change in the Haredi leadership

Obviously the big news of the day was the Supreme Court decision saying that with no law granting exemptions, the Haredim must draft just like everyone else to the IDF (as per the general draft law), and if they organizationally do not, the government cannot pay the various monies to the yeshivas while harboring draft dodgers.

Whatever happens with the draft law, what I find most intriguing about this, at least as of today, is that the Haredi MKs and Minister barely let out a peep. They eventually made some obligatory, mostly pareve, statements against the Supreme Court, but their response was nothing like what they have been threatening it would be, nor like the responses from any point in history, including in very recent years, about this issue.

the fact that they did not bring down the government over this is humongous. The fact that they have recently been pushing the draft law proposal proposed by Benny Gantz last year after they then called it a disaster and an attempt at shmad, shows perhaps a change in the style adapted by the Haredi parties.

It might simply be pragmatism. They have no reasonable alternative, so why break up the party? If they bring it down, the next government can only be worse for them. And other similar arguments. Just a few years ago (we cant really use last years as an example because they were in Opposition so naturally attacked everything that government did), they would have likely brought down the government over this, and over the government's lack of trying to solve it, and the statements made by some Likudniks supporting it. They would have been super militant. Even heading into this they were more militant, saying this is what will be the straw that breaks the camels back and without an immediate solution they would leave. When push comes to shove they haven't left, making a variety of excuses why it is pointless to leave.

So it might just be a strange form of pragmatism that overcomes ideals. The Haredi parties used to have some pretty strong red lines, while this government has crossed most of them with little to no response from the Haredi parties.

But it might also be a fundamental change in the way they approach things now. They perhaps know they cant get everything they want. They dont want to give up their share in leadership of the nation. They want the benefits of being in government, and the costs are less bothersome. They used to be in government to "save what they could" for the Torah world - now they aren't even doing that, but stay in government anyway.

I think this change in their approach, for either reason, is massive, and perhaps indicates some sort of coming closer to Israeli society. They still want what they want, but they are not really willing any longer to stand up for it when push comes to shove in the face of what most everyone else wants.

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