Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett issued a message of reassurance to the Haredi public, promising that even if the next government is established without the Haredi parties Shas and UTJ, he would take care of his Haredi brothers.
In a video message uploaded to You Tube late Wednesday night, Bennett, standing outside his home in Ra’anana, emphasizes that there is no truth to the claims that his party is boycotting Haredim and seeking to destroy the Torah world. He insisted the Jewish Home party will achieve the necessary changes through dialogue rather than with force.
“I don’t know how the next government will be composed, with or without Haredi parties,” he said, “it’s totally irrelevant. The state of Israel, all of us, are obligated to support the entire nation of Israel.”
“We will not uproot Torah scholars from their learning, and we will not send the military police to Meah She’arim or to B’nei B’rak,” Bennett said.
“I want to help calm the existing rate of anxiety, because in the end we’re brothers, thank you very much,” Bennett concluded.
Bennett’s message came in response to intensifying talk within the Haredi media—radios and newspapers—about boycotting settlements in retaliation for Jewish Home’s alliance with Yair Lapid’s leftist, Yesh Atid party and the efforts—public or otherwise—to keep the Haredim out of positions of power, at least until after a new “equal burden” law is passed, regulating the military enlistment of yeshiva students.