Where Did Mottele Karelitz Disappear To?

Political Sources: “He Tried to Help With the Draft Crisis but Cut Off Contact”

Mordechai (Mottele) Karelitz, the former mayor of Bnei Brak, who served as a member of the state commission of inquiry into the Meron tragedy and more recently stepped in to assist Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with the ongoing draft law crisis, has suddenly withdrawn from any involvement, according to a report revealed Sunday by Kikar HaShabbos.

Karelitz, who years earlier was part of the Tal Committee that produced the 2002 draft law, had in recent months positioned himself as someone who understood all sides and could bring a measure of calm to the fraught political standoff. He reportedly agreed to Netanyahu’s request to step in and offer his services. Yet political figures now say that Karelitz has disappeared from the scene, ceasing communication on the issue and refraining from attending internal deliberations about the law.

Political insiders told Kikar HaShabbos that when Karelitz’s name was floated as a potential fixer, Netanyahu’s own staff was divided on whether to involve him, given that he had served on the Meron inquiry, a commission that laid significant blame on Netanyahu for the tragedy. Ultimately, they say, Netanyahu himself decided to bring Karelitz into the process. That involvement, however, appears to have come to an abrupt end in recent days.

A source familiar with Karelitz’s thinking explained: “In my opinion, Mottele initially believed he could step into the situation and get things moving, succeeding where the Knesset members had failed. But he quickly realized that he had entered a morass, and he preferred not to tarnish his reputation with a crisis he knew he would not be able to resolve.”