A group of rabbis, including Dov Lior, Kiryat Arba's Chief Rabbi and head of the Rabbinical Committee of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, have asked Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to pull the Sephardic Shas party out of the coalition in advance of the Annapolis summit.
"Apart from the horrible dangers of the conference, the very participation of a holy party of Torah and worship in a government that talks about removing settlements in Judea, Samaria and part of Jerusalem constitutes serious blasphemy and gives a 'kosher' seal of approval to a war on G-d and his Torah," wrote the rabbis.
Rabbi Yosef is the Spiritual Leader of the Shas party. Other public figures have appealed to the sage on this issue, including Likud party chairman and Knesset Opposition Leader Binyamin Netanyahu, who warned "We give everything and get nothing in return."