My conversation with Knesset Member Aryeh Deri, who was handed the leadership of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party last May, took place this past Monday, Aug. 5, one day after the government decided to remove two ultra-Orthodox settlements, Beitar Illit and Harish, from the national priority map and include tiny, isolated settlements in Judea and Samaria instead.

Deri was quick to respond sharply on his Twitter account, attacking the two “brothers," Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, the ministers of economy and trade and of finance, respectively. According to Deri, “They will not rest until they oust the ultra-Orthodox citizens of the state of Israel … and grease the palms of those people living in the isolated settlements.”

But as far as the head of Shas is concerned, one person is ultimately responsible for the current situation, and that is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Deri points to the prime minister as the person bearing ultimate responsibility for slashing budgets to religious institutions, the economic decrees and the mood of persecution felt by the ultra-Orthodox. It was the Netanyahu who betrayed the ultra-Orthodox for the sake of Bennett and Lapid, leaving Shas’s leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, disappointed and hurt that Netanyahu turned his back on his longtime political partner.

Oddly enough, however, the sense of depression that comes with serving in the opposition and the shattered dream of sitting around the cabinet table have actually been good for the head of Shas. If he’s going to be in the opposition, then he’s going to go all the way with it.