Ever since the Shas party has been teetering on the edge of the minimum threshold, former Shas leader Eli Yishai has been the demon and has been running unsuccessfully directly against Shas.
Despite the lack of success in the previous national elections, and then again in the most recent municipal elections, Eli Yishai is talking about running again in the upcoming national elections. He is also talking about trying to merge with Shas, if the right arrangement can be reached, though Shas sounds like they aren't interested.
I am not quite sure what Eli Yishai is trying to accomplish. Running on his own has already proven futile, and he has not made any arrangements to run on a joint ticket with another party list... so I do not know why he is about to put himself through this again. It might be time for him to start looking for another career, outside of politics. Until now I thought he was hanging around waiting for Aryeh Deri to be indicted and convicted so he himself can take over Shas again - though at this point it looks like even if that happens Shas will not take Eli Yishai back (though it could happen).
At this point I suspect that Eli Yishai is really a plant working on behalf of Shas.. By Eli Yishai running, it gives Shas a demon to attack, a target. They can whip up their people in a frenzy against the threat posed by Eli Yishai against Rav Ovadia Yosef. With Shas on the brink of not getting into the Knesset, this gives them something to rally around and to be motivated about to go vote and support their party.
It sounds far-fetched, but I don't see any other reason for Eli Yishai to hang around and run again, and to directly target Shas as his opponent.
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