Yamina minister Kahana: I’m praying for government’s continued existence

Yamina’s Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana says he is “praying for the continued existence of this important government and doing my best to ensure this happens.”

In a Facebook post, Kahana says the act of forming the government was “courageous,” with ideologically divergent parties coming together for the good of the country.

“We all knew we could not fulfill our deepest ideological wishes” within it, he notes, but moved ahead with it “in order to save Israel from the place it was careening toward.”

He assails the Benjamin Netanyahu-led opposition for “disseminating lies and fake news” and for doing “anything to intensify polarization and deepen the divide within the people.”

But he also warns left-wing members of the coalition to avoid scoring political points with their base at the expense of the right, and says the government must keep its commitments to its right flank, including settlement construction in the West Bank.

“We need to get back to the basic understandings with which we set out,” he says.