Knesset member Aliza Lavie of the Yesh Atid party has been tracking these changes for a very long time. She is a former chair of the Committee on the Status of Women and one of the most prominent women to represent the religious Zionist community. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Lavie described Bloch’s victory as expediting the integration of religious and ultra-Orthodox women in public life. “She ran alone, without a political home, and everyone is [now] embracing her. If Aliza Bloch could succeed in a town like Beit Shemesh, women will start to believe that there is another way,” says Lavie.
Lavie has no doubt that Bloch’s victory has set new agendas while posing a threat to the political leadership of the ultra-Orthodox community. According to her, “There is serious tension between the political leadership, which wants to perpetuate and intensify differences so that it can trade in them, and the day-to-day life of the ultra-Orthodox community, which wants to acquire an education and ensure that their children are knowledgeable.”