Shas chairman Aryeh Deri said on Monday morning that there is no chance that the Charedim will leave the right-wing bloc and also excoriated the Labor party headed by Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli.

“There’s no bloc more consolidated than our [right-wing] bloc,” Deri said in an interview with Ynet. “There is no candidate for the prime minister apart from Netanayhau,”

“We don’t have splintered parties that won’t pass the electoral threshold,” Deri continued. “Look at what’s happening in the left-wing bloc. Gantz says that Lapid won’t be the prime minister, Lapid says that Gantz won’t be the prime minister, and Avigdor Lieberman says that he’ll be the prime minister. Michaeli believes she’s representing the legacy of Rabin. I knew Rabin – if he would be alive, believe me, he would have voted for Shas and not Michaeli.”

Regarding the possibility of UTJ joining the other [left-wing] side, Deri said: “First of all, there’s no alternative on the other side. In order for the other side to establish a government, it needs to include Meretz, the [Arab] Joint List, and Lieberman, who said all the Chareidim should be thrown in the dumpster. The public won’t forgive anyone who supports those who hate us and trample on us.”

“I think that this stigma of Chareidim bribing political parties via money has ended,” Deri continued. “We saw what happened here in the past year and a half – we received the biggest offers in the world, billions – whatever we wanted. But no, we told them – you’re a government that was established through extortion, with a common denominator of hatred and revenge and the desire to transform the state into a secular one – we won’t be a part of it. We withstood the temptation despite the difficulty.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)