The haredi Hamodia newspaper on Thursday morning published an article supporting the idea of the Ashkenazic-haredi United Torah Judaism party joining a government led by Yesh Atid Chairman MK Yair Lapid.
Hamodia is largely considered to represent the Agudat Yisrael faction of the UTJ, which is headed in the Knesset by Housing Minister Yakov Litzman.
In the article, the author wrote that in his opinion, Lapid will prefer signing an agreement with the haredi parties "who offer more than double in the number of their MKs" to signing with Yamina.
He also criticized Yamina chief MK Naftali Bennett, noting that Lapid "knows well the politician Bennett and his blackmail better than that, and the members of UTJ and Shas better than that."
Regarding the ideological gaps, the author wrote: "And there have already been such instances, in which the haredi parties participated in a coalition headed by [former Prime Minister] Ehud Barak, despite the fact that his election campaign slogan was, 'One nation, one draft.'"
Quotes from the article began to spread in the media Thursday morning, prompting Litzman to issue a statement on the matter.
"In response to the journalists' queries, I will clarify that the quotes from the article in the Hamodia newspaper ('The Options for a Lapid government') do not represent the stance of Agudat Yisrael, which acts only according to the decision of the Council of Torah Sages," Litzman said.