Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has promised his coalition partners in the Shas party to “examine” Education Minister Shulamit Aloni’s latest controversial utterance, with a view to considering a Cabinet reshuffle.
Sources in the fervently Orthodox Sephardic party say the promise was made during a lengthy meeting earlier this week between Rabin and Shas’ spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Aloni outraged many Israelis, secular as well as Orthodox, by criticizing the prime minister for reciting the “Shema Yisrael” prayer at the end of a speech he gave in Warsaw last month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Rabin noted that the words had been on the lips of countless Jews as they went to their deaths in the Holocaust. Aloni, head of the left-wing Meretz bloc, Labor’s other coalition partner, criticized this recitation as a reflection of “fatalism.”
Political observers believe the prime minister’s “examination” — for which a timetable apparently has not been set — will enable Shas Knesset members to stay away from the parliament when it considers a no-confidence motion scheduled for Monday.
The absence of the six Shas members will, in effect, enable the present Labor-Meretz-Shas coalition to survive, whereas a vote against the government would inevitably mean Shas’ secession.
Shas’ absence will not mean a victory for the opposition, because the Arab parties, though not part of the coalition, are expected to provide enough votes to preserve the government’s majority.
Shas sources insist the “examination” will not merely mean a smoothing over of the affair. They say Aloni’s remarks on the Shema was the last straw as far as their party is concerned.
Shas insiders say they are holding Rabin to a commitment he made, following an earlier controversy surrounding another of Aloni’s anti-religion statements, that he would remove any minister who offends the sensibilities of other coalition partners.
The Shas sources say Aloni’s transfer to another Cabinet portfolio also could clear the way for the other fervently Orthodox party, the United Torah Judaism Front, to join the coalition. The rabbis of United Torah have forbidden any coalition with Rabin unless and until Aloni is removed as education minister.
In fact, it is United Torah that submitted next week’s no-confidence motion — in order to embarrass Shas but also in order to put pressure on Rabin to move Aloni.
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