Israel’s chareidi parties are preparing for the option that they will be forced to sit in the opposition in the next government, Channel 10 News reported.
The report quoted officials in both Shas and Yahadus Hatorah as having said that they will likely have to join the opposition, because of the surprising rise of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party. Lapid has indicated he will work to draft yeshiva bochurim into the army.
Aryeh Deri of Shas was quoted in the report as having told his associates that “the party will sit with Shelly Yechimovich in the opposition,” referring to the Labor party leader who has ruled out joining a coalition led by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
“It looks as though Yair wants a government without chareidim,” Deri said, adding, “We will care about those who are less fortunate from the opposition.”
Also quoted by Channel 10 was Meir Porush of UTJ, who said, “I would not suggest to any Prime Minister that he confront hundreds of thousands of chareidim” over the draft issue.
On Sunday, Deri said that under no circumstances would the chareidi community agree to a forced draft. “A true participation in the draft will only take place based on a willing agreement and pact between Israeli society and the chareidi community,” he said.
MK Yisrael Eichler of UTJ was more optimistic that the issue could be resolved, saying that “if the people gave Lapid a mandate to push through a chareidi draft requirement, it also gave a mandate to the religious.”
Speaking at a faction meeting of UTJ Monday, Eichler said that religious individuals, along with religious parties, were well represented in the Knesset. Altogether, some 40 MKs live a religious lifestyle, and there are 18 MKs in chareidi parties in the Knesset – 7 for UTJ, and 11 for Shas. Those numbers, said Eichler, justified discussing a mandate for ensuring that chareidi yeshiva students are able to continue their studies uninterrupted, equal to the mandate for Lapid’s views.
He said that he believed the issue would be worked out, and that UTJ would become a member of the government. “There’s enough room for everyone in the government,” he said.
Read more at ARUTZ SHEVA.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Still in complete denial. When will we wake up.
because of the surprising rise of Yair Lapids Yesh Atid — A surprise to who? The religious parties need to open ears, listen and be responsive to what is going on with PR,,,,public relations. It works in NY and will work in ISRAEL when a PR office opens and start functioning.
Being part of the coalition requires those parties to make deals. In contrast, there is no such requirement as an opposition party. If so, what does Aryeh Deri mean that he will sit with Shelly? Shas would just be in the opposition.
The way to end this stupidity known as a draft of Yeshiva bochurim is to end the draft and have a volunteer army. 52% of otherwise eligible people do not serve anyway. However, a volunteer army would never happen because the army is currently comprised of 40% national religious and a volunteer army would probably be over 70%. Such a result would give to much power to the national religious, something the secular establishment does not want to do.
Yair Lapid is willing to compremis on drafting charedeim so why is evreybody worried also he still has less seats than what Kadima had in 2009 and they pushed to drafed caradim and it didn’t work