As Israel heads toward another election season, political analysts say the chareidi parties are unlikely to launch their campaigns in earnest until after the Yomim Tovim, with United Torah Judaism facing its familiar internal disagreements and Shas confronting what could prove to be a particularly difficult political challenge.

Commentators Yitzchak Feldman and Moshe Weisberg discussed the approaching elections Wednesday evening on Kol Chai’s “Central Edition,” hosted by Shneor Weber, addressing both the political landscape and the opening of the Elul zman across the yeshiva world.

Feldman said that although Israel’s political system is already beginning to shift into election mode, launching a full-scale campaign now would accomplish little within the chareidi community. In his view, starting too early could exhaust voters and dilute campaign messages long before Election Day.

“To start campaigns now is a waste of time, a waste of money, and it will usually have the opposite effect,” Feldman said. “The public is not capable of absorbing a message for more than a week or two and then internalizing it afterward. It dries up, and it won’t last until the ballot box.”

Turning to United Torah Judaism, Feldman said the party traditionally spends considerable time resolving internal disagreements before its campaign can even get underway.

Those disputes, he noted, predate the current crisis surrounding the military draft and typically involve questions over campaign management, the allocation of funds, which advertising firms will be hired, and how responsibilities will be divided between Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel.

“In United Torah Judaism, there are world wars even before the arrangements between Degel and Agudas Yisroel,” Feldman said.

He said reaching agreements over the structure and leadership of the campaign frequently takes considerable time, making an immediate launch of UTJ’s election operation unlikely.

Feldman said Shas could face an even more consequential challenge.

According to the analyst, tensions between the party’s political leadership and the positions of Rav Yitzchak Yosef could become one of the central issues confronting Shas during the coming election campaign.

“It will have a challenge that I don’t know how it will overcome this time,” Feldman said, referring to reports concerning Rav Yitzchak Yosef’s position regarding voting for Shas.

Feldman said the issue appears significant and added that he has heard similar information from additional sources.

Despite the potential difficulty, Feldman predicted that Shas would use the approaching period of Selichos and the Yomim Tovim to try to strengthen its relationship with its traditional voter base before the campaign begins in earnest.

Weisberg agreed that the chareidi street has not yet entered full election mode. He said the atmosphere does not currently resemble an intensive political campaign and predicted that the real election battle will begin only after the Yomim Tovim.

The analysts also discussed the opening of the Elul zman, which is taking place amid continuing tensions and arrests connected to the draft of yeshiva bochurim.

Weisberg said most yeshivos have either already begun the new zman or will do so by the end of the week. Despite the turmoil surrounding the draft issue, he said yeshiva batei medrash are once again filling with bochurim, with numerous institutions expanding to accommodate continued growth.

“I am receiving reports from all the yeshivos. They are building, adding and expanding, and in Ponevezh they are opening the Elul zman with 2,500 bochurim, to the point that there isn’t even room in the dormitories for all the bochurim. There are yeshivos that already started today, some that will start tomorrow, and there are bochurim who remained for weddings on the 30th of Av. But overall, by Shabbos all the yeshivos will be full,” Weisberg said.

{Matzav.com}