A ruling Aug. 11 by the Nazareth District Court, banning separation by gender at a concert in Afula for the ultra-Orthodox community, put the issue of religion and state back on the public agenda. Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman and Blue and White senior Yair Lapid may have been happy about that, but it also brought out the differences between them in their fight over the secular vote.

The separation of religion and state is a banner issue for two parties in the current election: Liberman’s Yisrael Beitenu and Lapid’s Yesh Atid, which is one of the factions that make up the Blue and White party. Liberman won five seats in the April election, but as everyone knows he decided not to join the Netanyahu coalition, thereby forcing a new election Sept. 17. The main reason he gave for refusing to join was the changes that the ultra-Orthodox parties want to make to the Conscription Law he initiated. As Liberman saw it, the law was intended to increase the number of ultra-Orthodox men serving in the Israel Defense Forces.

This seems to have paid off for Liberman. Polls show him doubling his strength and winning as many as 10 seats. It looks like he is taking some of these seats from the Blue and White party, which, according to the polls, has gone from 35 seats in the last election to fewer than 30 now.

The main theme of Liberman’s election campaign is the fight against religious coercion. “Yes to a Jewish state. No to a religious state,” Liberman proposes. His rise in the polls is attributed to this.