Israel – Shas leader Arye Deri promised not to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and said he hoped opposition leader Isaac “Buji” Herzog will defeat Israel’s longtime leader.
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“I would refuse to be a minister in this government,” Deri said in a fiery interview with Yediot Aharonot on Wednesday.
“I will not enter a government with such a budget, which supports the conversion bill and the weakest socioeconomic sectors. I also don’t see a way for a different government to be formed in the current political situation.”
Netanyahu said Saturday night that he wanted Shas and United Torah Judaism to join his government. He has told Deri that he wants him in his cabinet but Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman has vetoed Shas replacing Yesh Atid in the coalition.
Deri accused Netanyahu of losing control of his ministers during Operation Protective Edge, enabling Finance Minister Yair Lapid to “extort” funds for his causes, and of being responsible for what he called the government’s “total failure.”
The Shas leader said Herzog was a preferable alternative to Netanyahu and that he hoped he would succeed in helping the Labor leader form a government after the next election, which he would do everything possible to expedite.
“Buji is a fair person, a team player, talented, and very diligent,” Deri said. “I don’t see any reason why he can’t replace Netanyahu and be prime minister.”
Asked whether Sephardi-haredi Shas voters could accept a secular Ashkenazi candidate from north Tel Aviv, Deri responded that Netanyahu was no more acceptable and suggested that Herzog, whose grandfather was chief rabbi, was closer to religious tradition than the prime minister.
Inside his own party, Deri said he would not tolerate insubordination by former Shas chairman Eli Yishai, stating that Shas had room for only one leader and daring Yishai to try to break off from Shas and form a new party.
“If someone in Shas is thinking about splitting or acting independently, I invite him to do it now,” he said. “The Shas Council of Torah Sages and I will not permit in any way creating such an atmosphere in the party.”
Deri said he opposed women running in the party in the next election, as did the party’s late mentor, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and rejected the idea of including on the Shas list Adina Bar-Shalom, Yosef’s daughter, who founded a haredi women’s college and won the Israel Prize.
“She never spoke about a desire to enter politics when her father was alive because she knew that if she did she would never be able to enter his house again,” Deri said.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
It seems like Deri is intent on making sure that Shas leadership maintains its reputations of always having one foot in its mouth. Rav Yosef, z’tl, did not display much common sense when it came to political matters and Deri seems intent on carrying on the tradition
Deri is one of the worst political hacks since Meir Porush, Rabin and Ehud Barak. He loves nothing more than sucking money out of the government by threats.
Hopefully Eli Yishi will take some power from him when Shas splits in two.
I hope Yishai takes Deri up on it. Deri is a major disaster and cares nothing for the Jews in Israel and is only interested in his own power. Netanyahu may not be ideal, but to support Herzog, whose leftist policies have proven to be a disaster, has led to Jewish deaths and Hamas in control in Gaza, is vile.
The claim that Shas is interested in Torah ideals is completely debunked by this, since Labor’s policies are even worse than Lapid. Deri supported Gush Katif’s evacuation and look what that got us.
Yishai is a mentch with seichel. He certainly doesn’t belong in a Deri led Shas.
Deri is a convicted criminal who did hard time. He was also a suspect in conspiracy to commit murder (his mother in law). If Herzog links up with Deri,Herzog’s facade of integrity disappears.
Deri is the hood of lost moods. He has an estranged voice and his religious liberties are left overs from his charismatic huckerie. I would not yield to his lost charm and I think that a religious party should be more humble. Nix his silver lining.
The Rabbis should study Torah and stay out of politics
th
Go yishi go, you’re position was stolen away minutes b4 Rav yosef became weak &under; huge pressure from the surroundings he replaced you, but he was fully for u as he quoted alot of times,
Plus what’s wrong with 2 sfardi parties ain’t different from chassidic dynasties that split in two or sometimes more!
Interesting how prison changed him and made him a liberal, his time is over his charm is gone and he makes me nervous, yishai should leave and I’m sure his new party will succeed