United Torah Judaism

I think it's, it's due to a few things.

First of all, anyone who has a short memory kind of doesn't remember maybe that so many things, so many fronts are unresolved, including particularly the Iranian front and maybe a lot of what we talked just this week with, uh, a member of Knesset, Itzhak Pindrus from United Torah Judaism, all of the attempts to exempt the, uh, uh, ultra-Orthodox from military service that angered a lot even in Netanyahu's constituency.

This seems to be far away and, and Netanyahu is a great campaigner.

Uh, still we have 30 days.

And I've got to say, credit to our guest, uh, he absolutely entered the conversation in the spirit we entered it, which is to have, yes, a robust exchange, putting the tough questions, but doing it in order to get an insight into this community that, again, from the outside, often can seem quite opaque, and to get a sense of, uh, of how they see Israel, how they see, uh, the future, and how they see this campaign.

Yitzhak Pindrus, uh, has been a member of Knesset for United Torah Judaism, one of the two large ultra-Orthodox parties in the Israeli parliament, since 2019.

He was the mayor of Beitar Illit, deputy mayor of Jerusalem.

He was also CEO of the Institute for Strategy and Haredi Policy, and we're very glad to have the opportunity to talk to him today.

He has to be head of a, a real university to make a decision when you could use religion, and the people that are using religion for not that is a hilul Hashem.

Uh, I, I said a final, uh, political question.

Uh, y- at the beginning of this month, uh, the spiritual leader of, of United Torah Judaism, Degel HaTorah, uh, Rabbi Dov Landau, decided to remove from the United Torah Judaism, uh, list longtime member of Knesset Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev.

Um, are you worried that might happen to you one day? Because I think, uh, listeners outside Israel need to understand that this is a party that, uh, operates under the orders of, of rabbis.

Like now

... are keeping Netanyahu's coalition together, United Torah Judaism.

And I think there's a good chance Netanyahu could win.

So this crisis is going to increase.

Shas represents Sephardi Haredim.

United Torah Judaism is an alliance of Hasidic and Litvish factions that don't always agree.

There are Haredi voters who support secular parties.

There are Haredi communities that don't vote at all.

So it's really interesting for a party that has spent the better part of the last several years doing everything that it can to prevent, uh, the universal draft.

Um, but Shas is interesting because unlike the other Haredi party, United Torah Judaism, their, their, uh, members, um, including members of Knesset and their voters, um, some of them do serve in the army, and they do serve in the military, s- whereas UTJ it's, that is not the case.

So they're a much more he- he- heterogeneous, uh, base than UTJ, and I think Eisenkot, similarly to what Yair Lapid was saying about a, a Bibi-less Likud and sitting with Smotrich, a- as well as with Shas, they are trying to keep their options open.

And I don't know if they seriously would sit with, uh, Likud, even one that was not led by Bibi or Smotrich or Shas or any of them, but I think that they are gunning for all of these voters.

Um, and she, I think, is number three on the list for the, the Haredi Public Party, uh, or whatever the English translation is for their name at the moment, and they're led by a guy named, uh, Moti Lit- Moti Litner.

And they're a very interesting party.

Um, they s- see themselves as representing, uh, the Haredi public that is not typically represented in Haredi politics, in the, the current Haredi political sphere, which is Shas and the United Torah Judaism.

Um, these are members of the Haredi public who say that they are, they are, they want social mobility, they want, uh, access to employment, they want better education, and also more gender representation, which is, uh, I think a, I think you can all agree is a positive, um, uh, development.

Except that Chasse's return from election to election varies very dramatically.

It's not, you know, the UTJ, which really is, in a certain sense, a purely demographic list, ironically, actually of two very distinct political parties with very distinct, certainly very distinct theological commitments, but I think distinct ideological commitments.

But it has a very closed community backing it up.

And the only change in its representation in the election returns is as its population has grown slightly.

It's a political organization with a political mandate, and it does well sometimes with its politics and does poorly sometimes with its politics.

The highly variegated returns of Shas from election to election stand, I think, as a counterargument to the notion that it is representing a tribe of one sort or another.

It's certainly radically different from the other major ultra-Orthodox party, the ultra-Orthodox list, I should say, because it's two parties, the UTJ,

which is essentially a demographic representation.

He indicated that struggles within the Likud bloc, particularly between Likud and parties like Yehudit Yehudit and Religious Zionism, are not currently benefiting Likud.

He also pointed to internal conflict within United Torah Judaism, while Shaz has maintained its current standing.

The analysis further emphasises the potential impact of voter turnout among Arab citizens of Israel.

If this turnout were to match that of Jewish society, Laser suggests Arab parties could potentially gain up to 17 seats, though current turnout is not showing an increase.

This could lend credence to previous accounts that Yemeni government-aligned forces withdrew from key areas to draw Houthi forces into more exposed positions for aerial targeting.

Looking domestically, as Israel prepares for the 26th Knesset elections on October 27th, attention is focused on the two established Haredi parties, Shahs and United Torah Judaism.

Both parties, which typically sit on the right and have been key coalition partners, currently poll around seven to eight seats.

The report highlights their recent sharp criticism regarding Haredi conscription to the IDF amid a severe manpower crisis, with party leaders visiting imprisoned draft evaders.