It looks as though he's kissing the Pope's fisherman's ring....These are goyim not Jews.

guess what all the victims of the shoah thought they are going to 'hamedinah hayehodit' WHAT IS JEWISH ABOUT THE STATE OF ISRAEL???? In short the state was built on a lie. So everything about it IS A LIE.

you will be kissing their "donkey"

This courages writer finally put into words the filth which calls itself shas. He gave many stories but has not even scrapped the groveling barrel The so called rabbis are the biggest criminals (proven by the courts)extortionists,liars,and are turning the jew into a hater of religion.

If it weren't for the fact that there exists such hatred for religious and Sepharadim, Shas will serve no purpose. Its existence is necessary solely to counter the rabid hatred for religion and Sepharadim exhibited by the likes of Ariana. For the record, Harav Ovadia made it clear that voting for a woman is not Halachacly prohibitted and in fact, recommended such a vote if the voter felt that the woman would better serve the voter's interest than the male counterpart. Here it is: http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3616247,00.html

Get a life morons......

Not to defend Shas, which I would be happy to see voted out of existence this election, but you're rant seems a bit unfair. Firstly, the Nazis certainly referred to Jews as mice and vermin. You say MK Margi doesn't know much about the Holocaust, but it seems neither do you. Second, the charges for which Shas people were put in jail don't seem to be restricted to Shas - plenty of secular politicians have been caught doing the same things, if not put in jail maybe it's just that they have better lawyers and more sympathetic judges. There may not have Arab MKs in Shas, but how many non-Arab parties have Arab members? Now that you picked one or two parties in your head, how many have more than a token Arab member? None. So next time you write an article criticizing like this, try to step back a bit and look at things more objectively.

I am not a Shas supporter, and I dont agree with their politics. However, i dont agree with many of the other parties either, and Kadima is a very egotistic and corrupt party. In this battle, Livni fired the first shot. And in country which traditionally discriminated against Sephardim (eg Livni's manipulation of voting hours to keep out Mofaz), then you can expect Shas to fight back.

Finally, a good article about those shasnik "asses" reveals. They steal in the name of Torah. They're just a bunch of thieves and plain illiterate people.

I think that it was a secular government led by overly idealistic icons who gave us all away at Oslo.They were very democratic -they accepted support from their Shas brothers and their cousins who were in the Knesset at the time. We all have our price- it all depends on which way the market is going.

While we have an ever growing threat on our borders , Hibullah know has now 42000 rockets after our victorious Kadima led Lebanon war. Ynet and its Hellenist Herzelists only focus on bashing the religious , in a manner befitting to the most elementary anti-semite. I am no Shas man, but the writer of this rag forgot to mention that dear Tsipi started the mud slinging. Anyway reading all this bickering , one realy has to begin to doubt that we all will be here 5 years from now.

What a vicious stupid article. Shas might be very one sided etc etc but they are elected into the Kensset and that shows there is support for them, even if this poor secular writer does not like it. As for Shas education - have a look at education under the seculars. it's deteriorating daily. Between not being allowed to teach any history in case we offend the our pals the Pals, no religion, no discipline, short teacher hours, strikes - there is no education at the moment.

To kiss an elder's hand is to demonstrate respect and humbleness. It is a middle eastern tradition that dates back to the beginning of time.

7 Shas members so far have been jailed. The latest being SHAS Mk Ofer Hugi. Shas are demanding the eduction ministry which is strange when in December 2006 Hugi was found guilty of aggravated forgery, using forged documents (by recording a fictitious salary for his wife he avoided income tax), receiving items through fraudulent means, false registration of a corporation and attempting to receive items through fraudulent means (including Education Ministry funding for student transportation). This was in relation to a technical college which he founded in the late 1990s, and had received hundreds of thousand of shekels for, though it later became apparent that the lists of students and teachers he had provided were fictitious. And these bunch of criminals think they are fit to hold such a postioion. And we all know that no Shas MK actually has the ability to think for himself and receives direct orders from Ovadia Yosef, the ring leader, who should be behind bars with his other 7 convicted Shas MKs.

REB OVADIAH YOUSAF soon to be the Khan of Jerusalem !!

Shas was founded to act just like Labor has always done. Trying to use the same methodology in order to get their ""cut" . Instead of a Histadrut card they use different criteria, but the underlying philosophy is the same. As I see, we have a court and judicial system stacked with Ashkenazi labor people and the same sector also controls our media and industry. Shas, if it is extortionist, isn't anywhere as effective as the old Mapai chamula.

ure useless Ariana Melamed. cant wait to read your article when shas gets their 18 seats

What hypocrisy. Every party demands something for their voters. When Labor wins the government forgives loans to kibbutzim to build private pools (for secular Jews only) When Likud wins they give to Sephardim in developement towns and settlers in the territories Meretz wants money for professors in universities who work 6 hours a week. Shas is no different than any other party.

The writer of this piece is largely correct about Shas' attitude. Unfortunately, in her self-righteous indignation she has displayed just a bit of her own lack of education. The Nazis did, indeed, compare Jews to vermin to be exterminated. Streicher, Goebbels, and others are on record as using this phrase often. Please, Ms. Melamed, if you will castigate others for their ignorance, be careful you are not tarred by the very same brush!

for money and power it seems most Israelis would kiss another portion of his anatomy altogether.

Israel should move to a complete separation of religion and State. Religion is anti-progress, steeped in superstition and ignorance, narrow minded, and racist.

Keep on bickering, slinging mud at each other. The Arabs are having a big belly laugh, so are the Europeans. And you've lost the Americans, they're kicking you out of the house. Keep on at each other.... after all this, who needs Arabs? You're doing it all by yourselves. Goodbye Third Commonwealth. Hello Fourth Reich (this time globally) Shame.....

Are it's tactics really different from even the Labour Party? I'm not talking about ideology or beliefs - strictly tactics. Are the lunatics on the Left any different? I'm certainly no fan of Shas - far, far from it. I think they represent a backwards & ignorant version of Judaism, they distort religion. In saying this, I do not mean to critcise religious people even though I'm completely secular. I mean only to criticise the Shas version of religion. But this article is agit-prop from the other side - it is unfair, unobjective, & biased. And, it misses the point. Shas does what it does because it can. This is our crappy political system. This is what all the small political parties do. Blame the Party list system, proportional representation, & the necessity to make sleezy deals to create a majority coalition. The Left does exactly the same thing. Political blackmail & extortion, narrow interests, & disregard for the NATIONAL interest is inherent in our political system. At most, Shas should have been cited as an example, perhaps trhe best example, of an article that should have called for political reform. She should have put the blame on our not-so-democratic political system. I guess I expect too much - honesty not being a characteristic of Israeli political debate.

It seems the good Rabbi must learn to be humble. Having one's hand kissed in public displays seems disrespectful and egotistical. . . insulting almost everyone that does not agree with you also seems egotistical . . . Yosef has much to learn before he could be considered as great as he thinks he is and could start by humbling himself and stop surounding himself with criminals or at least speak up against them. He could learn a great deal from true great leaders such as the Babasali.

The unmitigated arrogance of the far right religious nuts only serves to drive a further wedge between people raised secular who may have a small spark of interest in religion, and the avenues to afford getting that interest fulfilled. This man, this so called "rabbi" is a bloated goat whom G-d will profoundly punish. His service is to his cult followers the weak and vulnerable members of society who bleat at his side, kissing his hand only to further inflate his twisted ego. His ignorance of how he appears to the world and how he represents Judaism to the world is truly sad, Like all other cult figures before him , he is actually only concerned about the power and the money , which 7 convicted and jailed Shas MKs on charges of serious fraud and corruption go's to prove. This man is a grave sinner and a fraudulent representative anything and everything holy. He is a master criminal of this so called religious party that wraps himself in religious garb of the most flamboyant nature yet flaunts the very basic laws he claims to represent.

Who 'bows' to kiss the hand of a Rabbi? "Thou shalt not bow thyself down to them," Have they forgotten? Must be, these old farts throw women off buses and think they have G-ds approval. They DON"T. They act as 'catholic' as those in Rome. Seperation of Schul and state must find itself into Israels justice system as well. This 'marriage' promotes the worship of Rabbis instead of G-d. The law becomes as perverted as this bowing down and hand kissing! Repulsive to all who know better, Rabbi or not!!!!!!

I will not comment on the differences within a given religion or on their politics, and I’m all for whatever floats your boat. My neighbor, however, a Jewish woman married to a Southern Baptist, invited me to admire her Hanukkah/ Christmas decorations and that got me a little confused. What if there were Muslims and/or Buddhists somewhere in the bunch? Would everybody pile into one bus and head for midnight mass at the neighborhood mosque for Hanukkah while chanting and playing with worry beads, or would everybody get dropped off at the place of their choice along the way??? With my luck and since – boohoo – nobody wants me I’d be the one driving that bus and freezing off my a-- sitting in some parking lot, waiting for everybody to get through praying to Whomever. On the other hand, my driving would bring more people to God than all the preaching, reading from good books, and chanting put together. A few missed red lights and near-collisions with garbage trucks, some detours across yards and sidewalks, 3 or 4 mangled mailboxes stuck to the fenders and I’d have the entire busload praying non-stop, loudly promising to never sin again. And nobody would have had to kiss my ring, leave alone something else :-)

shas causes a lot of problems & hatred, BUT, YNET should check out the knowlege & integrity of its writers. Ariana is full of hate & does not know her facts. YNET should do proper editing. In a normal democreacy, this newspaper would have a tough time continuing to exist with a lawsuit on its hands. Plz do not stoop to the level of that other Israeli newspaper that supposedly has inergrity & checks its facts b4 printing a hateful article