Deri promises to back Netanyahu for PM in campaign launch

• Author: JEREMY SHARON
• Date: 17 January 2021
• Published date: 17 January 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Deri's promise is good news for Netanyahu whose right-wing camp has fractured badly after Gideon Sa'ar split the Likud, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said the country needs a new leader – and even United Torah Judaism, the other ultra-Orthodox party, has openly hinted it could back an alternative candidate for prime minister.

"This time Bibi doesn't need a strong Aryeh, he must have a strong Aryeh," said Deri in reference to Shas's previous campaign where it implored working class, religiously traditional voters to vote Shas and not Likud.

"Without a strong Shas, there is no strong Bibi," he continued, pointing to Sa'ar's desertion of the Likud to set up his New Hope Party and lamenting the erosion of the right-wing camp.

"Shas announces in the clearest possible way: We will support Prime Minister Netanyahu as Shas's candidate, our candidate of the whole right-wing camp. We will recommend him to the president [to form the government]," Deri promised.

The Shas leader poured cold water on the idea that a government could be formed without the Likud, arguing that a government with Sa'ar's and Bennett's parties would not have enough seats with just the centrist and right-wing anti-Netanyahu parties, and could not ideologically bring in Meretz or the Joint List.

Instead, Deri promised that he would ensure that Sa'ar and Bennett would rejoin the Netanyahu-led right-wing bloc, similar to how he convinced Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a unity government with Netanyahu.

The Shas leader also discussed the party's policy platform, insisting that it would protect the vulnerable and lower socio-economic sectors of society from any cuts to welfare benefits despite the large budget deficit the government has created in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

״We have a very large budget deficit and will need to make big cuts [to the budget]. We have to do them. The question is how? Who will pay the price?" he asked.

"There is no more social-minded party than Shas. We...