Aryeh Deri announced on Monday that he would return to politics as the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, two weeks after he sought to resign as chairman and quit the Knesset.
The long-time Knesset member had been disgraced by a leaked video recording in which the late spiritual leader of Shas, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, was seen badmouthing Deri and favoring his rival, Eli Yishai. He formally resigned from the Knesset after the video aired in a largely symbolic move, but his request to quit the party leadership was denied by the Shas rabbinical council. On Monday, Deri said he would respect the council’s decision and resume his duties as party chairman.
“I accept, with humility and a bowed head, the directive of the Council of the Torah Sages,” Deri said.
After a “difficult time during which I did some personal soul-searching for myself and family,” Deri said he concluded that Shas was “more important than any other consideration.”
“With my head high, with pride and determination, I will continue to lead the party and continue the great project of Maran [Yosef] to be a voice for those the state has left behind,” Deri added.
Just five days after he resigned his Knesset seat, Deri signaled that he would likely return to politics. Speaking with Channel 2’s “Uvda” program, he initially denied he was mulling an imminent return to the helm of ultra-Orthodox party: “I do not know if I will return [to politics], this is the honest truth,” he said. But after being pressed by the interviewer, Deri indicated that a comeback was not out of the question.
“A man who does not change his mind and does not listen to the will of others is not a real man, he is an ass,” he said.
During that interview, Deri also accused rival Yishai, a former Shas chairman who broke away last month and founded a new party, Ha’am Itanu, of leaking the tape showing Yosef, a revered Sephardic leader, former chief rabbi, and founder of the ultra-Orthodox party, to the party rabbinical council. In the video, Yosef, who died last year, was seen slamming Deri in a recorded conversation and calling him “a thief and bribe taker” who dragged the Shas party to support the Oslo accords.
Deri said that he had known for several weeks that Yishai had the tape, but that his rival had promised he would never publicize it. Deri said Yishai showed the tape a month ago to the party’s rabbinical council, which subsequently summoned him for a meeting.
Yishai has denied leaking the tape to the press.
