Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman, together with MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu) responded Thursday to UTJ MK Moshe Gafni's statement that Liberman is a friend of the haredi MKs.
"Gafni, this isn't personal. We're suffering an economic crisis that obligates a national emergency government, so that you won't be the one sitting with your hand on the switch," Forer said.
"We're going to need to cut the yeshivas' budgets, change the Draft Law, cancel the Supermarkets Law, and put a halt to religious legislation, so that we can bring Israel back to normalcy. And that's what we're going to fight for. It has nothing to do with friendship."
The Supermarkets Law empowers the Interior Minister to nullify local bylaws permitting businesses to open during the Sabbath.
Earlier on Thursday, Ynet quoted Gafni, who said his party "does not rule anyone out. We don't boycott [Blue and White leader Yair] Lapid, but we won't sit with him in a coalition. The problem with him is his platform and his behavior."
"LIberman, on the other hand, is something completely different. Liberman is a friend of the haredim. He works together with us in elections in Jerusalem, in Haifa, and in Tzfat. We support [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu, we will not sit in a coalition with Yair Lapid because of his platform. We are holding additional, completely unnecessary, and horrendously wasteful elections, I don't remember a situation like this, when the country has been paralyzed for nearly a year."