Netanyahu
NetanyahuYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Senior religious Zionist officials on Tuesday criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to summon rabbis from the national religious sector and ask them to support him publicly in the face of police recommendations against him to be published in the coming weeks.

Speaking to Arutz Sheva, the officials asserted that, at every opportunity in recent years, Netanyahu has refused to relate to the needs of the religious Zionist public in a serious way.

"Netanyahu wants use the Zionist rabbis as a whitewash for his behavior, and he expects them to defend him in the media over the cigars and champagne affair," they asserted.

The senior officials claim that religious Zionism is last on Netanyahu’s list of priorities. "He will always continue the freeze and explain that construction in Judea and Samaria is not urgent and that there are higher considerations. He tells us stories all the time. He didn't help religious Zionism at all with regards to the Joint Service Order," which calls for greater mixed gender integration in the IDF. "In the Or Etzion episode, he did not lift a finger.”

According to them, after the elections, Netanyahu "sold" the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interior to Shas, and this is expected to happen even after the next elections. "It is sad that time and again the rabbis become Netanyahu's tool. What message and personal example will emerge from this meeting? That rabbis of religious Zionism defend hedonistic acts, even if they are not corruption? "

The senior officials call upon rabbis who have confirmed their arrival to make a clear and moral statement against hedonism and remind the Prime Minister of recent years in which they did not enjoy his cooperation.

"Netanyahu knows the clients. It is unfortunate that, every time religious Zionists seek him he is nowhere to be found, but when he needs them, they stand at attention.

“Rabbis are not the Prime Minister’s lackeys.”