Israel is in an unprecedented lockdown. The Israeli economy is shattered. Over a million people are unemployed and underemployed. The middle class is in an existential crisis and about 70,000 self-employed people have closed their life's work forever.
Israel is paying the highest price in its history on the altar of coalition politics. This is a national lockdown that is entirely due to the kingdom's failure to implement the traffic light policy and the imposition of specific closures on red cities, most of which are ultra-Orthodox.
This is the highest coalition price ever paid to the Haredi parties.
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The coronavirus crisis was seen by many as a national challenge that could be a catalyst for sociological processes that redefine inter-tribal relations in Israeli society. The community mobilization, the virus's lack of any gender, sectoral or geographical preference - led to a great sense of mobilization on Passover Eve.
At the end of April this year, discussions were still underway on the possibility of establishing an alternative civilian model for national service. This model was to replace the deep and unnecessary insistence of most of us on the military service model for everyone. Civilian service constitutes an 'entry certificate' for Israeli citizens, Arabs and Haredim, to the core of Israeliness and the job market, while recognizing central volunteer organizations and service to the community.
Arab citizens of Israel, especially the younger ones, saw the deep crisis that had arisen as a point of connection to the Israeli fabric and an opportunity to deepen integration processes.
But it is precisely this development that has threatened the core of Haredi society's separatism. Haredi separatism is not necessarily an ideological matter. It is a battle for leadership, control, centralization, influence and money - a lot of money.
The slow but significant social processes that are taking place in the Haredi sector are familiar to all rabbis and all those who carry the tools in the courtyards and yeshivots. The pandemic has suddenly strengthened them and threatened to undermine the structural foundations there.
The heroic entry of Home Front Command fighters into the heart of the city of Bnei Brak and into Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem marked the breaking of the Haredi leadership's last line of retreat. What was rightly seen as a warm welcome to the front of the Zionist state was understood in the courts of the rabbis as a watershed.
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The relationship between Haredi society and the state is almost as complex as the thousand nuances that characterize Haredi society itself. However, the religious Haredi leadership has never sought to integrate.
In Israel, there is de facto ultra-Orthodox autonomy, based on deep economic relations between it and the mother state. The 'balance of trade' between the ultra-Orthodox autonomy and the state is to the detriment of the state in every parameter.
Even the very successful integration of Haredi women into employment and the slow integration of Haredi men into employment do not dramatically change the balance. The state provides benefits, infrastructure, and healthcare, and the autonomy manages the rest.
Political involvement, especially Ashkenazi involvement, is intended to secure trade and economic relations.
There is one image that depicts in a sharp flash the essence of the battle and campaign for Haredi autonomy in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The image of Yanki Kanievsky, the grandson of Maran Harach Kanievsky, who mediates with his own mouth between the great generation and the congregation and directly instructs on violating the rules and isolation. This is an image whose purpose is to clarify who is the master of the house in Haredi autonomy and who is the king's hand.
For the well-meaning, this image is all that is needed. It is the essence of being, influence, and the path of money. Obedience is important in order to mark status, status grants influence, influence grants money and funding. The army, even the ultra-Orthodox one, ends up marching on its stomach.
The leadership crisis and division in the ultra-Orthodox street are also having an impact.
The weakness of Hasidism, the widespread dispersion within it, and the growing power of the Lithuanians and the Torah banner in the haredi maze, lead every Rebbe to extreme actions that will ensure his internal leadership. There is nothing like separatism and reactionaryism to achieve this survival feat.
No one dares to challenge Rabbi Kanievsky's halakhic status, and he remains an almost lone voice, in an era when there is no variety of poskim of similar status among Sephardic Hasidim and Haredim.
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Behind the smokescreen, a slow, prolonged and profound process of awakening continues. The epidemic has taken a heavy toll on Haredi society. The disaster is visible from almost every home and every street. The names of those who died in the epidemic are familiar; it does not spare rabbis, rabbis, or even rebbes.
The leadership crisis will surface soon. Now we are dealing with the dead and the disease.
When the dove comes out of the ark to check if the waters have receded, the discussion about the future of Haredi autonomy will reopen.
• Lior Horev is an international strategic consultant specializing in the world of consciousness for governments, multinational organizations, and companies.
