Wants a guarantee. Yishai
Photo: AP
No deviation. Livni
Photo: Yaron Brener
Shas fears Livni-led coalition will lean towards Left
Haredi party says will demand guarantee from Kadima that Barak's expected appointment as deputy PM would not result in 'extreme' concessions in peace negotiations
Sources close to Shas Chairman Eli Yishai told Ynet on Tuesday that as part of the ongoing coalition talks the religious party would demand a guarantee from Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni that the expected appointment of Labor Chief Ehud Barak as deputy prime minister would not tilt the new government she is forming towards the Left.
According to the coalition agreement between Labor and Kadima, which is expected to be finalized after the holiday season, Barak will have greater influence on issues regarding the contact with Syria and the Palestinian Authority, and cabinet decisions will not be made without his support and ratification.
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"We understand the need for peace negotiations, but we will ask for a commitment that the government will not become more extreme in its position," a Shas member told Ynet.
Other Shas officials said the party would not retract its demand for an increase in child welfare payments as a precondition for joining the coalition. Livni is opposed to any deviation from the existing State Budget.
The Shas members said they would seek a guarantee from Livni that a significant portion of the funds earmarked for the child welfare payments be approved within the framework of the 2009 budget.
"We don’t want the funds' allocation to be distributed over several years; we want the money to be allocated this year," one official said.
As part of his efforts to obstruct the collation talks between Shas and Kadima, Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu met this week with the haredi party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Netanyahu told the rabbi that "this (Livni's) government will cede Jerusalem, withdraw from the Golan Heights and return to the June 4, 1967 lines. Shas cannot be a part of this."
