It’s secular Israelis who have changed.

What used to irritate, inflame and drive them to revolt two decades or even a decade ago, they now greet with a nonchalant shrug, forgivingly, all in the name of openness, tolerance and, of course, “Jewish identity.” […]

Israeli secularism is committing suicide. This is not yet evident in official state statistics, where the distribution between the religious and secular sectors hasn’t changed much. But the direction is clear and decisive. It all started when left-wing parties gradually stopped dealing with issues of religion and state: these included the battle to conscript the ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) into the army; the demand for core studies in yeshivas; reducing religious budget allocations; the fight to preserve the secular nature of the non-partisan education system; the struggle for civil marriage; and public transportation on Shabbat. […]

A second reason for the decline of secularism is the phenomenon of Jewish Renewal, which has morphed from being a harmless hobby into a dangerous problem – a Trojan horse of religion and the right. …

Third, Israeli secularism has discarded the Israeli-Hebrew culture that was miraculously created here …

Next time you open a children’s school textbook, don’t be astonished. Secularism is a project that requires regular maintenance. And those who don’t work and don’t do the maintenance – well, they get what’s coming to them.