admin | January 16, 2020
On a day of high political drama, the three parties of the right-wing, religious-Zionist sector New Right, Bayit Yehudi and National Union finally came together in a last-minute deal Wednesday night, despite deep personal and ideological differences between them.The far-right, Kahanist party Otzma Yehudit was left out in the end, after New Right leader Naftali Bennett refused to accept the extremist party into his political union despite massive pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do so.Netanyahu, the heads of the right-wing religious-Zionist parties except Otzma, and senior religious-Zionist leader Rabbi Haim Druckman were locked in discussions right up to the deadline for filing electoral lists to the Central Elections Committee on Wednesday night.The day saw high political drama among all the right-wing religious parties, as New Right leader Naftali Bennett categorically refused to accept Netanyahus demand to include far-right Otzma Yehudit in his emerging right-wing, religious political union.Over the last few days, Netanyahu brought huge pressure on Bennett to allow Otzma to join, to avoid right-wing votes being wasted on a party, or two parties, that will not pass the electoral threshold.Earlier on Wednesday evening, however, Bennett strongly rejected the possibility of allowing the extremist Otzma to join the right-wing union he was forming, and strongly criticized Netanyahu for pressuring him to take the Kahanist group on board.I will not include someone on my electoral list who has a picture in his living room of a person who murdered 29 innocent people, said Bennett in a statement on Facebook Wednesday afternoon.He was referring to Otzma leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who infamously has a picture of Baruch Goldstein, who carried out the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, on his living room wall.This should be so self-evident that I am shocked that I need to explain it, continued Bennett.Imagine a US congressman who had a picture of someone on his wall who killed 29 Jews in a synagogue. Does this sound logical?I dont care how much I am pressured; its not even an option; it wont happen. This is my final decision.Netanyahu has strongly pressured Bennett to accept Otzma, similar to the events of the April and September elections, when the prime minister also exerted heavy pressure on the right-wing parties to accept the extremist Kahanist party in its joint list.Bennett tweeted later Wednesday evening that if Netanyahu was so anxious to have Ben-Gvir in the Knesset, he should offer him a reserved seat on the Likud list and cease his pressure on New Right.The religious-Zionist political parties have been riven by internal fighting and factionalism in recent months.New Right, led by Bennett, initially refused to unite with any of the other religious right-wing parties, but on Tuesday acquiesced to Netanyahus demands to run together with the National Union Party.This decision was taken due to internal Likud polling showing that Bayit Yehudi, National Union and Otzma would not pass the electoral threshold together, leading Netanyahu to panic and insist that Bennett bring in the rest of the religious-Zionist parties.National Union then split from its longtime, natural partner, Bayit Yehudi, to join New Right, because of a fight over the leadership of a joint Bayit Yehudi-National Union list, and joined New Right.Peretz had united Bayit Yehudi with Otzma in December to outflank Smotrich and reassert his position as head of the traditional religious-Zionist parties, but was forced to back down since a Bayit Yehudi-Otzma list would be hard pressed to pass the electoral threshold.Despite his pledge to Otzma, Peretz was forced to abandon his far-right ally in order to save his political career and the political life of Bayit Yehudi.Blue and White MK Yair Lapid responded to the announcement, saying: "I address the religious Zionism, the true religious Zionism
Category: Zionism |
Comments Off on New Right, Bayit Yehudi and National Union unite, leaving Otzma out – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:
