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Otzma Yehudit party member Itamar Ben Gvir (R) speaks with National Union faction leader Betzalel Smotrich during a campaign event in Bat Yam, April 6, 2019. (Flash90)
Two polls released Friday, the first since official party slates were filed, indicated that the Religious Zionism alliance, which includes two extremist parties, will make it into the Knesset, that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponents will have trouble mustering a coalition majority, and that Naftali Bennett’s Yamina could play the kingmaker role.
A Channel 12 survey found that out of the 39 parties running, 12 will win seats in the 24th Knesset, including the Religious Zionism alliance, which includes the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit and homophobic Noam factions. The survey found the far-right merger would win four seats.
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(L-R) New Hope candidates MK Tzvi Hauser, MK Yifat Shasha-Biton and Jerusalem council member Ofer Berkovitch present the party s slate for the March 2021 election to the Central Elections Committee, February 3, 2021. (New Hope)
Former Likud lawmaker Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party filed its party slate Wednesday evening, rounding off the major parties to register for March’s election on the first of two days to do so.
With six former Likud MKs and ministers, one former Blue and White MK, and two Derech Eretz MKs in his party’s top 16, Sa’ar, who hopes to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the premiership called the slate “a united national list which reflects the diverse face of Israel. It is a mosaic of Israeli society, in terms of gender, geography, age, cultural, and social groups.”
Merav Ben-Ari (L) joins Yair Lapid s Yesh Atid party, February 1, 2021 (Courtesy)
Former Kulanu MK Merav Ben-Ari has joined Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party Monday, three days before the February 4 deadline for submitting final slates of candidates to the Central Elections Committee ahead of the March vote.
“This is the most significant time for the state to change leadership and bring about a different government,” Ben-Ari said.
Lapid welcomed the former lawmaker to the party, saying that “in order to form a sane government, you need sane people next to you who come to work with the goal of producing a good, normal country, and to produce a good economy and good health, and get us back on track.”
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The news this morning carried a hurried announcement that MK Merav Michaeli, running to head the battered, bleeding and, many say, moribund Labor party in today’s party primaries, had made a deal with Ron Huldai of the new Yisraelim party, for the two parties to run together in March’s election if she wins Labor’s primary.