Opposition leader Yair Lapid made a direct appeal on Monday to the draft-age grandchildren of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, saying they will grow up in a very different reality from what they had been promised. He framed his remarks as a policy message, not a personal attack, and urged them to take part in mainstream Israeli life.
Lapid said that in the next government, “We will not transfer a single agorot to anyone who does not teach mathematics and English.” He stressed, “This is not an attack on you, on your religion, on your way of life, but an invitation to a shared life, an invitation to take part in something we all believe in.”
He argued that if they study, enlist and later enter the workforce, they could give their own children “all the opportunities every parent wants to give their children, of livelihood and a good life.” Lapid also insisted that none of this means anyone is trying to push them away from being ultra-Orthodox.
“You want to be ultra-Orthodox, be ultra-Orthodox,” he said. “That is your choice, there is no secret plot to move you from your way of life.” He closed by saying the choice before Deri’s three grandchildren is “instead of an arrest warrant, a full, fascinating, open life, touching other people.”
