Jewish Home party says it approved merger with National Union, which denies deal

An agreement joining the right-wing religious parties would boost their chances of crossing electoral threshold in April elections

By ToI Staff 14 February 2019, 11:45 am

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Head of the Jewish home party Rabbi Rafi Peretz holds a press conference in Tel Aviv, February 13, 2019. (Flash90)

The Jewish Home party has approved a draft agreement for merging with the National Union party and is waiting for a response, the party said Thursday morning.

But National Union said no deal had been reached, adding, “There is no progress. The negotiations are stuck,” the Walla news site reported.

The agreement would boost the parties’ chances of crossing the electoral threshold in April’s elections and entering the next Knesset.

The Jewish Home announced that its chairman, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, was waiting for the National Union to approve the draft agreement so the two parties could sign a final agreement later in the day.

Peretz would take first place on the slate, while National Union party head Bezalel Smotrich would be second and receive some kind of compensation for not being the leader, according to Channel 13 news.

Jewish Home and National Union are two of four religious right-wing parties that are said to be close to agreeing on a united slate for the upcoming elections.

“The news is that we will go together,” Smotrich declared Tuesday at the annual Besheva right-wing media group conference in Jerusalem. “The news is that we are making every effort.”

Smotrich said a four-way agreement would be achieved between his faction and Jewish Home; Otzma Yehudit, headed by far-right figures associated with the banned Kach movement; and Yachad, headed by one-time Shas leader Eli Yishai.

The move to join forces would bolster the factions’ chances of entering the Knesset. None of them were projected to cross the 3.25% electoral threshold separately.

Head of the National Union faction MK Bezalel Smotrich during a conference of the Movement for the Quality of Government, in Modiin, February 4, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been pushing the factions to unite in order to have another potential coalition partner on the right should he be tasked with forming a government after the April 9 vote.

It’s not yet clear what form a united faction would take.

Jewish Home and National Union have run together in the past, but the Jewish Home was seen as the senior partner, receiving the position of party chairman, more spots on the Knesset list and more ministerial posts in the government. Smotrich had reportedly sought to renegotiate that arrangement.

Jewish Home suffered a blow in December, when party head Naftali Bennett, who is education minister, left the flagship religious Zionist party, taking with him the party’s number two, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. They jointly founded the New Right party, leaving Jewish Home in heavy debt.

Jewish Home on Wednesday announced that author and investigative journalist Yifat Erlich had joined its slate for the upcoming elections.