my understanding is that there's a collective understanding that the political system in israel is unworkable and that this, combined with unchecked population growth by the ultra-orthodox sect, is threatening to collapse the country into a fundamentalist state. the result is that secular jews are abandoning the country.

sharon and netanhayu are rightly viewed as extremists in the west, but in the context of the israeli spectrum they were actually moderates.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/18/why-are-so-many-jews-leaving-israel/