Haredim accuse Lapid of ‘unadulterated hatred’

Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Knesset speech blasting the haredim’s demands for state funding and defending the proposed budget bill, which outlines aggressive across-the-board cuts in all subsidies the sector has enjoyed in the past, has met with caustic criticism by the ultra-orthodox community and its Knesset members.

Lapid traded barbs with United Torah Judaism and Shas MKs during Monday’s Knesset session, but it seems his remark about child benefits, which stated „children are first and foremost their parents’ responsibility, so when you have children that responsibility falls primarily on you,” was the one to hit a raw nerve.

„If the British or French finance ministers dared to criticize parents for having children and their need to support them — with all of the Muslim and Jewish immigrants living there and receiving benefits 10-times greater than in Israel — he would have been made to resign immediately,” MK Israel Eichler (United Torah Judaism) said.

Eichler claimed that „had Lapid’s remark been directed at the Arabs or the Bedouin he would have been made to resign; but in our case, not only did he get away with it — the media applaud [the statement]. We are considering boycotting all of his [Knesset] speeches.”

MK Yakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) said that „anyone who saw Lapid in the Knesset understands that Israel’s finance minister is an unprofessional and petty man, who would rather focus on the haredim, whom he hates, than the harsh decrees he’s about to impose on the public and the fact that his plan will result in thousands of starving children.”

Shas Co-chairman MK Eli Yishai called Lapid „a detached man who has no idea what’s going on in Israeli society.” Party Co-chairman Aryeh Deri added: „I waited for Yair to look the public in the eye and say, ‘I’m taking 3 billion shekels [$828 million] from you.’ Instead, all he did was focus, again, on the haredim and the draft-dodgers, and we heard nothing about the real issues. The haredim are not the problem — the problem is that this will push 50,000 children under the poverty line.”

‘We are ready for war’

The haredi media was also vexed by what they termed Lapid’s „declaration of war against us.”

The haredi Lithuanian newspaper Yated Ne’eman dedicated its headline to Lapid’s speech, claiming that the government was „a government of haredi hatred and expulsion.”

The paper further quoted a United Torah Judaism MK as saying „we are ready for a fight on all fronts. These [cuts] aim to do one thing and one thing only — to change the haredi public.” MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) told the newspaper that the haredi MKs „will spare no effort to fight these cutbacks.”

„After heading a smear campaign against the haredi public, coalition negotiations rife with haredi hatred and acrimonious Knesset speeches, Lapid is forging ahead, driving the sword of budget cuts through all the haredi public holds dear, the haredim,” the haredi website Kikar Hashabat said.

It went on to slam Lapid for the aggressive cut planned for haredi schools and yeshivot that fail to comply with the Education Ministry’s core studies program, including the mandatory standardized tests scheme; further quoting a source in one of the haredi parties as saying „No one will interfere with our education system and no one will force us to study something we don’t want to study, regardless of Lapid’s conspiracies. This will never happen.”

Hamodia, a daily affiliated with United Torah Judaism, quoted party MK Menachem Moses’ pleading with Lapid over the podium Tuesday: „Let us take care of our children, feed them and educate them in our wonderful schools. We’re responsible for them in more ways than you can fathom.”

Agudat Yisrael’s newspaper Hamevaser lamented, „Lapid’s unadulterated hatred of the haredim, which only proves how immature and ill-equipped he is to hold such a prominent office. The Knesset has never before seen such childish tantrums and infantile provocation.”

Deputy Finance Minister Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid) meanwhile, caused an uproar of his own, calling the haredim „parasites.”

„You have to shoulder more of the burden and become a part of the workforce — you can’t be parasites,” he said in an interview with Kol Harama – a haredi station. Levy recanted immediately: „I’m sorry for that unfortunate choice of words. I’m just saying that you can’t live off the Israeli taxpayer.”

Levy’s spokesman said: „The statement was made in the heat of the moment and the deputy minister apologized immediately. He does not consider any sector of society as a parasite.”

Shas Co-chairman MK Eli Yishai was unfazed by the apology: „It’s extremely disconcerting that we hear something in Israel of 2013 that sounds like it’s from 1942 Germany,” he said in a Facebook post.

„If this statement was made in any other country by an incumbent deputy minister the State of Israel would have been appalled. Unfortunately, Levy and his party chairman Yair Lapid are legitimizing these kinds of offenses against the haredi public. If we were anywhere else in the world this would be called anti-Semitism.”