Yuli Edelstein is back in the speaker’s chair, and Aryeh Deri of Shas is at the podium, “blessing with all my heart” the prime minister and his new government.
But he says millions are dismayed by the new government, which does not represent them.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid, left, and Education Minister Shai Piron talking to Shas’s Aryeh Deri in the Knesset Monday. (Screenshot: Knesset Channel)
Shas negotiated in good faith to enter the coalition. We were ready to compromise on an arrangement to “share the burden” — a reference to an increase in the numbers of ultra-Orthodox males going into army service — but what became clear was that the goal of the coalition was to exclude the ultra-Orthodox.
“There’ll be no one there with a beard or a skullcap” to “ruin” the picture of the new government with the president, Deri says. “Great achievement… Treasure the picture.”
Deri too does the arithmetic, saying the new government is no leaner than its predecessor — given all the deputy ministers. “You didn’t save any money,” he says to Lapid.
You’ll discover that the ultra-Orthodox weren’t the ones siphoning off undeserved money, he claims. “The little they get is less than they deserve.” He urges Lapid to remember that “behind every cutback, there is a family” that will suffer.
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Monday, March 18, 2013
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