Media perception and Israel's centre.

on Israel’s supposed rightward drift, one should not call the two current religious parties right-wing as such. They represent the interests of their communities. Their goal is to maximize the resources—money and jobs—they get. They may go with left-of-center governments that offer them enough. At times, Shas has taken dovish stands. I am aware that Shas endorsed Netanyahu before the election to ensure no voters defected to him, but their voters are pretty loyal, and if Shas decided to go into a Livni-led government (if she had had a bigger margin) they would support it. Note that when the National Religious Party became a single-issue pro-settler party instead of the defender of “Modern Orthodoxy” (or what we would call national-religious interests) it fell apart. Moreover, Likud has moved toward the center. The moving-to-the-right thesis may obsess the media—in part because of their agenda of trying to prove Israelis are against peace or at least make peace impossible—but it is not true.