Stock Gnome has this too.

The first thing to understand is that Israel’s parliamentary system of government is quite different from the US’. Instead of two main parties dominating the political landscape, i.e. Republicans vs Democrats, Israel has around a dozen main parties which work together to form coalition governments where more than one party is in power at one time. Under this fragmented landscape, if you have a religious or ethnic minority who all tend to vote for the same party, that can lead to a situation where one group in society may hold sway over others politically even though they are not as as large a population numerically.

And yes, you’re quite right - a lot has changed since 2016, and some Haredi (especially the young) have been increasingly drifting towards the far-right nationalist parties like Likud (Netanyahu’s party) and the Religious Nationalists. However, as this AP article suggests, these recent converts moving away from the traditional Haredi parties are still a minority.

While the majority of Haredim living outside Israel still do not identify as Zionists (as per this recent, post-Oct 7th survey), I admit I don’t have any hard polling data for the current situation in Israel itself. If anyone else does, I would appreciate the info.

The vast majority of Hareidi Jews are Zionist.

According to a recent survey, less than half of Haredi Jews outside of Israel identify as Zionists, post October 7th.

In 2016, the percentage of Israeli Haredim who identified as Zionist was just 33%.

Do you have any recent figures for within Israel itself that confirms a “vast majority”?

I didn’t say they weren’t politically powerful. The two main Haredi (Ultra-orthodox) parties are significant part of Netanyahu’s coalition, and they have always had a disproportionate power compared to the Haredi population because almost all Haredi voters vote for them.

Within the Haredi community there is still a wide range of opinions, of course. However, even within Israel most have not traditionally described themselves as Zionists (only 33% percent, according to a 2016 survey).

Most ultra-orthodox Jews are actually anti-zionists. It’s not uncommon to see them joining pro-palestine peace protests.

Within Israel they are a minority, and their broadly anti-war stance combined with their dependence on the state for financial support (most of the men are unemployed) have made them quite unpopular in the eyes of the general population.

How so? I think it’s quite an accurate summary. The German economy has been stagnating for a while, mainly due to its poorly handled transition towards an economy based on renewable energy. Their reliance on cheap Russian gas was shattered by the onset of the war in Ukraine, and their economic and political influence within the EU has been in steep decline ever since.

Or the EMF generators they carry around with them in their pockets, A.K.A their phones.

It’s quite a bit more complicated than that. Firstly, ultra-orthodox Jews (a.k.a Haredim) are mostly non-zionist. They also only make up roughly 33% of Israeli settlers.

Traditionally, the Haredim have voted for their own center-right Haredi parties, but a minority (especially the younger generation) are now drifting further rightward towards the nationalist Religious Zionist party of Ben Gvir and Smotrich that is particularly popular amongst the settlers. Despite this recent trend, though, the majority of Haredim remain Anti-Zionist.

It’s this stance, combined with the facts that Haredi men have been able to avoid military service and have relied heavily on social security to fund their living costs, that has caused a lot of resentment towards them from the majority of Israeli society. As the article above notes, this removal of their military service exemption has overwhelming support amongst the general population.

But you’re definitely right in saying that this throws a spanner in the works, albeit mostly for Netanyahu. His brittle coalition relies heavily on support from the two main Haredi parties in the Knesset. This new policy could backfire on him.

Much as it was when the counter-protesters showed up at UCLA last month and attacked the protesters with pepper spray and sticks for hours while the police stood by and watched.

Important context: the synagogue in question was holding a real estate sale for land allegedly stolen from Palestinians in the West Bank.

This protest was not against Jews praying at a synagogue. This protest was not antisemitic. This was a protest against the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and against settlements that Biden’s own administration considers illegal.

But I suppose the AP doesn’t consider that relevant information.

Yeah, it’s an interesting dichotomy and one that is quite typical of Thai culture, which many people don’t realize is actually conservative in a quiet kind of way.

For years, LGBT+ people have been tolerated but still not fully accepted by mainstream society. So while LBGT+ people can be out in public and not get harassed like they do in other cultures, they still haven’t had the same legal rights as CIS/straight people. This is why this new legislation is a great move forward in the right direction.

Aye, there’s the rub. If you can’t prove it was discriminatory then you’re SOL.

With the most bigups going to Haaretz, quite honestly. It’s hard for non-Israeli outlets to do this kind of extensive investigative reporting from outside Israel. That much of the information used to debunk various bits of Israeli propaganda being parroted by Western media comes from original Haaretz reporting should not be ignored.

Decksandrumsandrockandroll! Good call.

That, Dig Your Own Hole and The Fat of the Land were in my heavy listening rotation back in '97-98.

Nice. This soundtrack was my introduction to techno and electronica, back in the day.

Archuleta himself, though, has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. He previously blamed LGBTQ+ individuals for the Club Q shooting and said that queer people are “groomers” – or child sex abusers – a negative stereotype that has been used to justify hatred and discrimination.

Bruh.

42 Dems voted for this nonsense.

Yet more evidence that the average Republican’s adherence to the teachings of Christianity is purely performative.

Nope, same incident.

I don’t think this analysis is correct. This unwavering support is true of Trump supporters today, but back in the run up to the 2016 there were definitely people who voted for Trump who would have changed their mind had the “grab them by the pussy” tape been immediately followed up by a media storm surrounding more awkward sexual allegations coming from from a porn star.

The Trump team clearly thought so - presidential campaigns are nothing if not obsessive about how optics can affect their candidates in key states, and by how much. The fact that they went to such lengths to cover it up was indicative of how impactful they feared it would be among swing voters.