Haaretz A confused listener called in this week to a political talk show on
the Shas-affiliated radio station Kol Barama. The listener is a student
of Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, the founder of the new political party Koah
Lehashpia, which is targeting the same voters as Shas. He was distraught
by an interview Yitzhak had given the day before in which he said he
would not take into consideration the views of the spiritual leader of
the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
"I don't know anymore what to believe," the listener complained on air.
The call was just the latest sign that even the sacred cows of the
ultra-Orthodox are being taken out for the slaughter this election
season, sowing confusion among voters and signaling a possible reduction
in parliamentary power for the Haredi parties.
Instead of continuing to be treated as a sage who should be obeyed
without question, Yosef has become a punching bag. At the same time, the
rivalry between two ultra-Orthodox leaders is threatening to split the
non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredim, while small political movements are
attacking rabbis from both the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.
The infighting is expected to cost the more established parties,
especially UTJ, dearly at the polls, though the extent to which they
will be affected remains to be seen.