Candidates in Israel's haredi parties headed to the polls early Tuesday, urging supporters to get out and vote in order to ensure that they could have the maximum impact on the formation of the next government. MK Yaakov Litzman of United Torah Judaism (UTJ) said that the more MKs his party could bring to coalition negotiations, the greater the chance of rolling back some of what he called the “destructive edicts” of the previous government.
“I fulfilled the commandment of 'listening to the sages' by going out and voting for the list that they support – which is the party I am a member of – and I am sure the public will support as well,” said Litzman. “In this way we will be able to undo all the terrible things that have been done in the past two years, like the law to draft yeshiva students, and I am sure we will be able to cancel that and other edicts.”
On Monday, Litzman and fellow UTJ MK Moshe Gafni said that they would announce who they would wait until the election results were in to decide whether to support Likud or Zionist Union/Labor to form a government, but they did say that under no circumstance would they join a party that included Yesh Atid, since its head, Yair Lapid, was responsible for many of the “edicts” they sought to undo.
Shas head Aryeh Deri said that he and Shas supporters had “prayed for the arrival of this day, and we hope the hard work we have done will show results. I have a feeling that there will be some surprises,” meaning that Shas will get more than the 7 to 10 seats the polls have indicated it will get.
Earlier Tuesday, Deri visited the grave of Shas mentor and former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. When asked about his thoughts on that visit, Deri said that “we are doing the work he sent us to do. I have had enough of the spin and speculation.”