There is a lot of fighting going on about who will be supporting whom, and most of the fighting is within the Haredi parties themselves. UTJ is fighting with Shas, Degel is fighting with Shlomei Emunim, Meir Porush is fighting with Shas, Shas is fighting with Shas (yes, that was not a typo), and some people think Bet Shemesh has only been in existence for 15 years (though he probably meant since he came to Bet Shemesh 15 years ago rather than saying since Bet Shemesh was founded 15 years ago).

Here are the updates:

1. Mishpacha newspaper weighed in on the fight betwene Degel and Shlomei Emunim over which representatives should get the more senior positions of UTJ in the coming term. As a result of the fighting, Degel representatives speaking to Mishpacha said that their internal polls show Eli Cohen defeating Moshe Abutbol, and they are again weighing the option of running their own candidate and forcing Abutbol to step down.

This statement might have been to pressure Abutbol to give in to their demands about jobs for the coming term, or maybe they are serious.

2. Shlomei Emunim is holding primaries today to determine its representative for City Council in bet Shemesh.

These primaries are in the backdrop of the fighting between Shlomei Emunim and Degel HaTorah, as well as between Meir Porush and Shas in other municipalities around the country, especially Elad. While Dovid Veiner is relatively popular and has served on the city council for 15 years, since Bet Shemesh was founded (oops), his star is falling and he will likely be pushed out by other candidates vying for the spot.

This too may be a maneuver to push out Veiner, who has a valid claim to take the top spot from Greenberg of Degel, and replace him with a newcomer which would then guarantee the top tasks for Greenberg and Montag in exchange for Degel support for Porush's son in Elad. Let's see who wins the primary, and see how this turns out.

3. Meir Porush is fighting with Shas about Elad, as he wants to run his son for mayor, but Shas and Rav Ovadiah are fighting him and are not pulling punches. Porush today threatened to not vote in Bet Shemesh for Moshe Abutbol, but to vote for Shalom Lerner. He should update his information as Lerner is not running this election season, but he supports Eli Cohen for mayor. I do not know if that changes Porush's threat, or if he will support Eli Cohen just to take revenge on Shas, but nothing is in the bag just yet.

4. Shas is fighting with UTJ in many municipalities around the country, wherever they run joint lists. They are looking for better positioning on the party list and in some cities want the top spot and no longer be subservient to the UTJ reps.

If this fight persists, it could have bad ramifications for UTJ supporting Moshe Abutbol in Bet Shemesh.

5. According to Bechadrei Charedim, Shas is also fighting with itself. Yes, with itself. Supposedly within Shas there are calls for the party to pull its support for the candidacy of Moshe Abutbol. If this faction has its way, Abutbol would be forced to step down and make a deal to support Eli Cohen for mayor and in exchange take senior positions in the coming coalition.

Someone speaking to bechadrei said that in the past years despite Shas holding the mayorship, the Ashkenazim really controlled City Hall. If Shas closes a deal with Eli Cohen, they very well might get more power and serious roles than they would with Moshe Abutbol at the helm.

Are they bluffing? Maybe. It just means that nothing is in the bag yet. Anything can happen.

Possibly their desire for power, money and control instead of the desire to serve the people who voted for them might do them in. Notice that none of the fighting is over any actual issue - just over jobs. nobody is demanding better service, nobody is demanding cleaner neighborhoods, nobody is claiming they can do a better job at this or the other task, nobody thinks they can build more school buildings or bring more business to town or build more shuls and yeshivas. All they continuously fight about is who will get which job and will they get the salary or will someone else get it...