Külügyi Szemle - A Teleki László Intézet Külpolitikai Tanulmányok Központja folyóirata - 2003 (2. évfolyam)
2003 / 1. szám - KÖZEL-KELET - Gazdik Gyula: The evolution of the Israeli party system
Gyula Gazdik contrast to its earlier pragmatic stance, the Agudat Israel had become increasingly more hawkish during the 1980 with respect to the question of territorial concessions. Presently, the Yahdut Hatorah opposes the Oslo process, in particular with regard to the establishment of a Palestinian State. For the integration of non-European Oriental and African religious Jews - which had immigrated after 1948 - the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi-dominated organisations provided the best chance. Since the majority of these groups of immigrants were poor, they had the opportunity to send their offspring to state-run religious schools. At first, the Sephardim Jews had made no attempt to create their own organisations. As a consequence of their growing political awareness during the 1970 a number of religious parties emerged. These constituted movements that had split from the Ashkenazim-dominated parties: the short-lived Traditional Movement of Israel /Tami/ and the Sephardim Torah Guardians /Shas/, established in Jerusalem in 1983. The bloc - created as a protest move with regard to discrimination against Occidental Jews - gained more import in 1988 when the former Sephardic chief Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef, assumed the spiritual and Aryeh Deri, the political leadership. Subsequently, the Shas had become more political, but continued to adhere to the maxim that the country's spiritual and social evolution must be based on the tenets of the Torah and, respectively, the Sephardim religious traditions. The party propaganda had stressed that the responsibility for the subjugation of the Sephardim rested - apart from the Mapai - on the whole Ashkenazim Zionist movement. Consequently, in the name of „progress" and „modernisation" they made attempts to separate them from their ancestral traditions.21 Ostensibly, this institutionalised cultural, educational and social movement has been aiming to create a Sephardim-dominated political culture. Their enduring domestic and foreign policy conceptions had been consistently pragmatic. At the start of its political activities, Shas had created sensation when - by breaking with the accepted practice of the ultra-Orthodox parties - they accepted a ministerial post in the 1984 National Unity government. Pragmatism guided the leaders in carefully manoeuvring between the two powerful blocs; the Labour Party and the Likud. Shas supported neither the expansion nor the liquidation of the settlements. With respect to the peace processes, security has been the pivotal issue for the party. Consequently, it stipulated: if the Oslo peace process were to yield long-term security guarantees for Israel, it would be worthwhile to make significant concession - conversely it would not be worthwhile to continue. Whereas the party had gained important cabinet positions in the 1999 elections, subsequently its popularity declined by considerably the first period of the parliamentary cycle. This had been due to a combination of factors, including corruption, the controversial remarks made by the spiritual leader in August 2000 with respect to the Holocaust,22 as well as the successes of rival political parties. In order to repair the image of the party, the new leader, Eliyahu Yisai, - replacing the 48 Külügyi Szemle
