Ted Belman. This is great news. Now if they can persuade Yishai Eli to join them it will be even better.
Also Otzma Yehudit, headed by Michael Ben-Ari, announced it will be running in the election:
Members of the party argue that Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett’s claim that 99.9% of Arab citizens of Israel are loyal to the state, as well as Bennett’s sitting in a coalition that froze construction in Judea and Samaria, “cause tens of thousands not to vote in the coming elections, and only a campaign by ‘Otzma Yehudit’ will cause the voices not to be thrown away.”
Bennett should commit his party to reject a freeze and woo Ben-Ari to join. I leave it to Bennett to decide if including Ben-Ari will increase their seats or lose seats. Ben-Ari has a deserved reputation of being extreme.
[..] During Saturday night’s meeting in Jerusalem, the Central Committee decided that Tekuma will accept Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett’s proposal, according to which four spots on the Jewish Home’s Knesset list will be reserved for Tekuma members. Bennett also offered Tekuma chairman Uri Ariel a senior ministerial position in the next government.
Before Saturday night’s vote, Ariel explained why he thought it would be better for the party to join former Shas chairman Eli Yishai’s new party but said, “I will accept any decision that is reached.”
Ariel added, “Eli Yishai – a humble man, there is no suspicion of a lack of integrity on his part, he helped the settlement enterprise in any way he could, spent months in Gush Katif, he served in the army and he says that those who do not study Torah, should go to the army.”
He stressed, however, “We could have brought you a signed agreement and asked you to confirm or not to confirm it. That’s how it is done in Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party and also at Hatnua and in Liberman’s party. I must emphasize here that I will accept any decision made by the Central Committee and I will enlist myself for each mission as decided upon by the Central Committee, whether I like it or not.”
Arutz Sheva learned on Friday that a majority of the Tekuma party’s rabbis are against a split in the national-religious camp.
Three of the four Rabbis – Rabbi Isser Klonsky, Rabbi Chaim Steiner, and Rabbi Gidon Perl – opposed the split during the Thursday night meeting over the game-changing potential to break off from Jewish Home.
Comparison of various recent polls show Likud and other Jewish nationalist parties, combined with the two Jewish religious parties, command a steady and achievable coalition strength of 70-73 seats. In any case, not even various leftist governments never have formed coalitions dependent upon the Arab parties. So reducing the real Knesset count to about 110 Jewish seats, Labor and their possible Jewish Knesset coalition partners amount to only about 37-40 seats.
That gives the likely rightwing/religious bloc as much as a 63.6 – 66% majority. In US Congressional terms, that’s called a strong mandate, such as no combination of Obama, Kerry, Livni, Peres, Fatah, Hamas, the EU or the UNO can throttle, assuming the Jews stand their ground, for once.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Aryeh Eldad just told me that he wont be joining Bayit Yehudi.
Expect changes – lots of them – in the opinion polls during the run-up to next March 17th’s elections, said Professor Avi Degani of the Geocartographia Polling Institute. In fact, said Degani, one of Israel’s most experienced pollsters, the results of polls are likely to change on a daily basis.
Like on Sunday, when Arutz Sheva interviewed him on a poll taken over the weekend. While polls on Thursday and Friday showed the Likud and Labor running neck-and-neck at about 21 seats, with a slight edge for Labor – and both tailed very closely by Jewish Home – Sunday’s results were substantially
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Hope you are right about Dr. Eldad!
It may be that Aryeh Eldad will join the party. He would be a great addition.
Bear Klein Said:
According to polls Tekumah would bring to Bennett about one mandate and the image of Bayit Yehudi might lose many more centrists with the image of Tekumah (extremist) front and center in the parties attempts at presenting a reconstructed image of moderation, to young Yuppies in Tel Aviv etc.
To keep Tejumahin Bennett had to give up 5 safe places on his list and a prime ministerial portfolio without enting primaries.
Many think the price he paid was exorbitant and might cost him more votes than gained.
SHL, BK,
Add my name to your political sentiments for the coming Knesset election. Everything possible should be undertaken to strengthen the unity of the Jewish nationalist and Jewish religious parties. And everything possible should also be undertaken to disunite all of Israel’s and the Jewish nation’s back-stabbers.
We cannot call for the sort of treatment that would have been accorded by the Makabean leaders of the Jewish freedom fighters against Jewish lackeys of Anitochus IV Epiphanes, or by Eliezer Ben Yair against the Roman-supported traitors some 200 years later. Which is too bad for any nation of honor and dignity.
But at least we can energize ourselves and others to regard such people at best as ignorant weaklings and cowards, and at worst as outright traitors.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
This is keeping the party together has the potential for more mandates. The larger public Bayit HaYehudi appeals to the more mandates they can achieve the better.
This quite an achievement for the party and Bennett.
We agree Ted. It was wise to remain in one block and Rav Ishai could bring several mandates.The noose is closing around Livni and her compadres and that is why, in desperation, she betrayed the elected government again with Kerry. She has never been any different, treacherous, treasonous, sneaky, undermining saboteur.