The salvos between the secularist Yisrael Beytenu party and ultra-Orthodox factions continue today, with legislators attacking each other over their differing views of the Jewish state’s character.
Speaking to the Ynet news site, MK Yitzhak Cohen of Shas rejects the assertion that there is religious coercion in Israeli public life.
“There is secular coercion,” he claims. Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman “goes on Shabbat to a shop that sells pork and does it in public to mock [us]. That’s secular coercion. He went to Tiv Taam, a shop that sells pork. He eats pork.”
Shas Knesset member Yitzhak Cohen attends a faction meeting at the home of the Torah Sages Council president, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, in Jerusalem, on October 31, 2016 (Yaakov Cohen/Flash90)
MK Eli Avidar of Yisrael Beytenu calls Cohen “bizarre” and says “he needs to get used to the fact that Shas isn’t going to be in the next government.”
Liberman, who may well become kingmaker after the national vote, has said he plans to force a secular government of Likud, his party and Blue and White.
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Sunday, September 15, 2019
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