Shas chairman Eli Yishai spoke in glowing terms about the national camp's strong showing in the elections and hinted broadly that his party would be happy to sit alongside Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu. These statements could be seen as surprising, in view of the fact that Shas's last election commercials showed its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, comparing a vote for Lieberman to support for the devil himself (HaSatan).
Yishai met with Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu for 90 minutes in the Likud's Knesset offices early Wednesday afternoon.
When he came out of the meeting, Yishai spoke to reporters about the outcome of the election. Far from bemoaning the fact that support for "the Devil" has grown – he sounded very happy about it.
"It is a huge achievement, that the Likud rose by 15 Knesset seats, that Lieberman rose by 4 seats and that Shas maintained its strength," he said. "It is a huge and impressive achievement, baruch Hashem."
When asked whether his party could sit alongside Lieberman's he reminded reporters that Yossi Sarid of Meretz once said "read my lips – we will not sit alongside Shas" but eventually did sit with Shas in the government.
"If you want to sit together, every party has its principles and its basic tenets," Yishai explained. "When we reach that stage and talk, everyone will state his opinion and his conditions. Basically, we have seen matchups less likely than this one in the past."
"It is obvious that Netanyahu wants to create a wide government based on the nationalist camp," he added – a hint that Netanyahu will first cobble a coalition with the parties that are right-of-center and only then proceed to try and add more liberal parties to the mix.
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