ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that although Israeli politics might seem to be moving toward a politics of "constant crisis" in the relations between religion and state, the traditional patterns of regulation, as expressed in the relationship between the various ruling parties and their religious counterparts, have been preserved. It discusses the theoretical framework suggested by the Dutch scholar Arend Lijphart: consociational democracy and its possible manifestation in Israeli politics. The chapter also discusses the political history of each of the three religious parties: the National Religious Party, Shas, and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), with a focuses on the Oslo and post-Oslo periods. It describes that the reasons why “accommodation politics” has been maintained despite the ongoing crises in the relationship between religion and state. One salient feature of Israeli politics is that to this day no government has completed its term in power without the presence of a religious party.
