Jewish Home, Shas consider alliance to counter rebellious party members

Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri are said to be considering an alliance against political rivals Uri Ariel and Eli Yishai, both prominent members of their respective parties.

According to a Channel 10 report,  Bennett and Deri spoke on Friday after Yishai, a familiar and respected figure within the religious political world, has seemingly made preparations to leave the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi party he once led and of which he’s been a part for some 30 years.

Reconciliation attempts between Yishai and Deri, the current party chairman and Yishai’s long-time political foe, have reportedly failed. The two men’s strained relations were tested even further after the passing last year of Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef.

Pundits have increasingly speculated that Yishai, once a Shas chairman, could join Ariel to form a new party ahead of the March 2015 elections, although neither politician has officially left his respective party or formally signaled an intention to do so.

Yishai is expected to make an announcement regarding his status early next week.

Ariel, who currently serves as housing and construction minister on the Jewish Home list, along with his Tekumah sub-faction, has reportedly threatened to abandon the nationalist-religious party after a series of internal spats and disagreements.

Ariel’s Tekumah currently holds four of the 12 Jewish Home Knesset seats.

Last week Tekumah MKs within the Jewish Home party — Ariel, Orit Strock, Eli Ben Dahan, and Zvulun Kalfa — called an emergency session and threatened to run as a separate party in the future elections. The session was later followed by a heated meeting where Tekumah members showed up late to a Jewish Home conference and accused Bennett of selling out the values of the party in order to broaden his political base.

Earlier Friday, Yishai had met with leading Lithuanian Rabbi Aharon Shteinman and received his blessing to leave the party, according to reports in Israel Radio and Walla News.

Though Shteinman is an Ashkenazi rabbi, he is considered a great spiritual leader by members of Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Jews as well. Walla posited that he was also the only leading authority Yishai could turn to on the issue, as Shas’s Council of Torah Sages — the party’s panel of spiritual advisers — is firmly behind Deri.

Marissa Newman contributed to this report.