“The heart says one thing, the mind says something opposite,” one of the veterans of the Torah Flag party told me this week, when I asked him if we would see a split in the Torah Judaism list for the Knesset. “Our heart is with Netanyahu and the Likud, the heart also says not to go into a dispute and get along in the end as always, but the mind tells the flag of the Torah to get up and go. None of us wants to fight God. Hasidic and Lithuanians do not fight, and the goal is common. But this time we feel that there is no We have a choice.”
These two reasons put Netanyahu and his people into complacency. Netanyahu’s ultra-orthodox advisers reassured him that the matter would be resolved eventually, but that was a mistake. The crisis got worse. At the end of last week, Netanyahu realized that a significant political event was taking place on the ultra-Orthodox-Ashkenazi side. Even before the “religious Zionism” saga ended, Netanyahu released recordings and quotes addressing the ultra-Orthodox and speaking in favor of peace. These messages were received with a cold spirit in the ultra-Orthodox parties, in the sector media and even on Twitter. Netanyahu met with the leaders of Agudat Israel, and asked to meet with the leaders of Degel Torah as well. In the flag they refused. MK Uri Maklev was forced by the party leaders to cancel the meeting with the Likud chairman. The message to the former prime minister was clear: don’t meddle in our internal affairs.
But in the meantime it seems that no one can manage alone. The old Moshe Gafni and the new Yitzhak Godelknopf still need the help of a friend. “At the current point in time, we also understand that we need to find a way to compromise,” the same senior Daglai tells me, “but there is nothing to do. We are ready to give up on the level of representation, even though we are the majority camp. But on ideological issues there is no compromise – this is the decision of the head of the Council of Torah Elders Rabbi Gershon Edelstein. The essence of the flounder is ideological.” The reference is to the Baalez education crisis: the decision of the Rebbe of Baalez to cooperate with the ministries of education and finance, in what is known as the “Baalez outline”, was received by Degal Torah with hard feelings. The desire for a split in Belez’s independent course.
If the Torah flag ran on its own, it could, although not without effort, pass the blocking percentage. The Israel Association has no chance. Despite this, they say in the Torah flag, we would be willing to keep the party united if there was political and sectoral cooperation. The reality is the opposite: Dagel cooperates fully and continuously with Shas, but specifically with Agudat Israel, which we “carry on our shoulders” – a statement that is repeated among Dagel members – the cooperation falters.
The flag mentions the negotiations on the conscription law in which Agudat Israel was conducted independently, the joint photos of the “Minister of Religions in the Shemd government Matan Kahana”, as the party dailies call him, with senior Agudat Israel officials, and the attempts of MKs in the association to “close a deal” with the Bennett-Lapid government against the entire bloc. “They conduct themselves independently, disconnected from the sectoral interest and even disconnected from the bloc, while their entire existence in the Knesset depends on us. It’s impossible,” says the flag-bearer.
In Agudat Israel, they point to the video in which the Minister of Transportation, Rav Michaeli, is seen dancing at the wedding of the granddaughter of Degal Torah chairman Moshe Gafni, her close friend, in order to prove that Degal behaves in the same way. Some Hasidic speakers also mention the warm welcome speech delivered by Prime Minister Lapid (then the alternate prime minister) on Gafni’s birthday in the Knesset. Everyone does what is best for them, say the Hasidim, and they only come to us with complaints.
Supporters of the split under the banner of the Torah do not fear a situation in which Agudat Israel will be left out. “If they pass the percentage of blocking thanks to the alliance with the people of Noam and the Jerusalem faction and thanks to the votes of Chabad, what a good thing. And if not, at least we won’t get MKs who strive against the Gush and against the ultra-Orthodox interest, and the positions will all be in the hands of Degel Torah.” When they are asked about the fate of the bloc, they doubt Netanyahu’s ability to form a government without Gantz’s help, and say that Degel should place the ultra-Orthodox interest above the right-wing interest. In other conversations, the flag of the Torah is indignant about the new chairman of Agudat Israel Yitzhak Goldknopf, whose position as director of the “Beit Ya’akov” kindergarten chain made him an unloved figure on the ultra-Orthodox street. They have a reason to vote for this man,” says the Deglai official. When necessary, the ultra-orthodox women, present the great absentee of ultra-orthodox politics, are pulled out as a winning argument.
In Agudat Israel this language is seen as impudence. “Who are they visiting with the flag? Our rebbes? How dare an ultra-Orthodox party criticize the decisions of great Torah scholars?” These claims are true, but they are always pulled out by each side.
And what do the rabbis think? I ask the same senior Daglai. “The rabbis are reluctant to run separately. They care about the Israel Association, and they care about the right’s 61. Without 61, the mandates of the ultra-orthodox parties have no value. But there is the matter with Belaz. Belaz’s choice to make such a move in front of the Ministry of Education without coordination, boils down the directors of the institutions And the rabbis. This is the argument that supporters of the split use to recruit the rabbis. The rabbis want to know that they are not running together with MKs who the day after the elections will use their political power to introduce core studies for boys in the ultra-Orthodox sector.” The ultra-Orthodox education is still open, but Degel is convinced that this is a serious loophole that will qualify the ultra-Orthodox current and allow dozens of institutions to choose what to teach and how.
Last Thursday, a coordination meeting was supposed to take place between the parties, in an attempt to reach a compromise. An act of the devil, accidental or intentional, and at noon of that day the Ministry of Education published a “call” to join the new program, which was nicknamed the Belaz outline. With the Torah flag they blew up the summaries, and announced the cancellation of the meeting. Since a week has passed and there is a complete disconnection between the parties, all compromise proposals have met a wall in the form of a wall. In Gor, the strong Hasidism in Agudat Israel, insists on not changing the agreement that determines the order of the list, in Belz they do not intend to withdraw from the independent movement in education, and in Degel insist that this is the red line.
Over the past two weeks, various proposals have been made, including establishing a “Committee of Agreements” on ideological issues (which would in fact give the Lithuanians the right to veto), to add Belaz to the Shas education network, and even to compromise between Belaz and the independent education institutions. Any Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox institution could join the network, they withdrew from the agreements. Netanyahu asked Belaz to wait a year to join the new program, and he also answered in the negative. Crisis.
One thing is clear to the heads of the Torah flag. This crisis is going on mainly among the ultra-orthodox politicians. In the general public there is no controversy and no crisis. The ultra-orthodox voter is united around the interests of the bloc, and certainly does not see the Belaz outline as a reason to break it up. The anger of the political representatives, who have the local elections in a year’s time breathing down their necks, is not present in the agenda of the public itself. When talking about division and bringing the voter to the polls, this is a consideration that should be taken into account. As of today, the majority of Degel Torah rabbis are not interested in a split, despite the anger over Belaz. At the most, they will insist on changing the order of the list, so that MK Israel Eichler, the representative of Belaz, will pay the price. In the background are the growing popularity of Itamar Ben-Gvir among the ultra-Orthodox youth, and the recent elections in which United Torah Judaism lost nearly 30,000 voters who remained At home. The question is whether a split will increase the longing felt by the ultra-Orthodox voter from politics, or whether it is the other way around: only a renewed war between Hasidim and Lithuanians will reignite the ultra-Orthodox street, and the competition will pay off for everyone at the ballot box.