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A special program for older adults with memory impairments
Shas Leader Convicted
Court says Aryeh Deri took $155,000 bribe.
smiling power broker, hovering in and
out of the prime minister's office and of
the nation's television studios.
Although Shas's Sephardi con-
Jerusalem
stituency rallied behind him after the
abbi Aryeh Deri, the
wheeling, dealing, pipe-
verdict was announced, political ana-
smoking leader of Israel's
lysts saw it as a body blow to his
career and possibly to Shas's election
third largest party and
prospects. Deri's admirers immediately
uncrowned king of its North African
accused the "leftist Ashkenazi elite" of
Jewish immigrants, was convicted on
plotting with the police and judiciary
Wednesday of taking bribes worth
against an eastern upstart. But two of
$155,000, fraud and breach of trust.
the three judges, including the Iraqi-
Senior figures in his Sephardi ultra-
born Tzemach, are of Sephardi origin
Orthodox Shas party insisted that he
and Deri's co-defendants are all of
would continue to head their list for
European background. For
the parliamentary elec-
good measure, Tzemach is
tions in May, but if Deri,
also religiously observant.
a former interior minister
David Landau, author of
and influential ally of
Piety and Power, a study of
Prime Minister Binyamin
Jewish fundamentalism in
Netanyahu, is sent to
Israeli politics, predicted:
prison, he could be
"Deri is finished. Even the
barred from holding pub-
Shas inner core realize that
lic office or serving in the
to keep their 10 Knesset
Knesset. Our movement
seats they need voters who
does not accept the ver-
would not stand behind
dict," Yitzhak Cohen, one
him."
of Shas's 10 deputies, told
Professor Moshe Lissak,
Rabbi Aryeh Deri
reporters.
a political sociologist at the
The conviction fol-
Hebrew University of
lowed a tangled five-year
Jerusalem, expected Shas to lose some
trial and nine years of police investiga-
of its fringe voters, those who support-
tions. Three other men, Rabbi Aryeh
ed it for ethnic rather than religious
Weinberg, his son Moshe and Yomtov
motives. These, he suggested, might
Rubin, were convicted on related
revert to their old home in Netanyahu's
charges. The Jerusalem district court
Likud, or back the Kurdish-born cen-
will begin hearings on their sentences
trist leader, Yitzhak Mordechai.
next Thursday.
Defections were more likely, Lissak
Like the corruption trials of Labor
suggested, among voters of Iraqi,
party members in the 1970s, the Deri
Yemeni or Kurdish origin than among
case was an assertion of clean govern-
Shas' mass Moroccan constituency,
ment, a drawing of lines between pub-
which accounts for 80 percent of its
lic and private purses. It will be harder
vote. The smaller number of middle-
in the future to protest that "every-
class, educated North African Jews
body's doing it."
who voted Shas as a protest in 1996
The presiding judge, Ya'acov
would be reluctant to do so again.
Tzemach, criticized Deri, who sat
Other parties are hesitating to exploit
stony-faced and diminished while a
the verdict. They do not want to deter
summary of the 917-page verdict was
wavering Shas voters, and they recognize
being read, for obstructing justice and
that they will probably need Shas in a
exploiting his right to silence. He
coalition, whoever wins on May 17.
played a cat-and-mouse game with the
Netanyahu commiserated with Deri
police for three years," the judge said.
and his family on their "difficult day."
The 40-year-old, Moroccan-born
The Likud leader contented himself
rabbi soared from the obscurity of eth-
with an appeal for calm and respect
nic-religious politics to a cabinet post
for the judiciary. "The State of Israel,"
at the age of 29. In 1990, he plotted
he said, "is a state of law, and we are
unsuccessfully with Labor to topple the
obliged to respect the court's decision.
Likud prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir:
Without that, there can be no living
During the three years of Netanyahu's
in this country." II
unstable coalition, Deri was his ever-
ERIC SILVER
Israel Correspondent
N
\
;-)
R
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3/19
1999
Detroit Jewish News
19