Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on April 5, 2015

This Wednesday, March 18, 2015 photo, shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu election campaign poster lying among ballot papers at his party's election headquarters in Tel Aviv. Israel's visceral election campaign has exposed a rift that many here thought had long subsided _ the deep-seated schism between Jews of European and Middle Eastern descent. Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, Jews heavily backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party, while Ashkenazi, or European, Jews mostly identified with the opposition Zionist Union. The Hebrew on the photo reads: "Choosing Prime Minister, only Likud only Netanyahu". (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 17, 2015 file photo, Israelis prepare to vote in Tel Aviv. Israel's visceral election campaign has exposed a rift that many here thought had long subsided the deep-seated schism between Jews of European and Middle Eastern descent. Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, Jews heavily backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party, while Ashkenazi, or European, Jews mostly identified with the opposition Zionist Union. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this March 17, 2015 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Likud party supporters react to exit poll results at the party's election headquarters In Tel Aviv. Israel's visceral election campaign has exposed a rift that many here thought had long subsided the deep-seated schism between Jews of European and Middle Eastern descent. Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, Jews heavily backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party, while Ashkenazi, or European, Jews mostly identified with the opposition Zionist Union. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)(The Associated Press)

ROSH HA'AYIN, Israel Israel's visceral election campaign has exposed a rift that many here thought had long subsided the deep-seated schism between Jews of European and Middle Eastern descent.

Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, Jews heavily backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, while Ashkenazi, or European, Jews mostly identified with the opposition Zionist Union.

That dynamic has been going on for a while but passions have run particularly high this time, with jarring results. Since Netanyahu's win, the sides have been exchanging insults that have not been heard in public in a generation with the Mizrahi voters accused of being primitive and Ashkenazi voters viewed as elitist.

The dispute goes back to Israel's earliest days of independence. Arriving from Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa after Israel's establishment in 1948, many Mizrahi immigrants were sent to shantytown transit camps and largely sidelined by the European leaders of the founding Labor Party.

They found their political savior in Likud's Menachem Begin even though he was himself of Polish Jewish descent. With consummate skill the longtime opposition leader cultivated an outsiders' alliance that appealed to their sense of deprivation and with massive Mizrahi backing he swept to power in 1977 to break nearly 30 years of Labor rule.

The exact population breakdown is hard to calculate because intermarriage is now quite common. But Mizrahi or part-Mizrahi Jews make up roughly half of Israel's Jewish population.

They have long complained of discrimination by the European-descended elite that traditionally dominated government, military and business institutions.

Continued here:

Traditional Mizrahi vote for Netanyahu's Likud unleashes Israeli ethnic divide once again

Category: Ashkenazi
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