Michael Malchieli
Michael MalchieliYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

MK Michael Malchieli (Shas) estimates that Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid will not be the ones who will form the next government.

Speaking with Arutz Sheva on Sunday, Malchieli said, "The only rotation that Gantz and Lapid will do is as chairman of the opposition. They have no possibility of forming a coalition, and Binyamin Netanyahu is the one who will form the next government. It is our duty to ensure that Shas is strong in order to ensure that the state budget also goes to the weak and to maintain the status quo.”

Malchieli said he was surprised that Gantz’s party adopted the Yesh Atid party’s platform. "I am very surprised at Benny Gantz, who seemed to me to be a smart person but who cut and pasted the philosophy of Yair Lapid into the platform. Gantz suffers from a lack of political experience and adopts Lapid's words, but we cannot live in any coalition that this is its platform."

He added that is convinced that Shas will be a senior partner in the next Netanyahu government. "The question is what kind of government Netanyahu will form. We were the first party to declare that we will support him. We will also make sure that Netanyahu's coalition is socially sensitive and will block the construction of the Reform Wall, block public transportation on Shabbat and block common-law marriages."

Malchieli also spoke of the Shas campaign in which the connection between Shas and Netanyahu is emphasized. "Shas is not directly speaking to any specific person, but with all due respect to Netanyahu's desire to be prime minister, and we believe he is the best leader for the State of Israel right now, he needs a strong social party next to him."

Listen to the interview with MK Malchieli (in Hebrew):