Adults in the Room

In the middle of Yom Tov, an emergency cabinet meeting was set for 8:30 p.m., less than hour after Motzaei Yom Tov. Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who spent the chag in the northern yishuv of Safsufa, wasn’t informed of the cabinet meeting until after Yom Tov. While he’s no longer a minister, courtesy of the High Court’s ruling, Deri wished to participate as an observer, to help calm the atmosphere and strengthen Netanyahu’s hand against the right-wing margins.

Despite his lingering tension with Netanyahu following Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s dismissal, which Deri opposed, the Shas chairman requested to take part in the meeting remotely from a secure conference room in the IDF northern command’s HQ. Deri had gotten used to such remote meetings during the coronavirus pandemic, when the government — like everyone else — transitioned to the “work from home” model.

For technical reasons, joining the meeting from the IDF command center in the north proved infeasible. As usual, Netanyahu couldn’t make it in time and postponed the meeting twice, and it only started at 11:00 p.m.

“You could have come after all,” Bibi told Deri in a special phone briefing on the decisions he intended to present to the cabinet. Deri, left behind in Safsufa, sighed with relief when he understood what direction the winds were blowing in.