Can the Shas Party’s fresh lineup rally the Sephardic masses?
A few weeks before Israel’s fourth elections, the flat-screen in the Knesset lobby shows that the building is almost empty, so finding three Shas MKs sitting together in a room shouldn’t take too much sleuthing.
Along the way to the party’s faction room there’s abundant evidence of the pandemic stalking the land. The long corridors are no longer filled with hurrying aides; galleries are shrouded in plastic sheeting; and cafeterias are stripped of tables and bereft of political chatter.
Even reaching the bottom floor of the Knesset building, all evidence of Shas is gone. The door to the party’s committee room is open, the large oval table is still there, but the massive portraits of Rav Ovadiah Yosef have vanished. Instead of the expected Shas MKs are functionaries from the election committee who don’t bother to glance up from their computers.
Finally, it’s several minutes past the time for our scheduled meeting when it turns out that the trio happen to be working their phones in the depths of a darkened conference room upstairs these days.
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