Peretz calls on Shas to leave coalition

“Today all the hypocrisy of Israeli politics will end,” Labor leadership contender says at campaign rally in Tel Aviv.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Amir Peretz Labor campaign 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Amir Peretz Labor campaign 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Labor leadership contender MK Amir Peretz began an effort on Sunday to persuade Shas to leave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition, due to the housing crisis and other socioeconomic developments.
Netanyahu has boasted in closed conversations that the housing protests do not pose any threat to his coalition.
Shas, which is considered the most socioeconomically focused party in the coalition, has expressed cautious support for protesters but no interest in leaving the government.
“Today all the hypocrisy of Israeli politics will end,” Peretz said at a campaign rally in Tel Aviv. “There are politicians who thought they could have their cake and eat it too by working for the underclass and for themselves, by being for peace and against concessions, and by being socioeconomic and sitting in the most capitalist government ever.
Shas, this is your test. You can’t say you’re socioeconomic while you continue to sit in the Netanyahu government. This game is over.”
Peretz said he would ask for all the socioeconomically minded MKs in the coalition to prove that they are really what they say they are. He said they must declare that they won’t remain in the coalition if its policies do not change.
“I will appeal to the parties in the coalition, especially Shas and United Torah Judaism to draft agreements on advancing the election if the government’s policies do not change,” Peretz said.
Peretz celebrated a victory in the Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday against his rival in the September 12 Labor primary, MK Shelly Yacimovich. The court rejected her request to intervene in the investigation into the party’s registration drive and throw out membership forms of some 5000 people who were still in Likud when they joined Labor.
“My advisers tell me to attack her, but I won’t be dragged into mudslinging,” Peretz said. “Instead, I will be sending my opponents flowers. The flower shops should get ready.”