MK Moshe Gafne, chairman of Degel Hatorah, told the media on Sunday, February 24, 2019, that unfortunately, there are chareidim that for one reason or another, opt to vote for a secular party and not Yahadut Hatorah in Knesset elections. He explained that in this election campaign, as was the case in the last, the party will reach out to all chareidim, including those affiliated with Peleg Yerushalmi, as well as members of the dati leumi and traditional communities, in the hope some will vote for them too.

He explained that with some chareidim voting for secular parties, this led to the Meretz party entering Knesset, and bringing in MK Tamar Zandberg, the party’s chairwoman “instead of that seat going to us” he explained during an interview with Kikar Shabbos News.

He stressed that today, Degel Hatorah and Agudas Yisrael are united under the Yahadut Hatorah umbrella and now is the time to tell voters what the party has done and will do in the future, and not to concentrate on the problems with Yair Lapid, referring to comments made earlier at the election launch event against Lapid by Yaakov Litzman. “Everyone knows that we will not sit in a government with Lapid so no need to go there” he explained.

MK Yisrael Eichler of the Agudas Yisrael faction of the united chareidi party added, “A representative of Tiveria is seated here. A city in which the mayor is defiantly against us and everything holy. There are missiles of anti-religious legislation [in Knesset] and we are the Iron Dome that stands firm against such legislation and so there should not be such mayors”.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)