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the Ashkenazic Haredim had the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) Party. The NRP no longer exists
as such. First it became a right-wing party, focusing on the single issue of Jewish settlements,
and then it disintegrated completely, with the remnants joining the National Union. A fourth
religious party, Meimad, represents the left-of-center Datim disenchanted by the NRP's right-
ward turn.
Other than Meimad, religious parties have been socially and politically conservative, al-
though their primary focus is religion and the welfare of their religious constituents. They will
form coalitions with left-of-center parties if it benefi ts their goals. Shas, many of whose sup-
porters are traditional in religious terms, has at times taken mildly dovish positions.
The religious parties do more than just run candidates. They also provide social services to
their voters, including education and cultural services, and they sponsor youth groups, news-
papers, and religious institutions. When in the government, they use their power to obtain
jobs and funding for their constituents. They are not seeking state power, the transformation
of society, or the conversion of the majority to their way of life.
National Religious Party (NRP, Mafdal)
The NRP— or, to use its Hebrew acronym, the Mafdal— grew out of the pre-state Dati Zionist-
religious organization. The NRP wanted the state to maintain the religious status quo, support
the state-religious school system, adhere to kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) in public institutions,
and preserve rabbinic control over such personal status issues as marriage, divorce, and adop-
tion. Its youth movement was Bnei Akiva.
During the period of Labor Party dominance, the NRP was a reliable coalition partner.
The party's character took on a more nationalist bent after 1973, following Rabbi Zvi Yehuda
Kook, the leader of religious Zionism who believed that Jewish settlement in the West Bank
was a portent of redemption. The NRP became closely associated with Gush Emunim (Bloc
of the Faithful), the main settlement movement, most of whose members were Datim. Gush
Emunim eventually drifted away from the NRP and toward the smaller right-wing parties
before itself disintegrating.
Until 1981, the NRP held between ten and twelve Knesset seats, making it an important
party for coalition building. In 1981 the voters gave the NRP only six seats, many of them ap-
parently having decided that if the main priority was settlement rather than Dati communal
interests, they might as well support one of the smaller right-wing parties completely focused
on settlement. In 1984, because of competition from Shas, the NRP's place in the Knesset
shrank further, to only four seats, and Shas replaced it as Labor's perennial religious coalition
partner. The defection of the NRP left to Meimad in 1988 was a further blow.
Beginning in the 1990s, the NRP asserted its nationalism more strongly. In 1992, for the fi rst
time in twenty years, it did not participate in Labor's coalition. After Rabin's assassination in
1995 it lost a great deal of support because the public blamed it for helping to incite feelings
against Rabin. Although the party revived to some extent between 1999 and 2005, internal dis-
putes fi nally blew the party apart in 2005. When Sharon announced his intention to withdraw
from the Gaza Strip, one faction wanted to leave the government to oppose the pullout, and
the other wanted to stay in the government to pursue its own ambitions for offi ce, to continue
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