Moshe Gafni: If Likud becomes the opposition, UTJ will follow

United Torah Judaism will not join the “bloc for change” if it forms a coalition, UTJ chairman Moshe Gafni said Tuesday, adding that it would go into the opposition with the Likud instead. If the Likud isunable to form a government and ends up in the opposition, UTJ would join it there, he told KAN Reshet Bet. “We are not zigzagging on this issue,” Gafni said. “We go with the [religiously] traditional community, which is on the Right. If we need to go to the opposition, we will go to the opposition.” “Our leading rabbis have instructed us that we should go with the traditional public, which is on the right wing [and] is headed by [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said. “So we will go with him, and therefore I will not go with anyone else.” UTJ is ideological and could not be bought by various promises and deals, Gafni said. It would flourish in the opposition, where it would be able to look out for the concerns of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, he said. Yamina leader MK Naftali Bennett had not asked him to join a government with Yesh Atid and its leader, Yair Lapid, Gafni said. Bennett had not offered a freeze on religion-and-state issues in any such government, he added. There has been speculation that the haredi parties, UTJ and Shas, might join a government of the bloc for change if Netanyahu is left with no path forward for forming a coalition or even after a new coalition is formed. Gafni's comments essentially rule out such a scenario, leaving the bloc for change with a narrow range of options for forming a coalition, most likely a minority government supported externally by one or both of the Arab parties.

Moshe Gafni: If Likud becomes the opposition, UTJ will follow

The UTJ leader said his party was “ideological” and could not be bought by various promises and deals, and added that he would “flourish” in opposition.

French man beaten while returning from mikveh

Efrat leader: Building de facto West Bank sovereignty

Moshe Gafni: If Likud becomes the opposition, UTJ will follow

The UTJ leader said his party was “ideological” and could not be bought by various promises and deals, and added that he would “flourish” in opposition.

See more on