Jewish Home says it will stay together after Bennett, Shaked take off
Factional heads of leaderless alliance hold late night meeting, vow to be the party of the national religious community in upcoming election
A senior Jewish Home politician said an alliance between the right-wing Orthodox factions that made up the party would continue, as party officials scrambled in the wake of a surprise announcement that two of its top lawmakers were splitting off to form their own party.
In a shock announcement, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home, and his colleague Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Saturday evening said they were quitting the party and instead setting up HaYamin HeHadash (“The New Right”), a party based on “full partnership” between Orthodox and secular Israelis, to contest April’s elections.
The move sent shock waves through Jewish Home, which had seen its political fortunes rise with Bennett at the helm despite differences with some leaders of the alliance’s various factions over the religious character of the party.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, head of the Tkuma faction that makes up part of Jewish Home, said in a statement early Sunday that the party would continue vying for votes on the right-wing as an allied effort.
He made the statement after a late-night meeting with Rabbi Haim Druckman, the spiritual leader of the National Religious Party.
Jewish Home was founded in 2008 as a continuation of an alliance between the National Religious Party and the National Union, which itself is an amalgamation of Tkuma and other factions. Bennett became its leader in 2012 and was joined at the helm by Shaked.
“We’ve decided to continue to strengthen religious Zionism through a joint effort,” Ariel said in a statement. “We’ve decided to continue contacts to bolster the union and win in the next elections as a unified right-wing faction with strong religious Zionist leadership.
There have long been reports of clashes within Jewish Home between Bennett and Shaked and members of the Tkuma party which forms a part of Jewish Home — led by Ariel and MK Bezalel Smotrich.
Tkuma had reportedly issued a list of new demands of Jewish Home’s leaders regarding its prominence in the party in the run-up to the new elections. These may have contributed to Bennett and Shaked’s decision to split.
Explaining the decision to leave, the ministers said that while Jewish Home had become a “significant force” in government over the past six years, their power had waned, with Bennett saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu felt religious Zionists were “in his pocket.”
HaYamin HeHadash, Shaked said, would be a “full and equal partnership” between the secular and the Orthodox.
“We’ll regain Knesset seats that have slipped from the Likud to the left — to parties that claim to be right wing but are in fact left,” she said. “The party will strengthen the right.”
Current Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli will also be leaving the party to join Shaked and Bennett. Following the announcement, the three filed an official request to split from the Jewish Home, a move that would means the new party receives campaign funds for incumbent MKs from the Central Elections Committee. The Knesset House Committee will meet Sunday morning to debate the request.
Speaking to Reshet Bet radio on Saturday night, Smotrich said that Bennett and Shaked apparently believe that they cannot lead the country so long as they are heading what a party so closely identified with the Orthodox right. They “seek national leadership, something that they feel they cannot obtain with a religious party,” he said.
According to Hadashot TV news, the decision was influenced by the pair’s long-standing conflict with the party’s institutions as well as their aversion to some of the more religiously conservative positions of some of its members.
A Jewish Home source told The Times of Israel that Bennett and Shaked believe most of the party’s voters will support their new electoral list.
