Narrow Govt Could Bring Shas

Aryeh Haffner

Chairman of the Kadima party and Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni held a meeting Thursday afternoon in Jerusalem with Chairman of the Sephardic religious Shas party Eli Yishai about Shas joining the coalition.


"The eyes of nearly a million children are lifted to Shas… That's not just a [campaign slogan].
Political analysts estimate that Prime Minister-designate Livni is working to form a narrow coalition with the far-left Meretz party and the hareidi-religious United Torah Judaism (UTJ) faction in order to pressure the Sephardic religious Shas party into becoming more flexible in its demands. Though the Sephardic religious Shas party does belong to the current coalition, Shas has predicated its participation in the coalition Livni now is forming on a return of previously slashed stipends to families blessed with many children, and a promise not to divide Jerusalem with in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Shas Minister of Religious Services Yitzchak Cohen Thursday morning told Israeli media that Shas will not give in on its demands easily. "The eyes of nearly a million children are lifted to Shas… That's not just a [campaign slogan]. Since 2003 those children have been pushed deep, deep, below the poverty level."

Once a narrow coalition would be in place, however, Shas's bargaining position would be much weakened.

At about the same time Thursday morning representatives of Livni's Kadima party and the far-left Meretz party met in Tel Aviv to negotiate Meretz's joining the coalition. One central issue is Meretz's opposition to Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann being a member of the government. Another issue is the Meretz demand for at least one portfolio in the would-be government that might form with its assistance. IDF Army Radio reported after the meeting that Meretz also demanded a chairmanship of a Knesset committee.

Also at the same time, Kadima runner-up for the party leadership Minister Shaul Mofaz called Shas party Chairman Eli Yishai and invited him to bring Shas into the coalition.

Such a narrow coalition could form. MK (UTJ) Avraham Ravitz quickly dispelled claims that one of the Torah Sages to whose advice UTJ conforms had forbidden the hareidi-religious party to sit in a government led by a woman. Ravitz Thursday morning denied that rabbinic advisor to UTJ Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv had ruled that it would be "difficult" to sit in a government led by a woman.

MK Ravitz said, "Rav Elyashiv is accompanying us… He knows that we are conducting negotiations with the head of Kadima, he knows that she is a woman, and he did not forbid us from doing the thing. "We made our requests. To the extent that we are answered, even partially, we do see a place [for us in the government]. Why shouldn't we join the government?"

Indeed, if UTJ does join, that might mean Shas's demands would be met as well. Chairman of the UTJ Knesset faction Yaakov Litzman Thursday morning said that his party's stipulations for joining the now-forming coalition are "identical" to those of the Sephardic religious Shas party, and therefore if a coalition deal can be reached with UTJ there is no reason why Shas would not also join the coalition.

He called the Kadima negotiating efforts to bring in UTJ but not Shas some sort of a "targil" ("exercise" in Hebrew) or trick, since the conditions set by both parties are basically the same. Both are calling for a return to higher subsidies to large families.