Galon still hopes for unlikely Knesset entry; Shaked issues emotional farewell

Two senior politicians projected to crash out of next Knesset issue messages to supporters; Meretz leader says party will chase up every vote with election committee

Head of the Meretz party and party MK's talk to potential voters in an attempt to convince them to vote for their party, at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv, October 31, 2022, a day before the general elections. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Head of the Meretz party and party MK's talk to potential voters in an attempt to convince them to vote for their party, at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv, October 31, 2022, a day before the general elections. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Two top politicians projected to crash out of the Knesset following Tuesday’s election issued messages of consolation and hope to their supporters Wednesday evening amid dire numbers.

Zehava Galon, chair of the left-wing Meretz party, urged her supporters not to give up hope for an unlikely comeback, in her first public comments since early election results indicated her party would not cross the electoral threshold — and would be excluded from the coming Knesset for the first time in its history.

Posting on Facebook, Galon admitted: “This is not an easy moment for me. I know it isn’t easy for you too.”

With 89 percent of the votes tallied on Wednesday night, Meretz remained just below the required electoral threshold of 3.25%.

“It’s still not the time to jump to conclusions,” she said. “At the moment Meretz is less than 0.1% away from crossing the electoral threshold.”

Calling on volunteers to help, Galon told followers that there were “thousands of protocols” that they could call upon to ensure that each and every vote had been counted. “This is our last opportunity to fix it.”

Ayelet Shaked, Interior Minister and head of the Jewish Home party casts her vote at a voting station in Tel Aviv, during the Knesset Elections, on November 01, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Jewish Home head Ayelet Shaked, who is even further away from the threshold and has no prospect of recovery, shared an emotional parting message to her supporters on Wednesday.

Shaked, the interior minister, has been a senior member of the now-defunct Yamina party led by Naftali Bennett, and joined him in forming the so-called change government following the 2021 election.

“It has been 10 years since I entered politics. Every day, throughout those years, I wanted to serve the public that put me in the Knesset. With all of my heart, my soul and my strength,” she wrote. “Nearly every day was difficult, but it was all justified. For me, there never was, and never will be a greater honor than serving the Israeli people in the Knesset and in the government.”

Shaked’s party sits at 1.16% of the total vote with most votes tallied.

Once considered the rising star of the right, Shaked became a hated figure in many quarters after she agreed to join Bennett and Yair Lapid’s experimental coalition, which required sitting in government with the Islamist Ra’am party — considered a red line for many on the right.

Signaling her political career may not be over, Shaked thanked her activists and volunteers, telling them: “You taught me not to be afraid of the long road. And yes, there’s a long way to go. I believe 100% in our way. It will succeed, it will rise up, and it will flourish. You are my strength.”

Shaked, who was justice minister under Benjamin Netanyahu from 2015 to 2019, touted her successes in pushing for legal reform, saying “it seems there was no justice minister before me who invested so much political energy into changing the makeup of the Supreme Court.”

The political right has long pushed for legal reforms. Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party released its own radical platform prior to the elections, which includes abolishing the offense of “fraud and breach of trust” — a key charge against Netanyahu in his ongoing criminal trial — and overhauling the Judicial Selection Committee.

Smotrich has said that acceptance of his legal reform plan is a prerequisite for his party joining any future coalition.

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