Haredi Voters, Choose Yachad!
Haredi Voters, Choose Yachad!

As the election for the 20th Knesset gets closer, the basic question that accompanies every election is asked once again by many people privileged to live in the Holy Land: Which party can best advance the cause of "the Land of Israel for the People of Israel, according to the Torah of Israel"?

In theory, once can address this question from the point of view of any self-respecting sector among the Jewish population in Eretz Yisroel. However, for the purpose of this editorial, I will confine my discussion to the haredi community's options.

In most of the Knesset elections that have taken place over the past thirty years, it hasn't been easy to find a party that can fit the bill in providing for the needs of "a complete (and uncompromised) Nation, a complete (and uncompromised) Land, a completeness in all of the Land, together with a complete (and uncompromised) Torah - which all of these are interdependent." (The Lubavitcher Rebbe to then Voice of Israel correspondent Oded Ben-Ami, Nissan 5750).

As a result, most voters committed to this cause have been compelled to give in on at least one of these three essential components. Many voted for the standard religious parties such as Yahadut HaTorah (UTJ), Shas, some voted Mafdal (NRP), to strengthen Torah institutions and values. Others, motivated primarily by their fierce opposition to territorial concessions on Eretz Yisroel, voted for more nationalist right-wing parties, such as Moledet, Ichud Haleumi, Herut.

The election two years ago was quite typical of this phenomenon. Faced with the likelihood that ultra-nationalist parties such as Otzma L'Yisrael would not pass the electoral threshold and the fact that the main issue of the campaign would be domestic policy, parties such as Yahadut Hatorah (UTJ), received far more than their usual level of voter support. The seven seats UTJ received in the last election represented the most successful results in its history, equaling the number it won in 1988, when the rival Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah factions both haredi, received a total of seven seats running as separate lists.

Now, in this election campaign, the reasons for voting UTJ are upstaged by the possibility of supporting the Yachad Party, headed by MK Eli Yishai. The reasons are threefold: a) the creation of a united technical religious front; b) Yachad's commitment to the territorial integrity of Eretz Yisroel no less than its adherence to Torah values and education; c) Yachad's status as an haredi party being no less evident than UTJ's.

Now, Eli Yishai's Yachad party has created a united technical religious front with Otzma Yehudit which guarantees that both parties will have representation in the next Knesset, by including Otzma candidate Baruch Marzel of Hevron in the fourth slot on the joint list. In addition, and just as importantly, it prevents the loss of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of votes and a possible repeat of the debacle that occurred in 1992 when the right-wing bloc received more votes than the left-wing, yet the failure of three separate ultra-nationalist parties to pass the electoral threshold (Mizrachi, Levinger, Tehiya) resulted in Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres coming to power and bringing upon us the infamous Oslo Accords.

In past elections, haredi voters have settled for supporting a party with an inconsistent and unreliable record on its commitment to Eretz Yisroel, one lacking the same fervor it shows on other religious issues. This gave UTJ an extra seat in the last election, as many people voted for it to preserve Torah values. Furthermore, there was the relatively safe assurance that UTJ would only recommend the formation of a narrow right-wing government, as it did.

This time, however, the circumstances are quite different. Due to the blatantly anti-haredi legislative initiatives in the last Knesset, the standard haredi parties have emphasized that they do not rule out joining a Labor-led government. MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) has even expressed a preference for such a coalition. In sharp contrast, the Yachad Party has placed its commitment to the territorial integrity of Eretz Yisroel on a level of equal importance to Torah education and its institutions. MK Eli Yishai and Otzma's Baruch Marzel will never support under any circumstances the formation of a government led by the Labor Party and its partners.

Finally, there is the question: Which is the most haredi party? In the call to his hassidim to vote in Knesset elections, the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote of "the holy obligation and privilege of each and every haredi and those who fear the word of G-d to participate personally in the elections and to influence others to vote for the most haredi (ultra-Orthodox) list."

Under normal circumstances and based on the standard parameters for a haredi list, the answer would be UTJ - United Torah Judaism, Yahadut HaTorah. While Shas could also lay claim to that title, its longstanding willingness to accept territorial concessions on Eretz Yisroel, in accordance with rulings from its Council of Torah Sages, disqualifies it from such consideration in the context of this discussion. UTJ's rabbinical leaders have remained largely non-committal and refrained from announcing a policy on this issue.

However, when there is a party running in this election with Knesset candidates whose commitment to Torah values is unchallenged, and who, in addition, have a firm record of support for building a Jewish presence in Yehuda and Shomron, together with firm opposition to territorial concessions, the Yachad technical front with Eli Yishai and Baruch Marzel is truly "the most haredi list".

In conclusion, unlike past elections when haredi voters loyal to the People, the Land, and the Torah of Israel were forced to concede on one to get the others, the elections for the 20th Knesset present a unique opportunity for haredi voters to support a party with a solid commitment to all three. And now there is every reason to go out and vote for that party.