Shas threatens coalition over new TV official’s comments

The Shas party threatens to break coalition discipline in Knesset votes unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the communications minister, fires the newly appointed chairman of Channel 10 News for comments he made against Shas and its leader, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri.

“So long as this isn’t carried out [the firing], the movement’s lawmakers will vote in the Knesset plenum as they see fit,” a Shas statement says. “The Mizrahi population has stopped being silent.”

According to Haaretz, Rami Sadan, a close associate of the Netanyahu family who was appointed to the new post Monday, told Channel 10 News’s board of directors that he, “like you, part of the elite, hate the Shas movement and that thief Aryeh Deri. But we, as the elite, have to broaden the channel’s circles and appeal to the audience of Shas, to Massouda from Sderot.”

He was using a generic Mizrahi-sounding name. In calling Deri a thief, he was referring to the Shas leader’s conviction for bribery and 22-month prison term.

— Sue Surkes

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