Deri ‘happy Lapid is only a former minister’

Economy Minister Aryeh Deri shoots back after a tirade by Yesh Atid leader Lapid earlier today indirectly criticized him for blocking legislation on reforms to conversion and kashrut laws.

“A decision on the conversion draft accepted by the government, as written, with all the periods and commas in the text, is the exact draft written by the former minister Avigdor Liberman [of Yisrael Beytenu] with former chief rabbi Shlomo Amar in 2009. This was the compromise by Yisrael Beyetenu that indeed never became law but this was the compromise, the draft we [at Shas] disagreed with, but we agreed to compromise and this was the draft brought by the government. It’s not the one we wanted, it’s the draft by Yisrael Beytenu,” he adds.

Economy Minister Aryeh Deri seen at a ceremony to take up his position at the ministry, May 17, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Economy Minister Aryeh Deri seen at a ceremony to take up his position at the ministry, May 17, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Deri then attacks Lapid and says: “Look at the coalition agreement. We could have gotten twice as much if we had recommended to the president a government headed by Boujie [Isaac] Herzog.

“You would then hear the minister Lapid, the former minister, and I am happy to say he is a former minister, and the former minister Tzipi Livni who are now crying foul – you would hear them justify why the ultra-Orthodox should be given so much and why it constitutes integration and why it is good. So the hypocrisy must stop,” Deri says.

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