Positions on national security of Israel's ultra-orthodox political leadership

This the first attempt to systematically analyze the positions of the ultra-orthodox political leadership on national security issues. The positions are discussed along four main dimensions of the dovish-hawkish continuum in Israeli politics: territory, the Palestinian issue, use of force, and the time dimension. Despite the fundamentalist outlook, the ultra-orthodox leadership displays a rather pragmatic middle-of-the-road approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, which strengthens its pivotal position in Israeli coalition politics. Several explanations are offered to explain this centrist approach, which reflects primarily the greater integration of the ultra-orthodox sector in Israeli society.