"I saw 1,000 bodies with no identity"

"On October 12th, Thursday morning at nine o'clock, Shas chairman Rav Aryeh Deri called me," Busso recounted. "He explained the complexity and told me: 'I've coordinated with the faction heads and the Prime Minister: I'm appointing you Health Minister.'"

"That entire conversation took about two or three minutes, during which he placed a 100-kilo hammer on my shoulders. Less than 12 hours later, in the midst of one of the hardest wars, I entered the position. The first place I went after the swearing-in was to Shura camp. You have to remember, in those days we had over 1,000 bodies whose identities we didn't have, and there was complete chaos."

Busso noted that his background as Health Committee chairman enabled him to immediately step into managing the system under emergency conditions.

"Soroka Hospital, in the maximum reference scenario it had prepared three months earlier, was set up to absorb 300 casualties in an emergency. In practice, it received over 1,000 wounded in a short time. At Barzilai Hospital, people arrived in vans and unloaded wounded and bodies," Busso said.

"I immediately declared Barzilai and Ziv as peripheral super-centers in order to channel all the required units to them. We invested over 1.4 billion shekel in a national mental health and rehabilitation program, and jumped from 300 rehabilitation beds in hospitals by another 400 beds. We also advanced a government decision and budget for planning two new government hospitals, in the Negev and in the Krayot."

The draft law: "I'm an IDF officer, we never supported dodging"

One of the charged issues that came up in the interview is the draft law and regulating the status of yeshiva students. Busso forcefully rejected the accusations against the chareidi public, while revealing details about his own home:

"They try to stick on us in the media as if we supported dodging laws. Netanel, you know me, I'm an officer, I completed full military service. In my home, there is someone learning to be a dayan, a true ben Torah, and there is someone doing very meaningful service. We never supported dodging laws," Busso said.

"The only thing we asked to regulate is that whoever truly learns Torah in the State of Israel, should learn Torah as 'Shevet Levi,' and not be afraid, not be ashamed and not be considered a criminal. Whoever doesn't learn certainly needs to go contribute, go to the army or do meaningful civilian service. The army can take them, why make random arrests to put the entire public in a defensive position? The left wants this issue to stay on the wheel because that's what it lives off, but the people want unity and regulation."

Busso added and recalled Rav Ovadia Yosef zt"l's approach to IDF soldiers: "Maran Rav Ovadia always said: 'When you see a soldier in the street, kiss him like a mezuzah.' These aren't lip-service words, this is our movement and our homes, integrated with Torah learners and those serving in meaningful service."

Field work versus polls: "At the ballot box we'll be double digits upward"

Host Netanel Isaak raised the gap between the professional performance that earns praise for Shas ministers and what is reflected in public opinion polls. Busso emphasized that the polls do not reflect the movement's true strength.

"Your name precedes you as a capable and open minister, and other Shas ministers have also received praise. Where is the gap that emerges between real professional excellence and the translation of that at the ballot box according to the polls?" Isaak asked.

"Throughout the last decade, until three weeks before elections, we always received in polls between two and three mandates less than the results in the field," Busso responded. "If we're getting eight, nine or ten mandates in polls today, that means we'll be double digits upward."

"We have a tremendous deployment in the field of over 250 representatives in local authorities, a team of soldiers that gives daily response to every citizen. The media highlights our achievements less, but the public in the field feels it."

Loyalty to the right-wing bloc: "We won't be partners with Yair Golan and Mansour Abbas"

In response to a question about the possibility of joining a unity government headed by figures from outside the right-wing bloc, Busso clarified that Shas remains absolutely loyal to the religious bloc and to Benjamin Netanyahu:

"Aryeh Deri's loyalty to the right-wing bloc and to Netanyahu is the reason they invested tens of millions on his head to harm him. The only one who kept the right-wing bloc and this government from falling is Rav Aryeh Deri. The possibility of joining Yair Golan or Gadi Eisenkot? Not relevant at all. Their senior partner is Mansour Abbas. Establishing a left-wing government means erasing the Jewish identity of the State of Israel, Reform conversions, marriages not according to the law of Moshe and Yisrael, and secularization of the public sphere. We won't give a hand to that. Our connection to the religious bloc is an ideological and values-based connection."

The Rav Ovadia Yosef hillula controversy: "They tried to brand him as politics"

Ahead of the memorial day for Maran Rav Ovadia Yosef zt"l, Busso addressed the storm over the Attorney General's and High Court's decision to prevent the central event that was advanced within the framework of the 'Maran Day Law':

"There has never been in the history of the State of Israel, and even hundreds of years back, a funeral of a million people like at Maran's levaya. We passed a law in legislation for holding state memorial days for his legacy. Our real anger and hurt are from the desire of the Attorney General, with High Court backing, to brand Maran as if it's about a political agenda. Can anyone suspect Rav Ovadia that he was busy with politics? He was entirely devoted to spreading Torah and raising up Sephardic Jewry. The public understands this, and this attempt will create the opposite effect: thousands of hillulas will take place in every shul and every home in Israel."

Aryeh Deri's leadership: "The responsible adult navigating behind the scenes"

In conclusion, Busso was asked about the status of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who manages the movement's and coalition's affairs mainly behind the scenes:

"The government felt in the hardest and most dramatic times that it needs a leader with experience, a responsible adult in the literal sense, who will make decisions not from the gut and not by drawing a gun. Rav Aryeh Deri was there exactly for that. He's a working man, not a man of media and gimmicks. He manages the movement, the campaign and the relationship with all the representatives. The public is smart and understands the significance, if we go out to vote, the right-wing bloc will win and continue to lead the state."