The two initiatives by the ultra-Orthodox are both designed as roadblocks to Supreme Court decisions which would harm their control over matters of religion and state. Both involve subjects that have been fiercely debated for decades: the ability to dictate the nature of prayer at Western Wall, and who can perform recognized conversion to Judaism in Israel. On both measures, the two ultra-Orthodox parties on which Netanyahu’s governing coalition depends, Shas and United Torah Judaism, have indicated a willingness to cripple Netanyahu’s government by pulling out if they don’t get their way.
Netanyahu’s concession in both cases is, first and foremost, a cold calculation of political survival. But the consequences of his actions are far less acute than they would have been a year ago. The government’s acquiescence to ultra-Orthodox hardball represents a slap in the face to liberal American Jews, in what may reflect the changed political map in the United States. Under President Obama and his Democratic allies, U.S. Jews committed to Reform and Conservative movements held far greater political sway than President Donald Trump, whose Jewish ties – familial, political and professional – are with Orthodox Jewry. Netanyahu has significantly less to lose now in the White House and other U.S. corridors of power by angering non-Orthodox Diaspora Jewish leaders than he did over the past eight years.
First, the government announced Sunday it was suspending the plan to establish an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall that had taken years to negotiate and which Netanyahu has repeatedly assured Diaspora Jewish leaders would come to pass, even as he refused to take action on it for fear of angering the ultra-Orthodox. But ultimately, the fear of losing support from the ultra-Orthodox parties took precedence and political survival trumped his promises. [...]
The second blow to pluralism came in a bill – pushed by the ultra-Orthodox onto the agenda of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, and passed – that guarantees a monopoly for the Chief Rabbinate on conversions to Judaism. The legislation invalidates conversions performed in Israel outside the Orthodox-sanctioned state system, denying citizenship under the Law of Return to Jews converted in Israel by Conservative, Reform or privately-run Orthodox rabbinical courts.
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