Jan 21, 2013

UTJ and Shas scavenging in each others backyards

Generally the two main haredi parties, Shas and UTJ, have stayed away from each other's backyards. UTJ never campaigned actively for haredi sephardi voters, while Shas never campaigned for the haredi ashkenaz vote. Even though they each get some crossover, it was never an active campaigning strategy.

Now there are calls from both sides to the other's backyard.

The other day the rabbonim in Bnei Braq decided to announce that Sephardi yeshiva students learning in Ashkenazi yeshivas (e.g. Ponevezshe) should vote for UTJ.
(source: bechadrei)

And today Rav Ovadia spoke and said that Ashkenazim who received an apartment from the Ministry of Housing (I assume he means at subsidized prices for young couples, as to the best of my knowledge they were not giving away houses for free to anyone) should vote for Shas out of gratitude.
(source: Ynet)

Interestingly, Rav Ovadia added that there is no such a thing as an issue of ashkenazi and sephardi, as we are one torah, not multiple torahs. Clearly he means ashkenazim shouldnt feel bad voting for shas. I wonder if he would be equally ok with sephardim voting for UTJ...

I wonder if this new tactic for vote scavenging will cause some strife between these "sister" parties.





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4 comments:

  1. People should consider voting for the party they view as best equipped to run the country.

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  2. I don't agree with you annonymous. Let the big parties run the country and the small parties use whatever mandates they get to worry about the special interests. That is the advabtage of the electoral system in Israel. A coalition is made up of main parties and small parties. There is a little advantage to this as opposed to the us where the special interest groups take over both major parties to a much bigger scale. Here we know who the special interets are and whet their place is in the bigger picture. So go ahead and vote for your special interests and let likud run the government and cater to whichever special interest parties they feel will help them maintain a stable coalition.

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  3. You clearly support the prevention of good governance of the country as a whole, and the concept of political blackmail by the small special interest parties.

    Do you not think that eighteen parliaments in 64 years (count them!)are just a tad excessive for such a small country? As for the assertion in your last sentence, when has the State of Israel, with its eternal coalitions and perpetual political turmoil masquerading as "democracy" ever been able to "maintain a stable coalition"?

    There might be a "stable", but unfortunately the horse bolted long, long ago.

    ReplyDelete