Twice in Israel’s political history, ultra-Orthodox parties have led to governments falling and early elections because of violations of the Sabbath. The first time was in 1976, during Yitzhak Rabin’s first government, when three F-15 planes that had arrived from the United States landed in Israel close to the beginning of Shabbat, which starts at sunset, and the national-religious Mafdal created a coalition crisis that led to Rabin’s resignation. The second time was in 1999, when the electric company’s six superheaters were transferred overnight on a Friday night, already the Sabbath by Jewish laws, resulting in the ultra-Orthodox Yahadut HaTorah leaving Ehud Barak’s government, hastening its collapse.

Days ago, it seemed for a minute that a crisis during the Sabbath involving train repairs, carried out with the authorization of Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz despite the opposition of the ultra-Orthodox, could result in the downfall of a government for the third time for “violation of the Sabbath.” While the drama mainly took place in the media and in public — where anonymous sources from the ultra-Orthodox parties demanded Katz's resignation — behind the scenes it was clear to all the players that dismantling the government was not an option.

When looking for differences between the politics of the past and the easy politics of Facebook today, one can find them in the battles over principles once led by the ultra-Orthodox. In the past, the ultra-Orthodox were willing to give up their seats in the government when they thought the status quo of religion and state, with the Sabbath being Israel's official day of rest, had been breached.

The built-in tension in every government the ultra-Orthodox have been a part of — relating to issues where religious commandment clashes with the democratic character and the security and national needs of the state — has not bypassed the current government. In this case, the crisis broke out after it became clear that essential repairs needed to be made to the train platform next to the Ayalon highway, the main highway crossing Tel Aviv. According to experts at Israel Railways, making the repairs on a weekday would have paralyzed the entire country, costing workdays, financial losses totaling 10 million shekels ($2.6 million) and danger to life and limb. The ultra-Orthodox parties, needing to show that they fight for their principles, decided to produce a lot of hot air.