The United Torah Judaism party is angry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the decline in voting rates for the party within the haredi community, claiming he actively intervened in favor of the success of the Religious Zionist Party at the expense of UTJ.

The initial outrage could be seen already after the publication of the exit polls on Tuesday. The Prime Minister spoke with the leaders of his bloc, but members of UTJ said that party chairman MK Moshe Gafni refused to accept his call.

According to various testimonies, there were several unsuccessful attempts by Netanyahu to make contact with party leaders.

In a conversation with Arutz Sheva on Wednesday, a senior UTJ official said that what Netanyahu did is inexcusable.

“This is a slap in the face to the loyalty that the haredi parties have shown towards him over the years. Three times we laid down for him, four times we signed for him and he in turn went to gnaw at the haredi base and that did not yield any result – after all, the true results at the moment show that there is really no bloc of 61.”

Asked whether this might reflect on the haredim’s cooperation with Netanyahu, the official said that “we are considering how to deal with him from now on in terms of signatures and blocs. What is certain is that we will no longer be taken for granted.”

Earlier, Minister Yaakov Litzman was quoted as saying that “Netanyahu should have helped Smotrich, but not at our expense.”

Source: Arutz Sheva