Tradition resurgent By David Weinberg Jerusalem Post (August 13) - Imagine what the reaction would be here in Israel if a morally-crusading MK who was a sharp critic both of Yasser Arafat and of the trendy music, film and television industries were to run for prime minister. Imagine further that this MK was both an environmental activist and a defense and security hawk. Imagine that he was both for abortion rights and an outspoken supporter of family values. The Israeli press would go crazy. They wouldn't know what to make of him. Now throw into the mix the fact that this candidate was an Orthodox Jew who actually knows what an eruv and techum Shabbat are and takes care to conduct his political career within the limits prescribed by the laws of traveling and carrying on Shabbat. The Israeli press couldn't hack it. Ha'aretz and Israel Television editors would be tearing their hair out. No doubt they'd begin tearing into the candidate soon enough, as well. Why? Because conventional wisdom - the smug, self-congratulatory set of convictions that characterize an entire cross-section of liberal, secular Israeli society - is incapable of dealing with the notion that tradition can be blended successfully with worldly achievement. The reigning elites cannot accept that adherence to Orthodoxy alongside modernity might actually result in a more refined intellectual leadership. Over the past two weeks - in reactions to the election of Moshe Katsav and the selection of Senator Joseph Lieberman as a US vice presidential candidate - we got a whiff of the horror and panic that grips the leftist, secular Israeli media when faced with the "predicament" of tradition resurgent. About Katsav's election as President of Israel they were apoplectic. He's going to establish a shul at Beit Hanassi - oy vey! He likes the theater and yet davens with, and respects, big rabbis! He thinks that Jews have right to live in Hebron, and actually believes in the "mantra" of united Jerusalem, Israel's undivided capital forever! He had the chutzpa to defeat the prince of peace, Shimon Peres, the obvious choice of all decent, enlightened people! About Joe Lieberman's selection by Al Gore as his running mate the press here was at first amazed, even a little proud. But then the sour grapes, embarrassed secular egos and anti-religious insecurities set in. "Actually, he's too Jewish," is the tone that has begun to seep into local columns and coverage. "Too right-wing" on Israeli issues, too. (Lieberman has supported congressional initiatives to have the US Embassy moved to Jerusalem and legislation that holds Arafat to his commitment to fight terror). "How is he going to campaign effectively during October, the critical month before the US presidential elections - with all the Jewish holidays stuck in the middle?" worried one Israeli writer. "What if Gore loses because of this?" "How are US Jews going to explain to other Americans Lieberman pounding the ground with palm fronds on Hoshana Raba?" fretted another oracle. "Will he eat milchigs out?" mocked an Israeli columnist, referring sarcastically to the practice of some liberal Orthodox Jews to relax the dietary laws when it come to consumption of dairy products. This, from an Israeli correspondent known to enjoy treif White House dinners. You see, once the initial thrill of Lieberman's selection wears off, his candidacy scares lapsed Israeli and Diaspora Jews. Lieberman's standing for such a high post, and the respect his religiosity has won him in American politics, is the ultimate "shtuch" - a slap in the face, or dig in the ribs - for Jews embarrassed by too much religion. For more than a century, Reform Jewry has argued that to get ahead in American society US Jews had to shed much of their Jewish distinctiveness; to assimilate and blend in. Secular Zionism, for its part, argued much the same thing about Israeli society. To be accepted by the world, to be normal, we had to adopt the "enlightened," antireligious weltanschauung of 20th century liberal democracy. Just ask Supreme Court President Aharon Barak or almost any journalist here. And now, Al Gore throws Joe Lieberman in their face. A man of integrity and moral conscience. An Orthodox Jew who has "made it,"without assimilating or compromising the strictures of tradition. Oy vey. The assimilationists here always are ready to import from America everything their hearts desire - from boundless liberal democracy to pornography. But not the tolerance, appreciation of religious faith and political maturity which allows a Joe Lieberman to reach the White House. Only in America? Orthodox Jews and Jewish religious tradition really will have made a comeback when an observant Jew is a serious candidate for prime minister in Israel!