Today, Monday, the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, warned that religious hardliners will not only participate in the next government, but will actually rule it.
Lapid relied on a series of statements issued by the leaders of religious and nationalist right-wing parties regarding draft laws that the next government intends to adopt.
To form the next government, Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, is negotiating with religious right-wing parties, such as Shas and United Torah Judaism, and other nationalist right-wing parties, such as Religious Zionism and Jewish Power.
Netanyahu cannot form a government without obtaining the support of these parties to reach the 61 votes (out of 120) required to obtain the confidence of the Knesset.
The demands of the religious and nationalist right-wing parties vary between the segregation of males and females in public events, banning football matches during the Shabbat holiday, and overriding the decisions of the Supreme Court (the highest judicial body) to maintain the exclusion of religious Jews from military service.
Lapid said - in a series of tweets on his Twitter account - that "the new government has not yet been formed, but it already has decisions: yeshiva students will get more money than Israeli army soldiers."
"(Bezalel religious Zionist leader) Smotrich wants to ban football matches on Saturday, and a law will be passed to separate men and women in public places," he added.
"a third world country"
Lapid, who will become opposition leader after Netanyahu forms the government, added that "Israel is a Jewish state, not a Sharia state."
Referring to Netanyahu's Likud party, Lapid said, "I want to ask Likud voters: Is this what you wanted? Is this why you voted for Likud? So that they take money from soldiers and give it to yeshiva students? You will be a minority in this government."
He added, "It will not be a government in which religious extremists sit, but it will be a government ruled by religious extremists. Full control."
He warned that religious extremists "will lead us to become a Third World country... at odds with the Americans... at odds with ourselves."
On November 13, Israeli President Isaac Herzog assigned Benjamin Netanyahu to form a government within 28 days, and this period can be extended for an additional 14 days with the approval of the president.
Netanyahu is the longest serving Israeli prime minister, as he held the premiership between 1996 and 1999, and then held the position again for 12 consecutive years between 2009 and 2021.