Shabbat crisis shakes but does not break coalition
IT SEEMED for a short while over the weekend that Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition was on the brink of collapse.
On Friday, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman announced his resignation because of rail engineering work planned for Shabbat. It created the possibility that the Knesset members of United Torah Judaism and Shas — the strictly Orthodox factions — would withdraw from the coalition over the desecration of the holy day, leaving it without a majority.
Forty-eight hours later, it was all over. Mr Litzman had left the cabinet but not the coalition.
His entire team of advisors remained at the Health Ministry and he is expected back there as soon as legislation is passed to allow him to control it as a deputy minister — a workaround that means he is not responsible for other cabinet decisions that contradict his religious beliefs.
Meanwhile, the coalition has agreed a package of religious legislation that will do little to change the status quo.
It will allow the Labour Minister to take “Jewish tradition” into account when issuing work permits on Shabbat — although that does not necessarily mean he will.
The Interior Minister, should he choose to do so, will be allowed to prevent local authorities from issuing Shabbat trading permits for shops, but it will not affect businesses already open seven days a week.
There is even agreement over not changing the regulations allowing the football leagues to play on Shabbat.
Crisis, if there ever was one, was averted at a surprisingly low price.
It seems most likely that the weekend’s crisis was the result of internal rivalries within the Ger Hassidic court, which Mr Litzman unofficially represents in the Knesset.
The leader of the Ger Hassidim, Rabbi Yaakov Alter, is a mysterious figure who exercises full control over his followers, including the Health Minister.
No-one in Israeli politics currently believes the government will last its full term but there is a growing sense that the next elections will lead to a different political landscape. Mr Netanyahu may be prevented by legal constraints from running in them. A coalition without Mr Netanyahu or without the ultra-Orthodox parties is a distinct possibility.
Rabbi Yaakov Alter is a mysterious figure