Commentators enjoy discussing the most religious government ever established in forced trepidation, which is amusing. Half a year has passed since Israel held its breath in anticipation of the Muslim Shura Council members' decision. The prime minister of that time, Naftali Bennett, did not know if the senior coalition partners – Mansour Abbas and Walid Taha – would stay in the government or quit. It all depended on the decision of the leaders of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who went to sleep in the middle of the debate and continued the day after at their leisure.
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Nonetheless, the Israeli public hardly showed any sign of nervousness over having supposedly religious forces taking over the government. Bennett and the then-Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid would be more than happy to switch places with Netanyahu, who is beginning negotiations with the right-wing party leaders who have already started to face anti-religion incitement in official media outlets.
Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir are religious elected officials who do not seek permission from their rabbis before executing a political plan. While they ask for their advice and blessing, they do not invalidate themselves or their political and practical judgment. Those following the third-largest party's election strategy can likely imagine Rabbi Dov Lior was not the creative mind behind it, and he will probably not be the one who determines the party's other strategies.
No sector-affiliation differences
Israel's Transportation and Road Safety Minister Merav Michaeli's term in office is nearing its end. She indicated that she ceased investing in initiatives that contradict her worldview (roads in Judea and Samaria, for example) and that upon beginning office, she focused on its employee structure and the employees' political affiliation.
Transportation regulations allow the minister to authorize bus operation on Shabbat when specific routes require it. However, aside from anti-religion rhetoric, nothing else has happened regarding this matter. When Smotrich himself served as the caretaker government's transportation and road safety minister, he cooperated with Keren Terner-Eyal, who served as that ministry's director general (a woman! an irreligious person!) and her team, operating in a business-like fashion and maintaining bus services for those who missed the last one on Friday evening, even if it was in the middle of the night.
Neither civil marriage nor marriage of LGTBQ couples will be promoted by this government, just as they were not promoted by the last one. Equal sharing of the military burden? Lapid took it off the agenda long ago. The Western Wall compromise? A hot potato feared by everyone, regardless of sector affiliation. Will the new government force students to take more Judaism classes in school? As a graduate of Israel's secular education, I hope it will.
A crisis can be expected on religious matters only to those who need religious services as the battle over the new chief rabbis of Israel heats up. But the drama that may emerge out of this election could revolve around judicial, security, and interior affairs ministerial appointments. Religious matters are not going to be affected.
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