Haredi Yeshiva Deans in Israel who received an invitation to meet with the chairman of the Committee on Burden Equality, Minister of Science, Technology, and Space Yaakov Perry, refused most adamantly to show up, according to the Lithuanian Haredi newspaper Ha’peles.

In his letter to the Haredi deans, Minister Peri wrote that he is appealing to them personally, and inviting them to appear either before the committee or to talk to him in private and present their positions.

Peri told the deans that his committee is determined to set hard and fast rules on burden equality, but that it intends to act with maximum sensitivity to the needs of every segment of the population, in an attempt to avoid a split in the nation. The minister was asking the deans to provide him with a “comprehensive picture, cutting across sectors and political parties, which will help us in formulating the bill.”

According to Ha’peles, the yeshiva deans who received the letter made it abundantly clear that they would not recognize the authority of the Perry Committee.

The article in Ha’peles added an editorial note to the news report (it seems to be going around across the media these days), warning deans that “the Minister wishes to legitimize the work of the Committee and its dangerous goals, but it is clear as day that no teacher of Torah would fall into their trap and give recognition to the Committee that’s seeking to implement destructive goals.”

The newspaper report concluded:

“Minister Perry and committee members do not need to meet with heads of yeshivas to know about the steadfast resolve of the Torah world, which has been expressed and published several times by the gedolim of Israel and yeshiva deans. The entire purpose and of the new appeal is to wrap in beautiful words and soft expressions the declaration of war by the new government, which is seeking to lead to a culture war and undermine the foundations of the world of Torah and God fearing public.”

Meanwhile, a mini coalition crisis has been pitting members of the Perry Committee Likud representatives, headed by Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon, against the Yesh Atid (Lapid) members. Likud is asking Yesh Atid to rescind the enlistment figures reached in the coalition agreements on the quota of yeshiva students absolved from military service.

Committee members suggested that the entity deciding which 1,800 students are picked to stay away from the army service would be comprised of a representative of the Ministries of Defense and Education, as well as members of the Yeshiva Deans Committee. The new entity would submit its list by mid-March each year.

The IDF representative on the Perry Committee, Brigadier General Gadi Agmon, argued that it was not likely that the deans of Haredi yeshivas would take part in the proposed entity. “And on what basis are they going to decide?” he asked.

Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) offered to hold a lottery to pick the 1,800 lucky candidates, while Minister Yaalon declared that he is opposed in principle to any exemption quotas – and with that he basically killed the carefully negotiated burden equality figures that Lapid’s and Netanyahu’s factions had signed on in the coalition agreement.

“We’re already seeing more Haredi soldiers,” the defense minister told the committee. “We can’t ignore that. We should allow the natural process of enlistment to take its course. Setting quotas will only push the Haredi the sector against the wall. My recommendation is to leave the matter of quotas open and to check [enlistment figures] again in five years. We should provide incentives: anyone who serves in the IDF should be rewarded more than someone who does National Service, who in turn should get a higher reward than a yeshiva student.”

On Monday evening, the Knesset will host the swearing in ceremony for Israel’s 33rd government, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s third term—second consecutive—as prime minister (his first term ran from June 1996 to July 1999).

Immediately after the ceremony, Netanyahu will convene a brief cabinet meeting, with a toast. Then the bunch (22 ministers and 8 deputies) will travel to the presidential residence, for the traditional group picture.

The Knesset session will open with the selection of the Speaker of the House. It will likely be Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who will replace the former Speaker, Reuven Rivlin, who wanted very much to continue in his post but, unfortunately, had committed the ultimate sin of criticizing the Prime Minister’s anti-democratic tendencies, not the kind of slight which Netanyahu’s wife Sara easily forgives.

As usual, Netanyahu never shared with Rivlin his plan to depose him. In fact, as far back as a year ago, he assured the popular Speaker—who is also closely associated with the Settlement movement—that he’d have his support for the post of President when Shimon Peres completes his 7-year term, 2014.

Yuli Edelstein’s life’s story is fascinating: Born in the Soviet Union to Jewish parents who converted to Christianity (his father is a Russian Orthodox priest), Edelstein discovered his Jewish connection through his grandparents. He studied Hebrew back when that was considered a subversive act, for which, in 1984, he was sent to Siberia (the charges were drug related, but everybody knew it was the Hebrew thing). He made aliyah with his wife, Tanya, served in the army, and entered politics, ending up in the Knesset in 1996. He has switched between several parties, until finally landing in the Likud, and has held several ministerial portfolios. And if he doesn’t catch Sara’s ire, he could become as memorable a Speaker as Rubie Rivlin.

But the biggest losers, without a doubt, are the Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism. They were almost literally kicked out by Yair Lapid, who stated openly that, should he be seen in the government group picture with the Haredim, his voters would abandon him. Surprisingly, Naftali Bennett, his newly found brother from a different father (Yair’s father, the late MK Tommy Lapid, was a true hater of the religion), supported the dubious position that, in order to truly help the Haredi public, government had to first be cleared of Haredi partners.

Shas, a party that depends completely on patronage for its very existence, is seething with anger over Bennett’s “betrayal.” It’s hard, however, to take seriously the victimized self-pity of Shas, whose spiritual father Rav Ovadia Yosef dubbed the Jewish Home party a “Goy Home.” Altogether, it appears that, perhaps counter intuitively, the National Religious leaders as well as the rank and file, have been harboring heaps of resentment against the Haredim. The Haredi slights of several decades, including their occupation of the Ministry of Religious Services and the Chief rabbinate, doling out jobs to Haredi officials who reigned over a population that looks nothing like them—those slighted chickens have been coming back to roost.

Take for instance Rabbi Hayim Drukman, who responded to both the Haredi pols and to Netanyahu, who accused the Lapid-Bennett axis of “boycotting” the Haredi parties. Rabbi Drukman Argued that “the Haredi public are the biggest boycotters, boycotting for years the Torah of the national religious public.”

“Any Haredi apparatchik who gets elected to the Knesset, immediately becomes a rabbi, while the real rabbis of the national religious public are noted in the Haredi press by their first names (without the title ‘Rabbi’). Is this not boycotting?” Rabbi Druckman wrote in the Saturday shul paper “Olam Katan.”

Inside Shas, the short knives have already been drawn and they’re aimed at MK Aryeh Deri, the former convict who came back from the cold to lead Shas into a glorious stalemate (11 seats before, 11 after).

“We were very disappointed in Deri,” a senior Shas pol told Ma’ariv. “He did not bring the votes he promised Rav Ovadia, there was no significant change in seats, and, in fact, Deri is responsible for our failure.”

In United Torah Judaism they also seem to regret their alliance with Shas, it’s highly likely that, in a few months, they’ll opt to enter the government without Shas.