In a candid interview Sunday with Channel 13 News, opposition lawmaker Naor Shiri of the centrist Yesh Atid party offered an unusual tribute to Moshe Gafni, the veteran haredi politician who was removed overnight from his party's Knesset slate. Shiri, who represents a secular constituency, spoke warmly of what he learned from Gafni while simultaneously faulting Degel HaTorah, the ultra-Orthodox party Gafni has chaired, for how it handled his departure.
"Despite the very, very fundamental disagreements I have with Gafni and his faction colleagues, it's right to learn from them about the operation," Shiri said. He went on to praise the work ethic of haredi representatives in Israel's parliament more broadly: "I think the haredi MKs, not only in United Torah Judaism and not only in Degel, are diligent lawmakers, smart, and first-rate parliamentarians."
Shiri described how working alongside Gafni, who chaired the powerful Finance Committee, equipped him with practical tools for his own political career. "I had the privilege, and I think I gained many things for the future, understanding how an operation in the Knesset works, how the Knesset functions, how government decisions are passed, how political maneuvers are created and how to see through them," he explained. He summed up the experience bluntly: "He taught me a lot, bad things too but also good things."
Yet even as he acknowledged his professional respect for the outgoing Finance Committee chairman after 38 years in the legislature, Shiri criticized the absence of basic courtesy from the system toward the veteran lawmaker. "After 38 years, it would have been right to at least pick up the phone to him beforehand," Shiri noted.
