UTJ’s Litzman said to hint Netanyahu to blame for budget impasse

Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman fumed at Prime Minister Netanyahu during a meeting of his ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party before today’s vote on a bill to push back the deadline for passing a state budget, the Walla news site reports.

Though lawmakers from the coalition’s Likud, Blue and White and Shas parties voted for the proposal, which could push off the possibility of new elections, some UTJ MKs opposed it.

According to the report, Litzman is angered that the feud between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz over the budget is holding up the approval of funding for yeshivas, and hinted that the premier is to blame for the impasse.

“There can’t be a situation in which we don’t say that’s it. If there’s a chance that [the yeshiva budget] works out, it’s only because of a vote against the law. Bibi [Netanyahu] will be frightened,” Litzman is quoted as saying.

UTJ No. 2 Moshe Gafni reportedly agreed, saying there was a need “to have a protest,” but others called to abstain during the vote on the bill, with MK Uri Maklev warning that it couldn’t appear as though the party supports elections.