Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri is looking into the possibility of being appointed to the Prime Minister’s Cabinet and appointing ministers on behalf of Shas to four ministries: Interior, Negev and Galilee, Religions and Welfare. The reason: this way he will avoid petitions against his tenure as a minister after he signed a plea deal last year in which he admitted to tax offenses and resigned from the Knesset without being defamed. The state left the question of scandal open during the signing of the plea agreement and in the last few days since the results of the elections were known, the question has been revisited.
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According to the estimates in the political system, the legal advisor to the government will be required to answer the question of scandal with the announcement of his appointment and not only her. We will remind you that another procedure against Deri is open in the central election committee where they discussed the demand of the Movement for the Quality of Government to impose a defamation on Deri. The chairman of the Central Election Commission, Judge Yitzhak Amit, wrote at the time in the decision that he gave that “only at the stage where those involved in the profession are in the question of the appointment of so-and-so to the position of minister in the government of Israel, and that so-and-so should be considered a ‘candidate to be a minister’, or then a request can be submitted in his matter” .
In accordance with the signs and for fear of a legal incident that would undermine his ability to enter the government, Deri is considering in recent days to withdraw the petitions that will be filed against his appointment and not to enter the government as a minister. Deri is confident in his abilities as the leader of the party and certainly after the significant investigation and when he is the most senior figure standing by Netanyahu’s side – to become a kind of super leader of the party in the Knesset and in the government without being a minister. Deri is expected to appoint some Shas Knesset members to these positions, and as in the previous term, to consider appointments of Shas members from outside such as the former Minister of Religious Affairs Yaakov Avitan.
Sources familiar with the coalition negotiations that opened on Sunday claim that the question of dividing the cases is at the center of the talks that Netanyahu is conducting. The head of the bloc wants to promote the establishment of a quick government and sign thin agreements and only after the inauguration enter into the content and draft broad coalition agreements. The main opponents of this are the religious Zionist chairman Bezalel Smotritz and the Torah Judaism party who demand that the amendments to the legal system and governing laws be drafted in the agreements right now.
The office of Shas Deri chairman said: “As a general rule, we do not comment on anything related to the coalition negotiations. When there is something to publish, we will publish.”