The heads of the chareidi parties; Shas, Agudas Yisrael and Degel Hatorah are not going to run together in a chareidi bloc due to adamant opposition from Shas and Chacham Shalom Cohen. However, the seasoned politicians at the helm of the parties are preparing for the various scenarios pertaining to the race for 21st Knesset, with Election Day scheduled for April 9, 2019.

One of the worrisome scenarios is an agreement between Yesh Atid and the Israeli Resilience Party, which according to recent polls would result in the union becoming the largest party, beating out Likud, and therefore, one may assume the president would give the mandate to establish a coalition government to the united parties, not Likud.

Hoping that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will head the coalition and serve as prime minister again, the chareidim have a contingency plan to address the Yesh Atid/Israeli Resilience threat. In fact, last week, Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri addressed the threat of the two parties combining, citing if this occurs, Binyamin Netanyahu will revert to the “Help” (הצילו) campaign, which would hurt Shas dramatically.

According to a Kikar Shabbos News report, last week, Degel Hatorah’s Uri Maklev received a request from senior Shas and Yahadut Hatorah representatives to address a union between Yesh Atid and Israeli Resilience, a reality that would be harmful to all of the chareidi parties running.

Kikar News quotes those involved saying, “The list is ready barring some minor changes”, adding “This is the contingency plan for Thursday, at the last moment, against Gantz and Lapid in case they give into public pressure and unite. The chareidim would have to respond immediately to such a scenario, to just pull out the list which would receive last-minute approval, even from the Moetzas Gedolei Torah, and we will submit it as we must be prepared for any scenario.”

Kikar quotes “one of the party heads” anonymously adding, “Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that running together can harm us more than benefit, but in a state of unification between the left-wing parties, the whole situation is changing. The damage Bibi can inflict on us is very great, and in this situation, we will seriously reconsider running together.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)