Israel – There is a blatant boycott of an entire public underway, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said Sunday in reference to Yesh Atid’s refusal to sit in a coalition with the haredi parties.
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Steinitz said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu correctly disagrees with the “boycott” and that he himself “does not understand these games.”
The finance minister echoed comments made by head of the Likud Beytenu negotiating team Attorney David Shimron in recent days that by upholding its pact with Yesh Atid not to join the coalition without one another, Bayit Yehudi is de facto boycotting the haredim as well.
“The Bayit Yehudi party can say whatever it wants, but Bayit Yehudi is boycotting the haredi parties, this is an undesirable reality,” Steinitz said.
He supported Netanyahu’s repeated claim that Israel needs a wide coalition in order to face the variety of challenges it faces. Steinitz listed security threats, the instability of the region and the economic situation in Europe and the US as issues that affect Israel. “I really do not like boycotts, even if they are indirect,” he asserted.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid publicly and explicitly stated for the first time Saturday night that he would not sit in the same coalition as ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, while Bayit Yehudi stuck to its commitment to enter a government only if Yesh Atid joins as well.
Earlier on Saturday, Lapid posted a lengthy status on his Facebook profile explaining that while he does not reject haredi people, he does not want to be in the same coalition as haredi parties.
“I do not believe that Shas and UTJ can sit in a government that will make the changes for which we went to elections: Changing the criteria for [subsidized] housing, core curriculum studies for all, equality in the burden of enlistment and the necessary cuts in yeshiva budgets…. This is the new civil agenda, which most citizens of this country support, but the haredi parties firmly oppose. That’s their right, but politicians have to be prepared to pay the price for their positions,” he wrote.
Lapid also criticized the haredi parties’ political tactics, writing that they do not accept the rules of the democratic game.
“No one likes to lose, but everyone accepts the basic idea that sometimes you’re in the coalition, and sometimes in the opposition,” he explained, adding that if Yesh Atid ends up in the opposition, they will go proudly, without feeling that someone hates or rejects them.
“Everyone, that is, except for the haredi parties,” he said.
Lapid pointed out that no matter what ideology won the last election – “Left, Right, socialist, capitalist, two-state solution or whole Land of Israel” – the ultra- Orthodox are always willing to be in the coalition.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Why don’t they draft the Arabs ?
Amazing, how in any normal society,(whether Haredim are right or wrong) comments like Lapid’s would have provoked a major outcry of Racism, and would have been denounced by every faction out there…
And again, as in D.C., it is always the Jews themselves that are their worst enemies, and in this case another Relgious Jew ‘Bennet’, he and Lapid think they are here to stay, they are nothing less than another fly-by-one-time-hope Party, we have seen dozens of these come and go (ask Kadima, Shinui, etc.)all he will be remembered, is the damage he will cause. Oh, and Bennet will never ever have the backing of any of the relgious settler Rabbi’s.
Consider that if the upstart parties hold their line and don’t help form a haredi-inclusive coalition, that another round of elections might well result in even more seats for these so-called troublemakers. The next prime minister might well be one who will take a cue from her one co-gender predecessor and reload the nukes on the jets.
The name of the party Yesh Atid (means – there is a future) is a paradox. Without Chareidim or Torah there is no future.
I’m sure his father tommy is shepping nachas his boy is doing the same thing he did when he was alive.
As long as the Chareidi leadership takes the position that their tzibur should boycott the medinah and not participate in any form of national service, it only makes sense that the political leadership of the medinah deny them a seat a the table.
To proud mo Israeli. If they don’t draft the Arabs then they can’t draft the Chareidim. When it comes to giving support financially they give the Arabs everything from free medical care to support. They allow Arabs into the court system including the supreme court as judges. I think no Chareidi should join any army as long as the state does not give the one million israeli Jewish public school kids a Torah education. No Torah no army. The government wants to corrupt the young Chareidim into their secular lifestyle and get them to sport tattoos and earrings like they do. We are not fools.
that loud whining you’re hearing?
Thats the sound of Bibi being outmaneuverd, It has very little to do with Charedim, drafts, or anything remotely related.
Everybody,, everything, every principle, is but a pawn
Charedim and Charedi parties have called for various boycotts in the past. If you can’t take it , too bad. In a democracy you have to be willing to accept other peoples’ rights to use the same political and economic tools that you employ.
I am number 8 replying to comment 12 and 13. There were many religious soldiers mocked for being religious in the israeli army. In fact even hesder soldiers had been harassed. Just last year a soldier from the hesder yeshiva group was forced to remove his tzizes by his secular superior. Don’t be blind and foolish that young 18 year old chareidim will be able to withstand temptations as they are purposely exposed to women. In fact every female israeli soldier is entitled to three free abortions. Let them draft the arabs into doing work voluntarily for the israeli army. They get more benefits than the chareidim. Arabs build illegal homes all over and are almost never challenged. Jews who did their service are kicked out like dogs from their homes like gush katif.