The Knesset Members for Shas have been summoned to an unscheduled meeting at the party headquarters in Jerusalem, reported Kol Yisrael public radio Monday.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri – who resigned less than a fortnight ago – is expected to announce his retun to the leadership of the party, after the head of the party’s Council of Sages, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, told him to do so.

Rabbi Cohen sent Deri a letter in which he said that Deri bears no responsibility for the embarrassment caused by the publication of a video in which the party’s former spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef speaks harshly about Deri and calls him a “thief.”

Cohen credits Deri’s leadership with bringing down the present government and proclaims: “You have no permission whatsoever to leave, and I hereby instruct you to come back and lead the holy movement…”

Deri’s resignation was widely interpreted as a short-lived stunt, and his “return” to Shas’s top spot does not surprise too many people. He had been deeply embarrassed by the video of Rabbi Ovadia, which is widely believed to have been leaked by people who identify with Deri’s archrival, MK Eli Yishai.

Yishai left Shas and established a new party, Haam Itanu, which at present does not appear to be able to make it past the threshold into the Knesset.