Shifting attention from Yitzhar to Tel Aviv

By Yair Sheleg
Haaretz Last update - 01:29 22/07/2007

The timing of Danny Dayan's election as the new chair of the Yesha Council (which represents the settlements in Judea and Samaria) on Friday, July 13, was a coincidence, but it was symbolic. The election took place close to the date on which the settlers commemorated two years since the disengagement from Gaza (which began the day after the fast of the 9th of Av). The disengagement threw the Yesha Council into the most serious crisis in its history because it symbolized a crushing political failure in the most important struggle the council had ever engaged in. Had it not been for that crisis, it is doubtful whether Dayan, an activist who has until now not stood out in the settlement establishment and the second secular person to head the council since its inception, would have been elected to his new position.

The veteran members of the Yesha Council learned two important lessons from the crisis: One, that they must focus their activity on an ongoing public relations campaign, which will begin long before the next withdrawal plan is announced. And secondly, that they must no longer be portrayed as bearded men wearing skullcaps, with an agenda that differs from that of most of the Israeli public. Instead they have to place the emphasis on people who will not only speak like the general public, but look like them as well. For this task Dayan, a former owner of a high-tech firm, seems very suitable.

Dayan was born in 1955 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a veteran Revisionist home. His maternal grandfather headed the Herut movement's branch in Argentina, as did his father Moshe. His uncle Mordechai Dayan (father of journalist Ilana Dayan) was active in the Likud -- its liberal branch -- and even headed the Keren Kayemeth leIsrael- Jewish National Fund as a Likud representative. Only his older brother, Haaretz journalist Aryeh Dayan, broke with the family's tradition when as an adult he became a leftist. Aryeh Dayan did not want to be interviewed for this article. Nor was Danny eager to talk about the relations between them, and made do with the statement: "We are brothers in every sense of the word, and because we are both people with heightened political awareness and there are polar differences between us, we try not to get into political discussions."

Dayan immigrated to Israel with his parents early in 1971 and completed high school here. He was drafted during the period of the Yom Kippur War and served in the Israel Defense Forces' computer unit. After his army service and his bachelor's degree studies in computer science he founded a software company, which he sold two years ago. Since then he has been devoting his time to business initiatives and to activity as a teacher of computers and economics at the Academic College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel. Shortly after getting married, Dayan went to live in Ma'ale Shomron, a mixed religious and secular community. Until his present post, his only political activity was in the Tehiya party, which he joined after the Likud, headed by Menachem Begin, signed the Camp David treaty. He is considered very close to Geula Cohen, a co-founder of Tehiya, and in the late 1980s, shortly before the party fell apart, he served as its secretary-general (1989-1991). He even ran for a place on the party's Knesset slate but did not reach a realistic slot.

The election of Dayan is part of a broad move to change the face of the council. Since its establishment in 1979, Yesha has been primarily a body that unites the local council heads in the territories. The council was joined by a small group of public figures, also settlers, which include Elyakim Haetzni, Yoel Bin-Nun and Israel Harel. After the disengagement a steering committee headed by Adi Mintz (the council's former secretary-general) was established, which was tasked with planning a process of rehabilitation and rejuvenation. The main idea was to turn the council from a municipal body into a public one, which would include not only settlers but all the prominent public figures of the rightist camp, with the local council heads constituting only a minority in the council plenum and even in its administration.

Thus Dayan, who was a marginal activist at the time, was invited to become a member of the new plenum. When he received the list of plenum members, he says, "I was angry. The steering committee didn't include a single secular member, and on the list of plenum members I was the only secular person from Judea and Samaria. They even planned a 'steering committee of rabbis' for the council." Dayan responded with an angry public letter. "To their credit it must be said that they responded to the letter quickly and invited me to a discussion with the Yesha local council heads and the members of the steering committee," he says. As a result, Dayan and another secular person, former finance minister Yigal Cohen-Orgad, were invited to join the steering committee. The second result was the election of Dayan as head of the council. The two years that have passed since the disengagement, says Dayan, have helped public relations, "not only because of the outcome of the disengagement, which is now obvious to everyone, but also because of the loss of values and the corruption. It has been proven that anyone who has no ethical backbone regarding the Land of Israel also lacks such a backbone when it comes to other issues." Along with the security argument, it looks as though that will be the main public relations argument. In its attempt to plan a solution to the crisis, the Yesha Council finds itself in a catch-22 situation: In order to attract the secular-bourgeois public (the Kadima and Likud electorates) it must present a moderate policy. In order to bring back those settlers and "orange youth" who were disappointed with the council, it must present an extremist and uncompromising policy.

Dayan, who emphasizes that he does not favor territorial compromise, believes he is suited to fulfill both tasks: "There is no question that my election caters mainly to society in general, but I may also succeed in improving relations with the Gav Hahar ["hump of the mountain"] settlements [a nickname for the extremist settlements, such as Yitzhar and Bracha, Y.S.]. It's possible that they will be willing to accept things from me that they are unwilling to accept from religious leaders." The basis for this assessment is not clear. In the wake of increasing religious extremism among the settlers, there are some who are barely willing to accept orders from "defeatist" rabbis, not to mention from a non-observant council head. It therefore seems that the council has decided to prefer Tel Aviv to Yitzhar. Moreover, the process of consolidating a broad public plenum testifies to the fact that rather than bringing extremists under its wing, Yesha hopes to receive broad public backing in the anticipated confrontation with them.