-- MK Aryeh Deri

from the news:

 Amiel Yarchi (Knesset reporter for i24) reporting: Netanyahu is putting strong pressure on Deri to wait before leaving the government considering the security events in Syria..

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  -- Yaffa Deri

besides for this she proudly took [some?] credit for the release of the spotters held hostage as she told the parents to keep shabbat to allow God to give them a miracle, along with some other comments on the matter...

honestly, this that she said above is just weird

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Over the past couple of days they have really hit rock bottom with the fighting over the draft law and then even more so the rabbanim law and now bickering over who is at fault and who should be polygraphed - and let's not forget the video clip PM Netanyahu made about the US government stopping arms shipments to which the US government replied that they dont know what he is talking about as all shipments have been processed as expected and only one had been held up temporarily....

While one might think they cant get any worse, any more dysfunctional, I believe they will continue to prove me wrong and will find ways to accomplish it!

  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) at an election rally in Rechasim

1. they prefer no elections at all, in Gafni's own words. Don't even give the residents a choice as to who should administer their cities. Just make a deal among the politicians and the residents need not be involved at all. 

2. Let's not forget it was Degel who broke a municipal agreement and then said agreements do not need to be kept. Now they are upset that Shas no longer trusts them and decided to run their own candidates?

3. Just like Gafni has the gedolim he listens to, Deri has the gedolim he listens to. No need to say someone who isnt among the gedolim is taking revenge against the gedolim. Deri isnt among the gedolim, but he has his own gedolim in the Shas Moetzes just like Gafni has his in the Degel Moetzes. 

One sign I saw looks fine, mentioning Achdut in Bet Shemesh under Abutbol (because he signed support with Agudat Israel and expects to sign with other parties, so he is calling that Achdut). The other sign being plastered around is less understandable, at least to me.

The slogan on these signs say "Aryeh needs a strong Moshe, Moshe Abutbol for Mayor of Bet Shemesh".

Why? Why does Aryeh need a strong Moshe? How does a strong Moshe as Mayor of Bet Shemesh help Aryeh Deri doing anything specific in the government? Feel free to enlighten me.

I do get that it is a play on words using a similar campaign theme to the last Shas campaign in the national elections, saying Bibi Needs a strong Aryeh", but at least that made sense - Bibi needed a strong turnout of support for Shas to form a stable coalition. That makes sense. I guess they are banking on that theme in people's minds, but I dont get a strong Moshe helps Deri or how a weak Moshe hurts Deri. Of course Deri wants him to win, but how does this hurt or help Deri?

The right wing news media station, Channel 14, did not like that and have attacked Deri saying that just like in Oslo Deri is supporting the deal with Hamas. By adding the "like in Oslo" it is clear criticism from the Right.

What I dont get is why they are attacking Deri for this. And I am no big fan of Aryeh Deri. I just don't get why Deri is their target for this deal. The deal was brought by PM Netanyahu, the PM they think can do no wrong, and is being pushed by him. And they are attacking Deri for it? If they don't like it, attack Netanyahu. If they trust Netanyahu, why are they against the deal?

אריה דרעי דומע כשמציג לראשונה את מה שנשאר מהאתרוג מהטבח בבארי. pic.twitter.com/tmbT0a4Qvo

— ישי כהן (@ishaycoen) November 13, 2023

Amazing, he is talking to families of the hostages but he cries over the esrog... maybe it reminded him of his famous $5000 esrog....

  -- MK Aryeh Deri

well, let's see what happens...

Deri was in the process of shaking several esrogim in rotation, as it seems his custom is, in order to increase his chances of shaking a definitely kosher esrog, as some do, with varieties of esrogim with varying provenance. In the process he mentioned his own cost $5000 cash.

Deri came under fire for spending that kind of money on an esrog. Additionally, paying that kind of money cash sounds like it was "off the books" (I dont know if it actually was or not).

His office later put out a notice that he "was joking" when he said that.

Personally, Deri is a multi-millionaire and can spend his money how he likes. It is more of a question to me how a career politician (who had first been an avreich) became a multi-millionaire than how or why he spends $5k (about 18knis) on an esrog. And I ask this question of other politicians as well.

 

We are watching with interest. 

The main characters in this little incident are Shas and Otzma Yehudit, Deri and Ben Gvir. Basically agreements are being broken all around, with Ben Gvir mostly being on the losing end. Shas is pushing off the elections for Chief Rabbi, and Otzma is upset about that. Otzma (via Minister Amichai Eliyahu) let it out on the Governor of the Bank of Israel today calling him names and saying he should be tossed out for "working against the government", and Otzma caught an earful from pretty much everyone else in the government. Otzma, according to the coalition agreements, is supposed to have the government representative in the selection committee for justices, and it looks like the coalition will snub them and appoint someone from Shas instead - because he is easier to work with.

The verbal attacks and accusations are flying in every direction each calling the other anything from leftists to motivated by self-interests to failed ministers and failed party, weak links, etc.

This is not going to end well. All we can do is sit by the side and watch with interest. Will this lead to an implosion or will Bibi work his magic after everyone gets everything off their chests and calm everyone down and pay them off with more money for their ministries and projects to be quiet?

I have a different idea for him. He should run for mayor of Jerusalem in the upcoming municipal elections. Give up rejoining the government and stay relevant by being mayor of Jerusalem. I might be wrong but I think even with his legal troubles he could still be mayor.

This was a call to Jewish women accepting Shabbos 10 minutes earlier than usual this past Shabbos for the merit of Aryeh Deri's success.

This is just another example of dumping things on the women. The financial improprieties were his, nobody else's, and he admitted to them to avoid a worse punishment. They didnt blame sheitels or tzniyus this time, but it is still the women being made to feel responsible for his troubles...

I dont even find the upcoming Supreme Court decision interesting. What I find interesting is the leadup to the decision. And more interestingly, what will happen after. Obviously if they decide in his favor that means nothing interesting will happen. If they decide against Deri, it gets exciting. 

If they decide against Deri, will he resign? Will Netanyahu fire him? Will they reject the decision and ignore it. If Deri resigns or gets fired by Netanyahu will the government fall? Some voices are saying they would dismantle the coalition if that happens. It seems, some Shas people are saying, they would push through a law that will allow Deri to serve and then dismantle the coalition and go to elections to bring him back.

Would they really risk elections over this? Give up the full right wing government so quickly? they might win bigger but they might not. Big risk. The government got 64 seats which is a big win but in votes it was very close and it was more the mismanagement on the left that gave the right the big win. There is no guarantee it would be repeated.

What elections would do is be a referendum on both Deri and the legal reforms Yariv Levin recently proposed. Previously they spoke about reforms and even mentioned some issues, but they never spoke about the sweeping reforms Levin actually proposed, so it is difficult to say this is what the people wanted. Now that the people know what the reforms are, immediate elections would at least partly be a referendum on that.

But it would be a big risk. Personal positions aside, would Deri really let Shas dismantle the coalition over this and go back to elections?

  -- Minister of Religious Affairs Michael Malkieli

By all accounts Deri is smart and an important figure and talented in many realms and even tempered. By no means is the lack of any one person from being available for consultations going to cost lives. The armed forces will do just fine without Deri, no matter how important he is and no matter how much he has contributed in the past.

I also think all the Shas people are on a reverse psychology campaign. They probably think that the more they accuse the supreme Court of invalidating Deri before it actually happens they will influence the court to go in the other direction and confirm his ability to serve in this capacity.

I am not going to talk about him but something that struck me when I heard the news reports of final moments.

The news was reporting Rav Baadani's status in critical condition, of the viduy, of his impending passing and all the reports (at least the ones I heard) mentioned that Rav Aryeh Deri (and fellow Shas Minister Yoav Ben Tzur, but he's less interesting) was present in the hospital room.

Now, of course I can understand and would expect his family - children, grandkids, wife, etc - to be with him. I might even be expecting to hear about his gabbai or some close talmidim being in the room with him. But Aryeh Deri? Why is a politician in the room with him in his fial moments?

And this isnt unique to Rav Baadani's situation. This has come up numerous times before when rabbonim pass. In their final moments the politicians flock to their bedside. Sometimes it might be understandable - Rav Ovadia Yosef and Aryeh Deri were extremely close, Rav Shteinman and Rav Kanievsky with maybe Moshe Gafni for example. In some situations maybe they are close enough that it makes sense to be one of the few surrounding the bed. Besides for those unique situations I think this is a sign of how our rabbinics have gotten way too enmeshed in politics. And from the other side, it shouldn't be a time for the politicians to try to be scoring points with communities and followers. The politicians will also surely speak at the funeral. That should be left to the children and talmidim, not to the politicians.

I am not referring to the debate around the legal issue because of his past indiscretions. I will let the legal people worry about that. 

I am also not referring to the debate about which ministries and other appointments Shas should take. I will leave that to the strengths and weaknesses of the negotiating teams involved.

The debate I am referring to is the chatter about how many ministries of a certain size can Deri handle. Negotiations with Shas have progressed faster and farther than with any of the other parties, with Shas pulling in a nice haul of ministries and appointments. While nothing is finalized yet because of the stalemate with UTJ and Smotritch/Ben Gvir, whatever Shas ends up pulling in, it seems clear that Aryeh Deri will take the top two ministerial appointments for himself - likely a combination of two of Interior, Transportation, Health, and maybe Finance. Depending which of these Shas ends up getting, two of these are destined for Deri himself - in addition to other ministries for other Shas reps, like Religious Affairs, maybe Agriculture, and some other possibilities.

The public debate over this has developed into whether Deri can handle two major ministries that each are so massive to need a lot of dedicated time and attention. Can any one person devote enough time to both the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Health, for example, that both will be developed properly and not neglected? Some are saying yes, some no, blah blah blah.

My question is why Deri feels the need to handle two major ministries himself rather than take one for himself and appoint a different Shas rep to the other? He might be 100% capable (maybe) of running both, but why? Why take both and not appoint someone else to the other? All the Shas reps are loyal to him, and he would be overseeing them all anyway as head of Shas, so he cant be worried about that. So why take both major appointments for himself?

Well, it turns out he was just telling everyone else to think that. All the other parties are frustrated because Deri took all the positions they want. The issues with Smotritch, UTJ and Ben Gvir are all shlepping out because Netanyahu gave all the positions and ministries they want authority over to Deri (according to the reports of what is holding up each of the negotiations). Deri was just being disingenuous knowing he doesnt have to worry about the positions because he got them all, while in the meantime everyone else looks like they are just looking out for comfy jobs.

I knew Yitzchak Rabin. If Rabin were alive today - he would vote Shas and not Merav Michaeli.

  -- Aryeh Deri

Rabin would vote Shas? Ha! If he were alive today, he would still likely be leading the Labor party.

I knew Yitzchak Rabin - yes, and you sat in his government and you supported the Oslo Accords he brought to the table.

If Rabin were alive - I dont want to say the people he is sitting with are responsible for his murder, because they arent, but Merav Michaeli just said it a couple of days ago...

After Aryeh Deri quipped this morning that Yitchak Rabin would be turning in his grave if he could hear Merav Michaeli say that she is the one following in the footsteps of Yitzchak Rabin, Michaeli retorted with a great troll of a response.

Michaeli said "if you really miss Yitzchak Rabin so much come to the memorial ceremony in his memory and tell your voters how together, with courage, you passed the Oslo Accords.."