Deri Exits Shas List, Keeps Party Helm as Seats Fall to 6

(MENAFN) Aryeh Deri, a close ally of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has pulled out of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party’s slate for the incoming Knesset while keeping his post as party chairman, an Israeli television network reported Sunday.

Lawmaker Moshe Abutbul and candidate Dror Amos also dropped off the list. Their exits open the way for Uriel Buso and Yossi Taieb to take seats in parliament, so Shas keeps all six mandates it won in the Oct. 27 elections.

The shake-up follows a sharp electoral decline: Shas fell from 11 seats in the last Knesset to six. Deri offered to resign as chairman in response, but the party’s senior religious body, the Council of Torah Sages, turned down the offer and urged him to stay. He accepted and will run the party from outside parliament, according to the network.

During President Isaac Herzog’s consultations with parliamentary factions, Shas endorsed Netanyahu for prime minister. The party said it backed him because of his pledge to settle the legal status of military service exemptions for Jewish seminary students.

On Sunday, Herzog formally charged Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot with assembling the next government. Factions representing 67 lawmakers recommended Eisenkot, compared with 46 who backed Netanyahu. One seven-member faction made no recommendation.

Eisenkot’s bloc falls short of a majority on its own, so he must court additional parties. Two Arab lists together hold 19 Knesset seats, but his allies disagree on whether to bring them into a coalition. He has 28 days to put a government together, with a possible extension of up to 14 days.

MENAFN09112026000045017169ID1111933816