Likud, Shas sign preliminary coalition agreement
Likud and Shas leaders signed a preliminary coalition agreement in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri at the Knesset swearing-in ceremony, Nov. 15, 2022. Photo by Elyashiv Rakovski/TPS.
Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu now has preliminary agreements with all of the parties in his right-wing coalition. The deals allow Netanyahu to begin distributing other cabinet positions and Knesset committee appointments to members of the Likud.
Under the agreement signed with Shas, party leader Aryeh Deri will receive the Health and Interior ministries. After two years, Deri will rotate into Finance Minister. The agreement also names Deri as Deputy Prime Minister.
Netanyahu has until Sunday to finalise the coalition agreements with his partners, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Noam and present his government to the Knesset for approval. If an agreement is not reached in time, Netanyahu is expected to ask President Isaac Herzog for a two-week extension.
The extension is significant because the Knesset will have to pass legislation enabling Deri to become a cabinet minister. Deri resigned from the Knesset in January as part of a plea agreement in which he admitted to two tax offences, and paid a fine of 180,000 shekels ($52,000). He was given a suspended jail sentence, but current laws do not allow him to take a cabinet post.
A presidential extension is customarily given, but outgoing Justice and Transportation Ministers Gideon Saar and Merav Michaeli, respectively called on Herzog not to grant it. They argue that Netanyahu has already reached the necessary understandings but is delaying matters in order to first pass a series of what Saar called “problematic laws” Likud’s coalition partners are insisting on.
Further complicating Netanyahu’s ability to meet the Sunday deadline is that a new Knesset Speaker has not yet been chosen to replace Mickey Levy. The Knesset traditionally chooses a new speaker when it is sworn in. That vote is scheduled for Monday.
Aryeh Deri in cabinet. Aryeh Deri Finance Minister after two years despite his conviction on tax evasion. Aryeh Deri Deputy Prime Minister. I hardly know what to say. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen. // Netanyahu, who are you, really?