Daniel Goldman
Jerusalem Post, Aug. 20, 2023
“In a recent survey of religious Zionist and traditional Israelis, a majority agreed that the government is actually alienating the population from its Jewish identity. While we can’t easily associate a specific policy decision or legislative proposal that has triggered this response, we do know from previous polls that large parts of the religious, and certainly traditional population, are against religious coercion.”
Were we to ask, “What has been the most controversial and divisive issue of the current government?” I am sure most Israelis would say the judicial reforms and the protest movement born in response to them.
There is a second arena that we cannot overlook, and that is the Jewish fabric of Israeli society – instead of it being a source of solidarity, it is a source of division. The tragic part is that the government that claimed to put the country’s Jewish identity at the beating heart of its agenda, is implementing policies pushing people away from their Judaism, even within the religious community.
About six months ago, a new government was established in Israel. This government carried two key flags – one being a full-throated right-wing coalition, and the other that puts Jewish identity at its heart. In a world of identity politics, there is even a name for this – “The Faithful Bloc” encompassing the Likud, The Religious Zionist Party with its two satellite parties, and the two haredi parties.
The importance of this political brand and the synthesis of two key agendas is in creating an implied political reality – that those within the coalition are right-wing and in favor of strengthening the country’s Jewish identity, and those who are not are exactly the opposite.
At the heart of this political coalition, is The Religious Zionist Party. This is formed from a mini-coalition of three parties that ran a joint list in the general election: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, and Deputy Minister Avi Maoz’s one-MK Noam party.