If there are no last-minute foul ups, it appears that Israel will be having a new government next week. It will seemingly only depend on Naftali Bennett being able to keep his faction members in line and prevent them from crossing the line to the Netanyahu camp.
This government will mean major changes in the Israeli political world. First of all, this will be the first government since the establishment of the State that the Arabs, who constitute 20% of the Israeli population, will actively take part. This unique development is mostly because without the Ra’am party, there would not have been a majority, but also because Mansour Abbas has throughout the campaign and during the negotiations stressed that he is interested in improving the situation of the Arab population and for this he will demand anything that is appropriate.
There are a number of other big changes that this government is bringing with it, first and foremost of course, the absence of Binyamin Netanyahu. While Bibi’s ousting is the main goal that holds the coalition together at this point, the intensity of the negotiations and the length of the discussion, may give us confidence that the agreements reached have been carefully thought out and are balanced enough to assure that Israel will again be governed and no longer be left out there as a toy for a corrupt leader.
One additional important change that this government brings is the absence of the Religious parties. These trusted allies of Netanyahu were counting on him to deliver a right-wing government they could be (again) part of but with Netanyahu gone, the Haredim will remain out in the cold as well. And, while the new coalition also has religious people (Bennett himself is religious), it may be assumed that the presence of Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu party will result in a different approach to religion than we have seen in the past years. And the list of issues is long. The balance between State and Religion has been significantly distorted under the pressure and blackmail of the Haredi parties and it is high time to straighten things out. Civil marriage, Sabbath public transportation, Sabbath opening of commerce, conversion (and with that citizenship), the dragged out conflict at the Western Wall with Reform Judaism, the status of Reform Judaism in Israel, the function and power of the Chief Rabbinate., the Kashrut monopoly, The list is long and surely only some of these sometimes very delicate problems will be dealt with, and even fewer will probably be solved. But some will and it will be a first step to put Israel back on a path where the people will decide what they want and not have Rabbis decide it for them.
The Religious parties understand very well what is going on and the reaction of the leadership of for instance the Gedolei Hatorah party was harsh and threw accusations around that are both baseless and denigrating. “Harm the foundations of Religion”, “Creating a breach in the Walls of Judaism”, “Desecration of Hashem’s (God’s) Name”, “a Defiance of Heaven”, “a Serious and Bitter Offence”. The Rabbis, who have a tremendous influence among their followers have gone all out in creating an atmosphere of condemnation and even hate. Not agreeing to political changes is one of the prerogatives that democracy brings but that Jews would condemn and accuse their fellow Jews of destroying Judaism is like anti-Semitism turned inside out. Of course the agitation against Reform Judaism has been no less extreme but they are not even considered Jews by the standards of the Ultra-Orthodox.
OF course the main reason for their vitriolic reactions is not their fear for Judaism, or their worry about the desecration of God’s name, the main worry of the Ultra-Orthodox is a much more mundane one. It is called Money.
For years, through official channels as well as underground, incredible sums of money have been paid to Yeshivas, Kollels, religious schools, and who knows to what else and it is high time to stem this tsunami.
With Avigdor Lieberman at the helm in the Finance ministry, it is expected that this unbridled money stream will be dammed in and brought under control. If religious leaders do not trust the “regular” Israel school system and want to set up their own, teaching only what they think should be taught without even considering the approved and obligatory curriculum (which means, no English, no Mathematics) it seems very hard to stop them from doing so, but their demand that the State then pays for these schools is what they call in Israel “Hutzpah”. In addition, the kollels, where thousands of young men, quite a few of whom are already married with children, study Torah full-time and get paid by the State to do so.
This government being as diverse as it is, the really sensitive topics will most likely not be addressed, and religious issues certainly are precarious, also for not religious Jews. But with both Lieberman and Lapid in this coalition, there is no doubt that at least some things will change.
And it is high time.
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