UTJ MK Moshe Gafni said on "Meet the Press" on Friday: "I want to be in the coalition, but it won't be a disaster if we'll be in the opposition. I was in the opposition in the previous term. If we were under pressure then we would be zigzagging like everyone else and say now we support someone else, or now we're ready to sit together with Yair Lapid - we're not saying that."
"We say our position, our truth," he explained. "Anyone who accepts these things - we request that they vote for us. We don't feel pressured. It's possible that there will be a government without haredim. At times, I'm even pleased with the idea - I like to be in the opposition. We were in such a situation when [Netanyahu] made a coalition with Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett and left us outside. We lived through it, nothing happened."
"If Netanyahu decides he's going with Blue and White and Yair Lapid, and he's leaving us out - we'll accept it. But it won't be in his favor - and he also knows this. It's not in his favor because then he'll be alone among those whose only concern is to remove him from power. We're not like that."
Gafni also referred to Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz's statement last week that he would establish a government without the hareidi parties. "Politicians can say one thing and a half hour later something else. They do what's convenient for them. Apparently someone explained to him that he could aim for Liberman's votes, so he said he would form a government without haredim."
MK Yair Lapid responded to Gafni's statements on Twitter: "Gafni said to Rina Matzliach that it's not a disaster if he'll be in the opposition. It truly would not be a disaster. Who said that we don't agree on anything?"