The Yamina party, in an effort to lessen the ire of its former support base, the Dati Leumi community, is making efforts to advance an initiative to exclude Dati Leumi avreichim from Leiberman’s cuts to daycare subsidies, Kan News reported on Tuesday evening.

Yamina, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, is planning on accomplishing this by adding a clause to the criteria that allows avreichim who are not working but have served in the IDF to continue receiving daycare subsidies.

The initiative arose following an irate letter sent to Bennett by the Union of Zionist Yeshivot and the Hesder Yeshivot Association decrying Leiberman’s decision. However, judging by its response, the Dati Leumi community is not pleased with Yamina’s initiative, writing: “We demand the revocation of the severe harm to avreichim – to the entire Torah world – without any distinction between sectors or the colors of kippot.”

“On Erev Tisha B’aV, Bennett and Shaked are trying to sow more conflict and division, this time between Chareidim and the Dati Leumi,” Religious Zionist party chairman Betzalel Smotrich said in response to the report. “You won’t succeed. The blood of a child with a kippah sruga isn’t redder than the blood of a child with a black kippah. We’ll remain united against those who give in to terror supporters and at the same time, degrade lomdei Torah.”

Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir said: “Naftali Bennett wants us to quarrel among us. We, the Dati Leumi, need to refuse this favor. We won’t agree to favors on the backs of our Chareidi brothers. We won’t agree to discrimination based on the type of kippah. This is a government of hatred and we all need to be united in this war.”

“The cat is out of the bag,” UTJ chairman Moshe Gafni said. “The sole intent of Leiberman, Bennett, and their partners is hatred of Chareidim and nothing else.”

In a focused effort to harm the Chareidi community, Leiberman altered the criteria to receive daycare subsidies in a way that excludes anyone learning in Kollel since the new criteria require both parents to be working. The criteria go into effect for the new school year, which means that parents who already enrolled their children in daycare months ago, are left without a framework since daycare sans subsidies cost thousands of shekels per month.

On Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that the implementation of the cuts will be delayed by two months, until November 1, “to allow families to prepare,” an unhelpful decision since parents will find it difficult to find a new framework for their children in the middle of the year.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)