Next in line • Likud to Shas: Let's sign • Shas: Hgr"o Yosef will decide

Hours after abruptly the meeting of the Shas trio which was scheduled for this morning, was canceled, one can already reveal: the cancellation was due to a sudden turn of the Likud's negotiating team to one of Shas' vertices - Aryeh Deri, to close the signing of a coalition agreement with him.

In the background is the will of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to achieve up to the date on which the 28 days given him by President Shimon Peres, a coalition agreement with as many partners.

This evening he presented the agreement with the Movement headed by Tzipi Livni, and he will be very happy to introduce in the coming days a signed agreement with Shas first, followed by United Torah Judaism.

When he has 55 seats, so he believes, it would be easy for him to obtain the only required partner 'Yesh Atid' (if Lapid would agree to the Kindle outline), Jewish Home (if its chairman, Naftali Bennett, will get free of the alliance with Lapid) or with Labor party headed by Yachimovich (provided he consents to change his economic approach and she agrees to break her previous commitments not to enter government).

The one who was very active in this field was Aryeh Deri, who is running his long term ties with Ofer Eini (Shas friend from the days when Hgr"o Yosef supported him as chairman of the Histadrut), Yitzchak Herzog, Binyamin Fuad Ben-Eliezer (came to birthday), Yechiel Behr and more. Over the last day Deri held meetings with vertices in the party.

Meanwhile, chairman of party Yacimovich sat today with many friends in her party for personal conversations, and there is a possibility that the overall pressure will have its effect.

And what about the Jewish Home? Well, Bennett is already starting to feel the pressure after the coalition agreement with Livni granted the authority to manage the negotiations, which is very discordant to the religious – national public, fearful of a '2nd Ehud Barak'. Criticism of Bennett's hardening positions, and his unexplained friendship with Lapid, is starting to bubble on the scene.

Harav Ovadia will decide

However, one has to take the reports that Shas is close to a deal with a grain of salt. A senior in Shas told me tonight: "There will not be any signing of an agreement this week, not even before Purim."

He said Likud presented them with the outline of Eugene Kindle for equality of burden. They could not agree to all the items, he says, they will seek to change some of them. In any case it will take time for things to ripen into an agreement.

He estimates that the publications arise from the fact that the Likud wants to place pressure on the potential coalition partners' to run and sign, before it's too late.

Livni's signing demonstrated that this time the coalition bazaar is in the method 'first come first served', as it is difficult to expect that the index for files will be two ministers plus commission head per six seats, a right reserved for the first signatory only, probably.

When I asked him whether he thought Shas will sign an agreement under the nose of United Torah Judaism and without it, the senior replied that in his opinion it is not going to happen. He also insists that the Likud did not show them first the agreement signed with Tzipi Livni. Torah Judaism have said they first saw the agreement and agreed to it.

At the same time of the talks which were conducted and are held with Aryeh Deri, there are also talks with Eli Yishai, while Ariel Atias, one of the three vertices, is appointed by the party (besides the coordination between the trio, which they have not yet managed to get so far) to read the various outlines. As recalled, in the previous coalition he had made "a doctorate" on the subject, when he met for hours with seniors in the Plesner Committee, including Yochanan Plesner himself, and with Moshe Yaalon who formed the "Boogie Layout".

It seems that tomorrow or the day after the trio of Shas will meet to form a coalition line and to reach future decisions with a mark of unity, including decisions about 'dumplings' (division of portfolios, including chairman's portfolio) and other appointments and deals.

The decision will, of course, be brought to Hgr"o Yosef, who shall determine whether to approve joining the coalition or not. One could gamble a positive direction.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!