Allow me, as a reader, to write a few words on current events. I have already presented these ideas to important scholars, and they told me I must publicize them to clarify and support the opinion of our rabbis shlita. To start let me thank the editors of Yated Neeman for all the wonderfully supportive articles, particularly on the issue I will discuss, which I think is simple enough that even beginners understand it. I would not have written this or sent it to the editors of a paper for Torah-true Jews were it not that I heard there are those who make great mistakes in understanding our masters, the great rabbis and teachers shlita, who commanded support for the new government. There are those who interpret this incorrectly; our leaders' only intention was to save the yeshivot from the enlistment demands of the judges, as is known.
There have already been several wonderful articles about this issue from the Spiritual Council and the paper's reporters, emphasizing the sole goal of saving Jewish studies. But the reality in which we support the government (even if that support is only temporary) may cause our representatives and the public to forget that in principle we should not be able to support a coalition comprised of Leftists and Meretz (who have already reverted and shown their evil hearts in saying harsh words which have been quoted in the papers, and which we have strongly protested), but this support is given solely for the purpose of impeding the requirement for yeshiva students to enlist in the army, with an eye to permitting yeshiva students to study without let or hindrance. Therefore I have come to clarify matters in brief, particularly since there are people who claim that there is no difference between Right and Left and "both are equal." This is a distortion of what we have been told by our leaders, primarily Rabbi Shach shlita.
We know what our rabbis wrote, several times, seven years ago, when a Leftist/Meretz government came into power and were given control of the educational system, etc. They warned that this was a great threat to the general public, for these Leftists' only goal was to uproot the Jewish teachings, to distribute apostasy, and to cause the masses to sin simply to anger the religious, that they wanted to turn the Jewish nation into a people like any other nation. That is why our rabbis commanded us to object, with no compromise, to the government of the Left and to fight it with all our might. On the other hand, it is known that they immediately supported a right-wing government. (Even when the issue of direct election came up, they clearly stated that one should only support a right-wing candidate.)
From all this we learn one simple thing, that we see a big difference between Left and Right. Even though the Right is also secular and does not keep the 613 commandments, it is just that they were never taught and so do what they wish individually, but they have no desire to uproot the entire Jewish religion. But the Leftists and Meretz have shown their evil hearts in public by their words and actions to uproot all that is holy; they want to remove all restraints until we are as licentious as the worst of the gentiles, all in the name of "liberalization." This is well known and does not need to be detailed, for they are many. (There is, though, something wrong with the Right: their nationalistic ideas, which have already been blasted in Yated Neeman articles. As we have learned from our teacher Rabbi Shach shlita, though we may support their government we take no part in their nationalistic ideas, and so we have the right to vote independently on matters of state and security. In any case, the fact is that despite this fault we are permitted to support their government and their candidates are always preferable to those of the Left, who are much more dangerous. There is a vast difference between Right and Left, as is clear to anyone who looks.)
Even on the issue before us have our rabbis stated that the great fear of the Left's harmful potential exists, that nothing in their desire to uproot all has changed. (And as has already been proven, time grows short now that a government has formed.) Now we are in a situation in which we are forced to support a government to stop an edict against our yeshivot, so you should be aware that the support is only given because we must. In truth, even our support of right-wing governments is not de jure, for we do not share the nationalistic Zionist ideals, but with the right-wing it is at least the lesser evil when compared to a government which includes Meretz, an idea we are not at all prepared to support (as our rabbis ordered in 5752) and we support this sort of government only in light of the threatened decrees, so that yeshiva students may find support and be saved from edicts which would destroy them. Our support of the government is given by force, against our will, and we give as little as possible, only enough to head off the edict. (Our rabbis ordered we not participate in the government itself nor accept ministries, only "support it from outside the coalition.") Certainly we will not cover up the sins of those who seek to belittle and uproot religion, for the only permission we have is that which delays the prohibition while the danger exists.
In general: it is not that the sages of Israel take lightly the prohibition against a Leftist government, it is that they take seriously the existence of yeshivot. (And as the Rabbi from Brisk OBM once said, it is not that he was lenient on matters of fasts, he was stringent about the saving of lives!)
Incidentally, it should be added that the danger of the Left touches not only our secular brothers, those who were never taught better, from whom the Left want to uproot any spark of Judaism or tradition. In truth, their danger touches us, too, as our rabbi had written when the apostate government was formed: if the general public is ruined and becomes more and more like the gentiles, it will affect us, too. But aside from this, it is having a direct effect, through organizations which encourage people to leave religion, who distribute poisonous, heretical pamphlets in our neighborhoods to poison our children and have them leave us for evil ways -- G-d help us. But even so, our top priority is the existence of yeshivot, for the force of the study of Torah is supreme, and even though we are aware of all of the external and internal spiritual dangers , the Jewish sages have commanded that the salvation of yeshivot takes priority.
Yet it is clear as daylight that the Jewish sages did not mean there to be any substantial change, to permit a Leftist government or to say that the Left and Right "are equal." (I now recall all the efforts made by our rabbi the head of the yeshiva in 5750 to prevent the establishment of a left-wing government, using every means possible to make sure a right-wing government was established, even speaking to individual Members of Knesset -- how can anyone say that there is no difference between Left and Right?!?)
Reporters for Yated Neeman did well in explaining that only the serious present need to save yeshivot demanded support for a government coalition with which we do not agree. It is our obligation to investigate the matter so that we do not come to error, for it is clear that the prohibition against Leftist governments was not inconsequential to our leaders, but that the continued existence of yeshivot was seen as a grave matter, despite suspicion of the Left's actions, which remain unchanged.
From Yated Neeman 22 Menachem Av 5759, August 4, 1999