On a schism – Anshel Pfeffer in NYT:

‘Several ministries have been created with a focus on Jewish identity. Each will be led almost exclusively by the members of parties representing the various strands of modern Jewish fundamentalism — parties that resist any form of modernism — as well as the elements of the Zionist Orthodoxy that are increasingly both ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox.
These parties are imposing on Israel a definition of Judaism that refuses to recognize the validity of the non-Orthodox streams, with which the majority of American Jews identify. They are even demanding a change in the most fundamental link between Israel and the Jewish diaspora: the Law of Return, which grants Israeli citizenship to Jews and their descendants. They have promised to make those with at least one Jewish grandparent and who are not recognized as Jewish by the Orthodox rabbinical establishment ineligible for automatic Israeli citizenship.
In some ways, of course, these divisions are not new. The debate over who is a Jew has been part of Israeli discourse since the creation of the state. The rabbinate has long held control over family law. (Civil marriages are not conducted in Israel.) But this is the first time that one side has sought to assert itself so completely over Israel’s governance. It has the potential to estrange many non-Israeli Jews.’

(…)

‘In an interview this month with Olam Katan (Small World), a far-right weekly, Mr. Maoz explained why he is so interested in the department. “There are currently about 3,000 curriculums written by progressive, radical-left nongovernmental organizations funded by foreign organizations and the European Union,” he said. “Are they there to strengthen the Jewish state? Of course not. They want to make Israel a state like all the states. Who will make sure that they write programs for Jewish identity instead of plans for a state for all its citizens? That’s my job.”

Some of Israel’s largest and richest cities, including Tel Aviv-Jaffa, have announced they will not cooperate with the department under Mr. Maoz and, if necessary, will fund liberal education programs themselves.
In addition to Mr. Maoz’s appointment, Orit Strock, a member of the Religious Zionism party who lives in a small Jewish settler enclave in the Palestinian-majority city of Hebron in the West Bank, was tapped to run the new and dystopian-sounding Directorate of Jewish Identity. This will be part of a new Ministry of National Missions, which will control Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank and is tasked with financing religious mission communities in Israel. These are groups of religious Zionist families that move together to disadvantaged neighborhoods across the country, in some cases in towns with mixed Jewish and Arab populations, to strengthen the Jewish communities there.’

(…)

‘All of these parties — Noam, Jewish Power and United Torah Judaism — refuse to accept that Judaism in its contemporary form contains several streams of belief, practice and representation. This exclusionary approach sets these parties apart from more liberal Jewish groups and secular and modern Orthodox Israelis, as well as the overwhelming majority of American Jews and other Jewish communities around the world. It puts them on a collision course with liberal Jews in Israel and America and is bringing the global Jewish people closer to the brink of a religious schism than it has been in over three centuries, since the followers of the false messiah Sabbatai Zevi split the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire.’

(…)

‘But while these threats to any prospect of peaceful Israeli-Palestinian coexistence and to the viability of Israeli democracy should remain the focus of attention, the acute threat to the inclusive nature of Judaism and Jewish identity in Israel should be of the highest concern as well to Jews in Israel, America and elsewhere around the world.’

Read the article here.

Perhaps the state of Israel is a contemporary Sabbatai Zevi, albeit one with nuclear weapons. A tiny minority of the orthodox Jews have regarded the state of Israel as a false messiah from the very beginning.

Forget about the Palestinians, just look at the birth rates of the secular and the orthodox Jews in Israel.
In this case I would say the future is rather bleak. Unless you believe that a theocracy is the way to go for Israel.