Israeli Religious Party Key to Peace Plan Vote : Politics: Rabin wants a Jewish majority. He needs 6 votes from the ultra-Orthodox Shas.

With Israel’s Parliament expected to vote today on the peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization, political suspense was focused Wednesday on a small ultra-Orthodox party with a reputation for corruption and a fervent following among Israel’s poor.

Known as Shas, a shortened acronym for the Union of Observant Sephardim, the party holds six of Parliament’s 120 seats, and with them the swing vote that will determine whether Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin wins a majority of Jewish ballots in what he is considering a vote of confidence.

Rabin is virtually assured of a 61-member majority because Israeli Arabs in Parliament back the accord. But “the vote has enormous significance” because it will cast the shape of Israeli politics during the coming period of peacemaking, said Hanan Crystal, a commentator for the newspaper Hadashot.

And the main piece yet to fall into place Wednesday was Shas. Its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, a white-bearded biblical scholar who wears dark glasses and often dons a trademark gold-embroidered robe, appeared to be planning to draw out the pleasure of being avidly courted until the last minute. Shas members were believed likely to abstain, but no one was sure.

A Shas spokesman in the Knesset (Parliament) who was asked what arguments its members were considering, replied: “There’s only one consideration. We’re waiting for the rabbi to decide.”

This is far from the first time that Shas has enjoyed the special leverage that comes from being the party to tip the scales.

But Shas’ political weight has failed to save it from a mortifying rash of allegations of corruption, embezzlement and other financial irregularities. At one point earlier this year, officials said 20 prominent members of the party and their aides and relatives were under indictment or suspicion.

Former Interior Minister Arye Deri is accused of illegally funneling millions of government funds into Shas schools.

“Since the establishment of the Israeli state, there has never been a criminal party before,” the left-wing newspaper Davar said. “There has never been a phenomenon like Shas, so many of whose leaders spend so much time in interrogations rooms and . . . behind bars.”

It may appear unsavory, but Shas has a powerful advantage for Rabin’s government that outweighs its checkered side. It is favored by Sephardim, the Jews mainly from the Middle East, many of whom would not usually support Rabin.

“It brings in the lowest stratum, the poorest, least educated and the right-wing,” said Shahar Ilan, editor of the Kol Hair newspaper. “There are 130,000 people who will do everything Rabbi Yosef says. That’s a very significant population for peace. It means legitimacy.”

Over the past year under Rabin’s government, Shas has used its special position as the only religious party in the ruling coalition to obtain government funds for its own schools and to keep secular lawmakers from whittling away at the religious elements of Israeli civil life.

“Look at the fact that although the majority is non-religious, there has been no gnawing away at religious domination,” Ilan said. “For example, there is still no civil marriage in Israel,” making inter-faith marriage nearly impossible.

Shas is not against playing politics, but its vote on the peace accord seemed a question of principle as well. Shas members said Yosef was making his decision in part by puzzling out a tricky interpretation of Jewish law:

The rabbi has previously ruled that, since saving lives is a supreme value in Judaism, then giving back occupied territory, if it saves lives, can be justified. But now he has a concrete peace plan to consider, and the opposition is arguing hard that giving back land will cost more lives than it saves.

Rabin was so concerned about Shas’ decision that he reportedly postponed a meeting with Yosef until today so that he could be sure to be the last person to meet with the rabbi before the vote.