In a meeting this week with Jewish Home (Bayit Yehudi) representatives in Samaria, MK Shuli Muallem-Refaeli declared the party's partnership with Yesh Atid problematic - even mistaken.
She added that while the parties agreed on internal and domestic issues, the real differences were between views on Judea and Samaria. According to Muallem, if the government decides to destroy more Jewish communities in the region, Jewish Home will leave the current coalition.
Muallem also stated that Jewish Home has set aside some 65 million shekel for yeshivot (post-secondary Torah academies), but that Finance Minister and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid has not transfered the money yet to those institutions due to his own hang-ups about how the academies use those funds. While Lapid has been withholding funding until definitive changes to the criteria for state subsidies are finalized, Muallem holds - like many other MKs - that the move is unjustified.
Muallem promised to look into the issue, for the sake of the Torah-learning world and the yeshiva system in general.
At the meeting, the MK also stated that she is pushing for a change in the state subsidies for daycare provided to working mothers. Rather than base the percentage of government assistance on working hours per week, as in the current system, she will propose that a sliding scale based on salary. The move would provide mothers who work on special "mothers' hours" - hours which conform to standard daycare schedules, which are often offered to working mothers - with that funding.