I recently asked somebody I know who has until now been "saruf" on Shas, i.e. was totally sold on Shas and completely dedicated to Shas, about voting in the coming elections.

He surprised me with his answer. He told me he might not vote at all - he might look for the Satmar headquarters that pays people to deposit their identity cards in exchange for $100.

That actually was not the surprising part. A lot of people are fed up; fed up with both the fact that we have elections and fed up with the parties that seem to just bicker and fight and not actually try to improve anything.

The surprising thing was the next part of what he said.

He said that if he votes at all he would vote for Eli Yishai's party, Yachad.

I was surprised and asked him to explain. I said I like Yishai's new party, and if I had to vote for a religious party, they probably would get that vote, but I know you, I said to him, and your family have been dedicated Shasniks - Rav Ovadia, Aryeh Deri, etc. I am shocked that you would vote for Eli Yishai.

He smiled and responded that he was dedicated to Shas when it was Rav Ovadia. Now that Rav Ovadia isnt alive, and Shas is Aryeh Deri - Deri is crooked and I won't vote for him.

I was surprised. Somebody I had no question about that he and his family would be Shas supporters have given that up and would vote for Yishai.

I know it is just one person, but if such a dedicated Shas-supporter would change like this because of the current situation in Shas, there must be many more, and maybe Yishai is really doing good work drawing support. He put together a good campaign on his message of unity of different sects of religious Judaism...

The one thing I am unsure of with Eli Yishai is that I have this suspicion that once he gets in on this ticket of unity of different Jews, he will end up voting in line perfectly, or almost so, with the Haredi position on issues n the Knesset. He will have taken his message of unity and turned it into just another Haredi party made up of voters from other communities (since there is no direct representation he does not really have anyone to answer to).

It is just my suspicion, but when I hear him talk on the radio, besides for his message of unity he talks about "bringing more votes from other communities"...and that makes me suspect he is either playing the public as if he isn't really a Haredi party or he just can't break the shackles and is doing it naturally while his partners don't realize this.


The latest campaign video for Yachad: