The little-known minister who is keeping Netanyahu’s coalition together
Until Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri is sure that his Shas Party will pass the voter threshold, he will do everything he can to prevent early elections.
The chairman of ultra-Orthodox Mizrahi Shas Party, Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri, is an experienced, old political hand. He was first appointed minister at the age of 29 in 1988 and has since been a member of four Knessets and four governments. In the current government, all this experience has made him the great compromiser and mediator. “He is the glue that holds the coalition together,” one Likud minister said in a conversation with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.
Deri is not particularly well-known in the international arena. His roles in government have always focused on internal affairs. As a member of the security Cabinet, he is considered level-headed and cautious. The heads of all the coalition parties, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, hold him in high regard.
