Severe accusation in the Haredi bloc: "Babchik wanted to create chaos - to weaken Shas and take revenge on Benjamin Netanyahu"

The conscription crisis, which has become a focus of anger and frustration in parts of the Haredi public in recent months, is also stirring political appetite — all the more so during an election period. Behind the scenes, the possibility of translating the opposition to the conscription of yeshiva students into a new electoral force is being examined, which would attempt to attract Haredim who do not currently vote, alongside voters of United Torah Judaism and Shas who are disappointed with the conduct of their representatives. The name of Moti Babchik, one of the senior figures of the Gur Hasidic dynasty and one of the most powerful people in Haredi politics, has recently been at the heart of the moves and conversations surrounding this possibility.

For Gur, the struggle against conscription is not just an electoral issue. Throughout the crisis, the Admor of Gur has taken an uncompromising line against the conscription of yeshiva students and against a law that would include conscription targets and sanctions. The chairman of United Torah Judaism, Yitzhak Goldknopf, a representative of the Hasidic dynasty, resigned from the government on the Admor's orders even before other Haredi ministers did so. Babchik, one of the Admor's most prominent confidants and someone who holds significant political power within the Hasidic dynasty and beyond, is identified with this line.

The connection between the anger on the Haredi street and the possibility of establishing a new political framework is no longer merely theoretical. Last week, Babchik met with elements identified with the Jerusalem Faction and other rabbis and activists, in a meeting where the possibility of establishing a new political framework that would present an uncompromising line against a conscription arrangement including targets or sanctions was raised. Gur's people were offered to join the move — but Babchik rejected the offer.

Babchik even clarified publicly at the time that Gur does not intend to give up its leadership within Agudat Yisrael. "We continue to lead the Agudat Yisrael party," he said, and invited the faction's people to support the existing framework. According to the message he presented, Agudat Yisrael itself will work for a conscription law "without sanctions and without targets." Also, the "Tzeva Shachor" (Black Color) system, whose name was linked to the new initiative, clarified that it is not a political body and has no connection to a party move.

However, the possibility of a new political force has not yet been completely taken off the table. When Babchik was asked at the end of the week whether "something is progressing regarding the new party," he did not rule out the possibility and did not say that the move was off the agenda.

His answer does not indicate that the Gur Hasidic dynasty has finally decided to promote a new party, and it does not contain confirmation that such a move is already underway. It leaves the possibility open at a time when the Haredi political system is examining how the conscription crisis will affect voting patterns within the sector.

Inside Shas, they are closely following these moves, and there they attribute to Babchik motives that go beyond the ideological struggle over the conscription law. Sources in the movement claim that he "sought to exploit the anger surrounding conscription and the tension that developed within the Sephardic public to weaken Shas," and at the same time to harm Netanyahu and promote the possibility of a political connection to the camp that opposes the Prime Minister.

"Babchik wanted to create chaos in the Sephardic public in order to weaken Shas and take revenge on Bibi, and even to create an axis for crowning Eizenkot — and there he failed," claim sources in Shas.

At this stage, there is also no public confirmation of concrete contacts that Babchik conducted with Gadi Eizenkot or his people. The things indicate, however, how they read in Shas the moves taking place in Haredi politics around the conscription crisis. In the movement, they connect the tough line of Gur on the issue of conscription, Babchik's activity in the Haredi arena, and his confrontation with Netanyahu, and see this as an attempt to build a center of political power that will be able to operate also outside the traditional coalition framework of the Haredi parties with Netanyahu.

The confrontation between Babchik and Netanyahu himself relies on things that Babchik voiced publicly. In recent months, he has intensified the criticism of the Prime Minister and even clarified that the Haredi public is no longer automatically "in his pocket." The possibility that the Haredi parties will examine after the elections partnerships that are not necessarily dependent on Netanyahu has since entered the political discourse.

Within this picture, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef had special weight. Sources in Shas claim that during the period of the rift between the Rishon LeZion and Aryeh Deri, Moti Babchik acted significantly in the rabbi's environment, against the background of the dispute with the Shas chairman and the conscription issue. From the point of view of those who sought to undermine the existing order in the Haredi parties, the rift at the top of Shas had a clear political meaning: a Sephardic Haredi public whose spiritual leader is in conflict with the party chairman is a public from which it is easier to try and attract votes.

However, the reconciliation between Deri and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef changed the picture. In Shas, they point in this context to Dudu Amar, one of the most powerful people in the house of Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, as someone who played a central role in the move from the rabbi's environment and acted against Deri and his people to promote the understandings. At the same time, Shlomo (Momo) Deri, the brother of the Shas chairman, also acted behind the scenes in an attempt to reduce the gaps. Babchik, according to sources in Shas, was not part of the move.

According to things said in recent days in Shas, Babchik received the development with disappointment. In the movement, they claim that in conversations he held with his associates, he expressed a feeling that he was left "alone in the battle" on the conscription issue following the reconciliation between the house of Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Deri.

In Shas, they also strongly reject the possibility that the rift between Deri and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef could have matured into a new Sephardic party led by the rabbi. Sources in the movement say that such a possibility was never on the agenda, and emphasize that Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef would not have acted to establish a political framework against the movement that his father founded. "Rabbi Yitzhak would never have opened something against his father's movement," they say in Shas.

The understandings between Deri and Rabbi Yosef strengthened this claim. As part of the compromise, Rabbi Yosef received public recognition as the successor to his father's legacy and as someone who will guide Shas's representatives and its institutions. Immediately afterwards, he appeared at the movement's election rally and gave Deri public backing. "There is sometimes criticism here and there, but you don't leave home — this is our home," he said and called on the public to vote Shas.

From Deri's point of view, the move closed for the time being a loophole that could have been used by his rivals within the Sephardic public. After renewing the connection with Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, it is harder to base the claim that Shas has lost the rabbinical backing associated with the legacy of Rabbi Ovadia. If Babchik indeed tried to exploit this tension, as they claim in Shas, the ability to influence that lever has been greatly reduced.

In Shas, they now estimate that the new reality may lead Babchik precisely back to dialogue with them. In the movement, they say that his disappointment with the move is known in his environment and estimate that the next development may be the renewal of the connection. "They estimate that soon there will be contacts for a sulha (reconciliation)," say sources in the movement. If such contacts are indeed opened, this will also have an impact on the attempt to translate the conscription crisis into a new political force. Babchik is already positioning Agudat Yisrael on a line of a law without targets and without sanctions, and the understandings between Deri and Rabbi Yosef have strengthened in Shas the weight of the tough rabbinical line. Dialogue between Shas and Babchik may reduce the political space of a new framework that will try to build its power on the opposition to conscription. But at this stage, the possibility is still on the table.