With efforts underway to form a coalition government following the election for 22nd Knesset, it is clear the chareidi parties grew in numbers but the right-wing/chareidi bloc diminished in size; and clearly, the Blue & White party headed by MK Benny Gantz holds an advantage.
MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Yitzchak Pindrus was interviewed by Kikar Shabbos News, and he explained the chareidim grew in the April 2019 election by 45,000 votes, and since then, just a few months later, the chareidi party grew by an additional 20,000 votes. He feels the reason is the fact that ‘religion and state’ was one of the crucial matters that was dependent on the election outcome. This prompted the frum community to close ranks and realize the significance of their vote.
Pindrus explained that following the call of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita regarding the requirement to vote, the tzibur came out, and in many cases, people flew back to Israel just to vote.
Pindrus points out that the coming two months will be difficult, the time period during which efforts will continue to establish a coalition government. He adds that based on the election, the tzibur is close to 600,000 strong, but nevertheless, is still the target of ongoing discrimination.
Pindrus highlights that any and all decisions will be made by Gedolei Torah, adding he personally fears Yair Lapid will be prime minister.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
…and just last year YWN was basically eulogizing Shas. And then… 9 seats! The legacy of Maran is alive and well.
Well obviously. Unless Lieberman and Lapid can be convinced to stop being anti-frum, the only option is a Likud and Blue-White coalition. The zionists have the upper hand, and they don’t like hareidim.
The best response of the hareidi community would be to focus on autonomy (rather than patronage) and to work with the anti-zionist Arabs and left-wing Jews to end conscription (preferably with a Basic Law banning conscription, perhaps also declaring it non-discriminatory for the medinah to have affirmative action for soldiers, veterans and their families, which might make it more tolerable to the zionists). There is also a strong secular argument for a professional army, so this might work (whereas asking for special favors from the government has clearly failed).
Pindrus talked about increased votes, but without discussing percentages of the total vote, the numbers of votes are nearly meaningless.