Outgoing Welfare Minister Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) told hareidi MK Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) point blank Wednesday morning that he is lying, when he claims that Cohen approached hareidi parties in an effort to unseat Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister.
The alleged attempt by Yesh Atid and Hatnua to forge an alternative coalition with hareidim has been labelled a “putsch” by Likud. The accusation is doubly embarrassing because it involves subverting the government from within, and approaching hareidi parties to do so, in a direct contradiction to Yesh Atid’s anti-hareidi line.
Speaking live on Channel 10, opposite MK Yaakov Litzman of UTJ, Cohen asked the interviewer – “tell Litzman he is lying.” He then turned directly to MK Litzman and said: “Litzman, you are lying.”
Cohen added: “None of us has ever reached out to the hareidim. Every day they pick on someone new in Yesh Atid. It is a complete lie. What business do we have with the hareidim?”
MK Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid) told Arutz Sheva that the hareidi MKs’ claims regarding an attempted putsch were complete fabrications, and were simply intended to make Yesh Atid look bad in the eyes of its voters.
On the other hand, MK Nissim Ze’ev of Shas insisted on Arutz Sheva that Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid indeed sent emissaries to the hareidi MKs, in an effort to negotiate the establishment of a coalition without Netanyahu, as Netanyahu claimed in a press conference.
Lapid’s methods of operation are “proof of his subversion,” according to Ze’ev.
“It’s indicative of a method. He was all about pure hatred of hareidim. Unfortunately he dragged the Prime Minister after him. This government never stopped harming the hareidim and the weaker sectors,” he charged.
Ze’ev further said that Netanyahu could have prevented elections if he had formed a coalition without Lapid and including the hareidi parties, the Jewish Home, and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party.
“It would have been a rock solid government. Livni was not subversive, but Lapid used his seats used to try to bring down the government so that he can he reign and become prime minister. It shows how much bad blood is in this man,” said Ze’ev.
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