Deri accuses Netanyahu of losing control of government after he nixed ‘rabbis bill’ vote

Shas party leader Aryeh Deri accuses Netanyahu of having lost control of the government after he canceled a vote overnight on the contentious “Rabbis Bill” that had been scheduled for today.

In what Channel 12 says is a leaked snippet of the conversation between Deri and Netanyahu following the decision to axe the vote, Deri asks what he’s supposed to tell Shas’s voter base and rabbis.

“Do you think it’s reasonable for me to tell them that the prime minister has lost control?” he asks.

Critics of the bill, which could cost taxpayers tens of millions of shekels annually in salaries for hundreds of new neighborhood rabbis, have charged that it would benefit Shas by providing jobs for its apparatchiks.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu did not inform Deri in advance of his plans to pull the legislation off the agenda.