MK Chanan Porat, speaking yesterday on Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine:
"Shas chairman Eli Yishai told me [on Saturday night] that Shas would not enter a government whose guidelines include convergence or settlement reduction - or, in simple words, expulsion and uprooting... I would like to believe that he will stand by what he said. I saw Eli Yishai in Gush Katif during the days of the expulsion and he sat with us in the Sephardic synagogue in N'vei Dekalim together with his colleagues from Shas, and practically swore to us that he would not allow such a thing to happen again, if he could help it."
The coalition guidelines that will be presented to the Knesset this Thursday include the clauses "reduction of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria," but Shas has been permitted to add a letter of intent allowing it not to vote for such a plan.
"The problem is not whether he keeps his promise to me," Porat said. "I think that Shas will not be able to show its face if it signs with its own hands and gives the stamp of approval to a government with such guidelines. This would be a slap in the face to the most basic loyalty to the Land of Israel."
"In addition to the uprooting of Jewish communities, it would mean the uprooting of hundreds of synagogues, Talmudei Torah and schools. Who could show his face and be a partner - even if just at this early stage of signing an agreement - to such a crime?"
The uprooting that is being considered now is many times worse than the Oslo Agreements, Porat said, in which Shas played a part by virtue of its membership in the Rabin government. Porat expressed the hope "that Shas will not betray the public, some of whom supported it and who now face a terrible tragedy, not just personally, but national-Jewish... The key lies in the hands of Shas and United Torah Judaism [the hareidi-religious Agudat Yisrael party], and if they don't join a government with such guidelines, then Ehud Olmert has no government. Whoever joins and thus gives it a stamp of approval, will not be able to cleanse his hands [of this guilt]."
"Shas chairman Eli Yishai told me [on Saturday night] that Shas would not enter a government whose guidelines include convergence or settlement reduction - or, in simple words, expulsion and uprooting... I would like to believe that he will stand by what he said. I saw Eli Yishai in Gush Katif during the days of the expulsion and he sat with us in the Sephardic synagogue in N'vei Dekalim together with his colleagues from Shas, and practically swore to us that he would not allow such a thing to happen again, if he could help it."
The coalition guidelines that will be presented to the Knesset this Thursday include the clauses "reduction of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria," but Shas has been permitted to add a letter of intent allowing it not to vote for such a plan.
"The problem is not whether he keeps his promise to me," Porat said. "I think that Shas will not be able to show its face if it signs with its own hands and gives the stamp of approval to a government with such guidelines. This would be a slap in the face to the most basic loyalty to the Land of Israel."
"In addition to the uprooting of Jewish communities, it would mean the uprooting of hundreds of synagogues, Talmudei Torah and schools. Who could show his face and be a partner - even if just at this early stage of signing an agreement - to such a crime?"
The uprooting that is being considered now is many times worse than the Oslo Agreements, Porat said, in which Shas played a part by virtue of its membership in the Rabin government. Porat expressed the hope "that Shas will not betray the public, some of whom supported it and who now face a terrible tragedy, not just personally, but national-Jewish... The key lies in the hands of Shas and United Torah Judaism [the hareidi-religious Agudat Yisrael party], and if they don't join a government with such guidelines, then Ehud Olmert has no government. Whoever joins and thus gives it a stamp of approval, will not be able to cleanse his hands [of this guilt]."