Leaked video shows late Shas spiritual leader blasting Deri

A shockwave rippled through the ultra-Orthodox Shas party Sunday night, after Israeli television aired a leaked tape of late spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef attacking current party head Aryeh Deri and declaring his support for former party chairman Eli Yishai.

The video, from a 2008 conversation, set Shas on its heels as the party was already reeling from the defection of Yishai, who started his own party to compete with the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox powerhouse.

In the tape aired by Channel 2, Yosef can be heard calling Deri “too independent” and “wicked,” in a conversation with his son Moshe Yosef.

Yosef expressed fears over Deri’s possible return to the party after the latter spent two years in prison and several years out of public service following a graft conviction in 1999.

“Thirty, 40 percent will leave [Shas]. Why? Because he was convicted in court. Why take a thief or bribe taker?” Ovadia asked rhetorically.

Deri returned to politics after a 13-year hiatus and was reinstated in 2012 by Yosef as Shas party co-chairman together with Yishai, who headed the ultra-Orthodox party during Deri’s incarceration.

Despite his harsh criticisms, Yosef appointed Deri as sole party chairman in 2013, shortly before his death.

In response to the leaked video, Shas planned to launch a counter-campaign titled “Father, what have they done to you,” intended to reclaim Yosef’s central role in the party, Haaretz reported.

Some 40 party leaders, including four of Yosef’s children, gathered at Yosef’s grave in Jerusalem for a press conference Monday and struck out at Yishai. “There’s no forgiveness for what he did” in ostensibly leaking the tape, David Yosef said, calling Yishai “impudent.”

In the tape, though, Yosef is heard clearly putting his weight behind Yishai.

“[Deri] will not listen to me, I know this from experience, he is too independent,” the rabbi told his son in the recording. “Your mother was in tears — Is this not evil? I’ve spoken to him several times, and he did not want to listen,” he said.

“Let [Deri] set up his own political movement, what do I care?” the rabbi said. “What will he get? 5,000 [votes]? He won’t even pass the electoral threshold.”

“I cannot betray Eli Yishai,” Yosef said.

The leaked footage comes at a time when tensions between Deri and Yishai continue to escalate.

The long-standing rivalry between the two was reignited after Yosef’s death in 2013. The two quarreled repeatedly over Yishai’s role in the party, with Deri accusing Yishai of undermining him in a bid to reclaim the chairmanship.

Tensions came to a head earlier this month as Yishai broke away from Shas and formed a new party, Ha’am Itanu (The Nation Is With Us),

A poll published earlier this month by Maariv, and conducted by the Panels research group before Yishai’s resignation, predicted that under Deri’s leadership, Shas would win seven Knesset seats in the 2015 elections, as opposed to nine under Yishai’s leadership.

The poll also found that in the case of a split in the party, Deri’s faction would win four seats, while Yishai’s would win five, with both groups just making it over the 3.25-percent electoral threshold. Other surveys have indicated Shas and Ha’am Itanu could struggle to clear the threshold.