Rebuffing Eisenkot’s overtures, Shas chief Deri says ‘we support Netanyahu, period’

16 July 2026, 9:23 pm

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Shas chair Aryeh Deri attends a Knesset plenum session and a vote on a bill to split the duties and powers of the attorney general, on July 15, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition rushed to pass a series of laws long demanded by the ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas party chief Aryeh Deri appears to reciprocate by declaring loyalty to the premier.

“We support Netanyahu, period,” he tells the Kikar Hashabbat ultra-Orthodox news site, rejecting recent overtures by Netanyahu’s main election rival, Gadi Eisenkot.

“Eisenkot is at the helm of a camp that hates everything to do with Judaism,” Deri says. “We are with Netanyahu full throttle.”

Shas’s spiritual leader, former chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, said last week that Netanyahu would “definitely not repent,” while Eisenkot “could.”