Jewish Home MK quits party over addition of soccer star
Zevulun Kalfa resigns after faction reserves spot on its list for ex-Beitar Jerusalem player Eli Ohana; Bennett promotes Anat Roth to 15th slot
Jewish Home MK Zevulun Kalfa on Tuesday withdrew his candidacy from the party list in protest over the surprise inclusion of former Israeli soccer star Eli Ohana.
Kalfa said his decision came in response to the “deterioration in Jewish values” within the party, exemplified by the recruitment of a nonreligious celebrity, Israel Radio reported.
Kalfa, who was a member of the National Union-Tekumah faction within the Jewish Home and was placed 18th on the party list, is expected to join Eli Yishai’s Ha’am Itanu party, which is currently polling below the electoral threshold.
The departure of Kalfa underscored growing unrest within the party’s ranks over unilateral moves to bring in non-traditional candidates.
On Tuesday, Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett announced he would boost former left-wing activist Dr. Anat Roth to 15th on the party’s Knesset list, from the #22 slot she got in primary voting.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, the head of the National Union-Tekumah faction within the party, said he would attempt to convince Kalfa to remain in the party.
“I received Zevulun Kalfa’s letter and intend to speak to him and ask him to take [his resignation] back,” the Israel National News website quoted Ariel as saying. “MK Kalfa is an excellent parliamentarian and one of the finest public figures in the country. In any case we will continue in the National Union to do all we can to preserve our values within the Jewish Home.”
On Monday, Jewish Home announced ex-Beitar Jerusalem soccer player Ohana, a former Likud supporter with no political experience, would be given a slot in the party’s top 10 seats, Channel 2 reported.
Ohana had in the past supported Israel’s 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, and the subsequent evacuation of nearly 8,000 Jewish settlers.
In a short clip uploaded to the internet Monday, Ohana renounced his prior views and stressed that he currently opposes dismantling any settlements in the West Bank.
Ohana’s recent change of heart, however, did not suffice for many Jewish Home supporters, leading to widespread criticism on social media over his recruitment to the party.
Like Ohana, Roth, a former Peace Now activist and adviser to then prime minister Ehud Barak, radically changed her political position following Israel’s 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
The promotion of Roth to a more realistic place was aimed at adding diversity to the party, and pushing down ultra-Orthodox candidate Yehudit Shilat, according to media reports.
In an effort to broaden the voting base of the Jewish Home’s nationalist party, Bennett has been trying to secure a popular female candidate to replace conservative Shilat, who came under sharp criticism recently for her outspoken views against same-sex marriage.
Recent polls project the right-wing party getting 15 Knesset seats in the upcoming March elections.
Bennett said Roth’s changed political stance was representative of a wider ideological shift in Israel, and said the public was finally “sobering up” from unrealistic hopes of peace, in a Facebook post confirming the announcement Tuesday.
Bennett praised the diversity the party’s newest additions would bring, during an interview with Israel Radio on Tuesday. Bennett pointed to the success of secular MK Ayelet Shaked, who came in at the top of the party’s primaries in a political faction that is usually dominated by religious men.
Shaked was quoted Tuesday saying Bennett had added Ohana to the slate because the party needed a secular Sephardi who’d grown up in poverty, and that she’d heard Ohana was “intelligent.”
The Times of Israel Community.