During his address at a symposium, MK Moshe Gafne lashed out at the Agudas Yisrael faction of Yahadut Hatorah regarding the new arrangement with the coalition vis-à-vis monthly child allowance payments and the treasury’s new savings account plan.

The panel addressing the symposium was made up of Gafne, Rabbi Mordechai Blau and Zeilig Orlansky of Yated Neeman.

Gafne spoke about the unfair breakup of seats in their party (Degel is 2 and Agudah 4) as he feels most of those who voted for Yahadut Hatorah were litvish, not chassidish. He stated “from here on there will not be such a division of seats in Yahadut Hatorah and if there is, Degel will have 4 seats and Agudah 2”.

Gafne discussed how Yahadut Hatorah was formed following the signing of an agreement in 5752 as Maran Rav Shach ZT”L sent Shlomo Laurentz and Uri Lupoliansky to close a deal, which they did, amid the awareness the MKs would not be willing to give on the division of power and sign such an agreement.

“You cannot begin to imagine the rosh yeshiva’s anger” stated Gafne, who added “Rav Shach stated it was unfair to divide 50:50, adding if Agudas Yisrael would understand the true intentions [of Degel Hatorah] regarding peace, they would give us the 16th and 36th slots in the lineup”.

“Rav Shach always lost the battles but won the war” Gafne added.

Gafne vented in a big way, adding “We established Chinuch Atzmai, shuls, mikvaos and so much more. There is no party that can compete with our accomplishments as we feel responsible to the entire chareidi tzibur as opposed to Agudas Yisrael, which does not feel responsible to the entire chareidi tzibur”.

“A Gerre chossid told me ‘In Poland we were responsible for everyone but here in Israel, we take care of ourselves’. Then I told him the truth — I did not check regarding Poland, but here in Israel, he is correct”. As the crowd of bnei yeshivos applauded him Gafne added “We were raised by Gedolei Torah here in Israel to shoulder responsibility. I don’t know what was in Poland. Here this method has proven itself”.

Gafne continued, explaining that during his travels around Israel he has seen places that a chareidim never entered and today, there is no place around Israel without shiurim and a frum school and or shul.

“We are not Eli Yishai. We can go it alone” Gafne continued, this time attacking those chassidim who he believes voted for Yishai’s Yachad party and abandoning Yahadut Hatorah. “We lost votes but we brought many additional votes than Agudas Yisrael brought”.

“If there is someone blaming us, perhaps we, Degel Hatorah, because of our problems [i.e. the Yerushalmi faction] I simply ask how many chassidim voted for Eli Yishai or Likud and who brought the combined party more votes?”

“We did not run alone because we were afraid but rather these are the instructions were received. I cannot say if these instructions are going to continue [in the future]. We have our offices, our party and movement. I have no problem with this. We live in peace. Agudas Yisrael has its offices that remain vacant while ours are constantly busy as with the example of Motke Blau”.

In conclusion, Gafne went after Yaakov Litzman, who he feels sold out during talks with treasury officials regarding the monthly child allowance payments. He stated when they met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Litzman took his hat and was preparing to leave. “I hold him there are matters more important that the monthly child allowance payments and not to blow up the situation”.

“Today senior treasury officials presented their plan to me. I am opposed to the savings account concept attached to the monthly payments for I fear in a year, two or more, the treasury will being placing new restrictions on that money” Gafne concluded.

When asked if the factions are going to split, Gafne commented at the end “It appears the instructions have not changed and we do not wish to have machlokes but we have a long way to go until agreement is reached”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)