The real threat to Israel is not Iran or Palestinians: it lies within and in an alienated Jewish diaspora
- The growing influence of conservative religious parties in Israel is alienating Jews in the US and elsewhere
Israel was created to provide a new haven and refuge to any Jew who sought to live in a free Jewish state without fear. This symbiotic relationship became increasingly stronger over the years, and Israel has been able to count on the unequivocal support of the American and European Jewish community. The nature of the relationship, however, has begun to change.
Given that the religious parties have joined nearly all coalition governments, they have accumulated political power far greater than their constituency warrants, giving them a monopoly on all religious affairs in Israel, and by extension on diasporic Jews. As a result, the gap between Israeli Jews – largely the Orthodox community – and Western Conservative and Reform Jews, living mainly in the US, has become alarmingly wider.
The growing cleavage has further intensified because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reneged, under the pressure of the rabbinical institutions, on an agreement that would have allowed men and women to pray together at a designated section of the Western Wall.
These developments have dangerously exacerbated the religious and ideological differences between the two sides, while eroding Israel’s role as a unifying force for Jews around the world.