Ultra-Orthodox Paper Launches Rarely Harsh Attack on Netanyahu

The Lithuanian Haredi newspaper Yated Ne'eman published a sharp editorial on Tuesday attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the governing coalition. Editor Israel Friedman accused Netanyahu of deceiving the ultra-Orthodox public and suggested the Haredi parties’ patience in the government is nearing its limit.

Friedman wrote that if someone tried to explain to Netanyahu the moral force of the biblical command to avoid falsehood, he would likely not understand it. He then compared the prime minister to Pinocchio, saying that if Pinocchio behaved toward the Haredi factions the way Netanyahu does, his nose would already have grown so long it would have reached Los Angeles.

The trigger for the editorial was the coalition’s announcement that there is no majority to advance the housing subsidies bill, known as the “apartments bill,” in its first reading. Friedman described the bill as a basic attempt to help “oppressed mothers” and said Netanyahu and his allies had used it as a political bargaining chip and a smokescreen to hide their failure to deliver on their main promise, passing a military draft law. He called the situation a carefully planned “theft of public trust” and said the ruling bloc had long since become a “bloc of untrustworthiness” that cannot be relied on.

Friedman cited Rabbi Dov Lando, the leading figure in the Lithuanian Haredi public, who recently said, “We no longer have trust in the prime minister.” He said Lando’s warning had proven correct. The editorial ended by arguing that the Haredi factions are right not to feel bound anymore to vote with the coalition, and warned right-wing partners, including religious lawmakers, that “the day of reckoning” for what he called the “deception coalition” is approaching.