Despite attempts by Shas' three chairmen to calm spirits in the party and present a united front, fights broke out at the party conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday. At the conference, the Council of Torah Sages, the party's spiritual leadership body, was set to decide who will occupy the top spot on the Shas list for the January 22 elections. Due to lessons learned at a similar conference in Haifa at the beginning of the week, Aryeh Deri, who heads the party together with Housing Minister Ariel Atias and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, hired security guards to prevent activists from bringing posters into the conference. Despite his efforts, however, flyers in support of Yishai were distributed among the attendees and groups at first verbally sparred with each other in a show of support for their favorite chairman. Toward the end of the conference, Yishai, who had left the hall after his nephew was physically beaten apparently for waving a poster with Yishai's name on it, returned to the hall visibly shaken by the incident. The minister's nephew was taken to hospital for treatment. Party members expressed disappointment over the conference, which was attended by only several hundred members. "There is no longer the same enthusiasm and electricity, but that will change by election time," a party member said. Deri spoke about the race for the number one spot on the list and said: "I noticed that the media is concerned about my place on the list. I am touched by that. We are all soldiers in the service of our spiritual leader [Rabbi Ovadia Yosef] and we will happily abide by anything he decides." Yishai is expected to be placed at the top of the Shas list, but the issue of the chairman's role in the party has yet to be worked out. The Council of Torah Sages is scheduled to convene in the coming days to resolve the issues. During the conference, Shas member Rabbi Shalom Cohen spoke about the Whole Nation party, which was formed in October by Rabbi Haim Amsallem, a former Shas member. Amsallem was expelled from Shas in 2010 due to his public criticism of the party for discouraging military service and integration into the workforce among the haredi public, but remained an MK. "This Whole Nation party, may it never happen to us where did it come from-" Cohen asked the crowd, which responded with jeers. Yishai denounced the New National Religious Party, which he said had drafted a proposal for a law that would close yeshivas throughout the country. "We have, until today, struggled to minimize the social damage caused by [former Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's government and [late Shinui party leader Tommy] Lapid's party which stole billions from the mouths of children by withholding government-provided child stipends." Atias, also one of the three party chairmen, spoke about the unity between Yishai and Deri, and said party members must strengthen them and help them to work together.
