Aryeh Deri
Aryeh DeriSpokesperson

Interior Minister and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri spoke on Monday evening in front of thousands of party activists, following the publication of the TV exit polls which predicted that Shas would win nine seats in the elections to the 23rd Knesset.

"Good evening Shas, shehecheyanu v'kiyimanu vihigiyanu lazman hazeh," Deri declared. “This evening is a great victory for the lovers of the people of Israel, the Land of Israel and the Torah of Israel. A great victory for the State of Israel as a Jewish state with a Jewish character that connects us all together.”

“We set up the right-wing bloc and kept it in moments of difficulty and crisis and in the face of attacks from home and abroad. Tomorrow morning, we begin the operation to turn the right-wing bloc and tradition into a government of right-wing and tradition led by Binyamin Netanyahu.”

Minister Deri added, “Shas is concluding a year of election campaigns with an increase of over 100,000 new votes who returned home.”

"I would like to thank each and every one of the voters and supporters, representatives and activists, and, above all, the head of the Council of Torah Sages, Rabbi Shalom Cohen,” he said.