Turns out it is not some ex nihilo "culture war", but in reality our old friend austerity that is fomenting a war of sorts now currently in Israel.
A cultural war has erupted between Israel's rising political star and his ultra-Orthodox rivals. Newly minted Finance Minister Yair Lapid, hugely popular for opposing the long-standing preferential treatment enjoyed by the religious minority, is moving swiftly to slash state handouts to large families, compel lifelong seminary students to work and join the army, and remove funding for schools that don't teach math, science and English.
The religious - labeled "parasites" [Ed: WOW. Sieg heil! ] by one Lapid emissary this week - are crying foul. But they appear helpless, at least in the short run, to stop Lapid from pressing his agenda.
For most of the last three decades, the country's small ultra-Orthodox minority sat in governing coalitions, securing vast budgets for religious schools and automatic exemptions from mandatory military service for tens of thousands of young men in full-time religious studies.
Tapping into widespread resentment over these expensive perks, Lapid made a strong showing in January elections. His new Yesh Atid, or There is a Future, party finished second in the voting, turning him into the newest star of Israeli politics and propelling him to a senior position in the governing coalition.
The religious parties, meanwhile, were pushed into the opposition. Lapid, facing a yawning deficit, has moved quickly to drastically slash budgets favoring the ultra-Orthodox. "I say, let there be war," Lapid said in a speech Wednesday.
According to a draft of planned reforms viewed by The Associated Press, the Finance Ministry has proposed cutting in half government subsidies to religious schools that do not teach a core curriculum including math, science and English, and boosting funding for schools that do. It also seeks to allow subsidies for child day care only if both parents work - an effort to entice ultra-Orthodox men who study religious texts full time to join the job market.
A parliamentary committee headed by Yesh Atid Cabinet Minister Yaakov Peri also proposes cutting 30 percent of funding to ultra-Orthodox religious seminaries and introducing legislation to end most military draft exemptions, Israeli media reported this week.Looks like now Israel is caught up in this deranged austerity ideology and moron laborer/warrior class representatives within the Israeli government, perhaps acting under some sort of covetousness or jealous resentment, are threatening the means of subsistence of the religious intelligentsia there.
Can there really exist an "Israel" without this religious intelligentsia cohort within? Perhaps not.
This austerity may be a more serious threat to the true "Israel" than their aggressive human neighbors.
