At a joint conference of Maariv and the Jerusalem Post , MK Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, called to halve the budgets for the yeshivas. "I call to cut the stipends for yeshiva students by at least 50%," Liberman said Wednesday. "Right now, unfortunately, what is happening in the haredi establishment is not connected to Judaism." When asked if he hadn't "exaggerated about the haredim," Liberman said, "I'm not exorciating them and I'm not calling them derogatory names. When you see on Behadrei Haredim (a popular haredi news site - ed.) that the contribution of Russian immigrants is 'vodka and pigs,' then people get mad." Earlier on Wednesday, Likud MK Gideon Sa'ar spoke at the conference, saying he has the ability to beat Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Thursday's primaries. "Tomorrow's elections for [head of the] Likud are critical," Sa'ar began. "They're not just elections within the party. These elections will decide the results of the general elections as well. After two rounds of elections and two rounds of trying to form a government, the political reality is completely clear." "Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, but he has no possibility of forming a government. These elections are between two options: A Likud government led by me, or a left-wing government led by [Blue and White Chairman MK] Benny Gantz. There's no real third option."
