Knesset member Moshe Gafni from the ultra-Orthodox Yahadut HaTorah party made an interesting comment June 12. Speaking at the Haaretz Peace Conference, the chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee said, "The left is more intelligent than the right," adding that "in terms of the diplomatic process, I am closer to the left." As he put it, the Palestinians were here before us, and we are living in the land of Israel because of a divine promise made by God to the Jewish people.

While Gafni came under sharp criticism from his own party for this, the left, particularly the Labor Party, applauded him. His remarks strengthened their belief that they could enlist the support of the ultra-Orthodox in their efforts to replace Israel's right-wing government. The top candidates for the Labor Party leadership announced that they have excellent ties with the ultra-Orthodox and promised to form a coalition with them. Chief among them is Knesset member Isaac Herzog, who, thanks to his grandfather Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (Israel’s former chief rabbi), is considered popular among politicians and many ultra-Orthodox rabbis.

This week, however, the left was reminded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can offer the ultra-Orthodox much more than they ever could. And he did. Just one and a half years after it was approved by the government, the "Western Wall compromise" received its last rites and was buried by that same government. The plan to allow non-Orthodox denominations to pray at the Western Wall in accordance with their own beliefs and traditions was passed in January 2016 with the silent consent of the Cabinet's ultra-Orthodox ministers. It took just a short time before those same ministers succumbed to pressure from their rabbis and from articles appearing on ultra-Orthodox websites by launching an attack on the compromise. On June 25, it was officially frozen.

Without surprise, the decision was further evidence of the strength of their political alliance, an alliance that will be very hard to violate. Netanyahu decided to suspend the Western Wall compromise despite heavy pressure from American Jewish leaders — many of them members of the Reform and Conservative movements — and quickly paid a price for it. Just one day after suspending the compromise, the Jewish Agency’s board of governors announced that it was canceling a dinner with Netanyahu to protest the decision.