About two years before Knesset member Aryeh Deri returned to the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, he already began speaking openly about starting a new party under his leadership. With his eyes aglitter, he told journalists, politicians and public figures who met with him in his tiny office in Jerusalem about his dream of using the knowledge and experience he accumulated to return to politics and become a unifying figure for the Israeli public.
By that time, Deri made his first moves to take over the leadership of Shas once again. Onlookers would have thought that he didn’t have a chance. Knesset member Eli Yishai’s position as party head and confidant to Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was solid.