HaGaon HaRav Meir Mazuz Shlita met in Bnei Brak on Monday morning 23 Kislev with HaGaon HaRav Shimon Ba’adani in a final effort to prevent former Shas leader Eli Yishai from resigning from the party following over 30 years of service.
Rav Mazuz stands firmly behind Eli Yishai and tried to reach agreement with Rav Ba’adani, a member of the Sephardi party’s Moetzas Gedolei Yisrael and supporter of the Deri camp. After it was realized the two sides have reached an impasse, Yishai decided he must continue his political life outside of the Shas family.
Yishai is expected to hold a press conference on Monday afternoon to make the official announcement that he is breaking away from Shas. There is much speculation surrounding Yishai’s future. Some reports state he is retiring from politics but most do not agree with this assessment.
It is believed Yishai wishes to launch the “Maran” party over objections from Shas and possibly team up with the head of the Tekuma faction of the Bayit Yehudi party Housing Minister Uri Ariel and with Bayit Yehudi MK Yoni Chetboun, who told party leaders he cannot continue in the framework of the dati leumi party which lacks daas Torah.
Shas has already signaled if Yishai tries to form the Maran party it will file objections with the Central Election Committee over use of the name “Maran”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Israeli parties routinely split. That’s a function of the electoral system that encourages narrow ideology as long as one passes the threshold. This sounds like the most amicable split of a political party in the history of Israeli politics.
And it could leave both sides better off, especially if the result is a credible “hardal” party (or at least a frum religious zionist party), with crippling either Shas (which remains a pure Sefardi Haredid party) or Bayit Yehudi (which remains as a religious nationalist party with the emphasis on the “nationalist”).
As long as the leftist Deri is going down, I am all for it.