MK Rabbi Shai Piron
MK Rabbi Shai PironFlash 90

MK Rabbi Shai Piron (Yesh Atid) confirmed on Sunday the recent reports that the Likud’s negotiation team had offered his party to enter the coalition without the Bayit Yehudi, so that the new government can lead moves that will bring about evictions of communities in Judea and Samaria.

Sources in Yesh Atid told the Maariv daily newspaper on Friday that Likud promised the party's representatives to tear down Jewish communities in Israel's Biblical heartland if Yesh Atid joins its coalition independently of Bayit Yehudi.

The Likud rejected this report, but Rabbi Piron confirmed to Arutz Sheva that such an offer had indeed been made.

“The Prime Minister suggested that Yesh Atid enter a coalition without the Bayit Yehudi, on the grounds that the Bayit Yehudi would prevent evictions of communities,” he said, and when confronted with the words of MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), who told Arutz Sheva earlier that no such offer had taken place he replied, “Unlike my friend MK Hotovely, I am familiar with the details of the conversation but I will not elaborate.”

Rabbi Piron rejected the claims that his party ruled out joining a coalition with the hareidi-religious parties, saying that the Israeli public voted in favor of promoting certain values ​​and certain beliefs and that these values ​​are different than those of the hareidim, leading to a situation where one side will have to sit in the opposition.

“Until recently I heard people say ‘the Jewish Home of the gentiles’ and suddenly we are the ones who are boycotting?” he said, referring to remarks against the Bayit Yehudi that were made by Shas’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, during the election campaign.

Rabbi Piron said that the hareidi world will receive equal and fair treatment by the next government, that will allow hareidim to enter the workforce.

Asked whether there is a chance that Shas and his party can sit together in a the same coalition, Rabbi Piron said that the answer to this question lies in the hands of Shas Minister Eli Yishai and it should thus be addressed to him.

Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid have made a pact, agreeing to enter the coalition together or not at all, so they can guarantee a coalition ally with similar goals.

Lapid insists on implementing a strict program to enlist hareidi-religious yeshiva students into the army, making it nearly impossible for Prime MInister Binyamin Netanyahu to form a coalition with Yesh Atid, Bayit Yehudi and the hareidi parties.

Bayit Yehudi, while agreeing with Lapid’s intention to enlist hareidi-religious yeshiva students into the army, has never said it would refuse to sit in a coalition with the hareidim and indicated that it would be willing to negotiate with them on this issue, despite claims otherwise by Likud negotiators.

At the same time, Bayit Yehudi members have indicated in recent days that the pact with Yesh Atid is solid and strong, which makes it nearly impossible to include the hareidim in the coalition. Reports Sunday indicated that Netanyahu is beginning to understand this.