Shas chairman Aryeh Deri declared that the longstanding partnership between the chareidi parties and Israel’s right-wing bloc will remain intact despite the ongoing tensions surrounding the military draft issue.

Speaking in an interview on Channel 14’s program “Sicha” with Oded Harush, Deri firmly dismissed suggestions that the draft controversy could lead Shas or United Torah Judaism to sever ties with their political allies on the right.

“It won’t happen,” Deri said when asked whether the dispute over military service could bring an end to the partnership.

Addressing the contentious draft legislation, Deri argued that the chareidi parties have never sought blanket exemptions for all chareidim.

“We have never promoted a law saying that someone who is chareidi does not go to the army,” he said. “Remember, in every law, throughout all the years, we have always said that only someone whose Torah is his occupation—meaning someone who is actively learning—should continue learning.”

Deri was also asked about chareidim who are not engaged in full-time Torah study. He responded that one of the primary goals of the chareidi parties is to ensure that the military can accommodate those recruits without compromising their religious standards.

“I tell them that we are working to achieve something that has not existed for decades—that the army will guarantee that whoever enters as a chareidi will leave as a chareidi. That is our responsibility, and I hope that at long last we will succeed.”

The Shas leader criticized the military’s historical approach toward religious soldiers, arguing that the issue has not received sufficient attention.

“For years, the army dismissed this,” Deri said. “They didn’t want them. Just as they don’t like the soldiers from the religious Zionist community. They change everything for them there. They don’t like their officers and they don’t like their soldiers.”

At the same time, Deri acknowledged that the current security situation has increased the military’s need for additional manpower and suggested that the army is now showing greater willingness to address the concerns of religious recruits.

“But despite everything, there is no doubt that the army today needs more combat soldiers, and therefore it is taking this more seriously, is prepared to invest more, and not only because the political leadership is pressuring it, but because it also understands the need,” Deri concluded.

{Matzav.com}