Issues of diplomacy and national security such as the Iranian nuclear threat are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s preferred battlefield during election campaigns. But in the current campaign another agenda is ruling the day for now: issues of religion and state, which isn't in Netanyahu’s comfort zone. The man who dragged him there is Avigdor Liberman, chairman of Yisrael Beitenu, who refused to join the coalition Netanyahu was forming if the enlistment law was not passed in its original form, and thus led to the dispersal of the 21st Knesset and to new elections in September.
On July 15, the alleged details of the coalition agreements between Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox parties were reported. These agreements had been reached after the April 9 elections and before the 21st Knesset was dispersed. According to the report, Netanyahu agreed that allowing a permit for public works on the Sabbath would be coordinated with the Chief Rabbinate and that a softer version of the enlistment law, favored by the ultra-Orthodox parties, would be implemented.