Speaking on the motzei Shabbos Meet the Press program on Channel 2 TV, Shas party leader Aryeh Deri spoke out for the first time since Eli Yishai broke from Shas and established his new party.
“Eli, you made a terrible error. We were together for 30 years and now made a terrible error. I am calling on you to show responsibility and not go against Maran’s party and his mosdos. You are doing just that. Regarding your feeling that Maran wanted to appoint you as head of the party, I suggest that you go to Maran’s kever and daven and ask mechila…”
Deri continues and explains that to date he and his colleagues have opted to remain silent but in the coming days an in-depth response will be heard.
Deri repeats that Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L had a derech and that is the derech of Shas and the one he is following. He suggests that if Yishai is incapable of working together then break away but not to launch a party that competes with Maran’s life’s work and to bring added controversy into the camp, which is what his actions are causing at present.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
I think he has a point r’ ovdia made deri leader because he wanted shas together. the question I would ask yishai is if r’ ovdia was still alive would he open a party or not,so if he respects his rabbi why do different if he’s not alive. So if he does what he didn’t want he should go to his kever daven and ask mechila…”
Deri must go to the kvarim of all the victims of his failed Oslo accords.
Deri give up on ego & give the crown where it is merited on the head of YISHAI!!
its too bad that politics and power gets to peoples’ heads. its a big nisayon.
Deri has so much Jewish blood on his hands that he should be hiding in a hole and not “leading” a party, all the soldiers killed in Gaza included.
Agree – Roshvrison
What a chutzpah for a convicted felon and political hack who served jailtime to lecture ANYONE about freely expressing his political views. Rav Yosef was a great talmid chacham but his political preferences (whatever they arguably may have been when he was alive) should not be binding on today’s Sephardic voters. Yishai is totally within his rights to form a new party and seek to move in new directions.
Its so sad seeing our brethren fight in these cases there is usually alot that we dont know and it would be truly unfair to hastily decide who is right and who is wrong. Hopefully they will both win seats and perhaps merge but probably not so likely
It’s so curious that the sons haven’t weighed in on the subject.
Wouldn’t they know Rav Ovadia’s position?
To No. 9
You miss thei point…this is not a matter of halacha on which Maran’s psak might arguably be relevant. The issue here is based on the CURRENT state of political affairs and the needs of EY, whether Deri or Yishai would provide better leadership for the Sephardeshe voters. The Yosef sons have rightfully not gotten involved in this intramural fight that has nothing to do with their areas of expertise.
To #2 & 5:
is Deri worse than any other Zionist activist or politician or the State of Israel altogether, going back to the Kastner affair and the Jewish agency, and all the blood that has been unnecessarily spilled over the past century? Are you reckoning all the blood on the hands of the army, the various Defense Ministers over the years? Is Bibi allowed to lead a party, seeing that he’s responsible for all the Jewish deaths in the recent Gaza war? What on earth are you talking about?
To #7:
have you noticed the disproportionate number of Chareidi politicians who have been convicted of “bribery” and other monkey business that everyone else does on a near daily basis over here? It’s because the State Prosecutor’s Office somehow rarely finds “sufficient evidence,” or “public interest” in going after secular politicians. Deri was investigated for over 10 years. If they had examined all of your activities with a microscope for so long, I assure you they’d also most likely have found something not so complementary about you. In any case, if as you say, “Rav Yosef was a great talmid chacham,” and he knew that Deri did time for whatever real or imaginary offences, yet nevertheless reinstated him to lead Shas.
Having said that, I deplore the splintering into different groups and would much prefer to see unity at least among the Chareidim.
Yaapchik
Chacham YOSEF was very close with his daughter Rabbanit Adina Shalom & she already expressed that her father’s view was in Yishai’s hands. Why ask the sons?