Tel-Chai Nation

It turns out former Shas member Eli Yishai will be running separately in this election, and here's why:

Rabbi Rafi Peretz and MK Bezalel Smotrich, heads of the Jewish Home-National Union, agreed to include Yishai on condition that his spiritual patron, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, publish a letter of support for the united list.

Rabbi Mazuz refused to do so, in part because of the presence of women on the list. The rabbi also demanded that the connection with Eli Yishai be called a "technical bloc," but Rabbi Peretz and Smotrich refused.

In other words, the guru wouldn't approve a joint run because he won't accept women's validity, even though there were women who worked in politics during Biblical times. It's regrettable Yishai's adhering to the kind of backwards vision Shas maintained years before. I wish him luck in the elections, and who knows, maybe he'll become a decent alternative to Shas, but for now, this isn't helpful, and in fact, it's insulting.

Update: Yishai says it's because Shas got the deals blocked:

After talks broke down and the United Right-Wing Parties registered without him, Yishai, speaking to journalists, accused Shas of blocking the deal.

“They told Netanyahu that they would not agree to me being made a minister,” he said. “That’s why the whole thing broke down.”

So, is this really why it happened? In that case, it compounds how crooked Shas is under the leadership of Aryeh Deri, one of the worst Haredi politicians around. He should be ashamed of himself.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Knesset, misogyny, Moonbattery