[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]
With Shas imploding and polls showing Eli Yishai’s Ha’Am Itanu party may not pass the minimum threshold to enter Knesset, Bayit Yehudi party Deputy Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan is taking advantage of the opportunity to attract Sephardi voters.
Ben-Dahan has already been heard making a call to Sephardi voters, telling them only Bayit Yehudi is capable of resorting the glory of the Sephardi community.
Ben-Dahan, an immigrant from Morocco, addressed an election event on Tuesday evening 8 Teves saying “Sephardi brothers and sisters, it is time to come home, to Bayit Yehudi, the party that combines Torah and Derech Eretz. It is the home that brings all the different levels of Am yisrael closer to the house that loves Am Yisrael without hesitation and without apologies”.
Rabbi Ben-Dahan added that the rabbonim of this community were never hesitant regarding their Zionism and it was clear to them that the moment there was an opportunity to return, they did. “For them, Independence Day was a holiday and they sang songs in honor of the State of Israel and Eretz Yisrael. We came to Eretz Yisrael to never leave again and now is the time to return home”.
Most analysts are skeptical at best regarding Bayit Yehudi taking more than a marginal number of Shas voters in the upcoming elections. They also feel that Shas’ time is limited and a continuation of current events may result in irreparable damage vis-à-vis Shas in the upcoming elections for 20th Knesset.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
2 Responses
Given the chaos among the two Sephardic political party options, is it naïve to hope that Sephardeshe voters might use their own heads and vote for Litvish MKs if they are the best choice?
Ben-Dahan continues his photogenic role as party snake oil salesman
how about a search on yeshivaworldnews with Ben Dahan ?!
Who pushed to the brink of the abyss for a deterioration of geirus, increasing chillul shabbos,etc.,and with more to come, while previously promising the opposite?!
As the Chofetz Chaim said “mir darf nisht zein [nor] frum,mir darf zein klug”