Now that Aryeh Deri has been fired, it's important to not only know what actually transpired but to see what we can take away and learn from this story!
My humble opinion is, that if when voting, the public knows the background of a candidate such as Deri and also knows that he was convicted twice and nevertheless they decide to vote for him, then he should serve in whatever capacity he is appointed.
The Israeli Supreme Court whose justices were never elected but appointed by other Supreme Court Justices (not like the USA where the President appoints the justices) should stay out of this, since this is none of their business.
The people have spoken and that's who they want.
Having said this, I want to address the Gedoilim!
In 1999, Aryeh Deri was convicted of bribery, fraud and breach of trust!
He was given a three-year jail sentence and served 22 months.
His followers claim that he was set up and was completely innocent (I'll get back to that later), despite Rav Ovadia Yosef calling him a thief, and a rasha!
Channel 2 actually released video footage where one can clearly hear the Rav saying this.
When I say that he was convicted, I forgot to mention that Deri himself admitted to his crimes in gruesome detail.
When he got out of jail, Deri, continued brazenly, heading the Shas party, and was subsequently appointed Minister of the Economy and Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee. He continued serving as Minister, on various other ministerial positions!
Only in Israel!
Then on November 20, 2018, police ended a criminal investigation into Deri with a recommendation to state prosecutors that he be indicted for "committing fraud, breach of trust, obstructing court proceedings, money laundering, and tax offenses."
In 2019, this recommendation was adopted in full by the state prosecutor, but in 2021 the AG Avichai Mandelblit dropped all the charges except the tax offenses in a plea deal!
In January 2022, Deri resigned from the Knesset as part of that plea deal. Deri in his plea deal, admitted in detail to underreporting the value of property sold to his brother to avoid land tax, failure to report income from the sales and evading taxes on NIS 534,000 of income, by funneling payments from Green Ocean investment fund to his brother.
Deri received a year's suspended sentence and was also ordered to pay a NIS 180,000 fine. This latest deal (dropping the theft and fraud charges and staying out of jail) was contingent on Deri agreeing not to join the next Knesset, which is the one we are in now!
In the last election, Shas put Deri second position on the list, thus being re-elected to the Knesset.
Last Friday the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that Deri was not allowed to hold a position as a cabinet minister due to his conviction for tax offenses.
Yesterday PM Netanyahu dismissed Deri from his official posts in the Israeli cabinet.
Below I show all the property that the Deri family owns, worth millions, and maybe even billions....... all this, working all his life for the "klall" in the Knesset!
But as I said before, if that's what the public wants, then "kol ha'koved" If the public are a bunch of masochists, then they deserve what they got!
I'm, though, very disappointed in the Gedoilim, both Sephardim and Ashkanizim who not only didn't say one word against a man that Rav Ovadia Yosef publicly called "a thief and a Rasha" but actually supported him.
Here is a guy who has become a multi-multi-millionaire on the public's dime and admitted under oath that he took bribes and committed fraud, and not only that, but agreed not to join the Knesset, and didn't care to put the entire new government in jeopardy. If it was up to him, he would put the country thru another election, costing billions just so that he could be a minister!
But forget about him, what are the Gedoilim thinking?
What message is this to our children?
How do we explain to teenagers that the Gedoilim are supporting a thief and fraudster?
This is not about the Supreme Court getting involved in politics, and it's not even about Deri....It's about our "manhigim" our "gedoilim" who are supposed to teach by example.
Now look at the ad asking women to light Shabbos candles 10 minutes earlier to help this thief and fraudster!
Moshiach better come soon, because if he doesn't come soon, he won't have to whom to come to!
See below Deri's properties!