Ahead of the upcoming Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) holiday, Shas chief Aryeh Deri has broken his silence, speaking about the plans for the Draft Law, which is expected to be pushed forward during the Knesset's winter session.
"We will need to make significant decisions," Deri said. "I will not explain further, but there are significant decisions which need to be made for the sake of unity. Obviously, Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is the one who will need to lead things, and we as partners need to give him all of the power to bring back the unity, at least with those sectors who can be spoken with."
"We have spoken about peace, but there are also internal challenges, among them the high cost of living, which makes things very difficult for the entire public. We have already taken steps on this issue, and we need to increase activities on this matter even more, and bring good news to the public."
Regarding the Draft Law, Deri said, "Obviously, we have the issue of regulating the status of the yeshiva students, and for this as well we need broad consensus in order to reach a law that is good and agreed-upon. We cannot pass a law like this without agreements, including with security sources and the army, especially in light of all of the turbulence of the past year."
"Our representative on this matter, former minister Rabbi Ariel Attias, who for years has dedicated himself to this matter, and even now is taking care of it with great professionalism, and is working quietly and efficiently in order to reach agreements with all sides and all parties - including with us, within the haredi community, and with various sources, in the army, in the Defense Ministry, in the Finance Ministry, in the Justice Ministry.
"We talk about this almost every day in discussions, and thank G-d it has not made it out to the media and we can work quietly and achieve a good outcome. I sit with him almost every day in order to see how to advance the process, and every time we present things to the Council of Torah Sages and receive instructions for the next steps."