Modern orthodox Jews to an increasing extent define their “religiosity” as coexisting with modern western values (although there are controversies raging about how to accomplish that), while orthodox rejectionists, including both hareidim and some members of the national religious sector, perceive themselves as reacting against attacks on traditional Judaism.
Other issues that have ignited clashes between orthodox rabbis include both marriage reform, and the integration of hareidim into the army, workforce, and society at large. The Yesh Atid Party that was built around the integration of hareidim includes two prominent orthodox rabbis and other “religious” activists. The so called “Tzohar law” through which reforms to the marriage registration process were enacted in 2013 also saw modern orthodox rabbis, including those from the Tzohar organization for which the law was named, pitted against hareidi counterparts.
While two political parties clearly represent hareidi positions on religious matters, and other parties clearly oppose the hareidim, for Habayit Hayehudi, which acts as the political representative of the national-religious sector, religious issues pose a problem. Despite Israel’s culture of party discipline, in which disagreements within a party usually do not go so far as to lead to divisions among party officials during votes, during a cabinet vote last year over the previous governing coalition’s conversion reform, Uri Ariel, a minister from Habayit Hayehudi, found himself breaking with Party Chairman Naftali Bennett in order to vote against the reform.
Since joining the current coalition, Habayit Hayehudi has lent its weight to the nullification of the work done by the previous coalition (to which it was also a member) on hareidi integration as well as conversion reform and marriage reform. While they attempt to present themselves as a big tent party, parading Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked as their token secular candidate, Habayit Hayehudi’s failure to provide clear-cut leadership on religious matters may have contributed to the ease with which four Knesset seats worth of voters who had supported them in the 2013 election seem to have abandoned them on election day this past spring. After-all, so long as the party that is supposed to represent the national-religious sector is unwilling to come down from the fence and show clear leadership on religious matters, why should any right-leaning religious individual not vote for the Likud?