Shas to present party as ‘Likud with a kippa’
After years in opposition, Ultra-Orthodox party’s strong elections showing places it as third largest Knesset, as it cleverly absorbed votes of disgruntled Likudniks; Yishai plans to ask for Interior, Housing and Communications portfolios
After its stellar accomplishments in the elections, Shas, which placed third after Kadima and Labor with 13 mandates, plans to demand the Interior and Housing portfolios during coalition negotiations with Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert.
In addition to the two portfolios, Shas has one more, slightly surprising, request: The Communications portfolio.
According to senior officials in the party, the Orthodox party hopes to become “Likud with a kippa.” Encouraged by their success at the polls, Shas wants to “absorb, as much as possible, the potential pool of Likud voters.”
Shas' sensational triumph at the polls changes the party’s status completely. Rarely in Israeli politics is an opposition party rewarded so drastically by the voters. For Shas, this is a rare victory: after freezing in the opposition for three years, during which it constantly feared it would lose the favor of its voters, it now has cards to play.
Election results suggest that it is safe to posit that party chairman, MK Eli Yishai, made some right decisions. He chose to remain in the opposition despite severe internal criticism from his colleagues, turning down Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer of a NIS 700 million (about USD 149 million) budget to support the 2005 budget. Yishai insisted that the day would come when the people would thank him for refusing. And he was right.
'A real Likudnik votes for Shas'
From the beginning, Yishai was adamantly opposed to disengagement from the Gaza Strip, evidenced in many photographs which show a tearful Yishai comforting evacuees. His steady stance led to severe dilemmas among anti-withdrawal yeshiva students over whether to vote for Shas or Baruch Marzel. Shas noticed this, and exercised the influence of the party’s spiritual mentor, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, on yeshiva rabbis, eventually garnering the support of many.
Yishai was the first to identify the anger and fury accumulating among traditional Likud voters over former Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s economic program. The Shas leader understood that Netanyahu's financial policy, in effect, acted against his own voters, and he took advantage of the Likud’s vulnerability to recruit its disgruntled supports.
Shas launched its campaign with the slogan, “A real Likudnik votes for Shas,” which proved successful, and the Orthodox party stole thousands of votes from under the Likud's nose.
On Election Day Tuesday, at 6:00 p.m., Yishai made an announcement to thousands of Likud voters, in which he reiterated his message to vote Shas.
Throughout his campaign, Yishai's advisor, Michael Abushadid, originally from France, pressed him to stress nationalism in his campaign – so much so that in his advertisements he appeared standing in front of no fewer than three Israeli flags. Three weeks before the vote, however, Shas understood that too much nationalism was passé, and started picking a bone with anyone in their way: Election Committee Chairman Judge Beinish, Netanyahu, and even what remained of Avraham Poraz and his party.
The icing on the cake came when Rabbi Ovadia promised voters that a vote for Shas would get them into heaven. Evidently some couldn’t turn that down.
