Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been suffering from a debilitating headache over the last few days, in the person of the 92-year-old leader of the Lithuanian faction of the ultra-Orthodox sector, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky. On the night of Oct. 18, the rabbi ordered that his community’s school must be opened at once. His ruling ran counter to the government’s instructions for the nationwide lockdown exit plan, set in place to help the country get through the second wave of the coronavirus.

Most people were furious about the rabbi’s decision. Some 2 million students have been forced to spend the last month at home to prevent the spread of the pandemic’s second wave. And yet dozens of ultra-Orthodox schools are acting in blatant disregard of the government by bringing their students back prematurely. When Netanyahu appealed to Kanievsky’s parliamentary representative, Knesset member Moshe Gafni (Yahadut HaTorah), he was informed outright that Gafni and his community take orders from Rabbi Kanievsky only.

Just two weeks ago, Kanievsky himself fell ill with the coronavirus but has since recovered. Yet even his own experience with the virus hasn’t kept him from becoming the ultimate personification of the ultra-Orthodox sector’s disengagement and alienation from official Israeli policy and institutions.

Netanyahu may have a tight alliance with the ultra-Orthodox parties and their leaders — Kanievsky among them — but this is now harming him publicly and electorally. The overall impression is that he is not being tough enough with them and that the only people really paying the price for that are those who do follow the government’s instruction. Public ire at the ultra-Orthodox community is a direct product of the rates of infections. Most cities in red zones are ultra-Orthodox. In other words, the spread of the virus can be attributed directly to the violation of official orders, public prayer services, weddings and school openings. All of these come at a steep price.