Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's Son: Jews in Danger if Shas Won't Quit Now
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, the eldest son of the current spiritual leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, is charging the party with endangering Jews.
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef said the Shas party should immediately quit the government or bear responsibility for putting Israel in grave danger.
He charged Wednesday that Shas can no longer use the excuse that negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to surrender parts of Jerusalem are far from fruition.
Shas party chairman and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Eli Yishai, expressed surprise Tuesday when reporters informed him that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, chief negotiator for Israel, had discussed the status of Jerusalem with PA negotiator Ahmed Qureia in meetings Monday and Tuesday.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said repeatedly that the status of Jerusalem would not be negotiated until after all other outstanding issues had been resolved in the negotiations with the PA.
As late as Wednesday, the prime minister reassured Minister Yishai that he remained firm in his commitment that Jerusalem would not be put on the negotiating table at this point, despite numerous reports to the contrary.
Yosef said that Shas is betraying the decision of the Council of Torah Sages and putting the entire Jewish people in endanger by remaining in the government. He added that Shas would garner a lot of popular support from strong pro-Israel voters if it quit the coalition.
Shas sources say that Yosef has disagreed politically in the past with his father, the party’s spiritual leader and said that Yosef’s views do not reflect the positions of his father or of the Shas party.
They reiterated, however, that Shas remains firm in its intention to leave the government if Jerusalem is put on the negotiating table.
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