Degel HaTorah Signals New Political Partner After Break with Netanyahu

Rabbi Motke Blui, a senior figure in Degel HaTorah, said in a radio interview that the Orthodox parties are effectively ending their current alignment with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking on 103FM with Anat Davidov and Nissim Mashal, he declared, “Netanyahu’s bloc no longer exists for us,” saying the prime minister has lost the trust of the Torah sages and that the parties will not continue with him without serious guarantees from others who join a new bloc.

Blui said the ultra-Orthodox parties intend to impose strict conditions on Likud, insisting, “There is no government and no jobs until the existential issue for the Jewish people is solved, which is Torah scholars.” He added, “He did not give enough, and we are people who study.” He also outlined alternative political possibilities and spoke warmly about opposition lawmaker Gadi Eisenkot, calling him “a good guy, one of us, a traditional Jew.”

By contrast, he sharply attacked former Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, saying, “Bennett will be erased, his IQ is extremely low and I do not know how he got where he got.” Blui also defended recent ultra-Orthodox road blockades, saying they were coordinated with the police and were meant not against the prime minister personally but against “the mad rush of the judicial junta led by the attorney general.”

He argued that the treatment of these protests is unequal compared with left-wing demonstrations, asking how many people remained in custody after anti-government activists “burned cars and fired flares at the prime minister’s home.” When asked about civilians and soldiers stuck in traffic, he replied sarcastically, “Moving to tears,” and concluded that “a group of one and a quarter million people” is allowed to protest when it is hurt “in the soul.”