BICOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday met senior AIPAC leaders to discuss Sunday’s Israeli cabinet decision to freeze a 2016 agreement regarding egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.

The three-member AIPAC delegation — outgoing President Lillian Pinkus, incoming President Mort Fridman and Vice-CEO Richard Fishman — left Israel late Thursday immediately after the meeting. Although no formal statements from the meeting were released,  Israel Hayom reported that AIPAC leaders expressed regret at Netanyahu’s decision and said that  he had damaged the values shared by American Jews and the State of Israel.

A Channel Two report last night said that AIPAC officials are considering sponsoring a letter that would be written by US politicians protesting last weekend’s decision with the goal of putting pressure on the Israeli cabinet.

Some American Jewish leaders said this week that they were so deeply offended that they would revaluate their relationship with the Israeli government, while others said they would consider withholding donations to the State of Israel.

Israeli Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman sought to emphasise that, alongside the cabinet’s decision, were three directives issued by the Prime Minister “that have gone unnoticed”: to speed up preparations in the southern plaza of the Western Wall so that Jews from all streams may pray there; that Jews from all streams continue to be able to pray there; and to instruct Minister Tzachi Hanegbi and Braverman to continue dialogue in order to reach a solution.

According to the Jerusalem Post Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he faced a choice of either supporting the move or losing his government because the ultra-Orthodox parties could have left the Governing coalition.

The 2016 compromise agreement was due to create a larger, state-recognised egalitarian section in the southern section of the Western Wall in an area that is currently an informal place for non-Orthodox prayer. It was also due to make this area accessible from the main Western Wall complex and allow this egalitarian section to be administered by a committee including non-orthodox Conservative and Reform synagogues, the Jewish Federation of North America, the Jewish Agency and the Israeli Government.

Following the controversy surrounding the cabinet’s decision to freeze this agreement, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that that the current site for egalitarian prayer at the southern section of the Western Wall would be upgraded.