Deri met with members of 5 Hazon Ish prior meeting with Gerrer Rebbe

Photograph: Deri with Litzman at Rebbe's home

Since he took office as Chairman of Shas, and as its leader when it comes to the practical side - Deri is in touch with all vertices of United Torah Judaism, including Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and chairman of the Degel HaTorah Moshe Gafni. The ongoing relationship with Gafni has matured into an interesting meeting which was held last Motzaei Shabbos, when he sat to talk for a long time with the grandson and trustee of Hagaon R' Aharon Leib Steinman, Harav David Shapiro, to coordinate positions - particularly with regard to the issue of enlistment, but other topics were also on the agenda for discussion.

Among other, an interesting question was discussed in recent days, that dealt with a proposal that the hareidi parties will formulate a block of 30 seats together with the Jewish Home. Due to the opposition of R' Aharon Leib to the move – it was interrupted before it had matured into anything. "The NRP always participated in the coalition, there is no reason why this time it should not creep inside – even if it agrees otherwise with the hareidi parties," was one of the reasons made, but of course there were also other reasons, which were spiritual.

As for the claims made in the media by these and other factors in Shas, according to which, there is anger by Hgr"o Yosef on the members of 5 Chazon Ish street following the Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak affair, Shas officials I spoke with claim there is no base to these things. They admit that certainly "they would be happier if there would have been a clear –cut clarification about R' Aharon Leib's opinion on the establishment of a political party, that would "steal" votes from Shas, but the election campaign is over and the battle is now complicated, and requires a full union of forces to deal with it.

This (Wednesday) afternoon, Shas leader Aryeh Deri, held a meeting with the Rebbe of Gur, which was accompanied by Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman. The meeting between Deri and the Rebbe was intended to permanently align the parties of Shas and United Torah Judaism - before the recommendation the factions would give President Shimon Peres, on whom of the Knesset members to cast the formation of the government, and towards the coalition negotiations.

There is no doubt that Deri's contacts with the heads of the factions that compose United Torah Judaism signals that Shas is not going to be the 'compromising party' which would enter the coalition, even at compromise on the issue of recruit, and it will align with her little sister (in fact, no longer so small) United Torah Judaism.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!