Ben Gvir refuses Netanyahu’s demand to merge with Smotrich; Likud: He’s crowning Eisenkot

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday publicly invited far-right leaders Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to meet on Sunday to discuss them forming a joint list ahead of the October 27 election, saying that the alliance was necessary to “save the right-wing bloc.”

His suggestion was soundly rejected by Otzma Yehudit leader Ben Gvir, who said that under no circumstances would he consider an alliance with Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, prompting Likud to accuse him of risking thousands of right-wing votes for the sake of his own ego.

Netanyahu, in his statement, said he wished to “invite” the pair “to a meeting on Sunday.”

“No vote can go to waste; the parties must unite in order to save the right-wing bloc!” the prime minister said.

But a near-immediate response from Otzma Yehudit informed Netanyahu that Ben Gvir’s decision to keep his party separate from Smotrich’s was “final and complete” and would “not be changed under any circumstances.”

“Accordingly, there will be no talks, or meetings, or discussions on the topic, not directly, and not indirectly,” the ultranationalist party declared.

Otzma Yehudit called on Netanyahu to instead push for one of two alternatives: either a union of all the small right-wing parties that aren’t slated to pass the electoral threshold, or to grant Smotrich, whose party is teetering on the edge of the required 3.25% threshold in polls, one of the premier’s reserved spots on his own Likud party’s slate.

Likud responded with a blistering written statement accusing Ben Gvir of risking tens of thousands of right-wing votes and effectively handing power to a government led by Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot, who is currently leading in the polls.

“In his decision to burn tens of thousands of right-wing votes and not unite with Smotrich, Ben Gvir decided today to coronate a left-wing government of Gadi Eisenkot, Avigdor Liberman, Yair Golan, and the Arab parties,” the statement declared.

Painting a picture of what could be if Ben Gvir helps Smotrich’s party with a joint run, the Likud insisted that the current government would be able to maintain its “historic momentum in the settlement of Judea and Samaria,” the Biblical term for the West Bank.

It went on to list the various purported achievements of the coalition, including “saving Israel from nuclear destruction by Iran” and killing various terror leaders in the wars that followed the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

The statement did not directly address the October 7 attack, the biggest massacre in modern Israeli history, which occurred on Netanyahu’s watch and after he had held power for some 13 of the previous 14.5 years.

“Or will Ben Gvir, out of political considerations, burn right-wing votes in order to coronate a left-wing government — exactly like in 1992, when we got Oslo?” the statement asked, referring to historic peace accords with the Palestinians that Netanyahu and Ben Gvir both fiercely opposed, Netanyahu as a politician, and Ben Gvir as an extremist activist.

Repeating claims the prime minister first made earlier this week, Likud warned that if the anti-Netanyahu bloc wins the election, it will establish a Palestinian state, buckle to international pressure, weaken the IDF, close the right-wing Channel 14, and “destroy everything we’ve built.”

“They will evacuate your house, Itamar,” Likud said, appealing to Ben Gvir’s status as a resident of Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron.

“Ben Gvir, get over your personal ego. Show maturity and responsibility. Merge, for the sake of the right-wing — for the sake of the Land of Israel,” Likud demanded.

Unite for the sake of the right — for the sake of the Land of Israel.”

Israel’s system of proportional representation requires any given party to receive at least 3.25 percent of the vote to gain seats in the Knesset; otherwise its votes are not counted.

Friday’s invitation was Netanyahu’s second attempt in two days to push Smotrich and Ben Gvir to merge their parties.

Ben Gvir had already stated in June that his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party will not run on a joint slate with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism in the upcoming election.

When he was asked about the possibility by a reporter ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset at the time, Ben Gvir replied that “Smotrich must run in one party and we must run in another party. Otherwise, there is no option for a right-wing government.”

Ahead of the 2022 election, Ben Gvir and Smotrich initially struggled to agree on a joint slate, trading insults as negotiations repeatedly stalled. Netanyahu eventually intervened personally and brokered a technical alliance between Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism, which ran together and won 14 seats. After the election, the alliance split back into separate factions.

Netanyahu’s concern has also been heightened by polling indicating that former IDF general Ofer Winter’s new People of Israel has been drawing overwhelmingly from within the prime minister’s own political camp and would push Smotrich under the election threshold.

Winter launched People of Israel in Jerusalem on Tuesday, presenting it as a new right-wing party that would pursue a hawkish security policy while seeking to appeal across different sectors of Israeli society. He argued that the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre showed that new figures were needed in the political system.

A survey of 4,617 respondents conducted by pollster Nimrod Nir found that 69 percent of those who intended or were considering voting for People of Israel came from the pro-Netanyahu bloc, compared with 18% from the liberal bloc, with much of Winter’s support coming from Likud, Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit.

A Zman Yisrael poll published Thursday gave Winter six seats while putting Religious Zionism below the electoral threshold. The poll put Eisenkot’s Yashar first with 26 seats, ahead of Likud on 22. Yashar and other Zionist anti-Netanyahu parties are generally polling at around 58 seats in total, two or three seats short of a majority in the 120-member Knesset, with the pro-Netanyahu bloc five or six seats further back, and Arab parties holding the balance.

Netanyahu issued an impassioned plea on Tuesday against voting for any of the new right-wing parties that have sprung up in recent months.

He has repeatedly warned that the proliferation of small right-wing parties could cost his bloc the election, either by wasting votes on factions that fail to cross the threshold or by allowing one new party to enter at the expense of another right-wing faction.

“Whoever doesn’t pass the electoral threshold wastes their votes. Whoever does pass will take down an existing party,” he said earlier this week, urging new right-wing parties to either withdraw or unite with established factions.