MK Moshe Gafni, the chief of the ultra -Orthodox faction of Degel Hatorah – part of the Judaism party of the United Torah – triggered the anger of the political right on Wednesday morning when he said that he did not understand for what Israel is fighting in Gaza.
Opening a meeting of the Knesset finance committee, which he chairs, Gafni told legislators that he was grateful to God and US President Donald Trump for the end of the war with Iran, and expressed his condolences on the Death of seven soldiers in Gaza on Tuesday.
“But I don’t understand, even for this very moment, for which we are fighting there,” he added. “I don’t understand what need. What are we going to do there when the soldiers are killed all the time? … We need a Trump to come here and say, we return the hostages, stop all these things and return to normal. But apparently, we haven’t deserved this yet. ”
The MK Yinon Azulai of its ultra-Orthodox Shas colleague supported Gafni’s declaration, saying that “we have to do everything to finish this war now when we are strong, not weak and bringing the hostages”.
Gafni also found support in the Smarting and Disappeared Families forum, who tweeted that he “said the truth as it is, without embellishment or rotation”.
“The war in Gaza was exhausted and was waged without clear or real objective. It is time to show courage and to say in a clear voice: to return the hostages, to stop the fighting. This is the right solution, this is the only way to fill an Israeli victory,” said the group.
Golani’s troops operate in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on June 3, 2025, Handout Image de l’IDF. (Israeli defense forces)
But Gafni’s statement has attracted animated condemnations of the political right, the Otzma Yehudit party of the National Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, accusing that national security has been damaged by questioning the war in Gaza.
His rhetoric “recalls similar declarations of the extreme left Moshe Ya’alon, harmful to the security of Israel and to the families of the fallen heroes,” the party said in a statement – referring to the assertion of Moshe Ya’alon, a former Minister of Defense of Likoud, that Israel led “Ethnic cleaningIn the north of the Gaza Strip.
“Our heroic warriors fight a compulsory war against … the Nazi Hamas terrorist organization” in order to “restore security to southern residents in particular and to residents of Israel in general, and to return all our hostages, living and dead,” the press release added. He also said that the sacrifice of fallen soldiers demanded that Israel continue the war until victory.
Ben Gvir said that Gafni’s statement was a “shame and shame”.
“Why are they fighting there?” he asked rhetorically. “They fight a survival war, so that there is no more October 7, no more rape, massacre and murder,” he told Army Radio, noting that he currently has a son in the FDI.
The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, made gestures to a supporter while walking escorted by Israeli police in the old town of Jerusalem on May 26, 2025, during a flag march for the day of Jerusalem. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)
Yehuda Wald, director general of the far -right religious party, also criticized Gafni, arguing that “only a person who does not send his sons to war can speak with such a detachment”. The Haredi community does not perform a military service.
Having a similar note, Likoud’s legislator, Dan Illouz, said the Israelis were fighting in Gaza “so that babies were never burned in their homes again, as has happened in Kfar Aza.”
“It is not surprising that those who do not understand this threatened only two weeks ago, when Israel was about to attack Iran, to overthrow a right-wing government in the midst of a survival war only so as not to participate in this war,” he posted on X.
Gafni’s Degel Hatorah faction is part of the greatest faction of Judaism in the United Torah, which recently threatened to dissolve the Knesset on efforts for Haredim.
Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari addresses the Knesset Plenum, June 25, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov / Office of the Knesset spokesperson)
The legislators within the coalition and the opposition have put pressure for legislation which would end the long -standing exemption from the students of Yeshiva of military service to compensate for a time of war shortage of labor and relieve the burden of reservists.
Gafni was also criticized for the left and the political center, although for various reasons.
Addressing the Knesset Plenum, Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari said that there was no “need for Trump” but rather a Prime Minister who “will ignore the messianic, delusional and without mandate elements” and will take into account the nation, which submerged the supports putting an end to the war and returning the hostages.
Given the position of Gafni within the coalition that manages war, his declaration is “a shame and a shame”, tweeted MK Gilad Kariv, the Democrats. “You ensure personal and direct responsibility for everything that is happening in the band. If you do not understand why the war in Gaza continues, what are you doing in the coalition? ”
