Senior Shas Rabbi against Netanyahu: "We don't believe him, we will join the next government only after the exemption law"

A senior member of the Shas rabbinical leadership expresses deep distrust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and clarifies that the party should not join the next government based on a future promise to regulate the exemption from military service - but only after the law has already been approved. This emerges from a recording of Rabbi Moshe Maya, the eldest member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, which was published this evening (Sunday) on i24NEWS.

"This time they made a mistake with this. Bibi promised a lot and everyone thought he would give us everything," Rabbi Maya is heard saying in the recording. When asked what would happen if Netanyahu committed to Shas to pass the law within 30 days, he rejected the possibility: "There is no such thing. We are not signing on to join the government until he brings a law that yeshiva students are exempt, like the language of the Rambam." Even when the questioner repeated that Netanyahu might promise to complete the legislation shortly after the government is formed, Rabbi Maya replied: "Forget it, come on. I won't believe him about anything."

Later in the conversation, Rabbi Maya was also asked about the outline of the exemption law that was promoted during the term, and in the negotiations for its formulation, former minister Ariel Atias was involved on behalf of Shas, serving as the chairman of the party's negotiation team on the subject. When asked if Shas ever really intended to follow the outline, he replied: "No, why suddenly. This law is not good at all." In the conversation, he added that its promotion was done because "there was no choice."

The words of Rabbi Maya confirm the line already presented last week publicly by MK Yoav Ben-Tzur from Shas. In an interview with "120 and One," the political podcast of ynet hosted by Moran Azulay, Ben-Tzur said that the big mistake of the ultra-Orthodox parties in the last term was that they did not condition the formation of the government in advance on the passage of the law. "The mistake was that we did not sign a coalition agreement that says that first of all, the conscription law is passed," he said. "If we had done that before the reform, everything would have been arranged and there would have been no problem for anyone."

Ben-Tzur then clarified that the lesson for Shas has already been learned: "If we have to enter the coalition - a conscription law will pass before the government is formed." When asked if this is a condition of the party, he replied: "Unequivocally. It is agreed by everyone and that is how it will be." Along with this, he clarified that Shas intends to remain in the bloc supporting Netanyahu: "We are going with the faith-based bloc. Our public is a right-wing public."

In fact, in the Likud, they have already signaled that they are willing to accept the condition. Hours after the publication of Ben-Tzur's words on Thursday, Likud spokesman Guy Levy said on Radio "Kol Berama": "We very much hope to legislate the conscription law even before the government is formed, within the framework of the coalition agreements. This is definitely the direction."

The new recording, however, sharpens the gap between the political support that Shas shows for Netanyahu and the lack of trust in him among senior figures in its spiritual leadership. Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri declared just last month that his party supports Netanyahu "with all its might," and that he is, from their perspective, the leader of the "faith-based bloc." On the other hand, as early as July, a sharp statement by Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the spiritual leader of Shas, was revealed, calling Netanyahu "a liar who cannot be trusted" and claiming that he "deceived us with the conscription law."