MK Yaakov Litzman, who is a member of the Chassidish Agudas Yisrael faction of Yahadut Hatorah blames his Litvish colleagues in the Degel Hatorah faction of the party for the drop from seven to six seats.
Making matters worse, at some point in the campaign, the polls showed Yahadut Hatorah is likely to gain an eighth seat. However, the split off Yerushalmi faction not voting in addition to the high voter turnout not only cost the party the eighth seat, but it lost the seventh that it holds in the outgoing Knesset.
Litzman explains the party received 15,000 more votes than in the previous election yet it lost a seat, blaming the split in Degel for the bleak outcome.
Litzman added that nevertheless, Yahadut Hatorah will continue to serve the interests of the entire chareidi tzibur with achdus among the ranks.
YWN-ISRAEL points out the high voter turnout resulted in each party needing more votes per seat. The minimum threshold for entering Knesset was 3.25% of the vote.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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14 Responses
Degel will have to sue for peace and compromise with Hapeles/Bnei Torah, just as Degel compromised with Agudah several decades ago after Degel broke off from Agudah for one election. Otherwise Degel and UTJ are looking at a loss of one or two MK seats in every future election until they compromise with Hapeles/Bnei Torah.
Litvish camp has always embraced more of a “peace now” attitude while the Agudah branch never did. The Litvish sector has to reevaluate its attitude towards “working Charedim (Chassidim never had that problem)& peace with Arabs”. It will continue to lose seats in future elections because of those items.
In the past he would also help those who opposed the elections and Agudas Yisroel.
1. There is no way to determine that, since hasidim and “Litvaks” live in the same neighborhoods so even with data from specific voting locations you couldn’t tell.
2. It’s also possible overall turnout was higher (especially among the Arabs, none of voted for Yahadut ha-Torah).
3. It’s also possible that people with a hareidi lifestyle who support the state were turned off by the hareidi parties focus on opposing conscription and voted for zionist parties.
akuperma: It’s been clear since before the elections that the Hapeles/Bnei Torah will not vote for Gimmel/UTJ per the instructions of the godol hador they follow, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Auerbach shlit”a. They previously had been Gimmel/UTJ voters, so clearly a large contingent of voters were lost in this election for Gimmel/UTJ.
bklynmom: The Chareidi Ashkenazic community have never been nationalists. HaGaon HaRav Elazar Man Shach zt”l paskened giving land is not only permissible but it is mandatory if it will save a single Jewish life. And the frum voting community that voter UTJ/Gimmel have never been big “keep all Biblical land” nationalists. And working Ashkenazic Chareidim have and still vote for UTJ/Gimmel.
Dear Rabbi Mk Yaakov Litzman, I thought that you as a Haredi belived that HKBH is running the world and therefore decided this outcome of the election. So why blame the Litvaks? There should not be any blame game, just accept His decision!
It’s always finger-pointing instead of looking inward to see where the problems are.
Its too bad they don’t have “term limits” in Israel.
Not sure of the exact number but I can imagine that the 300000 votes Rav Shmuel supposedly held back would probably have helped
There were thousands of Charedim who voted for secular parties. They voted in the private voting booth.
They are secretly disgusted with the Heimishe parties.
ader: I’m not sure if there were a minyan of Chareidim who voted secular. More likely are the droves of thousands of Daati who voted Chareidi and not to mention some of the seculars who voted Chareidi.
Working Charedim were Yachad supporters & many “ANglo Charedi Olim” voted Likud.
Since more CHAREDIM live in Yehuda & Shomron, since the days of RAV Shach zt”l ……there is a security vise a vie ARAB concern. Betar, Nvei Yaakov, Ramot Shlomo, Modiim,…look at the votes for YACHAD & others.
There is no way of knowing specific motivations of hareidi voters with any exactness. People won’t accurately answer pollsters. There aren’t predominantly Litvish or hasidic neighborhoods that you can examine their vote returns to look for trends. Pro-zionist hareidi didn’t switch to Yachad in large numbers (if they did, yachad wouldn’t have missed the threshold), but if they want a strong-nationalist regime they might have voted for Likud as the best way to prevent a left-wing regime (for the same reasons as other Israelis). Absent the ability to compile accurate data, one can only “speculate” (as scholars call it), or “guess” (as everyone calls it).
Gimmel never campaigns w/ a platform and promises nothing to its constituents. All they say is “The gedolim paskend you’re OBLIGATED TO VOTE FOR US”. That only works for blind loyalists. No party can earn a single vote w/ such talks. UTJ better start talking up to their constituents if they dont want to go down further.