Shas Party cabinet ministers, Eli Yishai, Ariel Atias, Meshulam Nahari and Yaakov Margi did not attend the Sunday morning 28 Adar 5773 weekly cabinet meeting, the last of the outgoing administration. Their absence at the start of the meeting was viewed as a party statement but Nahari arrived into the meeting and officials in Eli Yishai’s office explained he is delayed and will be arriving later on.

Despite the fact that some of the ministers arrived later, the news in Israel is that the party cabinet ministers opted to boycott the last meeting to send a message to the prime minister.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used the forum to speak of the accomplishments of the outgoing administration during the last four years. The meeting was viewed as the last of the current interim cabinet as the new government is expected to be into place by week’s end. The presidential mandate for forming the government expires on Shabbos so it is extended to motzei Shabbos.

The prime minister stated “Apparently, this will be this Cabinet’s last meeting. I would like to thank the ministers for their excellent work over the past four years. These were four years of continuous action, of setting goals and achieving them. I think that with the perspective of time, this Government will be remembered as one of the governments that achieved more than almost any other in the history of the State of Israel. The achievements are many, they are all-embracing. We will take a moment and discuss them during this meeting, but I think that we have led the State of Israel to a situation in which it is more secure, more prosperous, and has made more progress in all the areas in which we have been active. I think that this is our foremost goal; to lead the country to a better situation that the one in which we received it, and there is no doubt that this was done.

“We did all of this while the world around us was changing for the worse. The regional situation is changing for the worse. The global economy is wobbly and unstable, and the State of Israel, in this sense, is in a better situation. We still face very great challenges; of course, in lowering the cost of living and housing, in equality in sharing the burden, and above all, the major security challenges, there are no other words, the major security challenges that are piling up around us. We will, of course, need to deal with these in the next government.

“I expect that the ministers in the next government will take your actions as an example, ministers and deputy ministers. Your work will serve as an example for the next government and if we act with the same focus, the same cooperation, we will, in the next government, I am sure, be able to overcome the challenges that we face.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)