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POLITICAL PARTIES:
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Nov. 14, 2002
Ovadia Yosef predicts 26 Shas MKs
By Gil Hoffman, Itim contributed to this report
Defying polls predicting that the party would fall from 17 Knesset seats to less than 10, Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia
Yosef predicted Wednesday night that Shas would increase its power to 26 seats in the next Knesset.
At a festive rally in a Jerusalem wedding hall where Shas opened its campaign for the 16th Knesset, speaker after
speaker lashed out at polls that have consistently underscored the party's support. Prior to the 1999 election, polls
predicted a massive downturn for the party, but Shas increased from 12 to 17 MKs.
The number 26 is symbolic for Yosef, because it has the same numerological value as the name of God.
'Everyone must work together on behalf of Shas in order to make the Torah victorious,' Yosef said to rousing cheers
from the 600 activists who attended the rally.
Party chairman Eli Yishai used the event to extend the olive branch to his predecessor, Arye Deri, and to Deri's
followers in the Shas faction, who are considering joining a party formed by Sephardi kabbalist Yitzhak Kadourie to
compete with Shas. Deri loyalists Eli Suissa, Rahamim Maloul, Yizhak Saban, and Yitzhak Gagula, who are concerned
Yishai will punish them with unrealistic spots on the Shas list, were noticeably absent from the rally.
'We will not close accounts with anyone,' Yishai promised. 'We must continue marching in the path set forth by Arye
Deri, continue under the leadership of Yosef, and following the advice of the Council of Torah Sages. This is the way
to double our power.'
At the rally, Shas officials unveiled several new slogans connecting the party to the Torah, the Sephardi world, helping
the poor, and identifying with communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip. The appeal to the settlers is a new
strategy for the party, which was part of the government of Yitzhak Rabin. Shas officials hope to capitalize on benefits
Yishai provided the communities as interior minister.
Much of Shas's campaign will focus on stopping the secularist Shinui party headed by Yosef (Tommy) Lapid from
overtaking Shas as the state's third largest party. Labor and Social Affairs minister Shlomo Benizri warned that the
future of the Jewish people would be in jeopardy if the Likud forms a secular coalition with Shinui instead of Shas.
'We must stop the spread of the torch of hatred against the Torah of Israel,' Yishai said, referring to Lapid, whose
name means torch in Hebrew.
Yishai caused a storm Wednesday when he told the Ma'ariv newspaper that if he returns to the interior ministry in the
next government, he intends to stop providing the basket of benefits to immigrants from the former Soviet Union who
qualify for citizenship according to the law of return but are not Jewish according to Halacha. He warned that Russian
immigrants who have Christmas trees will cause assimilation and blur Jewish identity.
'I want everyone who is not Jewish not to be in this land,' Yishai told the newspaper. 'Immigrants are coming who are
gentiles, foreign workers are coming, and with the Arabs, they will make this state multicultural. The immigrants who
are not Jewish come and build churches. They should stay in their own countries.'
Meretz leader Yossi Sarid said in response that Shas is enemy number one of the Jewish people and Yisrael Ba'aliya
leader Natan Sharansky should be ashamed of sitting in a government with him. Sharansky called Yishai's comments
'racist' and a 'cheap election gimmick.'
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