Yishai: Amsalem is no Amalek, 'Yom Leyom' will correct

“No Jew should be called Amalek; such sayings are not acceptable,” interior minister says about Shas MK.

By JONAH MANDEL
Eli Yishai (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Eli Yishai
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Interior Minister Eli Yishai stressed on Monday morning that maverick Shas MK Rabbi Haim Amsalem is no Amalek, the biblical nemesis to the Jewish people Amsalem was compared to in the recent edition of Shas newspaper Yom Leyom.
“No Jew should be called Amalek; such sayings are not acceptable,” Yishai told Israel Radio, adding that at his request, the newspaper would make a correction.
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A complaint to the Tel Aviv police filed Thursday over threats and incitement to violence as implied in the Yom Leyom article, as well as write a letter to State Attorney Moshe Lador and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein asking that they order a criminal investigation into the implicit incitement to violence in the newspaper, has yet to be addressed by the law enforcement agencies.
Yishai further said that claiming haredim do not seek vocational training and join the employment force is slander of an entire movement that encourages working, referring to part of Amsalem's critique of their movement which helped bring to his ousting by the Shas Council of Torah Sages. Amsalem remains firm in his refusal to abide with the decision.
The minister also said that Shas's stance, backed by head of the council Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, is to encourage those who are not Torah scholars to seek employment. What is preventing more haredim from joining the work-force is the fact that the Finance Ministry is not allocating enough funds to help them get jobs, Yishai noted.