Benny Gantz
Benny GantzGili Yaari/Flash 90

The leaders of the United Torah Judaism party, Deputy Minister of Health MK Yaakov Litzman and Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni, responded on Tuesday to the decision of the Blue and White party’s campaign to declare their desire to form a government without the haredim.

"The cat is out of the bag. After trying for a long time to hide his opinions and even doing everything to differentiate himself from his partner, Yair Lapid, today it turns out that there is no difference between them. Benny Gantz turned out to be a spineless man with no values. He has no problem dividing society in Israel for the sake of a few seats," the two said.

They continued to attack Gantz, saying, "He is not worthy of a role that requires responsibility, he is incompetent. His partnership with Yair Lapid testifies to what the Sages said, ‘Woe to the evil person and woe to his neighbor.’ United Torah Judaism adheres to its position to recommend Netanyahu as Prime Minister.”

The comments came hours after Gantz declared that he would establish a secular government without Netanyahu and the haredim. The reasoning behind the move is to bring back votes that the party has recently lost to Yisrael Beytenu and other parties on the left.

Speaking at an election conference in Be’er Sheva, Gantz said he intended to form a "broad government that will represent everyone," but also sent a message to the haredi parties.

"The system of government in the State of Israel has brought us to a situation where minority groups, sectoral parties, succeed in coercing the majority. They succeed because all the previous Prime Ministers have given in to extortion. They formed coalitions that worked for those groups, and not for the majority of the public,” Gantz continued.

He added, "I pledge to you that immediately after the elections, we will establish a liberal unity government. A government based on the majority - without extremists and without blackmail. Any Zionist party that wishes to join under the basic principles on which the majority of the public agrees - will be invited to join. We will establish a government that will represent the majority and also care for those who did not vote for it."