Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he
prefers a Likud member as housing and construction minister, rather than
a Shas member, as at present • Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia
Yosef: Our man worked day and night; the Likud ministers before him just
sat at home and smoked water pipes.
Netanyahu's words on
Saturday make a second term as Housing and Construction Minister look
less likely for MK Ariel Atias (Shas).
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Photo credit: Oren Nachson  |
The Shas party was displeased with Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement on Saturday that he would prefer
having a Likud member as housing and construction minister in the next
government, a position held in the current government by Shas MK Ariel
Atias.
Netanyahu's statement caused some in Shas to worry that the party would be excluded from a future coalition.
"Netanyahu knows that we want to keep the
housing and construction portfolio for Shas," a senior party official
said. "We aren't sure whether this statement was a one-time thing or
whether the prime minister intends to build a government without Shas."
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef also
responded to Netanyahu's statement, saying, "They [Likud members] were
always the housing and construction ministers, and they didn't do
anything. They sat at home, smoking water pipes. Our housing and
construction minister worked day and night."
Politicians from across the spectrum have
previously accused Shas of favoring its ultra-Orthodox constituency,
using the housing and construction ministry to ensure housing projects
for Shas voters took priority over those for the rest of the population.
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