The Likud is preparing for the day when the right-wing parties - the National Union and the National Religious Party - will quit the coalition. Party leaders have therefore begun to court the Sephardic-hareidi Shas Party.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, and MK Roni Bar-On have all met over the past two days with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. A Shas spokesman told Arutz-7 that Rabbi Yosef and political leader MK Eli Yeshai rejected the advances, saying that Shas would not join the government if it does not reverse its economic-social policies.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, and MK Roni Bar-On have all met over the past two days with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. A Shas spokesman told Arutz-7 that Rabbi Yosef and political leader MK Eli Yeshai rejected the advances, saying that Shas would not join the government if it does not reverse its economic-social policies.