Religion and politics collide, grounding Israeli train line

Israeli commuters began their work week Sunday with massive traffic jams and a cancelation of train service along one of the country’s busiest routes following a religious and political scuffle that had threatened to shake the governing coalition.
The crisis erupted over the weekend after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, made an 11th-hour decision to halt routine railway repairs scheduled on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.
Orthodox Jewish law forbids work on the Sabbath, and a religious party in the coalition had threatened to quit the government unless Netanyahu halted the repairs.
Netanyahu’s transport minister, Yisrael Katz, canceled a key train route on the Tel Aviv — Haifa line Sunday because of the delayed repairs. The government dispatched extra buses for some 90,000 affected commuters.
The resulting traffic jams offered a physical illustration of the outsized power the leadership of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority wields in Israeli politics.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish politicians offer Netanyahu support to stabilize his coalition, while the government carves out large budgets for ultra-Orthodox schools and seminaries. Recent reforms aimed at forcing religious youths to enlist for army service, which is compulsory for most other Jewish Israelis, have been scrapped.
Netanyahu’s office accused Katz, a senior figure in the ruling Likud Party, of orchestrating the crisis to undercut the prime minister.

Source: Arab News