Having read Lapid on this site, he is indeed a foe of the settlement movement. If he successfully goes after settlements in Judea and Samaria, he (Lapid) will greatly harm Naftali Bennett, who has hitched his political wagon and his fortunes to Lapid.

Both Shas and Degel hatorah had many opportunities to negotiate an agreement that would have redressed blatant injusties and brought peace betweem haredim, massoratim and hilonim. They chose to remain unyielding , forsaking their duty to solidarity. It is a shame!

it is beautiful to read how lost he is. sadly he does not get the message, and those elections he thinks will happen in two years will only confirm what he should have learned from this election. the public is tired of shas dictating what is right and wrong. no one is boycotting anyone, but finally someone is standing up to shas and removing the monopoly they have had within the ministry of interior.

... the haredim behave, like children who were kicked out of the sandbox. Politics prefers reason to emotions.

If some of Shas or Degel Hatorah did halftime learning halftime forms of national service it would be a start of reconciliation they are not all from the House of Aaron after all. Second Stabilization and fortification of existing Settlements Lapid can live with.Elections in Two Years The next two years are going to be critical so Shas and degel Torah ought join in Six months and man the Homeland Defense.

1. I personally am very glad that you and Shas and other Haredim will not be in the government. Religion has no place in politics and I long for the day when there will be legislation to that effect, preferably in a written constitution, which is long overdue. 2. You have not been "boycotted" (your word) because of your faith(your word). 3. You have been rejected because the citizens of this country are fed up with your perspective(your word) which, in your view, allows you to dictate how the rest of should live our lives. I wish you a prosperous and productive term in the opposition. Start to understand and appreciate this and we may accept you back.

1. Religion has no place in politics? Over a third of the Knesset are now religious/observant Orthodox Jews, a new record. It's secularism going the way of the dinosaur in Israel. 2. Hareidim have been boycotted. If Bayit Yehudi were hareidi, they'd be boycotted too. 3. The citizens of this country gave only 19 mandates to Yesh Atid. Meanwhile, the hareidim got 18. We don't need you to accept us back. Within a generation, you'll be looking to get into the coalition of a hareidi Prime Minister. Toodles!

His days of holding the country to ransom and spending all our hard earnt tax money to support his parasites is over, the days of the criminal shas cult are numbered, good ridence to bad rubbish. Still it all takes the attention away from the Carmel fire disator, how that dispicable man sleeps at night is beyond me.

God forbid that that should happen. I for one shall not be here by then, either by natural causes or by decision. Fanatics won't rule my life. I know, you don't have to say it, I won't be missed. Problem is it is not only me, it a whole host of others, y

In America in 50 years.

on the contrary: it's a sign of a mentally healthy family. But hey Yishai: you've had a good, long run, wouldn't you say so?

While I feel good about the direction the Israeli electorate chose for themselves, I think this coalition negotiation reveals the true nature of Prime Minister Netanyahu. He believes in nothing, and will join with anyone to stay in power. The Shas claim that they are an important player in any government is true. Their votes are bought and paid for. No matter who is in power, and what their agenda is, they can count on Shas to stay quiet as long as they get paid. They are the biggest chillul Hashem in the game.

I refer to Yitzchak Vaknin, before he later pathetically backtracked of course. Seriously, if you want to keep Shas and UTJ quiet just write them some fat paychecks.

Bait Yehudi would had joined forces with Shas.They would had together a number of chairs sufficient to be in the coalision with great strenght. Bennett wanted that but Yishay shunned him,ofended him and even called him a "goy",what´s untrue since Bennett is an orthodox Jew. So,Shas are wrong. I hope that the religious members of the Knesset will be able to fight the wrongs that will come with the absence of more religious parties and I hope that everything will turn for the good of Israel.

The Muslim conquest depended upon taxing infidels. When their support base (non-Muslims) chose to join the faith, their logistical support line collapsed & they reached the limits of their conquest. So Akiva, if the haredim were to take over Israel and still face poverty & the same enemies...who will you turn to? Yes, Hashem does take care of all..but it says in the sayings of our sages that no flour=no Torah i.e. earn a living as well as learn Torah. The same is true with our forefather Jacob taking a precautionary military action against Esav. Only I'm guessing that you think that only haredim are true Jews and that you can still live off the rest (lesser Jews) as your personal infidels to tax at will, and be your unpaid mercenaries against our enemies? The wake up call comes from a higher source than Bennet. All Jews are in it together, and that will be the sole message to realize over the next few years, and not illusions of belonging to an elitist society.

When the Haradis didn't allow any non-Haradi Zionist Rabbis or Representatives on Religious Councils or Religious Courts - that wasn't boycotting ? How could a Haradi be Minister of Religions, yes with an "s" at the end, when he knows nothing about religion except from the Haradi point of view - that is boycotting.

“Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.”

I believe that you were trying to insinuate that fire fighting equipment is more important than ten's of thousands of Torah students. A strange thought indeed !!!

An excellent philosophy, but it hasn't worked so well for Jews, has it? The closest we got was in some of Europe and now the US. Europe is beginning to return to its former ways, and there are those in the US who want to follow. So as long as there are Christian and Muslim countries (ever hear of the Church of England?) do you think you would suffer too much if there was one (I repeat: one) Jewish country...the size of New Jersey? And if you still want to preach separation of 'church and state', you'd do better to talk to the Muslims.

No more money to steal land from the Arabs is a bad idea? No more money for fake Yeshivas is a bad thing? No money to support a population which refuses to accept national responsibilities is a bad thing? No more Ministers in the religious section of our jails because of corruption is a bad thing? No more support for Jewish terrorsts burning crops uprooting trees and torching mosques is a bad thing? Goodbye for now Mr.Ishi, I know you and yours will soon be back but we certainly won't miss you.

If Shas would have agreed to have Haredim share the duties of being a citizen they would be in government. The lifestyle of the Haredim is no longer acceptable to the majority of Israelis. They are asked to serve, asked to work and asked to contribute. The Yeshiva gravy train must come to an end and this does not mean they cannot study torah, but they must do so and work as the Torah says they should.

Number 12. If orthodoxy is still around after 2,000 years in exodus and survived the holocaust, then it is here to stay. Whether you like it or not swallow it.

You miss the point, right now we have in the ME the ayatollah state (Iran), the OvadYa state (Israel) and the abduaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Shiekh state (Saudi Arabia) to name a few “democracies” without boundaries between state and religions. The long and the short of it is that Thomas Jefferson’s statement holds true and your arguments are not applicable here. Furthermore, this philosophy has worked well for Jews, and every time the fanatics asserted control it resulted in disaster. This is not the place for a history lesson, Google yourself “Jewish–Roman wars”.

First to #8 just because a person is religious does not mean that person will push for unreasonable religious legislation.. But more importantly with Shas & other ultra orthodox out of government Therese is now a chance for a civil Constitution which does not conflict with the Torah. Perhaps now the exchequer can be released of the enormous costs forced on the people at large by these ultra orthodox.

I've been living in Israel for 20+ years as a religious Jew. I am very glad that Shas will no longer be in the position to extort and blackmail and destroy the beauty of our religion. I found Shas and UTJ guilty of chilul Hashem by trying to turn our relighion into something it isn't. They are the reason there exists a divide between non-religious and religious in Israel--NOT Lapid or Bennet. Lapid and Bennet see the reality that exists and are looking to repair the damage caused by the Charedim and their politicians who have created a new form of religion that has only caused us damage. It's about time there is a change being made.

doesn't even qualify as antisemitism!

The Haredim are for the most part good people. The issues people have with Haredim can and should be solved peacefully. The problem is their leaders, like Yisha. He lies so much and so often, it is comedy. I wonder if he believes himself. During and just after the elections, Bayit Yehudi wanted to coordinate with Shas. Yosef and his minions told them they weren't Jewish, and in any case, Shas had already made a deal with Netanyahu to exclude Bayit Yehudi. Maybe Lapid will target the Jews in the future, maybe he won't. One thing for certain: Shas had already agreed to get the Jews now.