Three Major Religious Political Parties of Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Israel's political system is based on proportional representation and allows for a multi-party system with numerous parties represented in the 120-seat Knesset.

A typical Knesset includes many factions represented. This is because of the low election threshold required for a seat – 1 percent of the vote from 1949 to 1992, 1.5 percent from 1992 to 2003, 2 percent from 2003 to 2014, and 3.25 percent since 2015. In the 2015 elections, for instance, ten parties or alliances cleared the threshold, and five of them won at least ten seats. The low threshold, in combination with the nationwide party-list system, makes it all but impossible for a single party to win the 61 seats needed for a majority government. No party has ever won a majority of seats in an election, the most being 56, won by the Alignment grouping in the 1969 elections (the Alignment had briefly held a majority of seats before the elections following its formation in January 1969).

As a result, while only four parties (or their antecedents) have ever led governments, all Israeli governments, as of 2021, have been coalitions comprising two or more parties.                              

     Aryeh Deri Aryeh Makhlouf Deri (Hebrew: אַרְיֵה מַכְלוּף דֶּרְעִי, Arabic: أريه مخلوف درعي), also Arie Deri, Arye Deri, or Arieh Deri (born 17 February 1959), is an Israeli politician. He's now 63 years old.   He is one of the founders of the Shas' political party, and has served as Israel's Minister of the Interior, Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee, Minister of the Economy and as a member in the Security Cabinet of Israel. In 1999, Deri was convicted of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, and given a three-year jail sentence. At the end of 2012, ahead of the elections for the nineteenth Knesset, he returned to lead the Shas party. He was placed in the 2nd position, and was re-elected to the Knesset. In May 2013, he was re-appointed to the role of Shas chai.  Several Shas MKs, including Aryeh Deri, Rafael Pinhasi, Yair Levy, Ofer Hugi, and Yair Peretz, have been convicted of criminal offenses that include fraud and forgery. In addition, MK Shlomo Benizri was convicted of bribery, conspiring to commit a crime, and obstruction of justice on 1 April 2008. Benizri resigned, and Mazor Bahaina, number thirteen on the Shas list, replaced him. In 1999, Deri was sentenced to prison time on corruption charges. 

Shas (Hebrew: ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily represents the interests of Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Jews.  Haredi Judaism refers to the  (Sephardic).  Originally a small ethnic political group, Shas is Israel's third-largest party in the Knesset, since the elections in March 2021. From 1984 to 2021, it almost always formed a part of the governing coalition, whether the ruling party was Labor or Likud; however, after the 2021 election, Shas joined the opposition.  The party was originally called Shom'rei Torah ("Guardians of the Torah"), with the acronym ש״ת, pronounced "Shat" or "Shas". 

The stated purpose of the party is to "return the crown to the former glory", meaning to protect the religious and cultural heritage of Sephardic Jewry, and to rectify what it sees as the "continued economic and social discrimination against the Sephardic population of Israel". Focusing on the needs of Sephardic Orthodox Israelis, Shas established its own government-funded religious education system called MaAyan HaHinuch HaTorani, which became popular in poor Sephardic towns, increasing the party's popular support.

Shas advocates for the increased influence of Halakha, the Jewish religious law, in Israeli society, and actively engages in the Baal teshuva movement, encouraging non-Orthodox Israelis of Sephardic and Mizrahi-Jewish heritage to adopt an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. Shas is a Haredi religious party, but it has participated in left-wing governments, and is often willing to compromise on both religious and economic issues.

At first, Shas followed a moderate policy on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, after Yosef had declared that lives were more important than territories, but it has since moved to the right, and opposes any freeze in Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.  In addition, it was skeptical towards the U.S. Obama Administration's intentions regarding the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and has begun to support a consolidation of Israeli settlement interests, especially regarding yeshivas and Jewish holy sites in the West Bank. It further believes in a "United Jerusalem", and supports the Greater Jerusalem plan. In 2010, Shas joined the World Zionist Organization, having made significant changes to its charter.

One of Shas's demands is a compensation package for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews who were forced to flee their home countries and leave their property behind. Shas opposes any form of public expression of homosexuality, including Gay Pride parades, especially in Jerusalem. Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev accused the homosexual community of "carrying out the self-destruction of Israeli society and the Jewish people", calling homosexuals "a plague as toxic as bird flu". However, the party condemns any form of violence against gay people.

They held 11 seats in the last election.  

Bezalei Smotrich, head of Religious Zionists Bezalel Yoel Smotrich (Hebrew: בצלאל יואל סמוטריץ‎, was born on February 27, 1980, in Haspin, in the Golan Heights, and grew up in the Beit El settlement in the West Bank. He's now 42 years old.  His father was an Orthodox rabbi, and Smotrich received a religious education, attending Mercaz HaRav Kook, Yashlatz, and Yeshivat Kedumim.

Religious Zionism-- 'Revival') until 2021 and still officially known as National Union–Tkuma (Hebrew: האיחוד הלאומי-תקומה, HaIchud HaLeumi–Tkuma), is a far-right, ultra-nationalist, religious Zionist, and Jewish supremacist political party in Israel.  Tkuma was established by Hanan Porat and Zvi Hendel in 1998. The pair left the National Religious Party in reaction to the Wye Memorandum. Almost immediately after the creation of Tkuma, it joined together with Moledet and Herut – The National Movement, to form the National Union, a right-wing coalition which won four seats in the 1999 elections, with only one of those seats going to Tkuma. These elections were a failure for the right-wing bloc, and were won by Ehud Barak, leaving the National Union and Tkuma in the opposition. In February 2000,

The Religious Zionist Party is opposed to any territorial concessions to Palestinian or Syrian claims for land. Some members support the annexation of the entire West Bank, though the official policy of the Jewish Home parliamentary faction, of which the party was aligned between 2013 and 2019, only supports annexation of Area C of the West Bank, which makes up 63% of land in the West Bank.---the Oslo Accord decision.   The party is opposed to recognition of same-sex marriage on a religious basis. The party advocates for increased funding for Torah study and religious education. Jewish-American columnist David E. Rosenberg has stated that the Religious Zionist Party's "platform includes things like annexation of West Bank settlements, expulsion of asylum-seekers, and political control of the judicial system". He further described the Religious Zionist Party as a political party "driven by Jewish supremacy and anti-Arab racism"  They held 14 seats in the last election.                     

          Moshe Gafni, head of United Torah Judaism;  Born in Tel Aviv on May 5, 1952 and is now 70 years old, Gafni was educated in a yeshiva, and later moved to and worked as head of a Kollel in Ofakim. He lives in Bnei Brak, is married, and has three children.

                                  .

United Torah Judaism is  (Yahadut HaTorah – UTJ) is a coalition of two Haredi parties, Agudat Israel and Degel HaTorah, which submitted a joint list in the 1992 election, in which it won four Knesset seats. In the 1999 elections, UTJ won five Knesset seats.United Torah Judaism (Hebrew: יהדות התורה, Yahadut HaTora), often referred to by its electoral symbol Gimel (ג‎), is a Haredi, religious conservative political alliance in Israel. The alliance, consisting of Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah, was first formed in 1992, in order to maximize Ashkenazi Haredi representation in the Knesset. Despite the alliance splitting in 2004 over rabbinical differences, the parties reconciled in 2006, in order to prevent vote wasting. In April 2019, the party achieved its highest number of seats ever, receiving eight seats.

Unlike similar religiously-oriented parties like Shas, The Jewish Home, Tkuma, and Noam, UTJ is non-Zionist. Unlike some other Haredim, the party is notable for its usage of technology and electronic communication. UTJ wants to maintain a status quo relationship in regard to religion-and-state issues. The party has no uniform opinion on the issue of increasing settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. They held 7 seats in the last election.  

 The decisively right-wing role of the small religious parties. 

Despite the high birth rate of the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox groups, they still get only about one-fifth of the vote, and thus of the seats in the Knesset. But that will probably be enough to prevent the formation of a narrow centrist government under the Kahol Lavan (Blue and White, Israel’s national colors) coalition. 

This means that either most all orthodox are still under 18 years of age, or not all orthodox vote for religious parties.  

As a result, the most likely outcomes are either another narrow right-wing government led by the Likud Party, or a broader center-right one with both Likud and Kahol Lavan (blue and white).

Resource:

Update on coalition-11/14/22:  https://www.timesofisrael.com/only-9-women-in-coalition-fewest-arabs-in-2-decades-a-preview-of-the-25th-knesset/?utm_source=email

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Israel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shas#:~:text=Shas%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%A9%D7%B4%D7%A1,Sephardic%20and%20Mizrahi%20Haredi%20Jews.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Torah_Judaism#:~:text=United%20Torah%20Judaism%20(Yahadut%20HaTorah,UTJ%20won%20five%20Knesset%20seats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Zionist_Party#:~:text='Revival')%20until%202021%20and,supremacist%20political%20party%20in%20Israel.

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/increasingly-right-stuff-religious-parties-israels-upcoming-election

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Gafni

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bezalel-smotrich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryeh_Deri