Ovadia Yosef warns Peres of Israeli civil war

According to the Maariv newspaper website, representatives of the Shas Party delivered a message from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (the party’s spiritual leader) to Israeli President, Shimon Peres, warning him that “passing the law to recruit yeshiva (religious) students into the Israel army will cause a rift in Israeli society and will lead to civil war.”

Eli Yishai and Aryeh Deri who are both leaders of the party arrived at Israeli President’s residence on Thursday morning to negotiate on who will be charged with forming the next Israeli government. They both recommended assigning the task to the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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During the meeting, Arieh Deri delivered a personal message to Peres from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef regarding “the need to hold serious talks in order to find a suitable solution to the issue of drafting yeshiva students into the army so as to avoid a chasm forming within Israeli society which could lead to conflict between brothers.”

In his message, Raabi Yosef called on the Israeli president to “do everything in his power and use all his influence to bring all the sections of the Jewish people together, especially at this point in time.”