I have no skin in the game. As I have said before, I have no personal preference as to which of the candidates will become either of the Chief Rabbis of Israel. As far as I know, all the candidates are highly qualified.
That being said, I am not happy with Minister Betzalel Smotritch's decision to abandon the decision of the committee he set up to determine which candidate would be the official candidate of the Religious Zionism. The committee selected Rav Meir Kahane as the candidate. After a lot of waffling by other candidates and by some of the people on the committee, the whole thing went kabloeey, and now Smotritch is saying he is going to support Rav Michal Halevi.
I know it is a pipe dream, but the Chief Rabbinate should be clean from politics and from people backing out of their commitments (and Smotritch isnt the only one guilty of that in this case). While I understand the arguments (as to who they think will have the best chance to win), Smotritch had a support deal with MK Aryeh Deri for each to support the other's candidate and no matter who Smotritch would support, those two candidates should be able to garner the majority vote and victory. Smotritch backing out of his commitment for support based on the committee is dirty politics that should be kept out of the rabbinate. if Rav Micha Halevi wins, and he may very well win, it will be a nice victory for Smotritch if he does, it is dirty on both his part and Rav Halevi's part (who committed to adhere to the decision of the committee and not submit himself as a candidate above and then reneged) and not appropriate to be chosen as a rabbi, let alone a Chief Rabbi, after acting like a regular politician who doesnt necessarily keep his word.
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