The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Secretary General has commented the scandalous story about the “anti-Russian” pre-election video of the Israeli Shas Party.

“First and foremost, I would like to state my satisfaction with the fact that according to the agreement of the Shas party with the leader of the Israel Central Electoral Commission Elyakim Rubinstein, the scandalous video will be taken off the air.

As for the contents of this pre-electoral advertisement, I, as a representative of the EAJC, which includes the many “Russian-speaking” Jewish communities of two continents, I cannot help but feel sorry that the ethnic topic had been used during the elections race. Moreover, it had been a highly inelegant, almost lowly attempt. At this moment, when the Jewish state needs to consolidate its society, such methods of propaganda might lead to the exact opposite result.

At the same time, it seems obvious to me that those who been the brains behind this piece of advertising were attempting to strike not so much at Russian-speaking Israelis, but at Shas's political opponent, Yisrael Beitenu. I believe that this crude attempt at a campaign shows the uncertainty and confusion of Shas's ideologists when faced with the growing influence of Yisrael Beitenu. The tasteless content and helpless implementation of the video point to the same, really. The result for their campaign will likely be as insignificant: the potential voter for the party of religious Sephardi Jews would probably not want to be associated with the rather pathetic “deceived groom.”

In any case, the harsh reaction of the community to the scandalous video, the fact that it had been negatively evaluated by different political parties of Israel, and, finally, its resulting removal from the air shows that Israeli society as a whole keeps its cool and common sense before the elections.

I believe that Israel has once more shown its adherence to democratic values – and it seems we have the authors of the scandalous video to thank for it, as they unwittingly forced this demonstration. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress has unfailing solidarity with this quality of the Jewish state and Jewish society.”