Right slams Deri's call for deal with Palestinians

Eldad warns Shas could "drown Israel in blood" following 'Post' interview in which Deri backed long-term deal with PA.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Arye Deri 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Arye Deri 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Right-wing Knesset members condemned one of Shas’s leaders, Arye Deri, on Sunday for coming out in support of a long-term interim agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
Deri told The Jerusalem Post in an interview Thursday that Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef favors pursuing longterm interim agreements as long as they do not endanger Israelis. He said the advantage of long-term interim agreements was that they could be stopped and changed if they do not work.
The MKs noted Shas’s abstention on the Oslo Accord vote in 1993 under Deri’s leadership. They warned that now he is in the party’s leadership triumvirate he would shift Shas leftward.
“It must be clear to everyone that in the Shas leadership there are voices pushing the party to the leftist bloc,” said Likud MK Danny Danon.
“That is why nationalist camp voters must strengthen Likud Beytenu and not vote for satellite parties.”
MK Uri Ariel, who is second on Naftali Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi list, said that anyone who remembers that Deri was “a senior partner in the Oslo disaster that led to thousands of casualties” must not vote for Shas.
“Deri is sending Shas back to the days of Oslo,” warned Strong Israel MK Arieh Eldad.
“With Deri, it is hard to say what he is more: corrupt or left-wing extremist. His diplomatic agenda could once again drown Israel in a sea of blood. Those who know that the Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel must know that voting for Shas could help Israel’s enemies and result in the heart of our homeland being given to the Arabs.”
MK Eitan Cabel, who heads the response team of the Labor Party, which wants to form a coalition with Shas, praised Deri.
“I welcome any statement or plan that advances us closer to an agreement with the Palestinians,” Cabel said.
“Such an agreement is in Israel’s interest and the more time passes the more we will end paying and the less we will end up achieving.”
Meretz condemned Deri for being too conservative in supporting an interim agreement in which Israel would withdraw from part of the West Bank without evacuating settlements. The head of Meretz’s response team, former MK Mossy Raz, said nothing less than a final-status agreement with the Palestinians was acceptable.
“There cannot be an agreement with the Palestinians without creating a Palestinian state and evacuating settlements,” Raz said.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.