The Sephardi Perspective: Shas is an embarrassment

If one were to ask any Israeli which party is the most corrupt or which party will bend any which way to defend its own interests, many will reply Shas. I don't dismiss the fact that there could be anti-religious and anti-Sephardi sentiments involved on occasion, but Shas continues to look the part that is assumed to be theirs.

Former leader Aryeh Deri is the quintessential villain of Israeli political corruption, after being the former darling of the political establishment. In addition Raphael Pinhasi, Yair Lev, Ofer Hugi and Yair Peretz have been convicted of offences including fraud and forgery. In addition, current MK Shlomo Benizri is currently on trial for accepting bribes.

Over the years, Shas has sat in governments that signed peace treaties and sat in governments which disavowed peace moves. The originally named "Sephardi Keepers of the Torah", has stayed in governments whose fiscal policies were both conservative and liberal. It seems that any position can be justified as long as the important ministerial positions are readily available.

The origins of Shas were positive and very necessary. In 1984, many Sephardim had come to the realization that the Likud looked after them only slightly more than the paternalistic Labor movement. The religious Sephardi mentality in the upper echelons of power should have proven to be a bridge between the religious and the secular. The fact that most of the original members of Shas had served in the army and contributed to secular life was a profound advancement on the Ashkenazi Haredi establishment.

However, it soon turned out that the Sephardi Haredim were only playing catch-up to their Ashkenazi counterparts. To my knowledge, none of the children of the Shas leadership have served in the army and are sent to Ashkenazi-style Yeshivot. This made the Shas representatives more of a target than United Torah Judaism, representatives of which at least do not seek government ministries.

The Oslo Accords would not have passed through the Knesset if it were not for Shas and more importantly, Deri. This position seemed to contradict the views of the more hawkish Sephardi community which gave Shas its mandate. Even though Shas was against the Disengagement from Gaza in 2005, it still sat happily with the party who had promised more such disengagements. Currently, party chairman Eli Yishai said "If Olmert makes a decision to divide Jerusalem, we'll quit the government", even though Olmert has expressed that decision on many occasions.

The latest news about Shas receiving a resurrected Religious Affairs Ministry means the lowest point has been reached.

Politicians from across the spectrum have slammed the move, citing the ministry's corruption-filled past and the timing of the move as horrendeous. Many see Prime Minister Olmert's offering of the Religious Affairs Ministry at a time when he is soon to face the final report from the Winograd Commission. Olmert is nervous that some of his coalition members may choose to leave the government if the report is damning enough of Olmert's conduct during last year's Lebanon War.

Olmert, a very clever politician, knows Shas' price very well and has chosen to pay it. MK Zevulun Orlev (National Union - NRP), whose party once ran the Religious Affairs Ministry, called the move "blatant political bribery" and MK Ran Cohen (Meretz) added that the ministry was Olmert's bribe to Shas.

It is also very hard to justify the party line of Shas being a party of the neglected and impoverished after such a move. Ha'aretz columnist Nehemia Shtrasler summed it up best in his article "They have no God" when he wrote, "There is no limit to the cynicism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He has no money for the teachers, or for the lecturers, for protecting Sderot, for the death toll on the roads or for the health basket. But he has money for Shas, for cynical and vile political bribery that this week was directed to a particularly bad target: the reestablishment of the Religious Affairs Ministry, a ministry that had been the symbol of corruption."

The Religious Affairs Ministry represents all that is tainted by religion in the eyes of the non-religious. The ministry specialized in transferring large sums of money to associates and yeshivas, while making fraudulent reports to those meant to monitor it. The ministry gave religion a bad name, making it loathsome to most of the public.

For Israel's secular population, the only meeting it had with 'religion' is when it came time to approach the ministry for marriage purposes. The initial meetings at the Rabbinate, the Mikva experience and the rumors of back-handed bribes to look the other way means that the ministry was treated with scorn by many Israelis.

I have rarely made these columns personal, but as a religious Sephardi Jew, I am embarrassed by those who are seen as representing me. The party proves some of the worst stereotypes about the Sephardim and the religious communities. The wheeler-dealing nepotism of Shas reminds one of a Middle Eastern shuk and I won't deign to remind its representatives the name of one who sells themselves for money.

Now the shidduch is complete, the party with the worst reputation sits atop the ministry with the worst reputation, for the worst possible reasons. I hope that I am wrong, but I am sure that in the coming weeks the opinion of Shas amongst most Israelis will only sink to all-time lows.