Aryeh Deri. A leadership trick or an angry departure?
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Will Shas survive 2015 elections?
Analysis: Haredi parties are based on an impassioned hard core and don't usually disappear. Shas is different, and after the events of the past few weeks, it is facing an uncertain future.
It seemed like a classic leadership trick, the kind David Ben-Gurion used to do: Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri
imposes a letter of resignation on the Shas Council of Torah Sages, who feel their party is falling apart in front of their eyes, on the eve of elections.
But Deri isn't home. They are greeted by his daughters, who have no idea where their father went.
They walk a distance of about 200 meters (650 feet) from the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's home to Deri's home. The members of Shas' Knesset faction walk with them. The plan is to beg, give in, pray, impose rabbinical jurisdiction.
Burying the Hatchet?
Anat Meidan
After hurling insults and accusations at one another, haredi party's first ladies Adina Bar-Shalom, daughter of movement founder Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and Yaffa Deri, wife of party chairman Aryeh Deri, have apologized to each other and are now looking ahead to helping their haredi sisters by leading women advisory council in Shas.
In the next stage, contact is established over the telephone. Deri is out of town. He promises to visit each rabbi separately on Tuesday and explain why he decided to quit. The rabbis go home without knowing what the day will bring.
This is a difficult, embarrassing situation in every political institution, but in the case of Shas rabbis' it is even more embarrassing, because they, the rabbis, are supposed to know what the day will bring. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be called the Council of Torah Sages.
Shas Council of Torah Sages. 'A difficult, embarrassing situation' (Photo: Shas spokesperson)
It was hard to estimate how the crisis would end Monday night. A leadership trick or an angry departure? Each of these options suit Aryeh Deri.
His associates claimed Monday evening that the personal attacks on him by former Shas Chairman Eli Yishai's associates, which Deri's men refer to as "persecution," made him loathe his position. It wasn't just the tape broadcast on Channel 2 News, which shows Rabbi Yosef referring to him as evil, rebellious and "a thief," but also all the rumors which have been spread against him in the past two years. He really does intend to quit, they say.
There are likely many tapes featuring Rabbi Yosef, and they are filled with contradictions. Whoever deluded themselves that Rabbi Yosef had used derogatory terms only against seculars were wrong.
The late rabbi was surrounded by Shas' conniving whispers and meddling and the poisonous relationships within his family. He had impulses and he had an ego and he had an unrestrained sharp tongue, which overshadowed politicians' blasphemy.
When Tzipi Livni mocked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on satire television show "State of the Nation," her rivals accused her of being on drugs. Rabbi Yosef, as far as we know, settled for soup.
But the words were said, and they seriously affected not only Deri's status and the Shas list's appeal in the elections, but mainly the late rabbi's scared authority.
Two people are clinging onto the rabbi, pulling and pulling, until the rabbi is torn. Eli Yishai, who is appropriating Rabbi Yosef in his election campaign, is marketing defective goods – and he has only himself to blame for that.
For Shas and its voters, all options are on the table now. It's possible that Deri will announce that as an act of respect for the rabbi, he has decided to reconsider his resignation and lead Shas to a survival battle in the polls; it's possible that he will insist on leaving and that the Council of Torah Sages will decide to crown former Minister Ariel Atias, who quit for business purposes, as the party's new leader, or one of the Knesset members or one of Rabbi Yosef's available sons.
Eli Yishai's chances of regaining control of Shas, even if Deri does quit, are slim. The wound is open and the blood is flowing. His list's chances of crossing the election threshold, which were low to begin with, significantly decreased Monday. It will be easy to portray him as a traitor.
The votes Shas will lose will likely be divided between several parties. Many religious voters will vote for the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox list; the traditional voters may prefer Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu, Bayit Yehudi or the Likud.
Haredi parties are based on an impassioned hard core. They don't usually disappear. Shas is a different type of haredi party: It depends on many state-of-mind voters. The events of the past few weeks throw its existence into a state of uncertainty.
