Reports stating that Shas is placing the matter of monthly child allowance payments on the table as a deal-breaker appear accurate. It has been learned that HaRav Ovadia Yosef Shlita has indeed instructed party leader Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai to inform Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that if the monthly child allowances are not increased by the end of the Knesset summer session, Shas will create a coalition crisis.

Yishai prior to the Pesach Knesset recess announced the child allowance issue is of paramount importance, stating unabashedly that if an agreement is not reached, the party will break away from the coalition.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)