The Rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu tells INN, “G-d ordains both the High Priest and the King of Israel. Thus holiness and politics are interwoven. Torah study is not a means to avoid service in the IDF – on the contrary, Yeshiva students bring Divine Redemption and Salvation to the entire world with their holy endeavors. Yair Lapid has also insisted he promotes and encourages Torah study stemming from ideological motivation.

“What we need most is unity. Following the unity government with Menachem Begin’s Likud party in 1967, G-d blessed us with the liberation and unification of Jerusalem. If we have a unity government today, even with Meretz, then who knows? Perhaps G-d will miraculously deliver us from the Iranian nuclear threat.”