With general elections a month away officials in Yahadut Hatorah fear they may not even earn five seats in the 19th Knesset. The worrisome reality comes at a critical time as the chareidi tzibur is concerned with a number of major issues, including stepped-up efforts to pull avreichim into the IDF and the realization that if the next coalition does not include chareidi parties, or the latter are not in a position of influence, it could spell disaster for the future national government funding of mosdos Torah.
Without a doubt the split in Degel Hatorah between what is now the Netzach Party will hit Yahadut Hatorah and it may cost at least one seat.
Yahadut Hatorah’s Rav Yisrael Eichler, a veteran of the Knesset and political arena recently stated that seven is the magic number, explaining the significance of earning enough votes to be a significant component of the next government coalition. Infighting is one of the contributory factors to Yahadut Hatorah concerns, along with the fact that there are new political parties running in the race may attract some Yahadut Hatorah voters.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
There is a major issue that Yahadut Hatorah must embrace.
Since the last election many avrechim have joined the workfield for various reasons and that trend is continuing to increase. It is quite noticeable in Bet Shemesh where a new party for the ‘Working Charedim” called Tov has originated and is growing in power. Unless Yahadut Hatorah recognizes & embraces these ‘Working Bnei Torah’ (learning seder plus 3 hrs of outside work)as valued assests….they will be searching for other options.
Let us face the truth, the religious communities are growing faster than any sector in Israel but Aguda/Degel is not gaining any seats. Why? Because the people who run the parties and those who are supposed to be the representitives are not for the people. They are party cronies and hacks who only care for their buddies.
I will vote for Bayit HaYehudi instead eventhough I am a kollel man.
Netzak is a minorty that won’t have a drastic effect. The gloom is there due to internal fighting between gur litzman and degel gafni over little issues. As a frummer living in jerusalem, most my friends will not be voting gimmel due to these diffrences. No one beleives any longer in the frum polticians. They had 4 years to show the public what they can do, instaed the argue over stupid things. I hope they lose big time and learn from their mistakes
A large percentage of the “chareidi tzibur” see these political groups as irrelevant to their lives. The percentage of Chareidim in Israel has grow significantly in the past ten years yet this has not resulted in any increase in the percentage the “chareidi parties” receive in the elections. In fact the “chareidi parties” are losing ground. Nevertheless there does not seem to be any interest on the part of these politicians to understand or deal with this.
Can the editors of YWNs send these sechel comments off to MK Eichler, before its too late?