MK Ze’ev Elkin, chairman of the National Unity Party’s Knesset faction, on Monday blasted the show of support that the coalition held for Shas chairman Aryeh Deri after he was forced to step down as minister in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling.
In an interview with Israel National News, Elkin said, "Anyone who listened carefully to the speeches understands that the Levin reform has become the Deri reform. In fact, from this moment on, it is no longer an ideological debate about what a reform of the judicial system should look like, but the question is how the reform should be presented in order to return Aryeh Deri to the government despite the ruling of the Supreme Court."
"The law says very clearly that if you have not been sentenced to prison, even if you have moral turpitude, you can run for the Knesset. Therefore, there was no question at all as to whether Aryeh Deri could run for the Knesset or not. Obviously, yes. On the other hand, the same law said, at least until it was amended especially for Aryeh Deri before the formation of the government, that if you want to be a minister it is not enough that there was no actual imprisonment, but any imprisonment is problematic. Even probation," MK Elkin said during the interview.
None of this commotion would not have occurred if Deri had not chosen a crooked path, he opined. "If Aryeh Deri had not chosen the crooked way of amending a basic law for himself, which in the end did not help him, it is possible that this whole commotion would not have arisen at all. If he had turned to the chairman of the Central Elections Committee and the chairman examined the issue of moral turpitude, and would have said that there is no turpitude, it would have been possible that the ruling of the court would have changed as well," explained Elkin.
Later in the interview, Elkin continued to attack the government which, he claimed, is not functioning as a full right-wing government. "At the moment, this is a government that is more concerned with the fate of Aryeh Deri, than with being full right-wing, and with personal legislation. Today we submitted, five members of the Knesset from different parties, including Danny Danon from the Likud, Limor Son Har Melech from Otzma Yehudit, Moshe Solomon from the Religious Zionist Party, myself from National Unity, and Oded Forer from Yisrael Beytenu - in fact, an absolute majority of MKs submitted a request for a quick discussion in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on the Khan al-Ahmar issue."
"Every time, when there are MKs from different factions and such a number [who request the discussion], it is almost always approved by the Knesset presidency. What did the Knesset presidency of the right-wing coalition do? It said no, it is terribly dangerous to discuss this because the Prime Minister has not yet decided what his position is and the government has not decided what their position is and they removed the proposal from the agenda," said Elkin.