In what is being called historic unity, an agreement was signed between Degel Hatorah and Agudas Yisroel on Wednesday afternoon, January 16, 2019, by which will divide the first ten slots on the ticket evenly between the parties.
In a joint statement released to the media, the parties said “This is the result of a historic unity between the factions that managed to reach an agreement between them in advance, a few months before the official date for submission of lists to the Knesset, thanks to close and full cooperation between the representatives of the factions and the Moetzes.
MK Gafne said “This is an unprecedented historical process. We are the first party that has completed its internal deliberations and is embarking on the election of an equal agreement that gives great satisfaction our Gedolei Yisroel of today, and להבחל”ח Gedolim of the past. We are focusing on bringing as many voters as possible to the ballot box in order to deal with the challenges we face: “This is a historic agreement for Degel Hatorah in particular and United Torah Judaism in general.”
Deputy Minister of Health, MK Litzman said that UTJ is approaching the upcoming elections with full Achdus. We are witnessing a tremendous Kiddush Hashem, to be the first party in Israel to have come to an early conclusion on the order of the list. I am sure that this will increase our strength in the elections, and we will see great success”.
However, after learning the order decided upon by Agudas Yisroel, the Belzer representative in the Knesset, MK Yisrael Eichler, is likely to find himself without a job as he is last on the Agudas Yisroel list. The agreement is approved by the lay leaders and the Moetzas Gedolei Yisroel of both parties.
According to Kikar Shabbos News, the order of Agudah will be Yaakov Litzman (Gur), Meir Porush (Shlomei Emunim), Yanki Tessler (Vishnitz), and Yisrael Eichler (Belz).
While representatives of Belz prefer not to comment at present, the fact remains that Belz is the second largest chassidus, significantly larger than Vishnitz, leading to the question why Tessler, who is a young rookie MK, replacing Menachem Eliezer Moses who retired, is listed before Belz. Tessler was an aide to Deputy Minister Litzman while Eichler served a partial tenure in the 16th and 18th Knesset and then a full term in the 19th and the current 20th.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
This is very good news. However this article is missing some basic information about the agreement. Primarily what is the order of the combined list and secondly who is on the Degel list?
This is normal. They agreed not to do something that would be very unwise, since running separately would probably result in none of them getting elected, and their seats going to secular parties (that’s how it works in proportional representation when you don’t pass the minimum number). They usually run together. It is not an historic event. What would be an historic blunder would be in they didn’t run as a joint list.
historic if you do not know history. they ran together for the first 30 years of the State of Israel until the Gerrer Rebbe forced a split over an action taken by the litvishe group than headed by rabbi shach that he felt was unconscionable. i assume both sides now share ethical positions
AKuperman; Reread the first paragraph. It’s historic because they agreed to an equal representation of seats for each party. Until now the lineup favored Agudas Yisroel.
DrYidd; Degel Hatorah didn’t exist for the first 40 years of this state. It was founded in 1988 due to Rav Shach feeling that the Litvishe Yeshiva community was not being represented.
what is “historic” (i.e., different than before) is the 50-50 split. Until now the joint list was 60% Aguda, 40% Degel. The results of the recent municipal elections strengthened Degel’s position
“what is “historic” (i.e., different than before) is the 50-50 split. Until now the joint list was 60% Aguda, 40% Degel.”
Doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me when you’re talking about 6 seats.
“The achdus in Yahadut Hatorah between the litvish Degel Hatorah party and the chassidish Agudas Yisrael party is now officially history,” – YWN article from just a week ago.
B”H that article spoke too soon and the achdus will continue.