Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the spiritual leader of Shas and a former chief rabbi, warned Thursday evening that the rise of left-wing forces and opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot would bring disaster, and asked whether the man who, in his words, 'made the army secular' can be trusted. The remarks were circulated on Telegram. Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff and chairman of the opposition Yashar party, is campaigning for the premiership on a universal-conscription platform that would upend the broad draft exemptions long defended by Haredi parties like Shas.
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party and a former chief rabbi, warned Thursday evening that the rise of left-wing forces and opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot would be "woe to us," adding: "He is the one who made the army secular — can we trust him?" The remarks were circulated on Telegram.
The warning goes to the heart of the current election campaign: Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff and head of the opposition Yashar party, is running on a platform of universal conscription — a policy that would upend the broad draft exemptions long defended by Haredi parties, including Shas, whose spiritual leadership Yosef holds.
The Zioneer has previously reported that Yosef stood by the substance of earlier remarks about Eisenkot even after his office issued a denial (July 12), and that he was formally appointed Shas's spiritual leader on August 20. Eisenkot likewise made conscription a central theme of his campaign, as The Zioneer reported after his campaign launch in June. No response from Eisenkot's campaign or from Rabbi Yosef's office has yet been reported.
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