Netanyahu Seeks Yahadut HaTorah Support Amidst Internal Divisions

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally contacted representatives of the Yahadut HaTorah party to gauge their sentiments ahead of their meeting with the president on Thursday, November 5. The party is expected to adopt a wait-and-see approach during consultations, neither endorsing Netanyahu nor Gadi Eisenkot. The Likud party is awaiting Yahadut HaTorah's decision on which coalition it will attempt to join. Netanyahu spoke with Yahadut HaTorah Chairman Yaakov Asher on November 3, and in recent days also communicated with Knesset Member Meir Porush and future MK Eliezer Stark, who are considered representatives of the party's right wing. Through them, the Prime Minister sought to understand the mood within the party, which secured seven mandates in the elections. A senior Likud official emphasized that the recommendation to the president is a matter discussed solely with Chairman Yaakov Asher. Netanyahu also reportedly attempted to contact Yitzhak Goldknopf, head of Agudat Yisrael (a party within the Yahadut HaTorah bloc), and Aryeh Deri, head of Shas. Deri has concurrently requested permission from the Council of Torah Sages to resign from his position. Within Agudat Yisrael, led by Goldknopf, there is a leaning towards supporting Eisenkot, either directly or through abstention in votes. This stance is influenced by sentiments within the Gur Hasidic movement, Israel's largest, which sent Goldknopf to the Knesset. Representatives of this movement were among the first to leave the current government, with Goldknopf resigning as Minister of Construction before other ultra-Orthodox MKs left their posts. Unlike those who maintained some coordination with the coalition, he moved into full opposition. Goldknopf believes Netanyahu has disappointed him again, making a change in Prime Minister preferable, as he calculates it would allow for the advancement of a law exempting them from conscription.