United Torah Judaism recommends Netanyahu for PM

United Torah Judaism recommends that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu form the next government.

Netanyahu now has 46 backers, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid has 25, and Yamina leader Naftali Bennett has seven.

At the President’s Residence, UTJ leader Moshe Gafni condemns anti-Haredi rhetoric in the wake of coronavirus violations in the ultra-Orthodox community during the pandemic.

United Torah Judaism leader MK Moshe Gafni at a conference in Jerusalem on March 7, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“We had a very difficult year… and the ultra-Orthodox community in particular. There were all sorts of violations of the Health Ministry regulations in all communities, we didn’t like it when it happened anywhere. We know there is a group, which isn’t small, that always put us in the spotlight. The cameras were always directed at the Haredim, if there were violations and all.”

“We thank God for the vaccines, we thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for bringing them,” he says.

Gafni says his party is loyal to Netanyahu and his Likud, adding that “if there was another candidate for Likud, we would go with them.”