Updated

Shas chairman Arye Deri has ordered a harsh internal review of the Sephardi haredi party's election defeat, according to The Jerusalem Post. The party lost roughly half its political strength in the recent elections, Walla reported on Friday. Deri convened party representatives, including municipal officials, and told them to submit within about a week detailed data on results in their areas, with analysis of the causes of the decline and recommendations. He said he was not interested in reports that sugarcoat reality or downplay the defeat, and asked for the harshest, most painful conclusions. The review is effectively an internal commission of inquiry. Walla reported that a party source blamed Shas's drift toward the extremist ultra-Orthodox camp, heated rhetoric over the military draft, and a late attempt to win back traditional Jewish voters, which the source said came too late.