Lapid, Liberman Push Egalitarian Section at Kosel

A row within the coalition appeared to emerge on Monday as Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said they would pursue the Reform-backed Western Wall agreement even after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it would not be implemented, angering the heterodox groups.

“We will fight for the Kotel framework until it passes,” Lapid told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

“We are working on it now, and we will continue to work on persuading everyone in the coalition. There have been incidents in the past that people mocked our ability to accomplish our goals, and most of the time they were proven wrong. I will not give up on the Kotel framework, which is the right thing to do to unite the entire Jewish people behind its values.”

Also on Monday, Liberman told his Yisrael Beytenu faction that “it’s sad that Yamina MKs persuaded Bennett to abandon the Western Wall deal after they supported the framework in the past,” he said. “I hope to succeed at persuading New Hope and Yamina to agree to the current framework.”

Bennett told the Post over the weekend that opposition within his Yamina party and in New Hope had forced him to shelve the plan.