Yated Ne'eman Editor Launches Fierce Attack on Netanyahu Over Draft and Housing Subsidy Crisis

Israel Friedman, editor of Yated Ne'eman, published an unusually sharp editorial attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the coalition amid the crisis over the enlistment bill and the daycare subsidy bill. He accused Netanyahu of breaking promises and misleading the ultra-Orthodox public, writing that if he were trying to explain the prohibition against falsehood or the rabbinic warning that “a group of liars does not receive the Divine Presence,” the words would likely sound alien to him.

Friedman compared Netanyahu to Pinocchio, saying that if the prime minister had acted toward the ultra-Orthodox factions the way he has, “his nose would long ago have crossed the ocean and landed in Los Angeles.” He also referred to reports that there is no majority for advancing the daycare subsidy bill in its first reading. He described the bill as a basic attempt to save “oppressed mothers” from exploitation and to avoid punishing working women because their husbands study Torah.

According to Friedman, the coalition was not focused on the injustice to Torah students, but used the daycare bill to cover up its failure to pass an enlistment law and to win support for other votes. He called this “a well-planned theft of public trust” and said it was a fixed method of “they promised, but never promised to keep.” He cited the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox leader, Rabbi Dov Lando, who said, “We no longer trust the prime minister.”

Friedman added that many now understand Lando had correctly identified an “untruth syndrome” embedded in the system. He said the ultra-Orthodox public was given the impression that Netanyahu held the daycare bill in his hands, while knowing he had no intention of carrying it out. On that basis, he said the ultra-Orthodox factions were right to announce they no longer consider themselves bound to vote with the coalition. He concluded by calling the once respected “faithful bloc” an “unfaithful bloc,” and warned that coalition members, some of whom wear skullcaps, are persecuting yeshiva students and Torah learners, but that the “political day of reckoning” for this “liar coalition” is approaching.