Shas leader Deputy Prime Minister/Interior Minister Eli Yishai is quoted in the party affiliated Yom L’Yom newspaper on Thursday saying “I will not vote for the current state budget which abandons the weaker elements of society, even if it means going to general elections”.

Yishai explained that the global trend in which the weaker segments of the population burdens an unacceptably large share of the financial collapse has reached Israel and it cannot be permitted to occur here. “It is unacceptable that every time there are fiscal sanctions towards covering the deficit that the weaker citizens are hit. The larger families, those with limited assets, single parents, disables families, the elderly, they are paying the price. In addition, the last round of sanctions was intended to be more broad-ranging, painful and extensive, but Shas’ intervention prevented this. I will never agree to permit these families to be targeted. I will stand firm and will not permit this to happen.”

Yishai was asked how he will react if the options available to him are the budget ‘as is’ or elections. He explained Shas does not support early elections, and this is the case today, but if the alternative is unacceptable fiscal decrees, then it will be elections.

Some Shas officials are already speculating that elections will take place in the winter of 2013 since it is unlikely that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will succeed in passing his state budget.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)