In the past few weeks, Deputy Minister Yaakov Litzman has announced in both talks with the prime minister and the media that he intends to resign by the end of the summer session unless a new draft law is passed or alternatively no extension is given by the High Court of Justice.

In the past week, Litzman has been told that he may be forced to resign by the end of the week following a directive by the Moetzas Gedolei HaTorah as the High Court is due to decide on the matter of an extension in legislating a new draft law next week, after the Knesset summer session has ended.

But it seems that Litzman’s threats are one thing, and the Torah Council’s instructions are another. On Wednesday morning, Litzman was presented a way down from his tall ladder in the form of a report in the Hamodia newspaper that after the government requested an extension from the High Court of Justice, the Moetzas Gedolei Torah of Agudas Yisrael instructed MKs to wait with the threatened break from the coalition over the draft law until the beginning of the month of Elul.

The bottom line here is PM Netanyahu has called the bluff of the Ashkenazi chareidi parties, particularly Agudas Yisrael, and the chassidic faction is preferring to back down rather than face early elections.

Among the political commentators and reporters on chareidi affairs, they feel the matter has become cynical and ridiculous because of the huge gap between Litzman’s harsh threats and the decisive announcement of immediate resignation and the actual implementation of that resignation, showing the spectacular collapse by the Agudas Yisrael faction.

News reporter Yair Sherki tweeted that “there was no ladder that Litzman and the Chassidic Council did not climb over the past few months, and they were forced to come down with vague excuses.”

The political correspondent of Haaretz, Chaim Levinson, tweeted: “What spectacular acrobatics.”

Commentator Yaron Dekel said that “even Litzman’s notorious threat turned out to be insignificant when in the end the siren was heard to postpone the crisis, and in the winter session, the same thing ended with jumping down off his tree.”

In a conversation with Kikar Shabbos News, commentator Avishai Ben-Chaim claimed that the threatening decision was not clear from the outset. “This is an excellent law for the chareidi public, a law that will drag the decision for a few more years, all according to the approach of the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Shteinman ZT”L, who wisely rejected everything for twenty years,” Ben-Chaim stated.

“The fact that Agudas Yisrael refused to hold a joint council for all the chareidi parties was an obstacle to them when they now have to explain themselves,” Ben-Chaim added.

It should be noted that Agudas Yisrael claims that Deputy Minister Yaakov Litzman personally believes that the law is the lesser evil available, but they add Litzman was dragged to follow his political adversary, Deputy Minister Meir Porush, who feels it is a bad law.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)