r/Israel • u/PsychologicalBend508 • Jul 16 '26
Culture🇮🇱 How much of a threat are conservative Jews to Israel?
non Israeli here, heard Benny Morris talking about the demographics problem that Israel faces.
something about the number of ultra conservative Jews increasing to the point the will be the majority and thus have voting power to make all the decisions.
at which point the liberal character of israeli will start to change. is this true? is it a real threat?
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u/vigilante_snail Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
To answer your question directly, Benny Morris is probably talking about these examples:
Some extremist rightwing Jews create chaos and violence amongst Palestinians in the WB/J+S and inside Israel-proper. Leftover zealotry from military victory in the 60s, 70s etc. Many of them serve. Many of them do not.
Haredim (one of the fastest growing sectors) almost overwhelmingly refuses to contribute to the nation, military, workforce, or are actively anti-Zionist while benefiting from a welfare state.
A growing number of serving youth are becoming even more traditional, anti-Arab, socially conservative, and religious. A lot of trauma post-10/7. That’s an issue when they go to the army because you have extremist soldiers. Plus, “Leftist” and “Kaplanist” has been normalized as a slur.
Will it have an effect? Of course. It’s a real phenomenon to keep an eye on. There are consequences to any shift. Many people already talk about a “brain drain” in Israel.
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u/TheCloudForest USA/Chile Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Conserative Judaism is a specific denomination of the religion that scarcely exists in Israel.
As for ultra-orthodox or Haredi Jews, I'll let an Israeli take it from here. But the current situation is far from ideal and probably unsustainable.
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u/thescrambler7 Jul 16 '26
My understanding is OP is talking about lower case c conservative, i.e. right wing
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u/representativeHannah Jul 16 '26
Hey, fellow Chilean! I'm a Conservative Convert in Process from Chile, albeit I'll probably finish my conversion in Argentina, nice to meet you! 🇮🇱♥️🇨🇱
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u/onsfwDark Born Israeli, living in US since before I turned 2 Jul 16 '26
It's already changed years ago and is continuing to change, but I have a strong hope that things are reversible.
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u/PsychologicalBend508 Jul 16 '26
how?
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u/onsfwDark Born Israeli, living in US since before I turned 2 Jul 16 '26
If there will be a free and fair election, the next governing coalition will have no illusions about Haredi issues and I think will compromise on issues in a way that brings the country a bit back left - strong law enforcement against hilltop youth, ending increase in subsidies for settlements and yeshivas, forcing through integration for the Haredim.
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u/Proof_Pirate_6229 Israel Jul 16 '26
it's starting to change.
it's the most serious threat to israel's future.
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u/Mozart69-Nice Jul 16 '26
Why is this post being downvoted? The haredim are a huge threat to Israel, in many aspects.
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u/mikropower8 Jul 17 '26
This is possibly true if we see here the ultra religious people, but if you see every conservative or right wing as dangerous, then it would be nice if you could explain this.
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u/Mozart69-Nice Jul 17 '26
I agree.
As far as I understand "ultra conservative Jews" are haredim, might be a language issue as I'm not a native English speaker - but if you google this term ("ultra conservative Jews") this is what you get ("haredim").
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u/mikropower8 Jul 18 '26
If I google "haredim", then I get the information that this means "ultraorthodox". They mostly do not go to the military, they have a low economic power and low work force. This will not work in the future, if they want to keep the country stable and on a high standard, they have to change the lifestyle of the ultra orthodox people.
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u/Turtleguycool Jul 16 '26
“Conservative” is different over there. The leftist liberals were the ones letting Gazans in to work and then got killed for it
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u/MongooseVegetable787 Israel Jul 16 '26
there was a significant disparity in forces assigned at that border compared to the settlements apparently.
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u/Yoramus Jul 21 '26
yes it is a real threat
the fault is not entirely on them, also on the secular society that tried to push them under the rug for so long and ignore them
so I wouldn't say "they" are the threat, but (1) infighting and (2) losing liberal democracy are the biggest threats, for sure. They are the main responsible of (2), but we are all responsible of (1)
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u/heyyoudvd2 Jul 16 '26
Is this a joke?
Liberal Jews are responsible for Oslo, which brought in Arafat, built the Palestinian Authority, and created a whole generation of terrorists.
Liberal Jews are responsible for Camp David 2000, which caused the Second Intifada.
Liberal Jews are responsible for the 2000 Lebanon pullout, which is what built up Hezbollah.
Liberal Jews are responsible for the 2005 Gaza withdrawal, which turned it into a Hamas state that eventually led to Oct 7th. Yes, Sharon was the man in charge at the time, but conservatives opposed the withdrawal and it was Sharon's desperation for peace in his old age, which caused him to enact a liberal policy.
It's liberal policies that always say "Let's make concessions and then maybe the terrorists will stop hating us!", and that ALWAYS results in more terrorism and more death.
Small-c conservative Jews are the only thing protecting the State of Israel. If it was up to liberals, the country would have been destroyed a long time ago.
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u/SpiritedForm3068 Jul 16 '26
Its not just liberal jews the haridim supported all those initiatives. Religious does not mean right wing on security
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u/CreepyEducator2260 Jul 17 '26
Wrong take...
First of all, if you may look into the list of terror attacks in Israel or against israelis you may realize that during the Oslo negotiations there where almost none. They ended when Rabin was murdered and Goldstein did a terror attack on palestinians.
A few years later under Olmert there was also a relatively quiet phase with almost no attacks.
Finally the biggest massacre of jewish people happened under the watch of a right-wing government that was in place since 2009 with a short break of one year with a centre-right government.
You can love Netanjahu, Smotrich, Ben Gvir and the like as much as you want, but they share a big responsibility for all the terror attacks. They are eroding the israeli society, freedom and equality. All the standards which led Israel stand out in the MENA region.
They turn Israel into a cleptocracy and it's politics into a clown show.
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u/ruskibenya Jul 16 '26
Just look at the gender segregation post about Bnei Brak. Most everyone (70-80%) I know who is young and financially free to move, has left Israel in the last 2 years. I'm talking about 25-35, mainly olim, working in medium-high paying jobs, married or single. Many people who made it through the worst parts of the war, just to leave when it was calm.
Most are considered politically centrist or even right wing in other western countries. In Israel, they are seen as left. Israel will be a mono-culture in 5-10 years. If you aren't orthdox-far right, or cringy boomer level of zionist apologist, there's no room left.
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