Yamina head Ayelet Shaked met with Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana on Sunday afternoon to discuss the future of the party.
Kahana told Shaked during the meeting that he does not intend to break off from Yamina in the coming days but is only willing to stay in the party if he is granted permission to break off at a later date.
Kahana is interested in joining Yesh Atid or Blue and White but has not yet reached an agreement with either party. According to a Yisrael Hayom report, Yesh Atid refused Kahana’s request for one of the party’s top five spots and Kahana is apparently still in negotiations over joining Blue and White.
It’s likely that Kahana’s lack of success in joining another party is due to the “Chareidi veto” – Chareidi MKs reportedly warned the leaders of Blue and White and other parties that Kahana’s inclusion will pose a barrier to a future coalition as Chareidi parties will not agree to join a government that includes him.
It is unclear how Kahana could remain in Yamina under Shaked following his statements that like Naftali Bennett, he prefers a broad unity government rather than a “full right-wing government,” and will not sit in the same government as Binyamin Netanyahu.
Shaked, on the other hand, supports a full right-wing government and has stated her willingness to sit in a government under Netanyahu.
On Sunday morning, Kahana wrote on Facebook: “My goal is to continue the journey I started together with Bennett – to act with all my might for a broad unity government with the understanding that in the current political reality a one-sided government is a very damaging thing for the State of Israel. To continue to work to strengthen the Jewish identity of the state from a broad consensus and not through religious wars. To continue to be the home of moderate and state religious Zionism.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
corruption, corruption, corruption
reform not needed.
If Torah-true parties will understandably refuse to sit with Matan (change Torah as I see fit ) Kahana, how will they sit with him if Yamina joins Netanyahu? The only answer is that a strong personality like Netanyahu wont allow Kahana to do what Bennett encouraged him to do.
He should join Lieberman (Bennett should go along too)
Birds of a feather flock together (and hopefully none of them will pass the threshold)
“Continue to work to strengthen the Jewish identity of the state from a broad consensus and not through religious wars”
Jewish identity cannot be defined by “broad consensus,” only by Judaism itself, i.e. the Shulchan Aruch.
How broad is broad? Do we consult with reform rabbis to define Jewish identity? Or maybe we consult with Jewish atheists? Or (l’havdil) Christians, Muslims, Hamas, or Nazis?
I’m sure they all have their own definitions of Jewish identity…