The political battle surrounding Israel’s daycare subsidy legislation intensified Wednesday after the preliminary passage of the so-called “daycare law,” with the Aryeh Deri-led Shas party launching a fierce attack against both the attorney general and the Religious Zionism party over its absence from the vote.

In a sharply worded statement issued hours after the bill passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset, Shas declared that the vote represented a direct rebuke to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

“The Knesset today delivered a clear and decisive message against the attorney general: enough cruelty toward toddlers in order to harm their Torah-learning parents,” the party stated.

Shas described the daycare legislation as a “moral and ethical statement” against the decision to revoke daycare subsidies from kollel families, arguing that the policy amounts to an attempt to pressure yeshiva and kollel families by targeting small children.

According to the party, the move to deny subsidies is “an attempt to pressure Torah learners through harming toddlers.”

Shas also praised coalition chairman Ofir Katz for successfully assembling the votes needed to pass the bill, while commending both the Likud party and Otzma Yehudit for what it called their “full partnership with Torah values.”

At the same time, the party launched an unusually harsh attack against the Religious Zionism faction for boycotting the vote.

“[They] chose to absent themselves from this moral vote and thereby joined hands with those persecuting the Torah world and the haters of Judaism. Those who constantly speak about the importance of the right-wing bloc are the very ones dismantling it through their actions,” the statement said.

{Matzav.com}