Charedi MKs said planning to allow formation of Eisenkot-led government

 

The United Torah Judaism party is reportedly threatening to allow the formation of a minority government headed by Yashar chief Gadi Eisenkot, amid the ultra-Orthodox party’s anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to deliver on promises to pass legislation granting Haredi yeshiva students exemptions from military service.

In the event of a deadlock between the Netanyahu- and Eisenkot-led blocs after the October 27 election, UTJ MKs Yitzhak Goldknopf and Ya’akov Tessler plan to abstain if a vote is held to swear in an Eisenkot-led minority government, according to an unsourced Channel 12 report on Monday.

The pair represent the Gur Hasidic sect in UTJ, but they believe the rest of the party — which is polling at roughly eight seats — will follow suit, Channel 12 said.

Goldknopf and Tessler believe that Netanyahu no longer has a path to victory and are hoping to secure concessions from Eisenkot in exchange for allowing him to establish a government, the network said.

But shortly after the report aired, UTJ chairman Ya’akov Asher issued a denial, insisting that his party “has no desire to topple or install anyone [as prime minister], and [is] not acting out of a desire for revenge or other interests.

He said all factions of UTJ will not back any government unless the issue of exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students is “legally settled.”

Until now, UTJ has been counted firmly within Netanyahu’s bloc, particularly as the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men into the military has emerged as a central election issue for opposition parties, including Yashar.

According to Channel 12, however, the Haredi party remains angry with Netanyahu over his failure to pass legislation enshrining sweeping military-service exemptions for yeshiva students, with the party reportedly willing to deny him another term as prime minister as a result, despite a series of measures his coalition passed to placate the ultra-Orthodox parties, including barring the arrest of Haredi draft dodgers and transferring billions of shekels in funding for yeshivas and Haredi institutions.

While Eisenkot said yesterday that no Arab or ultra-Orthodox party currently meets his conditions for joining a government, he has previously appeared open to governing with Haredi parties, particularly Shas.

He has repeatedly said that any party that accepts his principles – including support for Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, the Declaration of Independence and universal conscription, and recognition of Hamas as a terror group that must be destroyed – could join his coalition, though it remains unclear how the Haredi parties could acquiesce to at least some of those conditions, particularly universal conscription.

Repeated polls have indicated the upcoming election will end in a deadlock, with neither bloc receiving a majority of at least 61 seats. Still, the Eisenkot-led bloc polls more consistently ahead of the Netanyahu-led bloc of right-wing and Orthodox parties.