Eisenkot: I’ll partner with Shas if it accepts my principles, my mom voted for them for 30 years

Gadi Eisenkot, the leading candidate running to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says he is open to forming a coalition with the Sephardi Haredi Shas party if it accepts his party’s three core principles.

Eisenkot, who, like Shas’s voter base, is of Mizrahi heritage, adds that his mother voted for Shas for 30 years, and quips that it “wasn’t simple” to convince her to switch her allegiance to his centrist party, Yashar.

Eisenkot demands that any potential coalition partners recognize Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state, endorse the values of the Declaration of Independence and commit to all Israelis performing national service. Shas, along with the Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism, have pushed for a law enshrining blanket exemptions to IDF service for Haredi men. That insistence has led many opposition politicians to rule out partnering with them.

In an interview with the Haredi publication Kikar Hashabbat yesterday, Eisenkot expresses openness to partnering with Shas if it accepts those principles.

“Many Shas voters serve” in the IDF, he says.

“I see Shas as a partner on the condition that it accepts the three foundational principles,” he adds. “Shas is the party that is meant to send a positive message.”

He continues, “I know Shas voters, I meet them, I grew up with some of them.”

He also says that Shas chair Aryeh Deri has “security understanding” and has made “significant contributions” during his time in office.