I find Nachum Barnea's attack on Habayit Hayehudi voters to be particularly interesting.
There are numerous differences between the Haredi and Dati Leumi communities. The one in particular that stands out, to me at least, is the approach to the general Israeli community. The Haredi community, for the most part, cloisters itself in self-imposed ghettos and tries to interact with the outside world as little as possible. The Dati Leumi community, on the other hand, mixes with the general society, is fully part of it in every way.
The Haredi community itself gets criticized for its ghetto-approach. If only they would open up more and integrate into society, the general community would meet them more, understand them better, and be less antagonistic to them. Naturally such normal meetings and interaction would develop into acceptance and mutual respect.
Nachum Barnea blows that out of the water.
The Dati Leumi community is fully integrated in every way. They are involved in every aspect of society. You can find them everywhere - the army (in regular mixed units), banks, politics, hospitals (as doctors and nurses), They are rabbis, teachers, accountants, lawyers, programmers, janitors, electricians, plumbers, actors, mathematicians, Nobel prize winners, scientists, entrepreneurs, business-people, etc.
Yet, still, despite all the integration of the Dati Leumi community, Nachum Barnea showed with his diatribe that integration does not actually change perceptions. According to Barnea, and perhaps he is representative of at least a large segment of Israeli society, the Dati Leumi community as represented by those who vote Habayit Hayehudi - Bennet, are dark, unenlightened, tied to racist rabbis, religious fanatics, people who squeeze money from the government, xenophobes...
If that's what Barnea thinks of the Dati Leumi community, people who are fully integrated into society and are Israelis like any other, would it really help if the Haredi community did an about-face and decided to leave their ghettos and integrate into society?
I think it is fairly clear from Barnea's rant that integration into society is not really the ticket to acceptance or even understanding.
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