Shas chairman Arye Deri calls for internal examination into party's election failure

Shas chairman Arye Deri has launched an internal examination of the party's electoral failure after recent elections saw it lose roughly half its political strength. Deri convened party representatives to submit data and analysis, asking for harsh conclusions. A party source attributed the loss to the party becoming a branch of the Jerusalem Faction, with rhetoric becoming increasingly extreme and traditional voters alienated.

Shas chairman Arye Deri has launched a lengthy process of rebuilding the Sephardi haredi party, beginning with a thorough internal examination of the reasons behind its electoral failure after the recent elections saw the party lose roughly half its political strength, Walla learned on Friday. Last week, Deri convened party representatives, including officials from the municipal level, and assigned them a task: within approximately one week, each representative must submit detailed data on the election results in their area of responsibility, along with an analysis of the reasons for the party's decline and recommendations for the future. Deri stressed that he was not interested in reports that sugarcoat reality or attempts to downplay the scale of the defeat, asking for the harshest, most pointed conclusions. In effect, Deri is establishing a kind of internal commission of inquiry to understand how one of the most effective electoral machines in Israeli politics ended up with such a poor result. The party's organizational network, long used to mobilize voters, is now being enlisted to analyze the defeat. However, some within Shas believe the answers are already clear. A party source told Walla: 'We became a branch of Peleg Yerushalmi. Rabbis were dragged along by Ashkenazi spiritual leaders, there was hysteria surrounding the military draft issue, the rhetoric became increasingly extreme, and we were drawn further toward the extremist ultra-Orthodox camp. The ultra-Orthodox Shas took over the movement, while traditional Shas simply disappeared.' The source said Shas's attempt to appeal to traditional Jewish voters in the final stages of the campaign came too late, adding: 'You can't put two videos featuring soldiers into a campaign and think that will undo four years of damage.' Within the party, there is a growing understanding that the defeat reflects a deeper crisis concerning Shas's identity and its voter base. The central question facing Deri is whether the party can win back traditional voters without losing its ultra-Orthodox base.