Forget about Aryeh Deri - the real winner, in my opinion, of the new arrangement in SHAS, with their 3-headed leadership, is Ariel Attias.
As part of the new arrangement, Attias joins the party leadership, whereas without this new arrangement he would still have only been the #2 man behind Eli Yishai. Attias was a hard-working minister who did his job well.
As they say, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Having a 3-headed leadership team could be a disaster for SHAS, with each pulling in a different direction. Or it could mean more power for Aryeh Deri, as Ariel Attias is seemingly identified with Deri's camp and if he supports Deri as a standard in this new body, Yishai will regularly be outvoted... I expect with this new position Attias will be more independent and will step up to take the leadership position for the future.
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Not that I ever voted Shas, but IMO this is a total fiasco for them. Haven't seen the opinion polls yet, but if they don't drop precipitously in the next one, I'll be very disappointed in their sector.
ReplyDeleteso far the polls show them going up
Deletefor sure attias is the man to watch. all he has to do is let deri and yishai tear each other down and he will be there to pick up the pieces.
ReplyDeleteDunno what to make of this. Deri is from a past generation of the 90s. Do younger Sefaradi voters care about him? Seems that the media is actually the vocal proponent for Deri to rejoin Shas - it will definitely mean more juicy stories on their part. Otherwise, Shas (and Yahadut Hatora) is quite boring to report on. I am wondering - if the media would have ignored Deri, would he have gotten the yetzer to rejoin politics? They could have reported about the indifference to him after 13 years and buried any chances for him to 'comeback'.
ReplyDeleteJosh