While the number 61 is Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud’s dream figure, it could spell a nightmare for the smaller parties on the right if the former prime minister decides to form a government with Gantz.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Knesset | Photo: Shmulik Grossman / The Knesset Press Office
There isn’t an MK, a minister, a journalist, or anyone involved in politics for that matter who hasn’t been asked dozens of times over the past couple of months by friends and family, colleagues, and casual acquaintances whether or not in the coming election Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and its allies will reach the magic number of 61 Knesset seats. This has been the $64 million question for the past three years, and now, just as in the previous rounds of elections, nobody knows the answer.
In every interview in which senior politicians from the anti-Netanyahu camp are asked to explain how they will put together a coalition after the election, their answer begins as follows: “If Netanyahu doesn’t manage to reach 61…” It is as if were he to achieve that number, the answer would be clear: They, his opponents, would remain in opposition, while he would put together a coalition with the right-wing parties. “A full right-wing government,” as Netanyahu put it in the last elections. But it isn’t at all certain that is the right answer.
At least two parties believe that Netanyahu has other plans if he achieves the magic number. One of those parties is the Religious Zionist Party and the other is Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power). The roots of the current conflict which may lead the to run separately lie in the evaluation that Netanyahu, if he manages to put together a right-wing coalition of 61 will then prefer to bring on board Blue and White leader Benny Gantz or another party from the opposing block at the expense of Otzma Yehudit, which will be relegated to the opposition.
Every commitment not to be the party that makes up 61 for Netanyahu will become irrelevant if he manages to reach that number. If he gets to 61, he has a government that will be homogenous and stable. In such a scenario, all of the other players will then have an opportunity to “save the country” from Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir and his ilk and enter the government in their place. The conventional wisdom in these right-wing parties is that this is Netanyahu’s plan. They believe he will opt for Gantz over Ben-Gvir. If Netanyahu doesn’t have 61 seats, Gantz won’t come on board. But if he does then that becomes a possibility for Gantz. The cost will be lower because Netanyahu won’t be forced into offering him a rotation or a parity-based government. Offered the choice between staying in the role of minister of defense, while keeping Otzma Yehudit out of power, and being hung out to dry in the opposition, Gantz may well go for the first option.
That’s why Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich is refusing to give Ben-Gvir equal representation on a joint list and that is the reason Ben-Gvir is demanding it. The Religious Zionist Party has under its auspices institutions, youth movements, yeshivas, and kibbutzim. Its leaders won’t be willing to sit in opposition even if Netanyahu does decide to set up a government with Gantz at the expense of Otzma Yehudit. Publicly they may state that they demand a coalition based only on the parties of the Right, but they won’t issue an ultimatum that they won’t join a coalition without Ben Gvir. And that has no connection to whether or not they run together. “Ben-Gvir doesn’t have any institutions,” says a senior Religious Zionist leader. “You don’t need finance to set up a party and shout at Arabs at Shimon Hatzadik. While we may prefer a right-wing government, he told me, “We won’t rule out Gantz.”
Smotrich made sure to belittle the representation of Otzma Yehudit in a joint list for the Knesset, not only in case Netanyahu opts for Gantz and leaves Ben-Gvir out but also because he isn’t at all sure that Ben-Gvir will want to enter the government. He may prefer to remain in opposition if he feels that will strengthen him.
Ben-Gvir himself wants to keep all his cards. Whether he decides to join the government and be appointed a minister or whether he decides to stay in opposition, he needs a group of people with him that will follow him no matter what. That is why Ben-Gvir wants equal representation. He believes that if Smotrich refuses, he will be able to pass the electoral threshold on his own.
Left out on his own
The results of the Meretz and Religious Zionist Party primaries exposed the big differences between the parties. Voters in the Religious Zionist primary showed obeyance to the message of diversity and the need for a list that represents classic religious Zionism. Ofir Sofer placed first, and Simcha Rothman and Michal Waldiger were in the top four. None of the new candidates managed to break down the wall of the current MKs. Exactly the opposite happened with Meretz where new candidates pushed current MKs to the bottom of the list including the party chairman.
With the exception of Meirav Michael, none of the presently serving ministers on the left survived. Some resigned, and some were booted out by voters. The situation of the right-wingers in the current government isn’t too great either. Naftali Bennett has almost completely disappeared from public view, Ayelet Shaked is fighting to cross the threshold and Gideon Saar has had to tag on to another party.
Then there is Avigdor Lieberman who is also foundering just above the threshold and is surviving only thanks to massive help from the media, which is doing its best to deny any connection between the grave economic situation and his performance as finance minister, which can be summarized as having completely surrendered to the ministry’s civil servants without taking any major initiative
The price hikes, and now the astronomical interest rate increase, may have grabbed the headline, but the linkage – namely the direct connection to the government’s action – is almost nonexistent as far as the media is concerned. The feeling one gets is that this is just fate, the hand of God, a global earthquake that we are powerless to stop. But this is of course pure babble. The global problems indeed exist, but the failure to address them is purely Israeli.
Lieberman as finance minister is very similar to Lieberman in the previous offices he served in as a minister. When he was foreign minister, after announcing dramatically that he would assemble the ministry’s workers every day at eight in the morning on the dot and that he would act to change the “Oslo discourse” prevalent in the corridors of the ministry, he left after almost four years without leaving a mark. The eight a.m. meetings did indeed take place, but the fear that “diplomatic sources” would speak out against him led to him aligning completely with the ministry line and avoiding conflict with senior ministry echelons and even with junior employees at any cost.
It was the same at the Defense Ministry. Army chiefs said in real-time and after he stepped down that they had never come across a minister who was so absent and ineffectual. Lieberman meandered around helplessly until his early resignation to seek out another ministry.
The same pattern is now repeating itself in the finance ministry. All the programs that harm the public such as taxes on disposable utensils had already been offered to Lieberman’s predecessor, Israel Katz, who threw them out unceremoniously. He on the other hand adopted them enthusiastically, as he did with the recommendation to pay back massive sum’s to cover Israel’s deficit, as well as tens of billions allocated to Ra’am and coalition agreements.
Even Lapid, Lieberman’s long-term ally, was forced to disassociate himself, lest the stain of failure sticks to the alternate prime minister. Under the terms of the government, Lapid has no authority to intervene in Lieberman’s economic policy, just as Bennett also had no such authority. But it is under Lapid’s watch that casualties are falling, crumbling under the weight of the economic burden, and he was left with no choice. He tried to do so with grace, but Lieberman who faces a sensitive situation in any event – also because of his situation in the polls – took it hard.
He too understands that he has become a liability for the anti-Netanyahu bloc headed by Lapid. He has become someone not to be associated with. Not just because of the teachers’ issue, but in general. Someone whose inactivity in the economic field affects the entire government’s political situation at the worst possible timing on the eve of elections, and someone who will be a liability after the elections as well when it comes to forming a coalition. The ultra-Orthodox may agree to join a coalition with Lapid and Gantz, but they definitely won’t join one with Lieberman.
Leading from behind
The battle for the “soft Right” which has become a battle for “classical religious Zionism” saw another development this week when Ayelet Shaked brought in a new player, Amitai Porat, the Secretary General of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, a resident of the Etzion Bloc, and the son of the late Hanan Porat, who was among the founders of the Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) movement – you can’t get much more classical than that. Shaked is trying to place Bat Galim Shaer on the sixth spot on her list. She is a popular figure who gained fame in tragic circumstances when her son Gil-ad Shaer was kidnapped and murdered along with his two friends Yaakov Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah.
Shaked is confident that her message about a unity government will work and that the electoral threshold is an achievable goal for her. Because the heads of the just–not–Bibi parties do not really have an answer to the question of what government they will form. “If Netanyahu doesn’t get 61 seats, there will be changes in the Likud,” Gideon Saar said earlier this week, adding, as if whispering a secret, “the Likud won’t be the only part where there are changes” – a hint that the ultra-Orthodox parties could abandon the Right and join forces with Gantz. We have heard similar things from Gantz himself, as well as from Lapid, Ze’ev Elkin, and the other leaders of these parties.
But they know they are talking nonsense. Nothing will happen in the Likud If Netanyahu doesn’t reach 61 seats and the ultra-Orthodox won’t be going anywhere either. Certainly not on any dubious adventure with Lapid, Meretz, and Lieberman. Shaked believes that when this sinks in, the public will better understand her message about a unity government – because quite simply there won’t be any other choice.
In the meantime, sources close to the Zionist Spirit say that Shaked is losing her grip, that Yoaz Hendel is getting into the thick of things and is becoming a dominant figure with almost complete control over the party’s election campaign, and that Shaked is not doing anything to counter this. The sources say that sometimes Hendel only updates her after the fact and that often she just accepts them as she doesn’t have the strength to change things.
The sources add that Shaked is used to being managed. That’s how it was with Bennett, whom she followed to the end of the earth, and now Hendel has become her patron. He gives more interviews to the press than she does and even though she is the chairwoman his influence in the party is greater. However, they say, this has not led to any tensions between them because Shaked is fine with the situation. They attribute this to a lack of self–confidence; her confidantes attribute it to an absence of ego.
Deri’s word
The ultra–Orthodox parties have already been through all the ups and downs with deaths of spiritual leaders and founding fathers. Degel HaTorah went on after the passing of Rabbi Shach, as did Shas after the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Nevertheless, there are moments of uncertainty in the ultra-Orthodox leadership when there is a dramatic event such as the passing of a spiritual leader. That’s how it was with the deaths of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, and that’s how it was when the head of the Shas Council of Torah Sages Rabbi Shalom Cohen transcended to the heavens this week.
Rabbi Cohen wasn’t as well known or influential as Rabbi Yosef, but he was highly esteemed within the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox world and beyond. The battle to succeed him, if one can call it that, is focused on two candidates: Rabbi Shalom Baadani, a member of the Council of Torah Sages, and Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Neither of them will fit into the huge shoes of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and not even into those of Rabbi Cohen. The decision over the succession will in the end fall to Aryeh Deri. Not officially of course, but behind the scenes. Whoever gets the nod will leave Deri to head the Shas leadership and will back his every decision. Neither of the two has the strength to oppose Deri. After all, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef barely could.
Rabbi Yosef is the better known of the two, and the fact that he serves as chief rabbi adds to his public appeal, particularly among the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox and traditional public. There is something about his robe that gives him a certain je ne sais quoi. Rabbi Shalom Cohen for example didn’t have it, and many observers believe that affected his public image, which didn’t approach that achieved by his predecessor. But to get the appointment, Yosef will have to step down as chief rabbi a year before the legal date. If Deri decides that Yosef is the one, he will force him to resign and then make the appointment, or he will freeze the situation in place for a year and Yosef will have to wait for his release.
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Understanding the rise of Israel’s most notorious ultra-nationalist
But just over a year after squeaking into the Knesset as part of Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism alliance, polls show Ben Gvir leading the party to a commanding Knesset position. It’s only on the street, or in the shuk, though, that those numbers become real, each selfie a sign of how far to the right Israel’s political pendulum appears to have swung.
In 2019, at the beginning of Israel’s apparently interminable political crisis, Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party was still a political pariah.
It was initially excluded from a union of right-wing, religious parties Jewish Home and National Union, and faced another election in which it would likely fail to enter the Knesset.
Fast forward three years and that situation has now been upended.
The Jewish Home party, the successor of the historic National Religious Party, has almost entirely collapsed and is no longer represented in the Knesset.
The Yamina party, which inherited Jewish Home’s more moderate right-wing voter base, was able to crown its leader Naftali Bennett prime minister for a year. But today, the party is itself facing political annihilation, driven by the government’s decision to ally with the Arab Ra’am party, and rudderless after Bennett decided to step away from politics.
Meanwhile, Ben Gvir is flying high in the polls. Voters who fled Jewish Home and Yamina have seemingly recongregated as backers of Religious Zionism. The party regularly polls at 10 seats or more, up from its current tally of six, though Israeli media polls are generally to be taken with a grain of salt.
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>A careful Kahanist
Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party — the name translates to Jewish Power — is the ideological successor of the far-right and racist Kach party which was founded and led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was assassinated in 1988 in New York.
Kach advocated the removal of Arab citizens from the country and the establishment of a theocracy. It and its immediate splinter Kahane Chai were both blacklisted by Israel in 1994, after follower Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians at prayer in the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Ben Gvir insists that Otzma no longer advocates for the kind of racist and segregationist policies of Kach. But he also says his party identifies with Kach’s ideology and Otzma presents itself unabashedly as an ultra-nationalist, Jewish supremacist political outfit.
Otzma advocates for the annexation of the entire West Bank, but without granting Palestinians Israeli citizenship; seeks to expel “disloyal” Arab citizens from Israel without defining how such a determination be made; and encourages Arab citizens in general to emigrate so as to make Israel more homogeneously Jewish.
An Otzma party manifesto from the 2019 election campaign stated that it would “work to remove the enemies of Israel from our country.”
Ben Gvir has been vague as to what defines “an enemy.” Baruch Marzel, a senior member of the party, said he believes “a majority” of Arab Israelis are enemies, although not all of them.
Marzel was banned from running for Knesset by the Supreme Court in 2019 due to incitement to racism.
The party also places a heavy focus on overhauling Israel’s judicial system so that it emphasizes Jewish values over democratic values, especially in regard to minority rights.
In recent years, Religious Zionism in its various incarnations has navigated to more extreme ideological waters while Otzma has toned down the overtly racist policies and rhetoric of its Kahanist predecessors, leaving both parties occupying similar political ground.
But Otzma’s more extremist ideological roots, especially regarding Jewish supremacy in Israel, lend it greater appeal to elements in Israeli society with overtly ethnonationalist beliefs.
Its advocacy for Arab emigration and the expulsion of “disloyal” Arab citizens is something that Religious Zionism does not generally advocate or mention, but gives Otzma traction among extremist elements of the electorate.
Ben Gvir has in recent years been extremely wary of saying anything that might get him banned by the High Court from running for office.
And the challenge of spreading his extremist ideology without slipping into hate speech was on display during his recent jaunt through Mahane Yehuda.
As party supporters chanted “death to terrorists” — Ben Gvir and others on the more moderate right have pushed for installing capital punishment in terror cases — one acolyte cried out “death to Arabs” instead.
The Otzma leader was unamused and vociferously told the renegade cheerleader to revert to the officially approved slogan.
He later told Channel 12 news that it had been years since he had chanted “death to Arabs,” or pushed Kahane’s so-called “transfer” policy.
“I’m no longer 16, 20 or 25… I was wrong when I generalized that all the Arabs should be expelled,” he told the network.
A lawyer who has made a career out of defending other right-wing extremists, Ben Gvir grew up in a religiously traditional but not strictly observant family in the middle-class town of Mevaseret Zion.
In his maiden speech in Knesset last year, Ben Gvir outlined how his right-wing views began developing during his youth amid the First Intifada. He became a fervent opponent of the Oslo Accords and after high school studied at the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea established by Kahane.
These associations and his far-right activism led naturally to a political career with the far-right political factions, and in the 18th Knesset he became a parliamentary aide to MK Michael Ben-Ari, who went on to found Otzma Yehudit’s predecessor Otzma LeYisrael in 2012.
Ben Gvir became the de facto leader of the party in 2019 when Ben Ari and Marzel were banned from running for Knesset by the High Court.
Ben Gvir himself has several criminal convictions to his name. In 2007, he was found guilty of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization for holding signs at a protest reading “Expel the Arab enemy” and “Kahane was right,” a Jewish supremacist slogan endorsing Kach’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Israel of its Arab citizens.
He said he removed it in January 2020 when it became a political liability — Bennett had cited the picture as a reason for refusing a New Right-Otzma Yehudit merger. He has not disavowed his lionization of Goldstein, who was killed while carrying out the attack.
Ben Gvir is also a serial provocateur and has made a habit of staging demonstrations in sensitive locations designed to antagonize Arab Israelis and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Perhaps the most incendiary such incident was in early May 2021. As tensions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah ramped up over the then-pending eviction of Palestinian families there, Ben Gvir inserted himself into the conflict by setting up a makeshift parliamentary office with fellow far-right provocateur Bentzi Gopstein, head of the racist Jewish supremacist organization Lehava.
The office, a folding table and some chairs under a pop-up canopy set up on a sidewalk, was established opposite the location where protesters against the evictions had been meeting for nightly iftar meals which break the day-long fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan
Ben Gvir and Gopstein brought far-right supporters to the area and a riot was sparked, apparently when one of these activists sprayed what appeared to be pepper spray at the Palestinian iftar table.
Intelligence officials warned that Hamas would fire rockets at Jerusalem if Ben Gvir did not leave, which he eventually did following pressure from then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Days later, Hamas did indeed fire rockets at Jerusalem in response to Sheikh Jarrah tensions and police actions on the Temple Mount, setting off 11 days of intense fighting.MK Itamar Ben Gvir, seen with Lehava chairman Benzi Gopstein, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on May 6, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
During the fighting, police chief Kobi Shabtai accused Ben Gvir of abetting some of the worst inter-communal violence in Israel’s history by bringing busloads of Lehava backers to cities with mixed Jewish-Arab populations, such as Lod, Ramle and Acre, that saw some of the worst fighting during the riots.
Ben Gvir has maintained his firebrand attitude since entering the Knesset, usually aiming his brickbats at Arab or left-wing lawmakers. In July 2021, Ben Gvir scuffled with Knesset guards when he was asked to be removed for calling Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi a terrorist. In October, he and the Joint List leader scuffled in a hospital hallway, and in June of this year, he and Tibi nearly came to blows inside the Knesset plenum.
Aside from seeking to add the death penalty to Israel’s penal code, Ben Gvir has also pursued judicial reform. The Otzma leader, together with other right-wing MKs, has twice brought a bill to a vote in the Knesset which would hand the government and Knesset total control over the selection process for Supreme Court judges, rather than also involving other justices and lawyers as is currently done.
Right-wing Israelis have long seen the court as a bastion of leftism; by installing judges more friendly to right-wing causes, Otzma hopes to remake the court in its ideological image, placing Israel’s Jewish character over its democratic values.
Disaffected Mizrahim and ultra-Orthodox youth
There appear to be two main sources of voters who prefer Ben Gvir over Smotrich: Mizrahim and the ultra-Orthodox.
Mizrahi Jews, of Middle Eastern or North African descent, skew in very general terms to the right of the political spectrum and some are likely attracted to Otzma’s chauvinistic nationalism, especially younger voters disillusioned with the status quo.
The Channel 13 poll indicated that two of Religious Zionism’s extra seats with Ben Gvir as party leader would come from the Likud, the historic party of traditional Mizrahi voters, many of whom come from working-class backgrounds and live away from the nation’s economic center.
Mizrahi youth “think no one takes them into account, don’t have a voice, and don’t think they’ll be able to get on the property ladder or get a well-paying job,” said Prof. Tamar Hermann, a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.
The disaffection makes a radical party headed by a charismatic leader espousing “almost revolutionary” ideals on an ultra-nationalist platform extremely attractive for such people, she added.
There may also be an element of identity politics at play. Ben Gvir is himself a Mizrahi Jew who grew up in a religiously traditional family, which makes him more appealing and easier to connect with for the Mizrachi sector than Smotrich, who, like Likud leader Netanyahu, comes from European stock.
‘There is a vibe and energy about him, he connects to the youth, he goes out onto the streets to meet people’
Ben Gvir may also be pulling support from ultra-Orthodox youth, a large subset of whom have become increasingly nationalistic and ethnocentric, according to Moshe Hellinger, a senior lecturer in political science at Bar-Ilan University.
The fact that Ben Gvir is very religious means that although voting for Otzma would constitute a rebellion from the usual instructions of the leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis to vote for ultra-Orthodox parties, they would still be voting for a religious party with Jewish theocratic values at its core.
According to Hermann, the strongly-held belief in ultra-Orthodox society of the elevated status of the Jewish people as the chosen people fits neatly with Otzma’s assertion of Jewish supremacy in Israel.
Ben Gvir’s charisma is also a draw, noted Yisroel Cohen, an ultra-Orthodox journalist and commentator for the Kol Barama radio station.
“There is a vibe and energy about him, he connects to the youth, he goes out onto the streets to meet people,” said Cohen, noting that the politicians of the ultra-Orthodox parties are older and have less personal magnetism.
Ben Gvir is also very responsive to personal requests from the general public for assistance on various matters, and frequently responds directly to WhatsApp messages, including from young ultra-Orthodox men.
This direct access increases his exposure and popularity among the ultra-Orthodox, Cohen said.
After two recent terror attacks in ultra-Orthodox cities of Bnei Brak and Elad, Ben Gvir was swiftly on the scene, as he is after many terror attacks, while ultra-Orthodox MKs stayed away.
A home for Yamina exiles
Even if headed by Smotrich, polls show Religious Zionism still garnering enough votes to be one of the largest Knesset parties, a dramatic rise for a party many politicians still consider beyond the pale.
A good chunk of this support is thanks to the collapse of Yamina, and the consequent absence of a more moderate right-wing, religious political option for some religious-Zionist voters.
Yamina’s entry into a government with Arab and left-wing parties tore the party asunder and alienated a substantial proportion of its voters, some of whom are now turning to Yamina’s former partner on the far right.
New Hope, led by nationalist Gideon Sa’ar, might have won some of those homeless voters, but the party instead leaned toward the center-left and allied with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White.
Beyond the political map itself, Herman noted that “chauvinistic nationalism” is on the rise in Israel in general.
The percentage of Jewish Israelis who believe Jews should have greater rights in Israel than non-Jews has risen from 25% in 2015 to 42% in 2021, according to data from the Israel Democracy Institute’s 2021 Democracy Index.
This trend is especially marked among the ultra-Orthodox, religious-Zionist and religiously traditional voters to whom Ben Gvir is appealing.
The party may also be riding a swell of support thanks to the riots and violence between Jews and Arabs that rocked many mixed cities in May 2021, radicalizing parts of the Israeli right-wing, including traditional Mizrachi voters who populate many of the worst-hit towns.
The riots, which included firebomb attacks on synagogues, homes and businesses, likely gave a tailwind to Otzma’s narrative of an implacably hostile Arab population.
Ben Gvir was physically on the ground in Lod, Ramle, Acre, and other centers of unrest during the riots. He brought with him hundreds of activists from the far-right, Jewish supremacist Lehava organization, run by former Otzma Knesset candidate Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein, to conduct counter protests.
The inclusion of the Islamist Arab Ra’am party in the outgoing government may have been revolutionary, but it also gave Ben Gvir and others in the opposition ammunition to mercilessly attack the government for “relying on Arabs,” both in Ra’am and the left-wing Meretz party.
Members of Ra’am and Meretz opposed the government’s attempt to renew the so-called citizenship law, which prevents Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from gaining residency or citizenship in Israel. The MKs also helped block the renewal of a law guaranteeing Israeli civil rights for settlers in the West Bank, giving Ben Gvir the opportunity to claim that he had been correct about locking Arab parties out of the political process.
In addition, Ben Gvir has been able to denounce right-wing parties such as Yamina and New Hope for having cooperated with Arab MKs, likely attracting some of their former voters.
Aryeh Eldad, the former head of the defunct far-right Otzma LeYisrael party, Otzma Yehudit’s predecessor, conjectured that right-wing voters who voted for Yamina and New Hope felt betrayed and are seeking to vote for a party that they know will never cooperate with Arab factions.
(Right to left) Michael Ben Ari, Aryeh Eldad, Baruch Marzel and Aryeh King introduce their new political party ‘Power to Israel’ at a press conference in Jerusalem. November 13, 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)<
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Likud has attempted to hide its own dalliance with Ra’am — Netanyahu tried to woo the party after the 2021 election — but Eldad said voters would remember, and some Likud supporters could switch to Religious Zionism because of it.Thanks, Netanyahu
Just as Netanyahu’s talks with Ra’am normalized allying with the party, allowing Bennett and Prime Minister Yair Lapid to court the Islamists, the former prime minister may have also paved the way for Ben Gvir’s rise.
‘Netanyahu made Ben Gvir mainstream, he gave him legitimacy’
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