Yaakov Asher Denies Dramatic Progress and Draft Exchanges in Coalition Talks

United Torah Judaism chairman Yaakov Asher on Sunday evening rejected reports of dramatic progress in coalition contacts and exchanges of draft documents with his party. His statement came after reports describing conditions for the party to join a government being negotiated by the change bloc. “Reports of ‘dramatic’ progress in contacts and ‘exchanges of drafts’ with United Torah Judaism have no basis,” Asher said. He added that advice from other parties rested on the same reports, which he described as false and slanted. Earlier Sunday, United Torah Judaism was reported to be seeking two conditions for entering the coalition. The first was legislation halting arrests of yeshiva students before the new government is sworn in. The reported proposal envisioned an interim measure applying to people evading conscription, both Haredi and secular, until comprehensive conscription legislation is passed. The second reported condition was an agreed text of a conscription bill approved by the Councils of Torah Sages. Change-bloc leaders would sign a commitment to pass that text through its second and third Knesset readings before the new government’s first state budget.