Yigal Guetta, who served in the Knesset for Shas, launched a sharp attack on his former party in an interview on Radio 103FM, announcing that for the first time in many years he will not vote for it in the coming elections.
Speaking with Gideon Uko and Amichai Atali, Guetta first addressed Shas's ability to outperform polls, but made clear that the expected result is far from an achievement. "Shas will surprise when it comes to the polls, because there's always a problem with how to poll the party, we've seen this over the years," he explained. "Shas won't reach what it's really supposed to reach. It's important not to forget that Shas stood in this government with 11 mandates and should grow by at least two mandates, because the public since October 7 has become more religious."
He expanded on the potential voter pool that Shas is missing, in his view: "You see tens of thousands of young people drawing closer to Judaism, to Torah and mitzvos, but in the end you don't see that reflected in Shas's polls. Even if Shas finishes with 9 or 10 mandates, it's a complete failure, because it should have been at 13 or 14 mandates easily. Beyond natural growth, the young public has become more religious but isn't going to Shas, it's going to other places. That's what Shas is missing badly in this term."
