On mysticism – David Rosenberg in Haaretz:

‘The religious component of the incoming government has been growing steadily stronger as the weeks go by. Even before last month’s election, Benjamin Netanyahu promised the ultra-Orthodox parties bigger budgets for the yeshivas and exemptions from the draft and the core curriculum. In the governing coalition talks now underway, he has agreed to create a “Jewish identity” office and transfer control over large parts of the Education Ministry to religious ideologues.
Now this religiousness has gone beyond the prosaic issues of money and power and has journeyed into the realms of mysticism. Bezalel Smotrich, the Religious Zionism party chief slated to become the next finance minister, said in an interview last week that economic policy would now be guided by the assumption that Israel’s Jews faithfully observe the Torah.’

(…)

‘But if economic prosperity depends on the observance and faith of Israel’s Jews, then the country is headed into a deep recession. The great majority of Israelis aren’t Torah observant – certainly not in the way Smotrich and his ultra-Orthodox/religious Zionist camp understand it.’

(…)

‘Smotrich also supports more money for settlements as a fulfillment of the commandment to settle the land and making the life of the Torah-observant community easier by eliminating the taxes on both sugary drinks and disposable dishes and cutlery (both of which are used more heavily by the ultra-Orthodox). For a finance minister guided by the requirements of Torah life, people’s health or the damage to the environment isn’t relevant.’ (…)

‘Of course, investors like a lean, business-friendly government and the low taxes Smotrich advocates, but they also need an educated, motivated and innovative workforce. The proportion of Israelis not receiving an education in math and science would grow, however, as the government lavishes more subsidies on the Haredi minority.’

(…)

‘Today, the global business community has learned that Israel can cope with successive mini-wars and terrorism. They are blips on the screen. But with Smotrich and his ally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, poised to take control of the West Bank under the new government and impose hard-line policies, Israel’s ability to strike that delicate balance between war and business is about to be tested, perhaps fatally.’

Read the article here.

Sometimes people vote for politicians who will damage the country and the constitution they swore to protect. This is nothing new. It all comes down to the amount of damage.

Now, Israel has no constitution, just a leftover of the time when the English were there to rule the country.

And rhetoric and the policy itself are two different things. But the amount of supporters of Israel as theocracy have grown, and the secular right has always been ready to accept the support of the believers in order to stay in power.
This time it’s not only about handouts to their own communities, as this article makes clear, it has also come to the invention of new economic policies. Economics based on God. My bet, God is no Keynesian.