A senior member of the haredi Orthodox Shas party’s rabbinical leadership has expressed deep distrust of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making clear that the party should not join the next government based on a future promise to regulate the exemption from military service, but only after such a law has already been passed. Rabbi Moshe Maya, the senior member of Shas’ Council of Torah Sages, is heard saying this in a recording published Sunday evening by i24NEWS.
“This time they made a mistake. Bibi promised a lot and everyone thought he would give us everything,” Maya is heard saying in the recording. Asked what would happen if Netanyahu pledged to Shas that he would pass the law within 30 days, he rejected the possibility: “There is no such thing. We are not signing on to join the government until he brings a law exempting yeshiva students, in the language of Maimonides.”
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Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior member of Shas’ Council of Torah Sages and Shas party head Arye Deri
When the questioner repeated that Netanyahu might promise to complete the legislation shortly after the government was formed, Maya replied: “Forget it. I won’t believe him about anything.”
Later in the conversation, Maya also was asked about the proposed draft-exemption framework advanced during the current term, negotiations over which involved former minister Ariel Atias on behalf of Shas, serving as head of the party’s negotiating team on the issue. Asked whether Shas had ever genuinely intended to support the framework, he replied: “No, of course not. This law is no good at all.” He added that it was advanced because “there was no choice.”
Maya’s remarks confirm the line already presented publicly last week by Shas Knesset lawmaker Yoav Ben Tzur. In an interview with “120 and One”, ynet’s political podcast hosted by Moran Azulay, Ben Tzur said the major mistake made by the Haredi parties during the last term was failing to condition the formation of the government in advance on passage of the law.
' Bibi promised a lot and everyone thought he would give us everything'
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
“The mistake was that we did not sign a coalition agreement saying that before anything else, the draft law would be passed,” he said. “If we had done that before the reform, everything would have been settled and nobody would have had any problem.”
Ben Tzur made clear at the time that, as far as Shas is concerned, the lesson has already been learned: “If we have to enter a coalition, a draft law will be passed before the government is formed.” Asked whether this was a condition set by the party, he replied: “Absolutely. Everyone agrees on this and that is how it will be.” At the same time, he made clear that Shas intends to remain in the bloc supporting Netanyahu: “We are going with the faith-based bloc. Our public is right-wing.”
Likud already has signaled that it is prepared to accept the condition. Hours after Ben Tzur’s remarks were published Thursday, Likud spokesman Guy Levy told Kol Barama radio: “We very much hope to pass the draft law even before the government is formed, as part of the coalition agreements. That is definitely the direction.”
The new recording, however, sharpens the gap between the political support Shas displays for Netanyahu and the distrust of him among senior figures in its spiritual leadership. Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri declared just last month that his party supports Netanyahu “with all its strength,” and that in the party's view he is the leader of the “faith-based bloc.”
By contrast, in July a harsh remark by Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, Shas’ spiritual leader, was revealed, in which he called Netanyahu “a liar who cannot be trusted” and said he had “deceived us over the draft law.”