HAREDI PARTIES WON'T JOIN A UNITY GOVERNMENT WITH LIKUD AT A TIME IT COULD HELP

With all the jihad now being waged against Israel, it's not the time for the two main Haredi parties in the Knesset to balk at entering the government over grudges, yet that's exactly what they're doing:

The leaders of Shas and United Torah Judaism rejected overtures from Likud officials Tuesday who wanted them to join Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.

Netanyahu was forced to give up his long-standing political bond with the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties when Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi insisted they be left out of the coalition.

But Likud officials hoped that due to the ongoing security situation, Shas and UTJ could enter the coalition without angering Likud’s current partners.

Officials in Shas and UTJ confirmed that overtures had come from Likud.

But UTJ chairman Ya’acov Litzman said there was little to no chance of his party entering the coalition and Shas leader Arye Deri was even more pessimistic.

“There is no need now for such a thing,” Deri said. “At this stage such talk is worthless. There is no such proposal. We are not joining the government.”

Evidently, he thinks political positions are more important than public safety, which is shameful. At a time when even the Haredi population he represents is in danger, Deri would do better to put aside his disagreements on economic policies and join the coalition, yet he continues with a very insulting stance, no doubt under the confidence that most Haredis won't be perturbed from voting for his party and UTJ, which, sadly, is true. A lot of insular Haredis suffer from ghetto mentality, and Deri's making the situation worse by acting so selfish.