Liberman made deal with Left to form gov’t, says Deri

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman has come to an agreement with Blue and White and left-wing political parties to form a government supported by the Joint List of Arab parties after the upcoming elections, according to Shas leader Arye Deri.

Speaking at an event launching Shas’s election campaign, he castigated Liberman and accused him of responsibility for Israel’s ongoing political stalemate, while warning of impending doom for the Jewish character of the State of Israel.

Shas’s campaign launch was a far more low-key affair than similar events over the last two elections. It was held in a modest events hall in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul neighborhood.

Several hundred Shas activists showed up to cheer on Deri and the rest of the Shas electoral slate, extolling the Shas chairman and spiritual leader Rabbi Shalom Cohen.

Deri lamented the wasted billions on the elections and the inability of the interim government to take decisions and pass a budget.

“There is only one person responsible and that is Avigdor Liberman,” he said to a chorus of hissing and boos. “From the beginning to the end, he is the only person responsible.”

Deri said Liberman had used the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment as an excuse not to join a right-wing government after the April election, adding that he had then “re-marketed himself” as anti-haredi to gain votes in the September campaign and now in the current one.

Deri said Liberman’s recent pledge that there will not be fourth elections, made several times over the last week, is based on an agreement he has made to form a minority government with Blue and White, Meretz and Labor, supported by the Joint List.

“I have checked out his claim with the most trustworthy sources, and it is true, there is an agreement and they are going to form a government immediately after the elections,” Deri said. “Yes, there is an agreement between him and Gantz, Lapid, Meretz, Labor and Joint List, Odeh and Tibi...

“This coalition has already been stitched together, and this is a danger to the Jewish character of State of Israel as a Jewish state. It is a danger to the Land of Israel and it is a danger to Shabbat, whether or not it will continue to be a day of rest, or become like week days.”

Deri questioned whether “the gates will be opened to hundreds of thousands of nonJews to enter the country.”

This comment referenced the recent debate over the Law of Return and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s comments that “hundreds of thousands” of civilians from the former Soviet Union who are not Jewish according to Jewish law were brought to the country to counterbalance the influence of the ultra-Orthodox.