Shas said talking to opposition in bid to widen coalition, weaken Ben Gvir
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, is reportedly pushing to expand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in an effort to dilute the influence of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Citing unnamed political sources, the Ynet news site says that the longtime Netanyahu ally has been pushing to include the opposition Yesh Atid, New Hope, National Unity and Yisrael Beytenu parties in the coalition in order to counter Ben Gvir. In pursuit of this goal, Deri has been in touch with National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot and Yesh Atid’s Elazar Stern, the website reports.
The Shas-backed Rabbis Bill has been repeatedly stymied as part of an ongoing dispute with Ben Gvir, who has said that he would continue to hold it up until he was given greater influence over the course of the war in Gaza by Netanyahu.
The ultra-Orthodox party has also expressed opposition to Ben Gvir’s repeated statements that Jews can legally pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Last month, Channel 12 reported that Deri and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid had discussed cooperating on a resolution affirming a halachic ruling from the Chief Rabbinate dating back to 1967, according to which Jews are forbidden from ascending the holy site.
While the secularist Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beytenu parties are staunchly opposed to many of the religious proscriptions Shas seeks in the law, Israel’s often-mercurial political arena has seen former enemies get in bed together in the past.
