In the late evening of Sept. 2, a short while before the Knesset was to vote on the 2015-16 budget, Shas Chairman and Economy Minister Aryeh Deri convened an urgent meeting in his office of his party’s Knesset faction. Seeming to suggest that the Shas Party approval for the budget was uncertain, Deri injected a measure of additional drama into already tense government efforts to win approval for the budget with only a narrow parliamentary majority of 61 members out of 120 Knesset seats. Eventually, the Shas Knesset members voted in favor, with Deri absenting himself after having made an offset arrangement with an opposition lawmaker.
In response to questions about what exactly went on in the economy minister’s office and what the fuss was about, Deri’s people issued a written explanation. In an announcement sent to political affairs correspondents, a senior, unnamed Shas official was quoted as explaining that members of the Shas Knesset faction had voiced anger that the issue of zero sales tax had not been settled yet with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, even though it was agreed on when the Cabinet discussed the budget. Deri called the urgent meeting to address their anger, explained the anonymous senior source, and instructed the members of the Knesset faction to vote in favor of the budget when it comes up for its first reading. “If agreement on zero sales tax for the weakest populations is not reached by the time the budget comes up for its second and third readings, Shas will withhold final approval of the budget,” the source wrote in his message.
