Shas chairman Arye Deri on Sunday night described Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer as “a messenger from God” whose behind-the-scenes diplomacy was critical to last week’s joint Israel-US strike on Iran’s nuclear program.
Speaking to Channel 14’s Yinon Magal, Deri said the Israeli public had “received a gift” in Dermer, who has spent a quarter-century advising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Iranian threat.
“I saw what he did,” Deri declared. “He has been focused on the Iranian issue for 25 years. From the moment Donald Trump was elected, he felt a mission. He worked with Steve Witkoff, Senator Marco Rubio, the president, the vice president—everyone—and they all respect him. Ron Dermer is God’s messenger.”
Deri revealed that in the tense hours before the operation—widely reported to have hit Iran’s Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz sites—he fought to stop the Knesset from dissolving, fearing the move would derail American support.
“Had parliament been dispersed that day, the operation could have taken a fatal blow,” he said. “President Trump might have asked, ‘Why help a government that’s already heading to elections?’”
Aryeh Deri, Benjamin Netanyahu (credit: Yonatan Zindel/Flash90)Only a handful of officials, including Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Yuli Edelstein, knew the strike was scheduled for that Thursday night, Deri added. Most coalition partners “were fighting a real fight” over domestic politics, unaware that Israeli jets were already preparing to take off.October 7 was a ‘wake-up call’
Deri, who sits in the five-member war cabinet, argued that the Hamas massacre of October 7 ultimately “saved the people of Israel” by exposing Iran’s regional design and prompting Jerusalem to act.“On October 7, we discovered the grand plan to destroy us,” he said. “Iran lost all its proxies and is now exposed; they ran at full speed toward a bomb because they no longer have their messengers.”
With Tehran “rushing toward nuclear weapons,” Deri said the Netanyahu government judged an immediate strike to be a strategic necessity. “The last few months were an emergency,” he said. “We had to do it.”
Netanyahu’s deepening faith
Asked whether the prime minister—raised in a secular home—has grown more religious during the war, Deri replied, “Absolutely. He saw the humiliation of October 7, but also the great kindness God has shown since. The hard work of the army and security services is real, yet he sees the divine hand guiding us.”Despite growing speculation about succession, Deri insisted Netanyahu should “lead Israel as long as he can,” praising his “unique ability” to manage simultaneous security, diplomatic and political crises.
Pressed on the prime minister’s stamina, the 65-year-old Shas leader conceded that the strain of war is “not simple,” but said he prays Netanyahu will have the strength to finish his “many remaining tasks.”