in the 1980s, Rabbi Elazar Shach, leader of Israel's Litvish community and their pre-eminent rosh yeshiva ("yeshiva dean"), split from the party. He created the new Degel HaTorah ("Flag of the Torah") party. Most of the Litvish community left Agudah to join Degel HaTorah, leaving Agudah with primarily Hasidic members. Rabbi Shach had earlier assisted Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef in splitting from Agudah to create a Sephardic Haredi party known as Shas. Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah have not always agreed with each other about policy matters; however, over the years, the two parties have co-operated and united as a voting bloc in order to win the maximum number of seats in the Knesset, since many extra votes can be wasted if certain thresholds are not attained under Israel's proportional representation parliamentary system. The two parties chose to function and be listed under the name of United Torah Judaism (UTJ, Hebrew Yahadut HaTorah). When both parties joined the government coalition of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2004, the UTJ union was broken due to rivalries. For the 2006 Israel legislative election, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah once again put their differences aside, and officially revived their United Torah Judaism alliance in order to win the maximum number of seats in the 17th Knesset. Though Agudat Yisrael has never elected more than ten members in the Knesset, it has often played crucial roles in the formation of Israel's coalition governments because Israel's system of proportional representation allows small parties to wield the balance of power between the larger parties. This political leverage has been used to obtain funding for yeshivas and community institutions, to obtain a de facto exemption for Haredi Yeshiva students from military service, and to pass legislation regarding observance of the Shabbat and kashrut dietary regulations, sometimes to the consternation of secular Israelis. Religious and political leadership Political power is vested in the Hasidic Rebbes of Ger, Belz, Vizhnitz, and Boston. In addition, policy decisions of Agudat Yisrael are ratified by its Council of Torah Sages, which includes several other prominent Hasidic leaders and scholars, many being the leading rabbis from the main constituent groups. When participating in government coalitions, the party generally refrains from accepting actual cabinet posts. Its positions on Israeli foreign policy and the Palestinian question has been flexible in the past, since the party formally rejects political secular Zionism and does not view such issues