Will his alliance with the ultra-Orthodox doom Binyamin Netanyahu?

HE WAS HARDLY a household name, but the funeral of Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik on January 31st may prove a turning-point in Israel’s election campaign. The event drew some 20,000 ultra-Orthodox mourners, in defiance of a nationwide lockdown to combat covid-19 (see picture). “It’s wrong to break the lockdown, but when a man like this passes, there is an uncontrollable urge to demonstrate our respect for the life he led,” says Chaim Walder, an ultra-Orthodox writer.For more secular Israelis, the funeral was yet another reminder of the government’s failure to enforce covid-related restrictions on the ultra-Orthodox, who are 12% of the population. The devout continue to pray in packed synagogues and hold big weddings. Some ultra-Orthodox schools and yeshivas remain open, despite all other schools being closed. Many of those angry about the disparity have blamed Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and thrown their support behind the party of Yair Lapid, a secularist.