In the heyday of the election campaign, Meretz released a
scoop about a born and bred chareidi who went off the track
and "confessed" that in the previous elections, while still
chareidi, he had cast several ballots in one day.
Surprisingly, this story was buried with the same speed with
which it had made headlines. Police were not asked to
investigate the felon who had fallen into their hands.
Shaul Schiff of Hatsofe reported the full story:
Recently A. P. has been starring in the headlines as one who
voted three times for chareidi parities in the previous
elections, although he was a minor at the time and ineligible
to vote. Meretz disclosed his full name in the media, and
explained that this was what spurred them to send observers
to all polls in the chareidi centers.
When this was first announced on the radio, I took pains to
update Meretz's chairman, Yossi Sarid, and to tell him that
the story was groundless. I told him that if Meretz wanted to
implicate the chareidim it should come up with a more
effective story. Sarid promised to check things out, but the
Meretz public relations department continued to pursue the
libel, eventually becoming the victim of its own scheme.
Meretz, as is known, is a champion of law and justice, and in
this case, it did not hasten to press charges against those
who had duped a minor into committing deception, forgery, and
more -- serious crimes for unauthorized, illegal voting,
three times!
While slinging mud at the chareidi community, A. P. explains
that he is not prepared to divulge the names of the
accomplices to the fraud, and that as far as he is concerned,
the story is closed.
I know A.P. and his family quite well. He was a guest in our
home after he left his outstanding home in Kfar Chabad. On
the basis of this close acquaintance, I conclude that the
whole story is a fabrication, to put it mildly. The kid's a
nice boy, and the headlines in which his name appears are
very important to him. He craves publicity. Even when he was
little, he would break away from his parents at a performance
and head straight to the stage. He would then ask the
moderator to announce on the microphone that he was lost.
Every police investigation will reveal that on the eve of the
previous elections, A. P. worked until the wee hours of the
morning for Binyamin Netanyahu. By the time he reached home
he fell asleep like a log until evening, and didn't know what
was going on. Later on, he went with his father (a fine
person whose best friends belong to the two kibbutz
movements), to bring one of his brothers from Holon or Rishon
Letzion, and everything he did that night is documented. If
he had dared to vote, he would have been immediately caught
by the Poll Committee due to his youthful appearance. No one
in Chabad in his right mind would have made any sort of bogus
voting deal with him, for by just looking at him, one knows
what type of kid he is.
Meretz and Hillel jumped on the bandwagon. Kudos to them for
having exploited a boy whose parents and family need him, and
who himself needs firm supervision. Now all that remains is
to wait for the end of the police investigation, after
charges of fraud are pressed. We hope that in the end, A. P.
will divulge who sent him to commit such a crime.
