MK Yossi Taieb: Smotrich Is Playing a Political Game at the Expense of the Haredim

Shas MK Yossi Taieb, a member of the Knesset committee, attacked Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich this morning over his conduct regarding the Basic Law on Torah study and the daycare subsidies law, saying that “he is trying to make a political move at the expense of the Haredi parties,” in his words. As recalled, Smotrich conditioned his faction’s support for the Basic Law on Torah study on not equating the status of Torah scholars with that of fighters. “The religious bloc is measured by its ability to defend the world of Torah and Jewish identity, not only in settlement and the economy. Smotrich, who is scraping the electoral threshold from below, is trying to make a political move on us,” he said in an interview with Radio Kol Chai.

Taieb also qualified his remarks, saying that on the substantive level most members of Religious Zionism recognize the value of Torah, and that the dispute over the Basic Law on Torah study is only terminological. In his remarks, he referred to the confrontation he had with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara during the immunity hearings for MK Tali Gottlieb. “She routinely boycotts the Knesset. This time she was legally required to sit in the chamber, and when you see the smug expression, you understand that all her decisions are subjective. If you belong to her clique, there is one decision, if you are on the other side, there is a different decision,” he said.

“We showed her the absurdity, on the one hand the system fights for the rights of children of foreign workers, and on the other hand it strangles a Haredi mother who wants to go out to work, cancels her daycare subsidy and starves her children just because her husband studies Torah. This is hypocrisy like no other,” he said.