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President Shimon Peres, left with Shas Chairman Eli Yisahi and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Sunday (Daniel Bar-On / Jini)
Last update - 09:08 20/10/2008
ANALYSIS / Shas leaders think Livni can't give them what they want
By Yair Ettinger
Tags: Tzipi Livni, Israel news 

The political and rabbinic elite of Shas, nearly everyone from party mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, plus ministers and party leaders and a few city chief rabbis, donned their festival best and turned out at the President's Residence in Jerusalem yesterday.

When the spiritual leader entered, the audience, mostly residents of Sderot, stood up and received him in song, while their host, President Shimon Peres, treated Rabbi Yosef as one would a king.

T
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he Shas ministers strode around the garden of the President's Residence like grooms on their wedding day. Will they meet here again for the group picture of the new Livni cabinet, if and when it is formed?

"The way it looks now, no," Shas chairman Eli Yishai said after the ceremony, sounding more decisive than ever. Shas came to the President's Residence to participate in the presentation to Peres of a new Torah scroll, which was donated to the synagogue at the President's Residence by a well-known Sderot contractor, Moshe Peretz. The scroll was dedicated in the memory of Sderot resident Oshri Oz, who was killed by a Qassam rocket.

Shas also came to honor the president, and maybe also itself. But yesterday's gathering hardly hinted that Shas would be joining a Livni government. Quite the opposite seemed to be true. Rabbi Yosef and ministers Eli Yishai and Ariel Atias came to the ceremony directly from a meeting at the rabbi's home, where they heard that the differences between Shas' positions and that of prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni's Kadima were very far apart, maybe too far apart to be bridged.

Rabbi Yosef instructed the Shas negotiators who are talking with Kadima, Prof. Yohanan Stessman and attorney David Glass, to keep firmly to their red lines, first and foremost, on child allowances. He said there was no point in even discussing the NIS 400 million Kadima offered.

"There are large differences, and no progress," Yishai told reporters yesterday morning.

Shas leaders seemed only to strengthen their belief yesterday that Livni could not provide what they wanted, even if she wanted to. Shas ministers have been speaking of a personal campaign against them over the past two weeks by Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, one that even was against Rabbi Yosef.

As far as Yosef is concerned, Shimon Peres, whom he "crowned" as president a year and a half ago, is no longer identified with Kadima; and as far as Peres is concerned, his respect for Rabbi Yosef is boundless. If only Peres had given himself the job of forming a new government instead of Livni, Shas apparently would have been much happier and had an easier time, too.

Related articles:
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  • Kadima worries Shas' internal spat may foil coalition talks
  • Shas hardens line after Kadima, Labor sign coalition deal
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      1.   Shas is doing the correct thing, New Elections NOW 06:07  |  Shepherd 20/10/08
      2.   Shas are consummate politicians and Livni is an amateur 07:17  |  redmike 20/10/08
      3.   to Mike No.2 12:02  |  Jackie 20/10/08
      4.   why Haaretz has so much trouble with honering the rabbi. 12:08  |  ROBIN 20/10/08
      5.   Work= Money 13:41  |  zoe 20/10/08
      6.   Ayatollah Josef 14:12  |  W 20/10/08
      7.   Peres and Reb Yosef have things in common... 14:42  |  Esther 20/10/08
      8.   #5 - How would you rate Israel? 14:56  |  redmike 20/10/08
      9.   shas should study why israel was lost to the greeks and romans 15:00  |  victor hardman 20/10/08
      10.   Who cares what Shas wants? Let`s give them a... 15:25  |  B`Galil 20/10/08
      11.   B`Galil #10... do any Shasniks hail from Brooklyn...?! 16:43  |  Esther 20/10/08
      12.   it is a matter of price 18:59  |  amihai 20/10/08
      13.   Give the Ayatollah his due title 19:40  |  Miche Norman 20/10/08
      14.   Victor 9 20:22  |  Abdullah 20/10/08
      15.   Livni has no mandate to govern Israel. Period. 21:50  |  Chaim 20/10/08
      16.   #10. More to the point, who cares what B`Galil wants? 21:55  |  Chaim 20/10/08
      17.   Livni will not lead Israel to victory in times of war. 15:12  |  Marco 21/10/08
      18.   #15 Yes, she does. Period. 12:41  |  JonathanInTelAviv 22/10/08
      19.   chaim 15:56  |  A.M. 22/10/08
      20.   chaim 16:02  |  A.M. 22/10/08
      21.   marco 16:10  |  A.M. 22/10/08
      22.   #20 AM. Retreat has brought us nothing but disaster. 14:34  |  Chaim 23/10/08
      23.   B`Gallil, you still don`t get it. 16:10  |  Zev Davis 23/10/08
      24.   Shas act like pigs and lie to us all 23:04  |  Miche Norman 25/10/08
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