Benjamin Netanyahu makes a deal with Shas leader Aryeh Deri, but all is not finalised

With the signing of an interim agreement between the Likud and the ultra-religious party Shas, Netanyahu has one hurdle left before presenting a government. The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, will have to change the law to allow a convicted person to serve as a cabinet minister. 

Aryeh Deri, leader and one of the founders of Shas, was convicted of tax offences early in the year and handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence plus a US$52,000 fine. 

As a result, Deri resigned from the Knesset but kept party leadership.  

It is the second conviction of the long-time politician. From 2000 to 2002, Deri served 22 months out of a 36-month jail sentence for accepting bribes back when he was the interior minister in the 1990s. 

The 63-year-old Morrocan-born Deri will be a minister of the interior and health in Israel's 37th government under the premiership of Netanyahu if the Knesset adopts the change. He will also serve as deputy prime minister for the duration of the government.

A-G to Netanyahu: Convicted criminal Deri can't be appointed minister: Shas head Aryeh Deri received a year's suspended sentence in a plea deal that saw him quit the previous Knesset. https://t.co/wplkuT6lbs JPost pic.twitter.com/vWKJ3LCYql

— Jewish Community (@JComm_NewsFeeds) November 19, 2022

The Likud leader signed parallel power-sharing deals with leaders of the Religious Zionism, Jewish Power, Noam and United Torah Judaism parties. 

Bezalel Smotrich, leader of Religious Zionism, is slated to become finance minister for the first half-term of the incoming government but will also assume the head of the Civil Administration, the Israeli army unit subordinate to the defence ministry and manages Israel's occupation of the West Bank. 

Meanwhile, Aryeh Deri takes over the finance ministry in the second half of the government term.

Thaer Abu Ras, a Palestinian citizen from Israel, told The New Arab he expects further deterioration in the occupied West Bank and Gaza in light of the new government composition. 

"The direct boss of the West Bank," said Thaer Abu Ras, "will be Bezalel Smotrich, a settler and fanatic who believes in annexing the West Bank as a prelude to kick out its Palestinian inhabitants when the opportune time comes." 

The 42-year-old fair-skinned Smotrich has ancestors in Ukraine, and his surname is derived from Smotrici, a town in the country's West. He lives in the illegal settlement of Kedumim in the northern West Bank. 

Jewish Power's Itamar Ben Gvir will get the national security ministry which has oversight over the police. The radical called for loosening the open-fire regulations against Palestinian demonstrators.

With at least three extreme elements - taking the anti-LGBTQ Noam party into account- serving in the next government, Netanyahu will have to tighten the reins, without causing a government crisis, to avoid a clash with the US administration. 

Smotrich and Ben Gvir lean toward annexing the West Bank, or parts of it.  

"The United States, under Biden, might increase financial and diplomatic support to the Palestinian Authority as a countermeasure," said Thaer Abu Ras to TNA. 

"They might even reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem," he added. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said the administration "will also continue to unequivocally oppose any acts that undermine the prospects of a two-state solution."

Blinkin, who was addressing the left-leaning Jewish group J Street in Washington, said these include "settlement expansion, moves toward annexation of the West Bank, disruption to the historic status quo at holy sites, demolitions and evictions, and incitement to violence."

By many estimates, the two-state solution is more distant than ever. The Palestinian Authority continue to coordinate with Israel on "security matters", but there have been no peace talks between the two sides since 2014. 

More than 620,000 Jewish settlers live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'tselem.