With a narrow 61-seat majority in the 120 seat Israeli Knesset, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition is pretty much constantly on the brink of collapse, and every perceived slight to any party, or even to a couple of MPs, could quickly escalate into a vote of no confidence and a push for fresh elections.
The latest possible reason, however, comes as a surprise, as Netanyahu’s dinner at an Italian restaurant during his state visit to Italy, where he dined with Italian PM Matteo Renzi, has fueled a serious divide between the PM and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.
The Florentine restaurant, Enoteca Pinchiorri, serves some non-kosher entrees, and that’s not sitting well with United Torah Judaism (UTJ), which accused Netanyahu of “openly mocking” the religious parties in Israel by eating at such a restaurant, though Netanyahu maintains he didn’t eat anything non-kosher while he was there.
Of course, most Italian restaurants would, by the nature of Italian cuisine, have some non-kosher entrees available, but the UTJ maintains that it is inappropriate for a sitting Israeli PM to eat at such a restaurant in an official capacity.
This is the second time Netanyahu has faced such a restaurant-based controversy in less than a year, as during last year’s visit to New York to address the UN, he had lunch with pro-war billionaire Sheldon Adelson at Fresco by Scotto, a Manhattan restaurant which similarly wasn’t kosher. At the time, the ultra-Orthodox press condemned him for dining at “a pig restaurant.”
Roughly half of Israeli Jews don’t keep kosher, and normally it is not treated as a huge issue. Now, however, religious parties are getting quotes from a former Netanyahu housekeeper claiming the PM mixes meat and milk all the time. Odd as it may seem, this might be the straw that breaks the (non-kosher) camel’s back.
Any reason is a good reason for regime change in israel.
Just too much irony there 🙂
The housekeeper also claimed that the PM beats his meat with prosciutto all the time.
If you want to know what many Israelis and their diaspora cohorts really think of tolerance, and you in particular, note that they refer to where you eat as a "pig restaurant". The root of the the problem in the Middle East and Israel's domestic supporters here is Racism. They consider the Other [that means you in addition to Palestinians] to be subhuman.
Anything that overthrows Nazinyahu, no matter how ludicrous, is OK with me.
Oh, and I’m a non-Jew who ate kosher several times. Is that verboten too?
Meat and mile, heaven and hell, any excuse wll do to see no more of of this nocive creature who absorbs all the oxygen wherever he goes.
Oh, by the way, 61 seats out of 120 is a *one seat majority* – not a 61-seat one.
You’re welcome.
Since Bibi has been doing everything possible to stop the Iran Nuclear deal. He can claim eating at non kosher resuarant was part of his strategy to stop the deal.
He can CLAIM that , but this is what happens to unscrupulous politicians who cater to religious extremists : Sooner or later , they bite the hand that feeds them and end by devouring their enablers .
It is only justice that fanatic bigotry would bring Netanyahu down.
Poetic justice . Absolutely beautiful . This is what you get (and richly deserve !) when you cater to religious extremists .
Feeling so much safer that our "rational actor ally" has nuclear weapons instead of those crazy Mullahs?
These people are at least as fanatic and crazy as the Islamic jihadists.