Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri
Shas Chairman Aryeh DeriFlash 90

Shas leader Aryeh Deri said today that his party would not oppose sitting in a government headed by Lapid, at least not in principle.

In the past, Yair Lapid has sparred frequently with Haredi representatives over army draft laws and other anti-religious legislation he has tried to introduce. Moreover, Lapid had insisted during coalition negotiations in 2013 that he was not willing to sit with Haredi parties in the government.

"If Yair Lapid would have 61 MK's recommending him to the president besides Shas and the other Haredi MK's and he could form a government - as Rabin did in '92 - and then Lapid would offer us coalition guidelines which we could live with while telling us 'I can form a government without you anyway, will you join or not?', that would be a good question," Deri said to Reshet Bet.

However, Deri does not see such a government as feasible at present. He also emphasized that there is no alliance between him and Lapid, nor is there any friendship beyond the usual courtesies between them.

He also referred to the implementation of the Shabbat law in Tel Aviv which is at present his responsibility to decide as Interior Minister. He noted that he had asked to defer a decision on the matter as he did not want to open another "religious war" at present.

Deri also admitted that the Haredi population has not succeeded in "enamoring" the Shabbat on the secular public. "We failed to explain to the secular public the importance of Shabbat," he concluded.