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According to a report by Israel’s Channel Ten, Yair Lapid, the leader of the Knesset’s second largest party Yesh Atid, has said that he will not join a government which includes the ultra-Orthodox party Shas.

The Channel Ten report claims that Lapid said in closed meetings, “I am not even considering entering a government with Shas… If I will be in the traditional photograph at the President’s Residence the day the government is sworn in standing next to a minister from Shas, my political career is over.”

Yesh Atid’s flagship policy is the military enlistment of ultra-Orthodox religious seminary students, which is directly opposed by Shas. Aryeh Deri, the co-chairman of Shas retorted, “Lapid apparently is not aware that those who care about the good of the state and avoiding a national rift do not resort to boycotting other parties.”

The Likud-Beitenu faction, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the midst of attempting to form a coalition government, but has yet to make a breakthrough. Shas has been a regular fixture in Israeli governments over the past two decades and is considered a natural coalition partner for Likud-Beitenu. However, Lapid’s Yesh Atid has apparently formed a pact with Jewish Home led by Naftali Bennett, another seemingly natural Likud-Beitenu partner, whereby Lapid and Bennett have agreed that neither will join the coalition without the other. Lapid’s opposition to Shas would, therefore, presents a dilemma to Netanyahu. Although he has repeatedly expressed his desire to form a broad-based government, Netanyahu could be required to choose between including Yesh Atid and Jewish Home or Shas as coalition partners.