Deri: 'I'm done with Lieberman. He has trampled Shabbat'
Interior Minister Deri butts heads with fellow coalition chief Defense Minister Lieberman over Shabbat, Supermarket Law; after Lieberman's visit to Ashdod on Shabbat, Deri says, 'This crosses every line. Not even Tommy Lapid dared do this'; Safed rabbi who was barred from IDF events for calling on Chief of Staff Eisenkot to resign: 'Lieberman is lying and inciting.'
Within 12 hours of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman's visit to Ashdod Saturday morning to support the struggle of the city's secular population against what they consider religion coercion—and his decision to bar three rabbis from IDF events due to their utterances—Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri retaliated with scathing criticism of the Yisrael Beytenu minister.
"I'm done with Avigdor Lieberman," Deri told confidants Saturday evening. "He has trampled Shabbat without care and crossed every conceivable line, something even Lapid the Elder (referring to Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid's father Tommy, who famously clashed with Shas—ed), one of the greatest apostates, did not dare do. Some things go well beyond personal friendships."
During his show of support in Ashdod, Lieberman announced Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner will be barred from attending official IDF events due to their attacks on the army's Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot.
"Rabbis encourage their students to join the more elite units," Rabbi Eliyahu added. "They were merely calling on them to not take part in co-ed field units where the military bar is lowered to promote political agendas. Only backwards regimes do not allow criticism of the military. This is Israel."
The Safed rabbi further maintained Lieberman was both wrong and misleading in linking the argument to the Israel Air Force's first female aviation squadron commander, as he claimed he was making a broader point on the drop in motivation to serve in the army and was not referring to her specifically.
Earlier Saturday, Lieberman said, "I've instructed the army that not Israel's chief rabbi (Yosef), Rabbi Aviner or Rabbi Eliyahu can take part in any event in the IDF," Lieberman said during a visit to Ashdod to support businesses open on Shabbat. "It's unreasonable to attack the IDF, to speak against service, and then still participate in military events."
Earlier this week, Rabbi Aviner, one of the more prominent leaders in religious-Zionism, said, "Until such time as there's complete separation between men and women in the IDF, you must not enlist."
Safed Rabbi Eliyahu said Aviner's utterance showed how "grave" the situation was, and called on Chief of Staff Eisenkot to resign.
