Top rabbi: Deri hinted about security situation ahead of Iran strikes, US official warned Shas against dissolving Knesset

By Sam Sokol 14 July 2025, 11:42 am

Edit

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri meets with Moshe Maya, a senior member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, June 26, 2024. (Courtesy)

Ahead of last month’s surprise attack on Iran, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri asked Rabbi Moshe Maya, one of the ultra-Orthodox party’s spiritual leaders, to allow a delay on a potential vote on dissolving the Knesset “for security reasons,” apparently hinting at the upcoming assault on Tehran’s regime to the religious figure.

In a recording of Maya broadcast by Army Radio, the hardline rabbi can be heard saying that while he was not informed of the details of why a delay was necessary, Deri told him that it was for unspecified “security reasons.”

According to Maya, prior to the vote Deri had been sitting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when an American official arrived and warned against dissolving the Knesset ahead of a major military operation.

The rabbi does not name the US official.

Deri then “sent me an emissary” who asked “can we postpone the vote for a week” for security reasons, Maya recalls.

“I didn’t ask questions. I told him, of course, yes. And then the war started,” the rabbi says.

Israel launched its attack early in the morning of June 13.

The previous day, the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, angered by the coalition’s delays in passing a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service, had been poised to vote in favor of an opposition measure to dissolve the Knesset.

However, Haredi representatives reached a last-minute compromise on the issue with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, averting the crisis, and the opposition-backed bill to disperse the Knesset and call early elections failed to advance.

Deri and Edelstein were both briefed in advance of the attack, contributing to their decision to compromise on the military draft issue and avoid early elections.

At the time of the reported conversations, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was said to have met with ultra-Orthodox coalition members as part of efforts to prevent Netanyahu’s government from collapsing. The US envoy denied the report.