The chareidi community showed it willingness to be counted for the cause of Torah and Yahadus in the recent elections, as support for United Torah Judaism (UTJ) broadened throughout the country. From any way we analyze the results of the elections, the most prominent fact is the clear response to the call of maranan verabonon Gedolei Yisroel shlita to be mekadesh Hashem by voting for the principles that underlie Torah Judaism. As Maran Rosh Hayeshiva HaRav Shteinman shlita said, "In these elections there is no third way. It is either Kiddush Hashem or chas vesholom chilul Hashem."
Upon hearing the voting results that showed a very impressive rise in UTJ votes, HaRav Shteinman said, "All those who worked with all their strength in recent days and weeks in order to increase kvod Shomayim should know that their Heavenly reward is great from their efforts to help others do Kiddush Hashem, and it makes no difference how many votes they actually brought in. They should rejoice in the great reward that his reserved for them up Above, due to the great Kiddush Hashem they caused."
Two facts are prominent from an analysis of the votes. One is the strong increase in votes wherever there was an active UTJ campaign office. The numbers were much better than expected. Together, in all the cities and settlements were there were UTJ campaign offices, there were 200,300 votes representing about 95 percent of the total UTJ vote. In the previous election just over two years ago, there were 186,798 votes in these same locations, an increase of over 7 percent.
The second point is the evidence of the effects of the kiruv organizations, as evidenced by increases in specific areas. Leading this effort was Rabbi Eliezer Sorotzkin, the director of Lev L'Achim, who was nominated as the fourth MK from Degel Hatorah. He would have entered the Knesset if UTJ had gotten eight seats. If not for the very large increase in Arab voters caused by the unification of the small Arab lists, UTJ would have had eight seats this time.
Another point evident from the results is the spreading of chareidi settlement throughout the country, including non-religious and non-chareidi cities such as Carmiel, Natzrat Illit and Afula in the north, to Netivot and Yeruchom in the south. Many larger cities like Netanya and Petach Tikva had significantly increased UTJ votes.
The largest concentrations of UTJ votes were as follows. The numbers in parenthesis indicate the number of votes in the previous election. Jerusalem 53,948 (53,631), Bnei Brak 46,661 (44,973), Modi'in Illit 15,044 (14,532), Ashdod 11,132 (10,657), Beit Shemesh 9,589 (8,360), Beitar 9,347 (8,404), Haifa 4,894 (4,232).
