Moshe Gafni
Moshe GafniHadas Porush, Flash 90

Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni (UTJ) on Wednesday morning said the argument over the proposed Draft Law is an internal haredi argument.

"The Prime Minister told us to finish with the Draft Law," Gafni told Kol Hai Radio. "He didn't prevent its advancement and he gives full support to the coalition partners to reach an agreement on the law."

"The disagreements regarding this law are internal haredi [arguments]."

Israel's Knesset has until December to approve a new draft law. The current bill, which passed its first Knesset reading earlier this summer, determines recruitment targets for haredim, which grow in number every year, and imposes economic sanctions on yeshivas that do not meet these recruitment targets.

Another clause states that the law will be repealed if the haredim fail to meet the recruitment targets for three consecutive years.

Gafni also discussed a recent video of himself calling on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to meet with haredi rabbis, and saying that he "won't have a political life" if he refuses.

"One of the journalists works hard to edit videos and doesn't tell the truth," Gafni explained. "My relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu is excellent."

"I told the municipal rabbis....that they should meet with the Prime Minister, and I said a sentence that a journalist distorted. It continued this way, so that it seems like I spoke against Netanyahu."

"I learned not to make any more joke in my speeches," he added.

When asked about his political future, Gafni said that he may not continue after the current term.

"I've been in the Knesset for many years, and it's time to think twice about whether I continue to another term," he said. "There are issues within the party and in politics [in general] that I'm sick of dealing with. I will ask advice from great scholars. My friends have asked me not to quit. I will make a decision before the elections."