Clearly, no single person or party ran with a more vehemently anti-chareidi election campaign than Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu party. That said, we heard chareidi representatives declaring they will never sit in a coalition with Yair Lapid of the Blue and White party, yet no such declaration was heard from them regarding Lieberman or vice versa.

Lieberman declared numerous times that if he is in the next coalition, he will not tolerate any change to the draft law bill that was approved by the IDF and his office during his tenure as Defense Minister. This would place the new coalition in the same crisis that led to dissolving the 20th Knesset, compelling early elections for the 21st Knesset.

It is believed that one of Lieberman’s demands to enter the coalition will be a veto authority when it comes to the chareidim and legislation dealing with religion and the state. The chareidim on the other hand view him as their political nemesis, and now, after general elections, each requires the other to maintain a coalition majority, so elections have landed the 21st Knesset in the exact same place the 20th ended.

The chareidim may have three additional seats, but they cannot ignore Lieberman as he is gunning for them and he appears increasingly determined to advance his anti-chareidi agenda than ever.

It appears the sides will have to rely on the political expertise of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who will undoubtedly need his decades of experience and political expertise to sew together yet another coalition government that includes opposites that don’t attract.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)