Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who heads the Knesset's Sephardic-haredi Shas party, on Monday night admitted that he has not spoken to Yisrael Beytenu Chairman MK Avigdor Liberman in four months.
In an interview with Galei Zahal, Deri said that the last time he spoke with Liberman was on Lag Ba'omer, in Meron: "On the day of Lag Ba'omer, I was still trying to find a solution, and I told him that we would gather the councils in order to find a solution for the Draft Law issue. We agreed to meet in Jerusalem that coming Sunday."
"On Friday he sent me 'regards,' and I understood that it was a waste of time. He wrote in Yediot Aharonot that we are blood-suckers, about kashrut (kosher) issues, conversion, and the Western Wall, and I understood: 'Don't bother trying to reach an agreement or compromise on the Draft Law. It won't help you. I decided that there won't be a Netanyahu government, end of story.'
"Since then, I have not spoken to him and I have not met him. What he's done is painful for me, as a friend."
Deri also noted that "if there had been cameras [at voting stations] during the previous elections, it could be that certain parties would have failed to cross the electoral threshold."