Yair Golan Offers Haredim Deal as 67 MKs Back Eisenkot
(MENAFN) Yair Golan, head of Israel’s opposition Democrats party, signaled Saturday that he is ready to team up with ultra-Orthodox Jews in a bid to unseat outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the project a “government of rescue and change.”
The overture came one day after Avigdor Lieberman, chief of the right-wing opposition party Yisrael Beytenu, lifted his refusal to sit in a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties. Lieberman held firm against any government that includes Arab parties.
Golan said his party sought a relationship with the ultra-Orthodox community, known as Haredim, built on “mutual responsibility.” His demands include conscripting Haredi men into the military, raising workforce participation in the community, and guaranteeing every Israeli child an education that leads to a livelihood.
Israel’s middle class, he argued, can no longer shoulder the economic and security burden by itself. He said his party honors the Haredi way of life and expects the same respect for how others live.
Anyone interested in a partnership, Golan said, should come to meet him in largely secular Ramat Gan. He left it to Netanyahu to court favor in the ultra-Orthodox strongholds of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood.
He cautioned that the offer carries conditions and would not be a “blank check.”
The political maneuvering comes as President Isaac Herzog prepares to hand Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot the task of forming the next government. Eisenkot is due to receive the mandate Sunday.
In consultations with Herzog, factions representing 67 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers backed Eisenkot, while factions representing 46 backed Netanyahu. The 67 included all 19 lawmakers from the Arab Joint List and Ra’am. The Israeli parties that endorsed Eisenkot control 48 seats between them, leaving them 13 short of a parliamentary majority.
The overture came one day after Avigdor Lieberman, chief of the right-wing opposition party Yisrael Beytenu, lifted his refusal to sit in a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties. Lieberman held firm against any government that includes Arab parties.
Golan said his party sought a relationship with the ultra-Orthodox community, known as Haredim, built on “mutual responsibility.” His demands include conscripting Haredi men into the military, raising workforce participation in the community, and guaranteeing every Israeli child an education that leads to a livelihood.
Israel’s middle class, he argued, can no longer shoulder the economic and security burden by itself. He said his party honors the Haredi way of life and expects the same respect for how others live.
Anyone interested in a partnership, Golan said, should come to meet him in largely secular Ramat Gan. He left it to Netanyahu to court favor in the ultra-Orthodox strongholds of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood.
He cautioned that the offer carries conditions and would not be a “blank check.”
The political maneuvering comes as President Isaac Herzog prepares to hand Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot the task of forming the next government. Eisenkot is due to receive the mandate Sunday.
In consultations with Herzog, factions representing 67 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers backed Eisenkot, while factions representing 46 backed Netanyahu. The 67 included all 19 lawmakers from the Arab Joint List and Ra’am. The Israeli parties that endorsed Eisenkot control 48 seats between them, leaving them 13 short of a parliamentary majority.
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