Yishai said to receive top rabbi's blessing to leave Shas

Former party head, now in dispute with successor Deri, weighs future as Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party faces split

Former Shas chairman Eli Yishai met with leading Lithuanian Rabbi Aharon Shteinman Friday and received his blessing to leave the Shas party, according to reports in Israel Radio and Walla News. Yishai has yet to make a final decision, according to those reports, but is likely to make an announcement early next week.

Yishai’s expected choice to split from the party comes after reconciliation attempts with current party chairman and long-time rival Aryeh Deri appear to have failed.

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.

Pundits have speculated in recent days that Yishai could join with Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) — who is also locked in an internal struggle with his party leader, Naftali Bennett, and may be on the verge of splitting — to form a new party.

Shas party leader MK Aryeh Deri (left) seen shaking hands with fellow Shas MK Eli Yishai, after a meeting in the Knesset aimed to heal their feud, October 30, 2013. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Mounting pressure within Shas to remove Yishai from the electoral list ahead of the upcoming March 2015 elections could split the party into two separate factions.

Hostilities came to a head Wednesday during a meeting with the Council of Torah Sages, where Yishai was presented with a list of conditions that Deri demanded be met before the two could reconcile.

Deri’s demands included that Yishai draft a letter of resignation that could be used at any time if the former chairman acted against the interests of the party, the website Kikar Hashabat reported.

Yishai, who refused to comply with Deri’s demands, called off a “unity” meeting between the two scheduled for Thursday.

A poll published Wednesday by Maariv and conducted by the Panels research group predicted that under Deri’s leadership Shas would win seven Knesset seats in the upcoming election, as opposed to nine under Yishai’s leadership.

The poll also found that if the tensions between the two leads to a split in the party, Deri’s faction would win four seats, while Yishai’s would win five, with both leaders making it over the 3.25 percent electoral threshold.