He retained his seat in the 1999 elections, and was again appointed Minister of Labor and Social Welfare in Ehud Barak's government.

In 2000, Shas leader Deri was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as Interior Minister and given a three-year jail sentence.

Yishai tried to recruit voters from the settlements and took the party out of Ehud Barak's coalition government in advance of the Camp David summit with Yasser Arafat in 2000.

In the same year, he was subjected to criticism after he claimed that negative results from the 2006 Lebanon War were a consequence of soldiers not being as religiously observant as they were in the past.

"[8] However, The Jerusalem Post reviewed Ministry of Health data, and concluded that there was a relatively low infection rate among asylum-seekers.

[9] In a June 2012 interview with the Israeli daily Maariv, Yishai said: "Muslims that arrive here do not even believe that this country belongs to us, to the white man.

[12] Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardi sage and Shas spiritual leader, said regarding his decision to oust Yishai: "It was a deposit that he held, and now he can redeem it."