many Sefaradim support shas, even though politically they are against giving away land.. They obviously have some psychological issues!
Rabbi Bar Hayyim gave an interesting analysis of it, saying they just want to support their home team. I think Chaim mentioned that there are many shas supporters on the JTF hebrew forum.
I guess it's like blacks vote for the black guy! I'm not saying Sefaradim are the blacks of the jewish world.. But I think there is some kind of similar psychology there!
It is a problem, but it's not unique to Tzvi.
You are right. The only thing is that most Sefaradim who support shas are against giving away land. They are fooled and think shas is a right wing party. Roshel on the other hand knows about all of the evil they do and still supports shas because they support giving away land and because they are in favor of these evil policies.
What makes you think that that is the reason why he supports Shas?
He may defend anything Ovadia Yosef says.
And if Ovadia said something stupid like give up land or jump off a cliff, then Tzvi would accept it and do as he says, and say "well, he's a gadol, we don't know all the reasoning behind it, we cannot judge him badly, we cannot criticise him, he knows far more than us - who are we to criticise or disagree with him" That's another stupid cult like mentality that some people have towards gedolim(they are taught to have it!). And Ovadia Yosef is a particularly bad one.
I haven't seen enough of kahanist shas supporters to compare him..
I know one kahanist Sefaradi, and shas almost makes him ashamed to be a Sefaradi!
(I read on a forum once that according to one big rabbi, I think the steipler rebbe, he said rabbi ovadia yosef's responsa show great breadth of knowledge in their sources, and are very useful for that, but have bad/wrong conclusions. I read that on a forum called frumteens, not that i'm a teenager, but it hassome interesting things on there. It's run by some anti zionist, and they haven't allowed my posts yet , but some of the posts already on there, archived, are interesting)