"Aryeh said to Eli and Ariel: for the election strategy I want Yisrael Becher"

A surprising turn has been taken at the Shas party. According to a report by Galei Tzahal reporter Yair Shriky, "Deri appointed Yisrael Becher as Shas's new strategist."
Yisrael Becher, a religious Jew with a yarmulke, is considered one of the leading strategists in Israel. Until a year ago he worked closely with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his role could be very successful. But what is surprising is that the message was published - without the information coming from Shas.

In Shas a neat division of labor was made between the three men who make up the leadership of the party: one third Shas Chairman (Aryeh Deri) - in charge of the campaign headquarters, one third Shas Chairman (Eli Yishai) - Manager of the headquarters on election day; and third Shas Chairman (Ariel Atias) – headquarter information.

A formal notice of these roles will be sent by the information headquarters, not to be leaked to the media or any other sources. Shas's propaganda headquarters said: "The roles have not been confirmed." When it will be confirmed, an organized notice will be sent, of course. Contact with Deri's headquarters raised the same answer: "The roles have not been officially closed."

"I am a close friend of Aryeh Deri, and not from today. We would meet often in his office," says Yisrael Becher tonight, and tries to understand how the news about his role leaked to the media. "Yesterday I met with him at the Shas headquarters, where quite a few people saw us, so it can definitely be that someone leaked the information to the media ..."

"At one point I got a call from a Galei Tzahal reporter, he asked me whether this information is true and if I joined Shas as a strategist. I explained to him that nothing has been confirmed yet, he promised not to publish the story, and we ended our conversation. This evening I was surprised to receive a huge amount of phone calls and I realized that despite his promise the information trickled out."

The roles will be officially appointed and sewn up tight, probably during the coming days. But until it is not confirmed-it is not confirmed, as is customary in business.
Until a year ago, Becher served as a surveys consultant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At one point, after five years of working together, and like many of the employees linked to Netanyahu – he got up and left. Rumors spoke of friction with associates. Becher never spoke.

"I was the guy who along with Netanyahu built the mass strategy. Already then I assumed that there would not be one big and clear party, so the fear was that the President will assign the task of forming the government on top of any other party. To avoid this we built a building block strategy and we decided that we must reach a state of a right-wing mass because otherwise there is a danger that the Likud would lose.

"We stopped all the struggles with Lieberman and his party, and we dropped the course of cooperation with him. From an enemy, apparently, we turned him into an ally and central collaborator of the mass. In parallel we developed contacts with Eli Yishai quietly so he would not join the others.

"Yesterday, when I meet with Aryeh, Eli Yishai and Ariel Atias were also present. Aryeh told them 'for strategy election I want Yisrael Becher" - and they immediately expressed consent to the role. Although it is still not official since we have not yet signed an agreement "

Netanyahu-seen as a successful head of staff

Two years before the previous elections Becher returned from the U.S., where he completed a master's degree in political communication at Fordham University, and worked in managing political campaigns.

My background and expertise are in electoral strategy, based on studies of political campaigns, "he explains.

With the election campaign opening, Becher, a religious Jew who wears a yarmulke, joined the team who formulated the messages of the campaign. "I am first and foremost a sociologist, and research is a tool for understanding the sociological processes of the electoral world. Designing a message is sub - industry which one needs to specialize in," he said in an interview with B'Chadrei Charedim.

According to him, when Ehud Olmert resigned he carried out two major studies and insights which raised that Netanyahu is perceived as a strong leader, a man of principle, and on the other hand, Tzipi Livni is the 'feel-good candidate', i.e. no moral supporters beyond credibility values.

"The resulting message was 'strong security and strong economy', values associated with Netanyahu's brand of political leading. At first we wanted to go with Likud because the country must be run, and then the war (Gaza) began and the message was dropped. It was due to seeing Netanyahu as a very successful leader by the electorate on the one hand, and the failure of the state going forward on the other. "

Now, if Shas goes into the headquarters and oversees the strategic choices in the elections it will be fascinating to see how each of the three leaders of the party characterizes the false unity - and, most importantly, how it will be marketed to potential voters.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!