Shas, led by a 92-year-old rabbi, combined its traditional defense of the have-nots with its fight for stricter rules for conversion to Judaism, an undisguised allusion to Israel’s masses of Russian immigrants with doubtful Jewish credentials. Meanwhile, Jewish Home, a party linked to fanatical, messianic rabbis for whom Zionism should now be imbued with eschatological meaning, challenged Netanyahu to adopt a more resolute expansionist policy in Palestinian territories.
以色列生活在泡沫中，这也能从大选中的两大宗教政党中一窥端倪。以一位92岁的高龄拉比为首的沙斯党（Shas）将其传统的无产者保护着形象与其收紧皈依犹太教规则的斗争结合起来，这不啻公开暗示以色列的大量俄罗斯移民犹太教证明存疑。与此同时，犹太之家党（Jewish Home，该党与狂热的救世主义拉比关系密切，对他们来说，犹太复国主义必须与末世论一起灌输）对内塔尼亚胡发起了挑战，他们对巴勒斯坦领土采取激进得多的扩张主义政策。