During the last election period, which ended a short time ago, the chareidi parties Shas and Yahadut Hatorah, announced they would only recommend Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the presidential mandate to form the next coalition government. They also announced their cherem of the Blue and White party headed by Benny Gantz, because his number two man is Yair Lapid, who the chareidim insist they will not sit in the same government with.

Did the trend turn over when they realized that they did not have too many political options? Journalist Ben Caspit on Thursday morning wrote in the Maariv newspaper about contacts between Yahadut Hatorah and Blue and White prior to the vote on dispersing the Knesset, just weeks after it was elected.

A person who is not chareidi but who is close to one of the most prominent rabbonim received his approval to refer the following proposal to Benny Gantz: the signing of the compromise agreement proposed by Netanyahu in the draft law, in return for opposition to the dissolution of the Knesset.

The idea was that this letter would serve as proof that it would be possible to conduct negotiations with Blue and White later. The chareidi parties however demanded that Yair Lapid sign the letter as well and not only Benny Gantz, as Lapid has stated on numerous occasions that he will oppose any changes to the draft law towards accommodating the chareidim.

This demand raised difficulties in advancing the proposal, which ultimately did not come to fruition, mainly because of the fear in Blue and White that the negotiations would be detrimental to them, as was the case when the talks between Avi Gabbai and Binyamin Netanyahu were exposed.

A source involved in the negotiations told Maariv: “The chareidim understood that they must return to the status of not being associated with any one side of the political spectrum and to get out of Netanyahu’s bear hug. They cannot be automatically be associated with one side. They also know that if this time Netanyahu does not succeed in winning a majority without Lieberman, their future options may no longer exist.”

But while many in Blue and White are interested in maintaining ties with the chareidim, a source in Yesh Atid told Ben Caspit. “These elections will be about religion and state.”

In his words, “The chareidim know that the public has put an end to what is happening and are looking for new tracks, but we have to focus on only one thing: a victory in September, and only a victory will bring the chareidim too.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)