Politics: 'King Deri' makes a comeback

The surprise bid by the charismatic former Shas leader to be mayor of Jerusalem has generated enormous enthusiasm...though not from party chairman Eli Yishai.

By MATTHEW WAGNER
King Saul felt horrible when he and David returned from the battlefield with Goliath's head and news of a major victory against the Philistines... and David ended up getting most of the credit. "Saul killed in the thousands and David in the tens of thousands," sang hundreds of dancing women who came to meet the triumphant warriors. Saul noticed that David stole the show. "They have ascribed tens of thousands to David and to me only thousands," he complained. "All he lacks now is the kingdom." The bible says that from that day on Saul was hostile to David. Shas chairman Eli Yishai might very well share similar feelings about Aryeh Deri, who has generated a storm of media attention by announcing his desire to run for mayor of Jerusalem. As with Saul's inability to compete with David's sheer greatness, Yishai cannot seem to match Deri's political successes. One of them was Deri's farewell gift to Shas. In the 1999 elections, Deri, on the eve of incarceration in Ma'asiyahu Prison for bribery and fraud, managed to spearhead a campaign, based on the slogan "He's innocent," that garnered Shas a record 17 Knesset seats. As one Deri supporter put it, "430,000 voters declared that Aryeh was innocent and was being discriminated against because he was haredi and Sephardi." Under Yishai, Shas has managed to receive no more than 12 mandates. Meanwhile, though it would be farfetched to say that Shas's No. 2 man, Communications Minister Ariel Atias, is Deri's Jonathan, it was hard to miss his genuine excitement at the prospect of seeing Deri return to the political arena. "I think Aryeh's comeback is good for Shas and good for the Sephardi population," Atias told Army Radio after Deri's plans to run for mayor became known. "He brings us a lot of pride." Deri and Atias are not soul mates like David and Jonathan. In fact, the two are not much more than casual acquaintances. But they do share the same haughtiness reserved for precocious politicians who have chalked up impressive accomplishments early in life. Both men leapfrogged more senior Shas politicians and ensconced themselves in leadership positions. Atias probably recognizes this similarity and admires and identifies with Deri for it. Also, Atias - who began his career in Shas seven years ago as a manager of Shas's Beit Yosef kosher supervision during the last shmita year - was not a party to the battles between Deri and Yishai. In contrast, Yishai, 46, worked his way up in Shas from the bottom. According to one Shas source, he predates Deri in the party. He started off as an aide to one of Shas's members of the Jerusalem city council. The real animosity between Yishai and Deri began after Yishai took over the party leadership. By that time Deri was on his way to prison for accepting bribes while serving as director-general of the Interior Ministry. Deri attacked Yishai via his supporters, known as Deri's Tanzim, who had pitched a protest tent outside the prison. A leading Tanzim member from those days, Yosef Haim Halaf, is now Deri's official spokesman. The tension between Yishai, who had begun to purge Shas of Deri supporters, and the incarcerated ex-Shas head reached an apex at a huge event at Yad Eliahu (now Nokia Stadium) that marked six months in prison for Deri. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef made his appearance at the event conditional upon Yishai's attendance. Yosef also insisted that Yishai sit next to him on stage. Nevertheless, the event ended badly. Yishai was physically attacked as he left with Yosef. His hat was knocked off and two of Yosef's aides were also attacked. Only through the intervention of the kabbalist Rabbi David Batzri, a close friend of Deri's and Yosef's, were relations between Deri and Yosef repaired. Deri ordered his followers to dismantle the protest tent, which had become a place of Torah study and also a center for anti-Yishai activity. Even before the Yad Eliahu event, Deri and Yosef had their run-ins. During Deri's heyday as Shas's gifted political wheeler-dealer in the mid and late '90s, he often pushed the limits of his political license. Yosef's supremacy as religious authority who made political decisions based on a combination of Godly inspiration and Torah knowledge was usurped by the ostensibly subservient Deri, who operated on instinctual political savvy and infinite self-confidence. However, over the past few years the relationship has improved. Deri is a regular guest at Yosef's Shabbat afternoon table and regularly asks Yosef's opinions on a variety of subjects, according to Yosef's son Rabbi David Yosef, a close friend of Deri's. David was distanced from the center of power as part of the purge of Deri supporters that took place after Yishai assumed the party's political leadership. His younger brother Moshe has since consolidated his power within the Yosef household. Deri's formidable popularity prevents Yishai from openly opposing him even though he knows that his return to the political arena can endanger his own political career. That is why the day after the story of Deri's decision to "seriously consider" running for mayor appeared, Yishai was careful to issue a laconic press release stating that Shas would support him "should he manage to overcome the legal obstacles." Deri is blocked from running by a seven-year ban on those who served a prison sentence of more than three months. But he still hopes to receive permission to run. Deri's attorney argue that the seven-year ban is the result of an amendment to the law that took place after Deri began serving his sentence. Therefore, it's a retroactive punishment. The issue has yet to be settled. Yishai's trepidation at Deri's comeback was reflected in the haredi press. Ya'acov Reinetz, senior correspondent for the weekly Bakehila, wrote that Deri's return marks the beginning of Yishai's demise, "if not de jure, de facto... The press and the public will scrutinize Yishai in comparison to Deri, who has leadership qualities and charisma that overshadow his replacement." It is difficult for people who have worked with Deri to put their finger on the secret of his magnetism. A recent example: Deri arrived as a guest at a wedding of a prominent haredi family. As he walked into the hall, the crowd and the band broke into a spontaneous version of "If a lion [Aryeh] roars, who does not fear?" Even Deri's opponents were swept away. A supporter of MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism), who will be Deri's only haredi competition in the Jerusalem mayoral race, said that he shook Deri's hand and could not help feeling the electricity. Ma'ariv's haredi affairs correspondent Avishai Ben-Haim could not contain his excitement over about Deri's comeback during a radio interview. This prompted Israel Radio's Nissim Mishal to ask him to explain why, as a reporter, he felt such emotional involvement. "It's like telling a sports writer that Michael Jordan is making a comeback," answered Ben-Haim. Kabbalist Yitzhak Batzri of Jerusalem's Shalom Yeshiva, where Deri once studied, has a mystical explanation: "Some Jews' souls are bigger than others. Deri has the type of soul that enables him to connect to a large and diverse group of people. It also gives him special powers and charisma. His soul came into this world to do great things. Great Jewish leaders like King David have his type of soul."