The chairman of the Yisrael Beitenu party, Avigdor Lieberman, issued a warning on Tuesday during a press conference at Beit Sokolov in Tel Aviv, using the forum to attack the chareidi parties and working to increase his voter base by instilling fear in listeners regarding his perception of the ‘chareidi threat’.

“The issue that bothers me most in the election campaign is that the coalition that is emerging will be the most chareidi ever” Lieberman said. Of the 68 MKs in the right-wing bloc, 25 are expected to be chareidi and religious,” he added.

He continued: “I am talking not only about Shas and Yahadut Hatorah, but also about the United Right-Wing, this time explicitly referring to a chardal (chareidi dati-leumi) party that harms the whole fabric of coexistence between the chareidim and the secular.

He refers to the fact that Bayit Yehudi is headed by Rabbi Rafi Peretz instead of Naftali Bennet and that MK Betzalel Smotrich runs Ichud Leumi instead of Uri Ariel.

“The government and the right-wing bloc constitute 68 seats, with 25 of them from chareidim who believe in changing the Law of Return and the halachic state. This is a deadly thing for the State of Israel and for our connection to the Jewish identity and the Jewish community in the United States.”

Lieberman slammed the silence of the non-religious right-wing parties: “The fact that the heads of the right-wing parties are careful to silence the lambs on this issue and no one condemns this unacceptable phenomenon is demanding of explanation.”

He continued to attack: “Even in the last vote that was to disqualify Balad, the representatives of Shas and Yahadut Hatorah left and none of the parties supported the disqualification of Balad and Ofer Kasif.”

“We are facing a very dangerous situation – on the one hand there is a very large chareidi bloc and on the other hand you cannot call them part of the right-wing bloc. That’s why we are also concerned about the chareidiazation of a coalition and also emphasize that chareidim are not connected to the right, and certainly not ideological, but whatever better serves monetarily speaking.

Lieberman promised: “We will not sign any coalition agreement before we see what they signed with the chareidim. Before we enter, we would like to see what was promised to them, both in the area of legislation and in the area of budgets. Every shekel they receive will require the same amount of money for the truly deprived minority in Israel – anyone who works, pays taxes, serves in the army and the reserves is the most deprived minority.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)