western Wall, or Kotel, the party states in its material that the site “is a sacred and unifying place, and it should be a place of Shalom Bayit [peace among ourselves], not civil strife”. 

“We will work to preserve it as a place to which every Jewish man and woman, from Israel and around the world, can feel a sense of belonging and connection, while respecting the existing prayer arrangements at the Western Wall Plaza,” the party states in its platform. 

The plan’s fine print specifies that the southern end of the Western Wall, otherwise known as Robinson’s Arch, will remain a space for “prayer and gatherings in diverse ways” but will not “disrupt Orthodox prayer arrangements at the Western Wall Plaza.” 

Such a plan stands in contrast with the outgoing government’s trajectory, which has advanced legislation criminalising all non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the site. The legislation has already received preliminary approval. If it ultimately becomes law, it could severely strain relations between Israel and the Reform movement, the largest stream of Judaism in the United States. 

The proposals come amid signs of growing disaffection among diaspora Jews with Israel and its Netanyahu-led government. Recent polls suggest that support for Israel among diaspora Jews, especially in response to its policies in Gaza and on matters of democracy, is slipping. 

A February survey of American Jews by the Jewish Federations of North America found that only one-third of American Jews aged 18-34 identify as Zionist, even as nearly nine in 10 say they support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state. 

A separate Pew poll examining American views of Israel found that Jewish attitudes have shifted since 2024. The survey found that 83% of Jews now view the Israeli people favourably, down from 89% in 2024, while 47% of Jews view the Israeli government favourably, compared with 54% in 2024. 

“We welcome Bennett and Lapid’s recognition of the importance of preserving the Western Wall as a place that belongs to the entire Jewish people, and their commitment to allowing different forms of prayer there,” Anna Kislanski, chief executive of the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism, told JTA. 

However, she said that she would like to see even more steps to ensure the area was accessible to all streams of Jewish prayer. 

“The Western Wall does not belong to any one stream of Judaism. Ensuring equality at the Wall is an obligation of the State of Israel to the entire Jewish people,” Kislanski said. 

Yochi Rappaport, chief executive of Women of the Wall, an activist group that advocates for women-led prayer and Torah readings to be allowed at the holy site, also welcomed B’Yachad’s efforts. 

“The various attempts made in recent years by the Israeli government and other entities were all designed to exclude and undermine the prayer rights of liberal Jews, women, and the millions of Jews in the diaspora who wish to pray at the holiest site in Judaism,” she said. 

Nachman Shai, dean of Hebrew Union College and a former minister of Diaspora Affairs under Bennett and Lapid’s government from 2021 to 2022, said that during the tenure of the current government “the lives of Jews in the diaspora have been severely disrupted”. 

“There have been physical attacks on Jews worldwide, alongside antisemitic and anti-Israel activities, that have impacted Jewish life in every corner of the globe; the very least the Israeli government could do is to embrace the non-Orthodox movements,” he said, adding that “the State of Israel must offer every Jew the opportunity to hold ceremonies at the Western Wall Plaza in a dignified and egalitarian manner”.