Rabbi Yosef Calls Netanyahu 'Liar' and 'Blind Fox' as Shas Signals Eisenkot Overture

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, president of Shas' Council of Torah Sages and former Sephardic chief rabbi, was recorded in a closed-door conversation calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'a liar who cannot be trusted' and 'a blind fox', with Army Radio airing the remarks Sunday morning and reporting that Yosef is leaning toward dismantling the Shas alliance with United Torah Judaism to back Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot for prime minister. Yosef said Netanyahu had personally assured him yeshiva students could enter and leave the IDF still Haredi and called that claim a fabrication, and turned on Likud MK Yuli Edelstein by citing Edelstein's father as a Christian convert who served as a priest. Yosef praised Eisenkot as a warm Jew whose grandmother had voted Shas and wanted him to become a rabbi, saying he could be trusted. Eisenkot told Army Radio he welcomed the positive words but any partnership required accepting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, the values of Independence Day, and mandatory military service with no compromise.