Senior sources in the hareidi Shas party sharply criticized their party chairman MK Aryeh Deri on Tuesday morning, after he told Yedioth Aharonoth that Shas's relations with Likud have ended, and that currently the party is aligning with the leftist Labor party.
"All of (Deri's) national view is based on narrow political interests," charged the sources. "After all, if (Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanyahu had put him in the coalition like he wanted - otherwise there's no explanation for the meetings between them whenever the prime minister invited him - Deri would have stuck to his side and found an excuse for that connection."
According to the source, the Israeli public "understands that Aryeh Deri is spineless; we must only pray the public will know to separate between Deri and the party, otherwise the seven mandates the polls predict for us will be a mere dream."
On the topic of polls, the sources noted that a recent Knesset channel survey found the majority of the public, and the majority of Shas voters, would prefer to see MK Eli Yishai take Deri's place, as he did for several long years while Deri was out of politics after being jailed for corruption.
The polls also found that if Yishai were given back the reins, the party would enjoy more seats in the Knesset. "The Shas voting public is mostly right-wing, and Eli Yishai represented them. It's a shame Deri isn't there," said the sources.
"Just on Yom Kippur eve, Aryeh Deri made accusations against the settler public, which incorrectly accuses him of agreeing to the Oslo Accords," said the sources. "It's interesting what he'll say next Yom Kippur eve, when they accuse him of joining Meretz and Labor. For his mistakes today Shas will pay at the ballot box."
The mention of the Oslo Accords refers to the controversial 1993 agreement which was instituted in a coalition Deri was part of, and which it is claimed could not have passed it without him. Last January, Deri claimed he "didn't understand" what the Accords were about when he abstained in a crucial vote that enabled the agreement to be passed.
Shas has likewise been accused by many for its part in the 2005 Disengagement plan that saw all Jews expelled from Gaza.
Deri has recently threatened support for territorial withdrawals in response to Jewish Home's support for the Enlistment Law to mandate hareidi IDF enlistment - a law which in effect crushed that enlistment.
Ironically, Shas with its leftward bent under Deri proposed a bill last December during peace talks requiring 80 MKs to agree to any negotiations on dividing Jerusalem. Deri slammed the "right-wing" parties of Jewish Home, Likud and Yisrael Beytenu for abandoning Jerusalem by completely boycotting the vote and leaving the bill to be overturned.