A 2024 podcast interview with Dr. Nechumi Yaffe, No. 3 on the HaTzibur HaChareidi party list, has resurfaced on the eve of the election, drawing attention to her past political views.
In the episode of 18Forty's 18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers, published in November 2024, Yaffe described herself as part of the "Religious Left" movement. Asked where she places herself politically, she said: "I identify as a lefty and as a religious person."
Asked about Israel's greatest mistake in the war, Yaffe said Israel was unprepared for October 7 because it underestimated Hamas, attributing the failure to arrogance and disdain toward the Palestinians. She added that some Israelis fail to grasp how intensely Palestinians want independence.
Yaffe also recalled that in the first week after the massacre, she worried about what was coming for Gaza and its children, and that she and friends had considered writing something urging that humanitarian aid not be stopped, citing the halachic principle of allowing food and water into a besieged city. At the same time, she said Israel had to respond because it needed to survive.
Asked what she considered the most legitimate criticism of Israel, she said that if there had been real offers to free the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and Israel had rejected them, that would be a valid criticism. She stressed that she did not know whether such offers existed.
In the same interview, Yaffe called the killings of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar Israel's biggest success, describing them as bad men leading their own people to death. She also said Hamas had poured billions into tunnels while its people lived in poverty, choosing ideology over its own population.
Yaffe, a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University and a former National Security Council adviser on chareidi affairs, set up a chareidi emergency center after October 7 that coordinated more than 100,000 volunteers.
She has addressed the criticism of her past views during the campaign. In an interview with Arutz Sheva last month, she said she held left-leaning views before October 7 but that the war changed her outlook, and that Israel faces "a cruel and bloodthirsty enemy." She also said clips from her past lectures were being shared without context to paint her as a leftist.
HaTzibur HaChareidi, led by Moti Leitner, supports drafting chareidi men who are not full-time Torah learners. The party has come under heavy fire from United Torah Judaism, Shas and leading rabbis, who warn it could cost the religious bloc votes if it fails to cross the electoral threshold, which it has not passed in most polls.
