MK (Ichud HaLeumi) Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) responded harshly to statements released by Aryeh Deri, who is viewed by many as a candidate for prime minister in the next general election. Deri was commenting on the arson attack against a mosque in the Galil, making the assumption that the perpetrators were Jews affiliated with the Price Tag operation based on graffiti left on the scene.

While police investigators are inclined to agree with this assumption, investigators have admitted that at present, they are not ruling out the possibility that the attack was carried out by others, perhaps non-Jews, seeking to place the blame on the Price Tag activists. Deri added that those responsible should be viewed as a rodef in the Halachic sense, despite statements from Chief Rabbi Moshe Shlomo Amar Shlita who specifically stated the rodef classification does not apply here, adding that we must be cautious and not assume a Jew was responsible for the this attack since it is possible this is a blood libel.

Katz joined the chief rabbi in his assessment, adding Deri has not changed and has not learned from the past, “continuing to cooperate with the blood libel against Jews”. Katz calls on Deri to take a good look at the radical Israeli left, reminding him of the previous cases in which inciters and provocateurs were planted in right-wing communities to delegitimize the right-wing.

Katz views Deri, a former Shas Party leader, as being responsible for giving the government in 1993 the decisive votes to pass the Oslo Agreement with the PA (Palestinian Authority), which we have since learned to be nothing short of catastrophic for Israel. Katz suggests that Deri look back at his actions from those days in Knesset and perhaps try to learn a lesson from his misguided actions.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)