Kadima party leader MK Tzipi Livni, who is the opposition leader in Knesset, joined the growing list of prominent personalities expressing criticism against the chareidi community and lifestyle.

Addressing a party faction meeting in Knesset on Monday, Livni stated that the chareidi lifestyle results in “being pushed to the rear of the bus, halting the construction of emergency rooms and schools which refuse to teach core subjects”.

She told party colleagues “When I spoke with Bibi (Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu) about establishing a working relationship, he told me ‘I am already committed to Shas’”. Livni was referring to talks probing the possibility of Kadima entering the government coalition.

She accuses Likud of selling the national agenda to chareidi politicians. “We are all losers here” she explained, explaining anyone concerned with the nation who does not agree with the current realities is included among the losers. This she insists does not represent being anti-religious or even anti-chareidi, but simply opposed to current realities.

She explains it simply expresses a concern “for the future, the nation’s future, and a collective future addressing all the residents, something that the current administration seems to have forgotten”.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)