Responding to the formation of Israel’s new government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Coalition for Jewish Values, representing over 2,000 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in American public policy, issued the following statement:

For the first time in its 74-year history, the State of Israel will be governed by a democratically-elected coalition that is committed to advancing the kinds of core Jewish values appropriate for an independent Jewish country. With Orthodox Jews for the first time comprising a majority of the 64 Knesset members in the governing coalition, the new Israeli government will safeguard the religious and civil rights of all the country’s citizens: religious, secular, Jewish, Arab, Christian, and Muslim. We applaud Israel’s shift from secular socialism to a greater emphasis on authentic Jewish values.