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.
