Deri says Jewish state is ‘in danger’; Gafni brands Bennett ‘wicked’

Ultra-Orthodox politicians are seething over the imminent establishment of the so-called “change government,” which would see Benjamin Netanyahu removed from power and the Haredi parties flung to the opposition, if it’s sworn in on Sunday as planned.

Shas leader Aryeh Deri says: “The Jewish state is in danger. This is the uprooting of religion in the state.”

“The new government is going to destroy the Jewish identity and character of the state, which allows us to live together,” says Deri.

United Torah Judaism leader Moshe Gafni brands Naftali Bennett as “wicked.”

“The name of the wicked will rot,” he declares of the prime minister-designate, who is an Orthodox Jew.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (R) speaks with United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni at the Knesset on November 7, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Litzman calls Bennett a Reform Jew.

“What’s the difference between him and a gentile? He wears a kippah. I urge him to remove his kippah. It’s a great chutzpah that he wears a kippah. Let everyone understand that he’s Reform,” says Litzman.