Clearing the Deri-air

The soap opera that is Aryeh Deri’s political life continues unabated in Tuesday’s Hebrew press. The Shas leader, who served time for corruption only to return again to command his party, tendered his surprise resignation Monday evening.

Deri’s resignation comes after leaked tapes showed Shas’s spiritual leader, the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, criticizing Deri and praising his rival Eli Yishai.

But a resignation only matters if it’s accepted, as Israel Hayom‘s front page headline points out: “Deri: ‘I quit’, Shas Rabbis: ‘Stay.'” In a widely expected move, the rabbinical council that governs the party rejected Deri’s resignation almost immediately. Deri wrote in his letter to the rabbis that upon hearing the tapes, “the pain that pierced my heart was more difficult than the death of Rabbi Yosef.”

Yehuda Schlesinger writes in Israel Hayom that Deri’s resignation is a ploy to distract voters from the substance of what was said in those tapes. Instead the Shas spin machine switched the context from criticism of Deri to shock at the use of the late rabbi for politics. Schlesinger is upset the criticism of Deri was buried deep in the coverage and instead the media bought in to Shas’s spin. Why? He thinks it’s because Deri might support Labor/Hatnua in the upcoming elections and that gives left-wing media an incentive to bury the criticism against him.

Haaretz suspects the whole resignation/rejection story is a farce because a source told the paper that the rabbis’ letter was prepared before Deri submitted his resignation. Yair Ettinger writes that this drama, whether real or contrived, will most likely continue in Shas for the foreseeable future. After Deri was sent to prison, Shas released a series of videotapes that attacked the Ashkenazi elite, whom it saw responsible for Deri’s imprisonment, but now Ettinger writes, it hopes to do something similar. Only this time the target won’t be the Ashkenazi elite but Eli Yishai.

Over in Yedioth Ahronoth (whose front page headline is the boring “Drama in Shas”), Sima Kadmon writes that Deri’s resignation was simply a way for him to save face. While the tapes may have been embarrassing for Shas, and Deri in particular, Kadmon writes that it caused Shas to do something it didn’t want to do previously: pay attention to Yishai. Since Yishai broke away and founded his own party, Shas’s plan was to not acknowledge him and let him do his own thing (since he might not even pass the electoral threshold to enter the next Knesset). Now, with the release of these tapes, Shas is having to react to Yishai. Kadmon isn’t positive that this will actually help Yishai; in fact it could be just the opposite, because Yishai, the presumed leaker, used the late rabbi for political gain, which is a big no-no.

While Shas and Aryeh Deri dominate the papers, theirs isn’t the only election news. Haaretz reports that Likud’s comptroller has ruled that Netanyahu can run in Wednesday’s primary elections after all. Earlier in the month, Netanyahu was ruled ineligible to run in primaries, meaning he could not run for prime minister in the upcoming elections. However, the reversal clears the way for Netanyahu to be re-elected as Likud leader, with victory seen as straightforward against his only competition for the spot, Danny Danon.

Israel Hayom gives space to former Likud minister and current Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein, who blasts voters’ inclinations to opt for centrist parties. He says these parties always disappoint voters and don’t accomplish anything (he gives the examples of Kadima and Yesh Atid to reinforce his point). He attacks Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid specifically, saying, “After 19 years in politics I’m still amazed every time how people who were just a moment ago in the government come out and criticize not only the government but the area they were responsible for.”

The comptroller speaks

The State comptroller, Yosef Shapira, released a report on how property taxes are collected and used in Israel. Israel Hayom reports the comptroller’s office found the methods used to identify and assess property taxes are cumbersome and “lack uniformity.” The solution to the mess is reform, but what that reform should look like is hazy, though the report points out that both the Interior and Finance ministries are aware of the problem, which is a start. The Finance Ministry said in a statement, “Despite the complexity of the issue, comprehensive reform is needed.”

The comptroller issued another report on how the IDF is out of shape (and not just the reserve units). Yedioth summarizes the report, which states that reservists don’t train enough, secure locations are actually vulnerable, and the general level of readiness in the IDF is not high. The paper lists as an example that at emergency call-up bases (where reserve soldiers go to during wartime to receive supplies before going to the front) vehicles have flat tires and haven’t had their scheduled repairs.

Yedioth carries an op-ed from a reservist lieutenant colonel, Dede Amousi, who wants to be given the tools to succeed. Training is one of those tools. He writes that a battalion commander who doesn’t train with his troops for three years is not going to be ready for battle. “The IDF needs to let us train, and needs to let us succeed in our mission.”