Next Israeli Government Will Be 'Short Term,' Says Knesset Member
Knesset member Moshe Gafni from the ultra-Orthodox Yahadut HaTorah party explains to Mazal Mualem the failings of both Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and HaBayit HaYehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett, predicting political disaster if they are included in the next Israeli government.
According to ultra-Orthodox party Yahadut HaTorah Knesset member Moshe Gafni, the two new stars on Israel’s political horizon — Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid and HaBayit HaYehudi leader Naftali Bennett — are the worst thing that ever happened to the ultra-Orthodox public in Israel from time immemorial. Between the two of them, Gafni picks the kipa-wearing HaBayit HaYehudi leader as the worst of the two, and accuses him of “hypocrisy and treachery” toward ultra-Orthodox society.
The past years in the coalition were good years for the ultra-Orthodox community but Gafni, a Yahadut HaTorah member, knows that stormy skies await. In less than two weeks, he and his compatriots in the Knesset will lose their positions of influence in the government and in the Knesset’s more prestigious committees. Yes, very soon Gafni will be forced to part from his tenure as chairman of the Knesset’s finance committee, a role that represented the height of his parliamentary career.
Yet the opposition benches are not foreign to the ultra-Orthodox Knesset Member. During those years in the opposition, Gafni was viewed as a prominent and esteemed member of the opposition ranks. He was known for his sharp tongue, his wit and rich language that was even studded with secular slang, when the occasion called for it. Now Gafni, together with his six friends from the Yahadut HaTorah faction and 11 ultra-Orthodox Party Shas Knesset Members, are trying to re-invent themselves, to map their political enemies and shape an oppositional agenda.
Already, several things are clear: Yahadut HaTorah and Shas will coordinate their positions, chiefly with regard to the legislation of the new draft law. It is clear that they will also do their best to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third government a very hard time, mainly regarding the cutbacks in the new budget, and will fight their new enemy – Naftali Bennett. Bennett was supposed to have been their brother before he turned into Lapid’s “lost brother.” Gafni is, meanwhile, watching his step around Netanyahu; like the Shas leadership, Gafni prefers to keep his door open, because “it’s not over until it’s over”.
