Yair Lapid
Photo: Ido Erez
Lapid: If burden equality law remains, I won't rule out haredim
While Deri and Lapid did make amends, the Yesh Atid leader says their parties won't be cooperating anytime soon; 'there's no budding romance between us and Shas,' he says.
While Shas chairman Aryeh Deri told Ynet on Tuesday morning that he had already made amends with Yair Lapid, the Yesh Atid leader was quick to clarify that the two parties will not be cooperating anytime soon.
"There's no budding romance between us and Shas," he told Ynet. "We made amends on a personal level, we had a fight on a personal level. I'm not too excited about the idea that convicted felons sit in the Israeli government, but we don't rule out anyone," he added, referring to Deri, who spent 22 months in prison after being convicted of corruption.
Lapid said that "as long as the equality in the sharing of the burden remains, we have no problem to sit with anyone."
Lapid at the Ynet studio (Photo: Ido Erez)
He said he had more trouble with the Labor party when it came to the burden equality legislation. "I'll remind you, during the vote on burden equality, to their eternal disgrace, the Labor party was sitting outside in another hall, Deri was hugging Buji and saying 'this is my prime minister,' and they're not voting. What, all of a sudden the Labor party is against drafting haredim and against them going to work?"
Lapid sought to clarify that he did not rule out the haredi parties in the previous elections. "I want to correct Aryeh Deri's comments. We didn't rule anyone out, not even then. I said all the time that I was against this culture of ruling out and boycotting."
He also aimed an attack at the KKL-JNF, saying the state must charge a billion shekels from KKL. Unlike KKL's claim, Lapid said, they're a state company. "It's sitting on lands that belong to the state of Israel and what's more important is it's a black hole and nobody knows what's going on inside. There's a billion shekels there, your money. With a billion shekels we can change welfare in Israel. With a billion shekel I can add hot meals at schools to 200,000 children. It's all nepotism and giving out jobs to friends."
The former finance minister said that "most of KKL's money comes from the lands it's in charge of, and KKL must be made transparent and subjected to the state budget. And the guys from Likud, Labor and Yisrael Beytenu need to stop playing with our money as if it's their money, because that's corrupted."
