Am Shalem faction leader, former MK Rabbi Haim Amsalem, has decided to leave the Habayit Hayehudi party and will not be participating in the upcoming Primary elections for the party list.
Amsalem explained his decision in a statement he made on Sunday to the Israeli media. “Two years ago, after many misgivings, we were convinced by many of our friends in the Modern Zionist camp to join with the HaBayit Hayehudi party. People said that our place as Zionist Sefardi Charedim was with the national religious Zionist party. We came with the idea of bringing back the glory of the ‘old days’ and putting the Sefardim back on the proper track that we strayed from in the past few years. To return to the path of Zionism, Torah and Avodah, to valuing service in the IDF as something holy, to embedding a Torah identity and a sense of giving to the other in our youngsters. We were striving for many worthy goals for many years and we aimed to return to those.”
“However,” Rav Amsalem explained, “We made many attempts to carry forth our ideology within the Habayit Hayehudi party, but after waiting for two years, we came t realize that the only way to further our goals was as an independent party. I and those like me believed that we would succeed. But having seen that our ideas do not take root in the National Zionist party, we no longer see our place here and we are truly disappointed by this, but we can no longer stay within this framework.”
“We were met with arrogance, apathy, and a cold shoulder. No one threw us out of the party, but they led us to believe that we were not wanted here. At the beginning, we didn’t believe it, but towards the end, we had no choice but to believe and so we are parting ways.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
Was he dreaming that someone wearing such a costume would be allowed to represent bayit hayehudi in the knesset? Sounds like he needs to first figure out if he’s fish or fowl. If you are anti-Chareidi, why do you dress up like a Chareidi rav? If you are pro-Chareidi, why do you bash them like the worst of the anti-Semites?
Incidentally, there is no Am Shalem faction anywhere except maybe in his mind, and on YWN. In the elections three years ago, he didn’t reach the minimum number of votes to get in, and so he didn’t. It’s not as if there are schools, shuls, administrative offices under that name. It is the name of a party that failed to get into the knesset. If he’s smart, he ought to look elsewhere for fulfillment. Because it doen’t look like he’ll be
getting into the knesset under any party name.