Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who heads the Knesset's Shas party, on Tuesday spoke with 103 FM Radio regarding the expected results of the upcoming elections.
"I estimate that there is a very high likelihood we will have more than 60 Knesset seats, including [those belonging to Yamina Chairman MK Naftali] Bennett," he said. "Most of the right-wing, traditional, religious public - over 50 Knesset seats - wants Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister."
When asked why his party would not sit in a government headed by MK Yair Lapid, who chairs the Yesh Atid party, Deri said: "Lapid signed a vote-sharing agreement with [MK] Evet Liberman (YIsrael Beytenu). Evet Liberman has starred on signs against haredim, and Lapid has not condemned him. He doesn't attack haredim as he attacked [previously], but with all due respect, Lapid means working with Liberman and with others that I have nothing in common with on the issue of a Jewish state, helping the weak, and what I believe in."
"There is no possibility of forming a government under Lapid. There is a Netanyahu government, and the haredim or Lapid with others. I don't see how you can stick milk and meat together."
Jewish law forbids the cooking, eating, or enjoyment of mixing dairy products with meat or meat products.
When asked whether Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope would join a Netanyahu government after the elections, Deri responded: "I don't know. It's a real shame. I think that Netanyahu made a big mistake with Sa'ar over the years. He should have made him an important minister. But that doesn't mean that because of that we should go and break the right-wing camp and crown Lapid and the Left because someone hurt you personally - and that I say to [Ze'ev] Elkin and Sa'ar."
Contradicting the rumor that he himself had been a guarantor for Netanyahu's agreement to rotate the position of prime minister with Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White), Deri said: "That's lies and falsehood, repeat this lie 500 times, I know what a guarantor is. I said that from a public perspective I support this government and I will do everything to ensure it remains. But what can I do about the fact that from day one, [former Justice Minister Avi] Nissenkorn (Blue and White) decided to do everything to provoke Netanyahu?"