Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday morning turned to haredi media outlets, urging the haredi community to break out of its complacency and go to the polls on election day.
Netanyahu's move follows a report by Israel Hayomwarning that complacency on the part of haredim may lead to the right-wing bloc failing to win a majority in the elections. According to the report, the Ashkenazic-haredi United Torah Judaism party should have enough supporters for nine or ten Knesset seats, but there are concerns that it may not win even the seven it has been projected to win.
Speaking to the haredi Kol Barama Radio, Netanyahu said, "I call on the haredi community to go out and vote. There is complacency."
He emphasized, "The Torah world is in danger. I don't believe that people are really considering staying at home. The media is trying to lull everyone to sleep, including the haredim, but we must wake up and go out of our homes, because anyone who remains at home is essentially voting for [Israeli Prime Minister Yair] Lapid."
When asked about the possibility that the haredim might join Defense Minister Benny Gantz and his National Unity party, Netanyahu said, "They said very clearly, and they repeated over again, that they will not work with him. [MK Moshe] Gafni (United Torah Judaism) also said in the most blunt way possible that they are going with Netanyahu and the Likud no matter what, and it is good that he said that."
Regarding the claims that he had received warningsfrom senior US officials against appointing MK Itamar Ben-Gvir (Religious Zionism) to the position of minister, Netanyahu said, "We are a democracy and we will decide who will be in the next government. I know how to stand up for us. My ability is not to bow our heads and to say 'no' when it is necessary."
Responding to Netanyahu's statements, Lapid's Yesh Atid party said: "Prime Minister Lapid succeeded in forming a government in the past, and he will succeed in the future as well, exactly where the opposition leader has failed the past several times.