In recent days, the chairman of the opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been working to stop the statements of the leaders of the ultra-orthodox parties, regarding the possibility of joining a government that Netanyahu is not at the head of.
The former prime minister arranged meetings and talks not only with the politicians, but also with senior officials in the rabbinical courts and other influential factors in the ultra-orthodox public.
He had the feverish conversations himself as well as through his associates Natan Eshel and Ze'ev Fleishman, his advisers on ultra-Orthodox affairs.
Apply aggressive pressure.
Netanyahu and Eshel, photo: Lior Mizrahi
A source who witnessed some of these conversations said that Netanyahu and his people sounded stressed and panicked, and the pressure they exerted on Bnei Shiham was aggressive.
According to an official in the ultra-Orthodox factions, Netanyahu's men were successful in some arenas, when Shas chairman Aryeh Deri was quick to express absolute loyalty to Netanyahu, as did the new Agudat Israel chairman, Yitzhak Goldknopf, who announced that his faction would enter the government only with the Likud at the head Netanyahu. The more problematic arena, according to him, was and remains the Lithuanian faction, Flag of the Torah, led by MK Moshe Gafni, who is in no rush to line up, although, according to him, even in his arena, the opposition leader managed to reap some partial successes.
rushed to bring loyalty.
Deri,
The statement and clarification
Yesterday, Netanyahu met with Gafni and Goldknopf, each separately, and delivered a sharp message to them, according to which the hints that there may be another government that is not fully based on the right-wing bloc under his leadership - may harm both the ultra-orthodox parties and the bloc as a whole.
This meeting was preceded, as mentioned, by many conversations with rabbinic officials, including members of the court of the elder member of the Council of Torah Elders of the Torah Council, Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Tziri (93), who was quoted at the council's meeting last week as saying that it does not matter to his party who will be the head of the government and if they will be 61 to the right block.
"These are just means - we are interested in the goal," he said.
These words, which greatly disturbed Netanyahu, earned the members of his household a frantic phone call from Nathan Eshel, who requested that the rabbi clarify that he did not mean for his party to sit in the government without Netanyahu.
A clarification that did come out a short time later.
everything is open.
vines,
A small success
While Gafni refrained from saying decisive things on the subject, and even attacked Deri, Netanyahu had a small success when the Torah flagship "Yad Neman" published an editorial harshly attacking Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
This is the first Lithuanian attack against Lapid in a long time, and the first since the reports of a recent rapprochement between Lapid and Gafni, which included several filmed encounters at various events, began.
In Netanyahu's circle, this editorial is seen as a victory for the line they are leading, because there is no other government but one led by Netanyahu.
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