For many years the Reform and Conservative movements chafed at the absence of legal standing for the religious ceremonies and services of progressive Jews and rabbis in Israel.
It is becoming increasingly clear that in the titanic struggle over the Western Wall one side will have to suffer a stinging defeat, and that it will be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who will decide the fate of this battle.
On an ideological level, the two sets of demands, from the ultra-Orthodox on the one hand and the progressive Jewish denominations on the other, are quite simply contradictory and irreconcilable.
What the Women of the Wall along with the Reform and Conservative movements are demanding of the government is essentially a symbolic declaration at the physical heart of the Jewish faith, or thereabouts, that their practice of Judaism is legitimate in the Jewish state.
On an ideological level, the two sets of demands, from the ultra-Orthodox on the one hand and the progressive Jewish denominations on the other, are quite simply contradictory and irreconcilable.
What the Women of the Wall along with the Reform and Conservative movements are demanding of the government is essentially a symbolic declaration at the physical heart of the Jewish faith, or thereabouts, that their practice of Judaism is legitimate in the Jewish state.
This demand is manifest in three main aspects of the agreement reached in January: a shared entrance for all visitors to the Western Wall complex, Orthodox and progressive alike; representatives of Women of the Wall and the Reform and Conservative movements on the governing committee of the pluralist prayer section; and state recognition of the new prayer area as being designated for pluralist prayer.
The haredi leaders on the other hand are telling the government, and the prime minister in particular, that they, as a critical part of the government, will in no way grant such recognition, and identifying the three key demands of WoW and the progressive groups as unacceptable.
How has this situation come about? For many years the Reform and Conservative movements chafed at the absence of legal standing for the religious ceremonies and services of progressive Jews and rabbis in Israel.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post