Since 2009, almost every time that Tzipi Livni would attack the ultra-Orthodox or the government, claiming that the former were extorting the latter, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman would say that he still had a note showing that Livni was much more open-handed than any other prime minister when it came to bringing the haredi parties into a government under her leadership.
In fact, that has been the haredi position for years – scale-tippers, the ones who decide, who must be courted and offered inducements to provide the majority needed to form a coalition. In the April 2019 election, that all changed. The haredim either grew up or have too much to lose – or both.
This crisis changed haredi politics. They went from extortionists to the extorted. Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, with his five seats, managed to put up an ultimatum, extort the haredim to the fullest extent possible, and drag the country into a new election, as well. Just like Lieberman with his mere five seats was demanding the defense portfolio and to keep the haredi draft bill as-is, the haredim – who won 16 seats – claimed that they could have announced that they were opposed to the Defense Ministry's bill and warned that if they were not presented with a new version, would prevent the formation of a government. But that isn't what happened. They did everything, absolutely everything, to reach a deal.
On Sunday, the Hassidic Council of Torah Sages was forced to head into a meeting that Lieberman forced them into, and accept the draft bill as-is – with its target numbers and its punishments for draft-dodgers. They left themselves an inch of ground to stand on by asking for an amendment. But they accepted the bill for the most part.
All in all, over the course of the negotiations the haredim weren't asking for the moon. Public sentiment, as usual, put them in the position of those extorted, but the reality was different.
They were portrayed as wanting all men to wear tzitzit (ritual fringes) and all married women to cover their hair, but that was never the case. They weren't asking for more money, merely an adjustment to their current budget. They also weren't after anything new when it came to laws about businesses operating on Shabbat – just that the status quo be upheld. They even went quite far on the draft bill.
If the haredim had done what Lieberman did, people would be rioting in the streets.
