Shas Haredi Sephardi party leader and ex-con Aryeh Deri has demanded that former party chairman Eli Yishai deposit a resignation letter just in case he decides to work against the party, the Haredi Kikar Shabbat website reported Thursday morning.
Yishai met with a rabbi from the “Council of Torah Sages” and was presented with Deri’s letter of conditions for unity between him and Deri.
Yishai saw the condition for the letter and refused, setting the groundwork for Deri and Yishai to call off their “unity peace talks” that were scheduled this morning.
“Why does Deri think that Yishai has to submit this kind of letter,” an aide to Yishai told Kikar Shabbat. “Yishai doesn’t believe Deri and is sure he will use the letter to chase him out of the party. Deri tells the media he will be number two [on the party election list], but the public knows that Deri is making conditions he cannot accept and wants to make Yishai leave the party in a move that will appear, in principle as if he does not want unity.”
A spokesman for Deri did not deny the report of conditions.
A poll published on Wednesday shows that Yishai as Shas party chairman would attract enough voters to elect nine Knesset Members, two more than with Deri as leader.
The Shas party lost its founder and spiritual leader, former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, last year. Ever since, Deri and Yishai have been at each other’s throats, the way politicians act out of “good for the country.”
The Deri-Yishai feud could split up the party into two factions.
That could leave Netanyahu, or Herzog-Livni, playing Deri and Yishai off each other to bait them into a coalition.