In the late evening of Sept. 2, a short while before the Knesset was to vote on the 2015-16 budget, Shas Chairman and Economy Minister Aryeh Deri convened an urgent meeting in his office of his party’s Knesset faction. Seeming to suggest that the Shas Party approval for the budget was uncertain, Deri injected a measure of additional drama into already tense government efforts to win approval for the budget with only a narrow parliamentary majority of 61 members out of 120 Knesset seats. Eventually, the Shas Knesset members voted in favor, with Deri absenting himself after having made an offset arrangement with an opposition lawmaker.

In response to questions about what exactly went on in the economy minister’s office and what the fuss was about, Deri’s people issued a written explanation. In an announcement sent to political affairs correspondents, a senior, unnamed Shas official was quoted as explaining that members of the Shas Knesset faction had voiced anger that the issue of zero sales tax had not been settled yet with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, even though it was agreed on when the Cabinet discussed the budget. Deri called the urgent meeting to address their anger, explained the anonymous senior source, and instructed the members of the Knesset faction to vote in favor of the budget when it comes up for its first reading. “If agreement on zero sales tax for the weakest populations is not reached by the time the budget comes up for its second and third readings, Shas will withhold final approval of the budget,” the source wrote in his message.

Anyone who is familiar with the conduct of the Shas Party since it reverted to Deri’s control — and especially since the current government took office — cannot but snigger at the story about “the anger” of the Shas Knesset members as told by the senior source speaking on their behalf. After all, under Deri’s leadership, he and only he has the final say — he’s the one who gets enraged, who navigates, who decides. It’s a one-man show. The angry senior official was more than likely Deri himself, who wanted to place himself and Shas at the center of the budget debate and portray them as the ones looking out for the welfare of “transparent” Israelis — the country’s poor who were the focus of Deri’s election campaign for the March 17 elections.

Deri had no intention of derailing any vote. He also knew that after the first round of voting, final legislation is a long way off. It should be noted that in Israel, every bill must be approved in three readings. The second reading includes separate voting on every clause of the bill. Not only that. Kahlon, as far as anyone knows, had no intention of backtracking on his agreement with Deri. But as always with the minister of economy, there’s nothing that says presence and control like a cute little media drama.