Leaders of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties mounted a furious, unrestrained attack on Naftali Bennett on June 8, with Minister Yaakov Litzman of the United Torah Judaism party accusing the prime minister-designate of “disgracing” the yarmulke he wears and demanding he remove it.
Litzman accused Bennett of forming a radical left-wing government lacking moral values. He warned that the so-called government of change would annihilate Israel’s Jewish identity by allowing liberal conversions to Judaism, imposing the military draft on ultra-Orthodox men instead of allowing them to dedicate themselves to Torah study, allowing civil marriage and public transportation on the Jewish Sabbath and recognizing the Reform stream of progressive Judaism.