During a Shas faction meeting in Knesset on Monday, 24 Cheshvan, party chairman Minister Aryeh addressed the storm surrounding the release of a phone conversation audio that has him attacking Jerusalem Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar Shlita. He expressed pain and remorse over his words and apologizes to Rav Amar.
Deri however did not dwell on his statements, but preferred to address the fact that he was secretly being recorded and that the recording was released to the media. He highlighted for his party colleagues that this was not a conversation about ‘rechilus’ but his need to address a serious party matter.
Deri referred to Rabbi Amar and said: “I respect and value – add any word you wish – Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is one of the greatest talmidei chachamim or our day, not just ours in Eretz Yisrael but in the world. There was no intention of causing him any harm chas v’sholom.”
Deri explained that when one speaks internally about issued, things are said that remain between two people but in this case, this was not so. He stated he is pained that the events may have cause a Chilul Hashem and the lessons must be learned from this to make certain this does not occur “in our tzibur”.
Deri emphasized that eavesdropping or illegally recording someone is simply pasul and must not occur for it is a most serious offense.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
It looks like Deri has not retracted the substance of what he said about harav Amar. He’s merely ‘apologizing’ for having been caught saying those things and hearing them broadcast in public. That’s an empty, meaningless apology. And I find it difficult to reconcile Deri’s claim that he had intended no harm to harav Amar with the very ugly substance of what he said in the recorded conversation.
This whole thing is very scary. Like communism, “we are always watching you and if you think something that we don’t approve, you will pay!”. It’s very scary when people want to take you down. They will stop at nothing to do so.