Chairman of the Degel Hatorah party, MK Moshe Gafne, expressed concern on Tuesday night regarding the number of small right-wing parties and the lack of unity, which may lead to a left-wing victory on Election Day, which is April 9, 2019.

He began by stating “There is cooperation between the chareidim”, citing how he and Yaakov Litzman and Aryeh Deri of Shas worked together, and they met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu together. He did not however explain the fact that despite a desire to do so, Yahadut Hatorah did not merge with Shas ahead of elections to create a single chareidi list, as Shas was vehemently against such a move.

He spoke of his experience as a legislator, “more than many others,” as he entered Knesset in 1992. “I remember that I was pleased with Rav Yitzchak Levy [of the then National Religious Party] for a revival, not to raise the minimum threshold a party requires to enter Knesset to 2.5% of the vote. At the time, the minimum was increased to 1.5%. “That is what it was, and the minimum must always remain low. One who can get in, then let him. What is better, having protests in the street” he concluded.

Gafne continued to explain that the setting of the minimum threshold at 1.5% and while the Techiya party received two seats he explained, the party did not meet the 1.5% minimum and remained outside of Knesset. Rabbi Moshe Levinger Z”L of Hebron was on the list and brought tens of thousands of votes. These 60,000 votes are what permitted Rabin to form a left-wing government, the government that passed the Oslo Accords, and the rest is history.

Gafne warned that the situation today is no less worrisome, as there are many small right-wing parties, which according to polls, will not meet the minimum threshold of 2.5%, and as a result, the votes will be lost, assisting the left-wing. In the last Knesset elections, the votes that were received by Eli Yishai’s Yachad party with Otzma Yehudit were lost, over 120,000 votes that were trashed.

“We are at the crossroads of Shabbos. We are at the crossroads of education. We are at the crossroads of Torah, of talmidei yeshivos. If you listen to what is taking place outside, then you hear that this is what will happen after the election.

“Imagine that some of them will not pass the threshold, the public is a defined public, there are those who will vote here, there are those who will vote there, the result will be someone who will not pass the threshold, and as a result … Benny Gantz will join Lapid … know what, I’ll leave you in suspense … ” he concluded.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)