Shas retreats from demand to restore child allowances
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent
In its coalition negotiations with Kadima on Sunday, Shas retreated from its demand that child allowances be restored to their 2002 levels, agreeing instead to the cancellation of another cut planned for 2009. The head of the party's negotiating team, attorney David Glass, related the details during a meeting with aides to Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Earlier, senior Shas officials met to discuss the party's position vis-a-vis the developing coalition, which is looking rather weak. Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef received an update on the party's demands as submitted to Olmert. Among other things, it calls for making the state's rabbinical courts independent.
In parallel with the nighttime meetings with Olmert's aides, Shas chairman Eli Yishai tried to schedule a meeting with Olmert. Yishai is still insisting that Shas be given the Interior Ministry portfolio and that cuts to allowances be restored.
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In Sunday night's Kadima-Shas meeting, Glass objected to Kadima's proposal that Shas be given three ministerial portfolios and one deputy minister, or three ministerial portfolios and one ministerial position without portfolio. The ministries on the table are Trade and Industry, Construction and Housing, and Communications.
Glass argues that it is unfair for Shas, with 12 MKs, to be given control of only three ministries based on a formula of four MKs per cabinet post - while the Labor Party's appointments are based on a formula of 2.5 MKs per minister.
Ovadia Yosef instructed Glass to insist on parity with Labor.
Shas officials complained about the "low" attempts by Kadima to transmit
the message that time is on its side when it comes to forming the government. Some officials have criticized Yishai's negotiating methods and fear that he will let the Interior Ministry slip through his fingers.
Shas' efforts to form a "Haredi front" with United Torah Judaism in order to obtain the Interior Ministry portfolio are unlikely to bear fruit. UTJ is going it alone in negotiations with Kadima. The party is demanding that the ultra-Orthodox educational system, including the independent school network and the Shas-associated Maayan schools, as well as religious services, be protected by law. UTJ is also demanding that the
coalition agreement stipulate the creation of a government committee to impose legal order on the entire ultra-Orthodox education system.
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