THE ONLY EXISTENTIAL THREAT IS INTERNAL:

The letter indicates that the Conservative and Reform movements in Israel have given up hope that the government would implement its plan, announced in January 2016, to create a new space for worshippers, mostly from the Reform, Conservative, and other liberal movements, who wish to pray at the Kotel in a mixed-gender service.

According to the current status quo at the Western Wall, the men's and the women's sections are separated by a partition. The government's most recent plan is the culmination of nearly three decades of fighting between the ultra-Orthodox, who control the Western Wall, and the non-Orthodox movements; numerous appeals to Israel's High Court of Justice; and three years of intensive negotiations between the government, the Heritage Foundation, the ultra-Orthodox organization that manages the Western Wall, and the representatives of the liberal movements in Israel and abroad.

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