Shas party leader Aryeh Deri on Tuesday afternoon 24 Kislev convened an urgent meeting of party officials in his office. The meeting comes following Eli Yishai’s official announcement on Monday evening that he is breaking from Shas and launching his own party.
Perhaps Deri is concerned over the Knesset Channel poll released on Tuesday, a poll taken after Yishai announced the split. The poll shows that Yishai’s new party that does not even have a name earns four seats and Shas earns the same number, down from its current 11 seats.
While Deri is likely to be glad to be rid of Yishai, he is also keenly aware that the party is breaking apart and if he hopes to find a respectable place in the 20th Knesset, he will have to work miracles to rehabilitate the party in time for elections on 26 Adar 5775.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
“he will have to work miracles…..”. No sir, no miracles needed.just sholom and a bit of humility on all sides.
I think he cooked his own goose. He’s toast.
The safest root would be for Shas to join Yahadut ha-Torah (it is equal now with Agudath Israel and Degel ha-Torah), for for Yishai to joing the breakaways from Bayit Yehudi.
However polls historically underrepresent hareidim and sefardim, so both factions will probably pass the threshold, but one can’t be certain since most polls have margins of error that are far greater than the difference between getting seats and having ones’ vote wasted.