Shas

Shas is the Sephardi/Mizrahi ultra-Orthodox party chaired by Aryeh Deri, combining religious conservatism with a social-welfare agenda for its traditional, largely working-class base. It won 11 seats in 2022 and was a core member of Netanyahu's coalition, though it quit its ministerial posts in 2025 in the dispute over Haredi military conscription. Polls in 2026 put it at roughly 7–10 seats.

Shas (Sephardi Torah Guardians) was founded in 1984 under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to represent ultra-Orthodox and traditional Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, who felt marginalised both in Israeli society and in the Ashkenazi-led Haredi parties. Led politically by Aryeh Deri for most of its history, it grew into one of Israel's larger parties (17 seats in 1999) and has sat in most governments, typically holding the Interior, Religious Services, Health and Welfare portfolios. It combines Haredi religious positions (Torah study, opposition to drafting yeshiva students, state-religion status quo) with a social-welfare agenda aimed at poorer, peripheral voters, and has been a dependable partner of Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc since 2015. Shas won 11 seats in 2022 and joined Netanyahu's government, but Deri was barred from serving as a minister by the Supreme Court in January 2023 over his tax-offence conviction. In July 2025 Shas's ministers resigned in protest over the failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service, and later in 2025 its MKs gave up Knesset committee chairmanships for the same reason, while the party stayed close to the coalition. For 2026 the Council of Torah Sages approved a list on 7 September 2026 that keeps all sitting MKs (veterans Ya'akov Margi and Moshe Arbel asked to step down from realistic slots) and adds two newcomers: reserve officer Dror Amos, head of the Haifa Religious Council, at sixth, and Rabbi Yosef Elnatanov of the Bukharian community at 11th. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi and son of Ovadia Yosef, is the central figure of the campaign: after a public standoff with Deri over the presidency of the Council of Torah Sages and control of the party (he had earlier praised Gadi Eisenkot and told yeshiva students to tear up draft orders), the two reconciled on 20 August 2026, he was recognised as the continuer of his father's path, and he headlined the campaign launch in Holon with a message supporting IDF soldiers. Reports differ on whether he formally became president of the Council (Kan said he was 'chosen to lead' the party; Ynet said he was not appointed president). Shas has been losing ground in polls amid Haredi frustration over the draft and alienation of traditional voters, and former leader Eli Yishai was reported to be weighing a rival run.

Made up of: Shas

Polling