“The senior officials want to signal to Netanyahu that his story is over.” So said Channel 12 political analyst Amit Segal on Monday, relaying what he described as the message from Agudas Yisrael’s top ranks. According to his report, if Gadi Eisenkot tries to form a minority government after the coming election, MK Yitzchok Goldknopf would abstain rather than vote against it.
Segal called it a potential “breaking of the bloc,” the alliance that has tied the Chareidi parties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for years. From the Gerrer Rebbe’s perspective, he added, “Netanyahu is finished.”
What an abstention would do
The arithmetic matters. If Chareidi MKs sat out the vote instead of opposing, Eisenkot could try to build a government without the Chareidi parties joining or formally backing it. It would also end the working assumption that every United Torah Judaism vote lands against an attempt by Netanyahu’s rivals to take power.
The officials reportedly believe Goldknopf will not be alone and that others in United Torah Judaism, possibly including Degel HaTorah, could follow. Kikar HaShabbat stressed there is no substantive confirmation of the Degel HaTorah claim.
The draft remains the price
Goldknopf answered Monday night, and he did not say how his party would vote. “Agudas Yisrael will not support the establishment of a government and will not assist any government from the outside without regulating the status of bnei yeshivos and legislating a draft law without sanctions and without targets,” he said.
The draft issue dominates Chareidi campaigning, and Goldknopf has said protecting the status of bnei yeshivos will sit at the center of his party’s agenda. Earlier this month other reports said Chareidi figures were weighing staying outside the next government until a law resolving that status passes, though that idea had no formal party or rabbinic approval.
Doubt about Netanyahu’s recommendation was already growing. Segal previously reported that Goldknopf’s office warned a prospective Likud candidate not to assume Agudas Yisrael would recommend Netanyahu after the election.
For now, the account rests on statements attributed to senior officials, not a decision announced by the party or its rabbinic leadership.
