Shas, Otzma Yehudit trade barbs over postponement of elections for Chief Rabbinate

After a squabble during the cabinet meeting, a spat between the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox Shas party and far-right Otzma Yehudit over the postponement of elections for the Chief Rabbinate until later this year spills over to a meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.

According to Hebrew media leaks, Shas Minister Haim Biton tells Otzma Yehudit members not to intervene in the matter or “we will intervene in your decisions.”

In response, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — who heads Otzma Yehudit — reportedly fires back that all Israelis have stake in the rabbinate and charges that Biton is “against a Zionist state.”

Biton in turn warns that Shas will torpedo Ben Gvir’s bill to monitor domestic abusers if Otzma Yehudit prevents the delay, to which the latter says “you’re changing the rules in the middle of the game.”

“It’s not your affair. The chief rabbis are ours, we’ll do what you want and we won’t interfere,” Biton is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Otzma Yehudit Minister Yitzhak Wasslerauf tweets: “A rabbi should be chosen for his skills and not his connections.”