Tel-Chai Nation

Aryeh Deri, the former Shas leader of Sephardic background, has announced he's going to return to politics, possibly in a different party. There's a couple good reasons why he should not be welcomed back. First:

Knesset members from different factions expressed opposition Thursday to former Shas leader Arye Deri's announcement that he will return to politics, leaving the possibility open of leading Shas in place of Eli Yishai or heading a new faction that is neither religious nor Sephardi.

MK Arye Eldad (National Union) attacked Deri's criminal record, telling Israel Radio that he opposed any previously convicted person from running for office.

Deri served 22 months in prison for accepting $155,000 in bribes during his tenure as director-general of the Interior Ministry and then as Interior Minister.

Eldad said he supports a bill written by MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) that would prevent any civilian from running for office or holding a ministerial position who was convicted of an ethical crime or served at least one year of prison time.

The National Union MK claimed Deri's candidacy would be a corruption of the political system.

Shas MK Haim Amsalem did not warmly welcome Deri's announcement that he would consider running outside of Shas, explaining that Deri represents an older generation of the faction's history, and could easily fit in today, Army Radio reported Thursday.

And just what generation is that? The one that doesn't believe in self-reliance, which Amsalem argued earlier needs to be changed.

Another reason why Deri is bad news is because he's otherwise a leftist:

Not hiding his dovish views, he said it was wrong to miss out on a chance for peace with Syria in 1993 and that he never voted in favor of military action during his years as a minister.

I assume he doesn't care about the tyranny Assad's displayed recently towards the public either? Deri also supported the Oslo accords, and never showed any genuine opposition to Israel making concessions to the PLO. That's probably an even more important reason why Israeli voters should stay away from him.

Labels: Israel, political corruption