Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) denied claims that UTJ is a sectoral party that focuses solely on Chareidi concerns at the Manufacturers’ Association Conference in Tel Aviv on Monday.
“My concern is not the Chareidi community,” Gafni said. “I worry about all Israeli citizens. When something is negative for the secular community, it is negative for the Chareidi community many times over.”
“I passed 12 laws just in the last term and not even one of them was intended for the needs of the Chareidi community,” Gafni asserted.
Gafni also referred to the current election campaign in Israel – the second one this year – blaming it on MK Avigdor Liberman. “We must establish a government after these elections. It’s not possible for a country like Israel not to work for a full year. The Knesset is an important economic tool and I have a slew of issues to bring to the table. We were forced to vote on the dissolution of the Knesset because there was someone who said he would join Bibi and went back on his word – Avigdor Liberman.”
“You can’t be so hypocritical – to support us and then suddenly change direction,” Gafni said. “He says something and then does the opposite. I can’t tell you that I would never join Liberman again because tomorrow he’ll be with us again, with the Chareidim. When I spoke with him, he was extremely supportive of us.”
Gafni added that he doesn’t have anything against Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz but that he would never sit together in the same government as the number two on the Blue and White list: MK Yair Lapid. “I don’t rule out Gantz, but he made a mistake by joining Lapid. We won’t be together with him under any circumstances. All his views and statements about Israel as a Jewish and democratic state are against what we believe in.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
lapid wants sincere change in the level of secular education for hareidim. he is wrong to interfere; it will only come by a bottom-up revolt by hareidim against their leaders,
I think the time has come to stop with the term “chareidi” and instead draw the line between those who are online and those who are not.
The depth and beauty of this is that those who are “off” will actually be “on” the right derech
I hope this is sincere. It is long past time that the “unser menchen” attitude be replaced with the understanding that ALL Jews are “unser menchen.”