Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressuring Likud MKs to support the daycare subsidy law, Reshet Bet Radio reported on Sunday, noting that several Likud MKs and groups within the movement reacted angrily: “We should all die here, as long as they get their daycare.”
Netanyahu approached Likud MKs in person to convince them to support the bill initiated by MK Israel Eichler of United Torah Judaism to override the opinion of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara against subsidizing daycare for children of yeshiva students who are required to enlist and do not. The bill is expected to be presented on Sunday in the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs, and it is estimated that it will be approved by the committee.
Such an approval usually guarantees the bill’s passing in a first reading in the Knesset plenum, but Netanyahu may not have the needed votes.
AG Miara ordered the cessation of daycare tuition subsidies provided to children of Haredi men who fail to enlist in the IDF. She sets up a father’s military service as a prerequisite for his children’s daycare.
But MK Eichler points to the original purpose of the daycare law, which was to help Haredi women integrate into the job market by caring for their small children. Eichler proposes that the subsidy would also be given to families in which only the mother works, and by removing the men from the equation his bill diverts daycare from military service.
Needless to say, AG Miara was not amused, and threatened that should the new law be challenged in the High Court of Justice, she wouldn’t be able to defend it but would instead join the petitioners.
Normally, the AG faces a unified wall whenever she challenges legislation, but this time she is not the bad guy in the eyes of many Likudniks.
A group calling itself Likud Liberals wrote, “There is a large part of the Jewish people who are not interested in what is happening in the State of Israel, and continue to evade the halakhic, moral, human and civic obligation to join the struggle for our existence, and are busy continuing the robbery of the public purse. They really don’t care. As far as they are concerned, we should all die here, the main thing is their daycare.”
Mind you, these are Likudniks, not leftwingers on Kaplan Street. They also wrote with great vehemence: “The only thing this antisemitic gang, which is the Haredi leadership, cares about is continuing their lives as they are today. We regret saying these things so bluntly, but all of us have had enough of the delusional and despicable behavior of the Haredi leadership. It is unacceptable and we will not allow it.”
The Haredi parties say they intend to enter a fast-track legislative process and that after being approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, the law is expected to be approved in a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum as early as this Wednesday. After that, the law will be sent to the Labor and Welfare Committee headed by MK Eichler. Haredi sources have told Reshet Bet that the goal is to complete the approval of the daycare bill within a few weeks.
But there may be ugly surprises on the way.
