Tzipi Hotovely -- Israel’s youngest politician stands up

By Malka Eisenberg

Tzipi Hotovely sums up her achievement of a Knesset seat at the tender age of 30 in two words: “hashgacha pratit” — Hebrew for divine providence.

“It is one of those unique moments in life when you feel that G-d is putting you in a certain spot to promote shlichut Hashem,” she explained.

Hotovely was recruited by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to join the Likud list on the run-up to the 18th Knesset. She came in at the 18th slot, just behind Likud veteran Dan Meridor. The number itself has numerical significance as the Hebrew word “chai.”

A year later, Hotovely, now 31, has the look and confidence of an established Israeli politician. She stands about five foot five and dresses modestly with a shirt covering her elbows and a skirt covering her knees. Her brown hair is shoulder length and she wears a Magen David necklace.

“I think that Israel should stand on principle,” she stated at a parlor meeting held on March 21 in Queens.

Hotovely’s rise to politics is deeply rooted in strong family ties and a Zionist, religious and intellectual education. Her parents were from Georgia and she was raised in Rechovot. One of the lessons her parents imparted to her, she says, was “you don’t develop your own career, you give to your nation.”

Hotovely is a product of the religious public school system and studied in Ulpanit Bnei Akiva and Midreshet Lindenbaum. During her sherut leumi (national service), she was a shaliach (emissary) for the Jewish Agency in the United States, teaching in Jewish schools in Atlanta, Georgia. She also served in Bait HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, a museum that teaches the philosophy of Rav Avraham Yitchak HaCohen Kook.

Hotovely continued her education at Bar Ilan University in Jerusalem, earning a BA and MA in law and graduating with honors. She passed the bar in 2003 and was active in a student organization, the World Union of Jewish Students, and an editor of Bar Ilan’s Journal of Law. She began studying towards her doctorate in law at Tel Aviv University.

She traces her political awakening to the Disengagement in 2005.

“That was a crisis moment in Israeli society,” she stressed. “It was a disaster, a Jewish-Israeli, anti-democratic move against its own voters...”

During her studies in Bar Ilan, a television producer called Hotovely and begged her to fill the position of a young religious Zionist woman on a debate. Hotovely didn’t want to, but, “no one was willing to interview on the issue,” she said.

Those three minutes on the television show, Hotovely explained, “changed my life.”

The host of the television show, Dan Margalit, was impressed and asked her to join the left-leaning secular panel on “Moetzet Hachachamim” (Council of the Wise), reprising her role as right-wing female voice.

Initially she was intimidated.

The panelists were “the most scary people in the media,” Hotovely recalled. “I could have been their grandchild.”

Margalit told her not to be too daunted.

“I have strong intuitions,” he told her, “you are going to be a member of Knesset.”

She didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

Netanyahu watched her spar and hold her own weekly with the seasoned left-wing commentators on the show and would occasionally call her to speak about “heavy issues,” according to Hotovely.

She began writing an opinion column for Maariv. When Netanyahu invited her to join the Likud list, she said that she was flattered but was not willing to say yes. Her friends counseled her that it would be three weeks of tumult and then she could go back to her research and PhD studies, but she was worried that she would succeed.

With her family’s support she eventually decided to “jump into the water.”

“Bring ideas and views; don’t play the game, don’t compromise,” she said about her own political mantra. “We need a politics of values and ideology.”

Her major issues of concern are revamping the educational system in Israel, insuring that there will be no further territorial withdrawals, and strengthening Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Galil. She is also working to improve Israel’s public relations and women’s rights.

Hotvely is currently the chairman of the Women’s Rights Committee and promoted a bill for six months of maternity leave.

“That way women can do both family and work without hurting the family role.”