Deri: We won’t join Blue and White coalition, even if rotation deal scrapped

Shas leader Aryeh Deri said his party will not join a Blue and White-led government should the centrist alliance win the election on April 9, even if the party canceled a rotation agreement that would see leader Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid share the premiership.

The agreement — which would see Gantz take the post for the first two and a half years if the party forms the next government, and Lapid taking over for the next two years — was key to the unity deal between Gantz’s Israel Resilience and Lapid’s Yesh Atid when the two factions merged to form Blue and White.

The ultra-Orthodox parties have said they will endorse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the premiership after election day. The Haredi lawmakers have shunned Lapid over the former finance minister’s advancement of the IDF enlistment law for the ultra-Orthodox in the previous government, which the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers strongly opposed and have since rolled back.

“If they cancel the rotation and only Gantz will be (prime minister), and Lapid won’t be… it won’t help,” Deri said, according to recordings obtained by the Kan public broadcaster on Sunday night. “No matter what, we won’t sit with them in the government.”

“They are trying in vain,” the interior minister continued, speaking to party activists.

“So long as this union of Lapid and Gantz continues — we won’t sit with them,” added Deri.

The Shas leader expressed admiration for Gantz, telling the activists that “you cannot belittle him,” but added: “the moment that, unfortunately, this Jew, with all of his merits, decided to adopt the entire platform of Lapid and decided to be Yesh Atid, to let Yesh Atid grow and take over his party — he adopted their entire platform.”

“We will not, under any circumstances, sit with him,” added Deri.

Lapid  on Sunday insisted he would not give up a rotation deal with party leader Gantz despite calls from the Labor opposition party to nix it.

“The rotation does not disturb a single voter in Israel. They appreciate the fact that we have a common path and are not preoccupied with ourselves. Of course I’m not giving up the rotation,” said Lapid.

The rotation agreement was a demand set by Lapid for the formation of the joint slate. Though Gantz was said to have resisted it at first, he eventually relented, paving the way for the formation of Blue and White.

However, Gantz, with his security credentials as former chief of staff of the IDF, is seen as more popular with moderate-right voters than Lapid. Some have said the notion of Lapid as prime minister has turned them off voting for the Gantz-led party.

Recent polls have predicted Blue and White could be the largest party after the election, though the surveys also suggested it would struggle to form a coalition without the ultra-Orthodox or right-wing parties.

Lapid and Deri also have a history of bad blood, after the Yesh Atid leader memorably told the formerly imprisoned Shas leader he would “rehabilitate” him in a televised pre-election debate in 2015, in what was later derided by Deri as Ashkenazi “condescension.” Deri on March 12 revived that incident, challenging Lapid to another debate on religion and state issues, “any time and any place that he chooses.”

The centrist politicians would also be hard-pressed to court Deri, due to their party’s strident criticism of Netanyahu over his corruption charges: Police have recommended Deri himself be indicted for corruption, and he previously served time in prison on bribery charges. Deri has also said he would seek to be interior minister in the next government — the position he currently holds, and the office he held when he took bribes for which he was later jailed.

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.