Reply #2: No kidding.

[Shadrach]

And I think there was more of a disconnect (at least by American Jews) in the beginning than there is now. Reform and Conservative Judaism saw America as their center and ignored Israel. Because of that now you see the orthodox, a minority, holding on to power and only now the non-orthodox are doing something about it.

Non-orthodox Jews are pretty much headquartered in America and they are huge supporters of the state of Israel without having much significant power over there. Only recently there were threats from the non-orthodox community of dropping financial support if their voice were not heard. Result: they were able to make the specific changes since without this support the state is in trouble.

In the law of return, for example, the non-orthodox communities had to put a lot of pressure and make financial threats in order for non-orthodox converts to be able to make aliyah according to the law of return. Liberal zionist groups like ARZA (associated with the Union for Reform Judaism) are making noise and looking to change politics. These efforts are only beginning.