Industry Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said Thursday morning he will meet with the party's Torah sages next week and ask them to back early elections. Shas has been a key coalition partner since the government was formed two years ago. Its departure would leave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with a minority and without any possibility of another party filling the gap.
Shas has threatened several times to bolt the coalition, saying that it would do so if dividing Jerusalem reaches the negotiating table of senior members of the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. The government has proposed surrendering a large part of eastern Jerusalem but has said it has not been discussed officially, while the PA claims otherwise.
The latest issue that Shas has raised is child support payments, which were sliced drastically several years when Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu was Finance Minister. Rapidly rising inflation has severely hurt families with many children, making an increase in child support payments a more urgent matter for Shas.