After his attack on the Jewish Home, which he dubbed “Goyish Home,” Shas’s spiritual leader is going after Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. In his Saturday night’s weekly sermon, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef lashed at the evil man Lapid.
In his weekly sermon, Rav Ovadia told the story of “a king who had one beloved minister he loved very much. He was a regular visitor at the king’s chamber, they conversed about security and the coalition and the opposition, the spoke about everything, and the minister would give him advice: ‘Don’t go with Lapid, he’s a scoundrel, he is, hates the yeshivas.’ He would advise him, give him advice.”
Rav Ovadia’s Sermon is part of Shas’s continued attempts to separate the Jewish Home party from Yair Lapid’s party. As you may recall, last Thursday Shas representatives apologized for their attack against Naftali Bennett and his “Goyish Home.” Shas is looking for ways to separate Bennett from Lapid.
The natural path to a Likud-led coalition that would deal effectively with many painful and pressing issues: severe budget cuts, equal burden legislation, and some deal with the Palestinians, goes through a pact with Yesh Atid and Jewish Home. The two blocks comprise 62 seats, and both Lapid and Bennett appear amenable to Netanyahu’s positions on all three topics.
In fact, if Shas is invited to join the coalition, it is sure to torpedo at least two out of three initiatives: budget cuts and equal burden, which would involve sending their own constituency to military service.
Except Netanyahu is not excited about achieving great success in partnership with Lapid or Bennett, either one of whom can overshadow him come next elections. He much prefers a do nothing government, with his two true rivals withering either in minor government posts or outside the coalition altogether.
In that sense, Rav Ovadia is not altogether wrong in his Saturday night tale about the loyal Shas adviser and King Bibi.
The only course open at the moment for Bennett and Lapid is to stick together and stick to their guns in talks with Netanyahu (Jewish Home is scheduled to meet with the Likud-Beitenu team this week).
